| Show Christmas Made Gayer for Stars Stars' Because They Can Remember Those Not So Happy F t w f iq 7 JI c J i I tEu i 5 il A x l d f i 0 h i J. J pl Tj r f it t t 4 t George Brent 0 Can laugh now about his Ms once cheerless Christmases By Paul Harrison HOLLYWOOD NEA At this time of year actors and actresses are cheered by recollections of dreary Christmases in their pasts It isn't that they deliberately revel in unhappy experiences its it's just that such lurking memories like a howling blizzard outside a snug cabin make them feel more gratefully gratefully gratefully grate grate- fully secure And no other group of people in the world probably has such contrasting stories Take Tyrone Power His distinguished distinguished distinguished dis dis- dis- dis father died in December December December Decem Decem- ber of 1930 and the following ving year i was a tough one for the saddened struggling youngster By Christmas Christmas Christmas Christ Christ- mas of 1931 he was flat broke in Hollywood had an eviction notice notice notice no no- tice from an apartment house manager and couldn't even get his trunk Six years later Power bought the apartment house A Gift Giff for Carradino Carradine John Carradine was the gloomIest gloomiest gloom gloom- iest lest figure ever to pace the streets of e town Shabby cadaver cadaver- looking ous he did pace them and he talked to himself mumbling himself mumbling Shakespeare on an empty ach a People regarded him as an amusing eccentric For eight successive successive suc sue Christmas eves Carradine walked around looking at the lights and tinsel or hovering over a acup acup acup cup of coffee in some boulevard cafeteria One Christmas day John Blystone's Blystone's Blystone's Bly- Bly stones stone's mother asked him to din din- ner ncr He remembers that better than anything else in the eight years There was a present for far him himon himon himon on the tree And he cried A good many players will tell teB you their tough breaks have given them a capacity for emotionalism In John Garfield's case they were responsible for his career He had been a problem kid had tried acting and other jobs but was settling into the routine of a migratory worker One year he made a swing through the west worked awhile as a fruit picker er inthe inthe in inthe the Imperial valley started home henne in November In Nebraska he fell off a freight train with a serious case of brain fever was cared for by a German farmer and his wife Finally he reached New York at Christmas and sick at heart and end found his excursion had wiped out all his fathers father's savings After that there was no more irresponsible flitting and frittering in the life of J. J Garfield Gar- Gar field This year Jeffrey Lynn is playing playing playing play play- ing Santa Claus Glaus for a local orphanage orphanage or or- and loving it His only previous appearance In the whiskered whiskered whiskered whisk whisk- ered role was an unhappy one The only member of a large family of boys who wasn't content to follow their fathers father's career as a mechanic in a New England Industrial center center center cen cen- cen- cen ter he tried teaching leaching school then went to New York determined to find an acting job When the holidays holidays holidays holi holi- days came Lynn was glad of a chance to put on a red suit for the Salvation Army By New Years Year's he had his first small stage role Yachting Pair Can Laugh Now George Brent and Ann Sheridan can loll on the deck of his yacht now and laugh about the cheerless Christmases they've had During Annies Annie's second holiday hollday season in when she had been under contract to Paramount more than a year the studio decided it was all a mistake and fired her three days before Christmas Today she's enjoying a suspension from frenn Warner Brothers while the company company com corn pany makes up its mind whether to double her salary friend Boy-friend Brent had a cent 35 Christmas dinner at a local lunch counter in 1933 A year later he 1 had wangled a screen test i ionly r only the day before Christmas t tl U notified him it was lousy But New Years Year's executives v e s h h. h changed their minds and told 1 h to report lor br work |
