Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-08-29 | Page 18 | John Garfield Stars in Role Which Was Almost a Reality

John Garf Garfield Stars in Role Which Was Almost a Reality By BURDETTE JAY HOLLYWOOD INS John INS John Garfield in his early days was no stranger to the kind of boys who end up as wards of Lewis E E. L Lawes es who wh wrote rote Years ear in n Sing Sing I If It ever a lellow was corn Dorn to get Into trouble with two strikes on him at the start it was Garfield I His birthplace was the cradle of some of the most notorious troublemakers troublemakers trou trou- makers ble-makers the world has ever known the known the lower east side of ot Manhattan island Island and and Garfield was Vas charting chartIn a pretty dangerous course when Angelo Patri stepped In In and changed everything So instead of ot being a boarder of ot Warden Lawes Garfield is starring star ring in Years in Sing Sing At the age of 12 Garfield was ripe material for either of ot the two gangs with which he had fallen into casual contact He was a vegetable swiping cop baiting dead end kid as tough and hard boiled as they come He was Inconstant Inconstant in inconstant constant trouble He had been expelled expelled ex ex- polled from one school after another another another an an- other until finally there was nothIng nothing nothing noth noth- ing left to do but send him hint to Patri the head of New Yorks York's famed public school for underprivileged children Patri took a deep Interest in the willful youngster in spite of ot the fact that John didn't like the school He treated him with exceptional exceptional ex ex- kindness and eventually broke down the youngsters youngster's resle- resle tance He interested Garfield in dramatics and for the next four years John ate drank and slept theater And it was Patri who helped fi finance fl- fl nance his scholarship in the Heck- Heck shar foundation and subsequently helped him get a job as an apprentice apprentice apprentice tice with the Eva Le Gallienne Civic Repertory theater the beginning beginning be be- ginning of ot the career that has carrIed carried car car- ried ned him up to screen fame No I matter what the future holds for I him however Garfield will never forget Angelo Patri Im mighty happy to call him my friend Garfield said on the set I think he is doing one of the finest things in the world with his school Hes He's making useful citizens citizens citizens citi citi- zens out of countless underprivileged underprivileged children as and alq he certainly changed the course of ot my life He glanced down at the gray prison prison pris pris- on suit he wears in the picture c and smiled This might be a real one he remarked lingering fingerIng the material instead of ot just a phony movie copy if it it hadn't been for lor I him