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Show I f yvyrTT r '! " rr mry v KT, ny m yrw ww rvwnnnfrwirlM w ..' ry4V V. .. The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, December 28, 1975 8E Arthur returns in play she feels has message for America By William Glover Associated Press Writer CLEVELAND The long blonde bob has Buster Brown square become an cut. The lace is a bit fuller, ditto the ligure in the chic tan pants suit. The voice, the manner and the eye glint are still original Jean Arthur, the now you see her, now you dont film and stage star. After an eight-yea- r intermission, the lady who insists "I'm a person, not a personality is in a play that may take her back to a circumstance which perBroadway suaded her to grant a rare interview "Ive always been shy and sort of she begins. "Its only recenttongue-tied- , ly I shoot off my mouth the way I do. In the play that has coaxed her from seclusion, "The First Monday in October, actress portrays the the first woman member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Lawrence and Lee "I'm doing it because it says something about what is happening now, she says of the script by Jerome Lawrence and Robert most women live, I realize I've been liberated all my life just because I did it. Because I couldnt do anything else. Two-reComedies Studio moguls found out about her sense of independence soon alter she arrived from a stint of post-higschool modeling. Trapped in two-recomedies, she stuck out apprenticeship, went back to New York, returned to Hollywood and by 1936 was the talk ol Hollywood with "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and "The Plainsman. By then she had tackled the Broadway stage unsuccessfully five times, and had contracted a marriage that ended in divorce in 1949. Intermittently she emerged from content at Carmel, Calil., surrounded by books and a menagerie of lost, lame animals. Four cats and six raccoons are in that rustic residence now. Miss Arthur's biggest stage success w as "Peter Pan in 1950, in a Broadway run that broke Maude Adams record. That was followed by a last, grand film triumph in 1 953 s "Shane. Altogether she made about 46 feature films. She never has counted h . ' i ' E. Lee. "1 think everybody who is alive wants to know suddenly how w'e think and why we think the way we do. We used to be so bound with the beliefs that had been shoved down our throats for years and years and years. I think Watergate opened up the whole thing: What are we doing with our lives? Miss Arthur aims a disparaging broadside at films and television for their bids lor her services in recent seasons. "You can call them properties if you like, call them garbage. I'd get scripts I couldn't believe, those horrible parts that youve seen for the last lew years. With a ladylike snifl she taps the inevitable hotel room telly. "1 cant look at it much. Its murder. You just have to go get books and find the men that are saying the things you wanted to be interested in. She mentions historian Arnold Toynbee, anthropologist Loren Eiseiey, editor Norman Cousins, crusader Ralph Nader. She always has been a bookworm. In 1965 Jean Arthur had a television show of her own that swiftly faded. She never returned to the tube. Prefers Film Work In Miss Arthur had a TV show of her own that swihly laded. She never returned to the tube. "The pilot is always good and you think it's a possibility to get better and better. It never does. They dont do anything about it. they dont want to. I think they do them to get a tax write-of"You're not going to sit on a hot stove 1: i that twice. The Although she prefers tilm work screen is much easier, youre protected completely and I like to be protected. Miss Arthur also finds merit in stage work. "It takes more energy, which is good in a way, because you build yourself up. Along with the deliberate low prolile maintained throughout her career, bouts of delicate health have at times affected the lady who back in Hollywoods golden 30s was called by frustrated columnists "an enigma and "the hardest to understand star. You have one life, you do what you want to do, now comments the lady who relused to pose for cheesecake even when she was hailed as a future star back in 1928. "Some people like to do what everybody else does go to parties and talk about nothing. I dont happen to." She compares lite to the anguish she always feels in developing a role. "You look as deeply as you can for meaning, and its terrible if you dont, because then you are walking around dead. The conversation gets around to 1973 women's lib. 11165 them, and never looks at their reruns. Of all the imposing gallery of male colleagues with whom she appeared stretching from Jack Mulhall through Emil Jannings and Charles Boyer to Alan Ladd she remembers most fondly Gary Cooper. "He had great respect for what he was doing and he didnt waste anybodys time. He loved work. During "The Plainsman theyd sit together for hours, saying nothing. Reminded of a quote which she reportedly offered that her Calamity Jane role in "The Plainsman" enabled her to do "what she'd alw ays wanted to do crack a whip she laughs in and make men jump uproarious denial. Gladys Greene That brings her around to clearing up a lew oLsejrities in the Arthur saga. Reluctantly, yes, she was born Gladys Greene why do you want to know that? Isn't that exciting! Moments later she volunteers pride in that name, "which stems from New England and Norwegian stock. The family, which included three older brothers, "you suddenly realized wasn't affluent." At 17 she gave up plans to become a teacher and began to model for advertisements. Then a movie scout spotted her and the long, erratic Arthur acting career begun. In 1943 education resumed at Stephens College, but the movies called her back before final exams. Teaching, an ambition that developed after she gave up the idea of being a tightrope walker, eventually was exercised at Yassar, where she taught from 1969 to f. s "I dont know much about it because I've always sort of fought my own way. Yet when see these things and realize how1 1972. That was followed by a year at North Carolina School of the Arts. There she had a publicized collision w ith Winston-Salepolice when she befriended a neighbors howling police dog. She was arrested lor trespass, lined and put on probation for three years. The memory flares volubility. Thats a story Im going to write some day. No, I'm not going to write a book about myself. But I'm glad that episode happened. If I'd never been discovered that I was me and was just a little old lady I would have been put in jail. No, she doesnt have any desire to teach any more. Whether she continues to act or she turns to directing "depends on what comes along. Miss Arthur is emphatic about not wanting to live again in her New York. Beautiful City "It was a gorgeous, beautiful, beautiful city and people have destroyed it. People are the most destructive creatures ever created, other than ants. Those big red ants and biack ants kill each other and fight all the time. "You know as well as I when New York was destroyed. It suddenly became cheap and full of people that looked line they came from someplace else. . . .The voice slips down and comes up with cautious balance. "Of course were all one people, and have to care something about it. She completes the turnabout with, "People dont want to destroy, they want to care and help keep beauty. Miss Arthur's costar in "The First Monday in October is Melvyn Douglas. When they made "Too Many Husbands back in 1940 he described her as "a woman of infinite integrity. She knows what she wants and does it. She returns the compliment today with high praise for his performance in a role closely based on the courts former senior liberal, now retired, William 0. Douglas. "Im the heavy, she says of the distaff justice who arrives on the court as an The main dramatic conflict between them. "Actually Im like Mr. Douglas, but I'm doing the play so its meaning can be said. It takes Justice Loomis a time to digest truths and get rid of her prejudices. Lawrence attracted Miss Arthur to the drama after having first sought her as Angela Lansburys successor in Auntie another Lawrence-LeMarne, opus. Her last stage venture, in 1967, perished in Broadway preview. She came back also because ot a rampant dislike of Americas tendency to retire oldsters. she says. "People shouldn't retire, "This whole concept of youth and age today is ridiculous. It's terrible that people can't do w hat they want to do if they still have the ability. It's murder. Looking back over her own life. Miss Arthur expresses reasonable contentment, exisalthough aware that her Garbo-lik- e tence "probably has kept me from meeting some people Id have liked to. Eleanor Roosevelt, for example, and Helen Gahagan Douglas, whom she recently met. She also admires Texas Rep. Barbara Jordan. She still has a lot of things to do "I want to see the whole world and life with dilierent kinds of people as long as I want. What Shirley MacLaine has done, though I couldn't write as well. One thing she wont do is offer advice to young people inteested in a theatrical UPGRADE YOUR CAREER e with courses from BUSINESS COLLEGE 80 OF THE JOBS IN UTAH REQUIRE LESS THAN FOUR YEARS OF COLLEGE TRAINING This means by attending the LDS Business College you can save two years tuition and gain two years wages be ahead $8,000 to $15,000! care v. "I wouldn't give anyondy any advice about anything. That wmuld be sticking my nose in somebody elses business. Influencing their lives. And I think everybody has to find their own way. Just LIKE Jean Arthur. 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