Evening star., 1946-09-22
mot His Fault,
But Burt Is
"A Film Star
By Harold Heffernon

HOLLYWOOD.
Hitting the jackpot with a single
picture is old stuff in movietown
and this year 1916 has seen more
than its share Of boys and girls
suddenly catapulted to fame and
fortune. Today we have with us as
our hero, a one-start-star who can
look back on perhaps the most
varied career of any actor in the
business.
He is Burt Lancaster, husky,
tousle- haired hero of THE Killers"
who came up to the big money from
trapeze performer, ditch digger,
floor walker in a ladies lingerie de-
partment and singing waiter. And
it was chance meeting in an ele-
vator with stranger that led him
to the pot of gold.
Burt was brought West by Hal
Wallis to play the romantic lead
opposite Lizabeth Scott in Desert
Town." but before he could begin
it he was handed the plum role OF
the big Swede in Mark Hellinger'S
1.-The Killers"
A native New Yorker, young Lam
caster succumbed to long repressed
desire to run away and join circus
at the end of his sophomore year
at NYU. He spent the next eight
years doing handstands, f1ips and
turns on the horizontal bar in the
sawdust ring and in night clubs and
supper rooms. Finally he checked
in his spangled tights for a floor
walkers blue serge and went to work
for Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago,
directing customers in the lingerie
section.
Acted for the Army.
Just before going into war service,
he took job in meat-packing
plant, swung a pick and shovel in
a construction gang and picked up
some folding money as warbling
waiter. When he went into the
Army in 1912 and was being screened
for classification, he expressed a pref
erence for the Engineering Corps,
reasoning he could put his expert
ence in ditch digging to the best
advantage there. But when he also
said he had been an acrobat. the
master minds Immediately assigned
him to the special services and
shipped him overseas to help put
on shows for the combat troops.
Private Lancaster spent 26 months
with the famed 5th Army in North
Africa, italy and Austria and got
his first taste of speaking lines in
the plays and skits which were pre-
sented behind the lines.
The CT actor was in New York
on terminal leave when he received
his amazing introduction to the
Broadway theatrical world-and also
got the surprise of his life. He was
riding an elevator to call on a girl
friend in an 11th-f1oor Office and
felt himself being eyed intently by
stranger who got off at the same
stop. Two minutes after he ar
rived at his friends Office the tele-
phone rang. 1t was his fellow pas
senger In the lift and he invited
the astounded Lancaster to read
that night for a new Broadway
play.
Had Seven Offers.
The caller was an associate of
Irving Jacobs, who was about to
produce "A Sound of Hunting"
Burt found himself in his first
Broadway show playing top role as
Sergt. Mooney.
"A Sound of Hunting" lasted only
five weeks, but the rugged new face
in the cast was hailed as 14-carat
find Burt received seven Hollywood
offers during the short run, the best
one from Producer Wallis, who COM
menced negotiations with him be-
tween acts one and two, secured an
option practically as the final cur
tain dropped and arranged for tests
in Hollywood.
Burt's own appraisal Of his cha
otic advent into the Broadway spot
light is considerably less flowery
; than the encomiums of his boosters
Somebody thought my face bore
a faint resemblance to the Siegfried
Line and that's what they wanted
: for the play" he said. so, before
, could explain that acting was out
side of my territory I found myself
on Broadway. In the show I was a
sergeant who yelled all his lines al
the top of his voice and I thereby
succeeded in making everybody, in
cluding the audience, completely
miserable, but they couldn't help
noticing me-"
! Burt's screen tests won him q
long-term contract with Wallis and
starring role as a Western deputy
sheriff in Desert Town" Because
the start of the picture was still
some time away Lancaster bought a
ticket back to New York to wind up
his affairs there before settling down
as a permanent Hollywood resident
i Aided by Sam Levene.
Before he could get on the Pull
man. producer Hellinger, casting
about for an actor to play the burly
fall guy in THE Killers" heard
about him and called him in fol
another test. A couple of days later
Lancaster walked out of Hellinger's
Office with starting date for his
first movie.
Burt lives in a single room In 9
modest hotel in a Los Angelo.