Show palt fid Sunday Morning August 30 1936 'mil j Dqj ’ r' s ? & Being boss casting director for the biggest of all studios is no job for a softie —but Billy Grady for all his 17 v — w-- wft jT i x yaj WtirWWiriWiW r htvtejT- clever spotter of new talent and1 a WAMMMWK AyfytfS j waysi Is a popular chap hard-boil- ed r J yws V — ' tf ' ' n pa As an agent Grady saw Joan Blondell (above) and Jimmy Cagney in a somewhat undistinguished stage' play borrowed $15000 bought the play sold it to Warner Brothers for -- and sold also the services of Miss Blondell and Cagney $17-500- — By Paul Harrison HOLLYWOOD ‘AYBE you v been thinking all this timejhat the mosLpopular and th affable Clark Gable ot is sought-aftin Hollywood person the ebullient Carole Lombard or perhaps the desirable but distant Miss Garbo True Miss Garbo would get the biggest headlines if she were to attend a party But the person who is invited to the most parties — and who accepts no oftener than the uppity Swede —is a man named Billy Grady Then you’re not in show business What you’ve never heard of Grady? him than 20 more knew Hollywood wishes it knew him better years Broadway Stock companies little theaters and college dramatic clubs all over the land know about him He’i a casting director The boss casting director of makes more pictures and fosters more proteges than any other Since studio that makes Grady tops in his line He picks players for roles Grady can make an individual’s career with a juicy sure-fir- e assignment When several are being considered for a starring young players make He the final selection part Grady may He okays picks performers for featured roles the character parts even the bits So ypu see why Grady is popular in Hollywood aside from the fact that he is a thoroughly likable trigger-braine-d amusingly caustic leading citizen of the show world Grady is a tough guy but a softie The immaculate bums who used to stand in front of the Palace on Broadway now loll at Hollywood-and-Vin- e anj congratulate themselves on the presence of Billy in talkietown “Grady” they tell each other “is always good for a touch" hi it (j £ y er :d W -- i i f 4 it i( J ”? s V 1 er M-G-- M jlTORE ot a problem though are the peo-L- i "I can’t pie who want jobs not loans go to parties at all” said the casting boss "People get me off in comers and say ’Why can’t I have that part in "Breakfast at Noon”?’ If I tell ’em frankly why they can’t have it It’s embarrassing” they get sore reckons that he sees or talks 6n the Grady telephone to abouf 200 job seekers every day He personally interviews every applicant who These will include comes to the studio who used to be important personages on the itage or in silent films chorus girls with d ambition mamas with juveniles old-time- gray-haire- infant prodigies graduates of correspondence schools of dramatics dumb young things who won beauty contests in Giay Center and Potato Grove character actors extras stars— everybody Six seconds proves to be plenty of time in which to kick over an aircastle: time enough to squelch a burning desperate hope time enough to blind with tears the eyes of those who stumble out rejected It takes a tough hombre to be able to do that many times a day six days a week Grady is a d practitioner of disillusionment He is convinced that the most kindly treatment he can offer is complete and often brutal can“Co on back to Clay Center kid dor And there’s You haven’t got what it takes around no use hanging Hollywood until youi hard-boile- money runs out" ' i i 4 n That’s what the screen needs personality “1 like Sometimes I actually 1 have to buck ’em up say ‘If you were good once you can be good again’ “I don’t hurt anybody’s feelings perma For all the people who belong in nentiy Hollywood I’ve got a stock answer 1 say ‘1 can’t use you now but in five minutes I may come looking for you’ That’s a little encouragement and sometimes I really do go looking for them” Anybody inclined to question the infallibility of Grady's snap judgment of people must admit that it worked pretty well in the imporMr Grady tant personal matter of romance was looking out my office window at a For-eac- '"’RADY speaking: "The instant they come in the door I can tell whether they’ve got Nothing remarkable about it you anything or anybody can actually feel the presence ot a charming of otherwise impressive person when they come into a room They give out some thing "It doesn t make any difference how beauti ful a girl happens to be: if she doesn’t ’give’ she hasn’t got a chance Now and then a reg ular battle-a- x comes in here and fairly exudes Beautiful the friend came in with a friend I got to looking at Irish high color spirited her instead of the parade Pretty soon I got asked and her to Shanley’s fdr nerve up my dinner We went to a show had a ’bits to eat and I asked her to marry me” That was 20 years ago The "Irish thrush" is still Mrs Billy Grady More years ago than you would guess by kid looking at him Grady was a bal-stand shows the ‘ He’d in singing jji rep Daisies the warble "What and to Say” cony the soubrette on the stage AFTER spells of theater-janitorm- g g he became an and But for a period of being general man agent ager for the late and mighty C B Dillingham Grady was an agent from 1913 to 1933 He handled the affairs of W C Fields foi 14 A1 Jolson Belle Baker Van and years Schenck Sophie Tucker — lots of stage-handin- ago Grady got into a fatm in New Hampshire it and planned to retire he committed the grave by Every Week Magazine) years and a won crap game He kept it added to But on it in 1933 Twenty-thre- e (Copyright 1036 - 1 1 f 4 rV 4 ’ “l’ r 'TU-S'1 '' : ' v 4 - 4 V ' ' h 4 4 i vVv M 4l ' i ' ‘ 4 i p vx ’ Si $ "!V v V tV old-time- "I Against any show of obstinacy Grady is likely to offer proof: A fat directory of thousands of extras and bit players scores of competent people for every possible job He may even show — as be showed this re porter — a preliminary casting list for some new role are listed all the playb picture ers who might fill it satisfactorily and who are Under some headings may be listed at liberty as many as 12 names — names that are known to every movie fan in America ’ f ? agent and scout Grady has discovered a long list ol star performers Eleanor1 Powell is one At the right is a recent portrait of Miss Powell parade on Broadway when a client of mine M I ( As again: Billy Grady casting director at the studios 1 4 via vXvi I ' ' ’C" 1 ‘ y '’ yi error of flying out to Holllywood for a couple of days of saying goodby to old friends hired him as an eastern talent scout and he hasn't had a day's vacation since He saw all the shows and studied all the players Some of the most remarkable documents in Hollywood are the play icviews written by Grady for the private guidance — and sometimes only the amusement— of his CaliforWhen a play was impossibly nia superiors bad Grady gave a detailed report on it anyway but “kicked it around for comedy” As agent and scout he has discovered oi de Eleano veloped a long list of star performers PoWell was one He took her out of Atlantic City and brought her along like a shrewdly-manageM-G-- fighter the players under contract to other studios For he has to form an estimate of their capabilities and their worth Casting directors trade actors and actresses back and forth as clubs do baseball stars player particularly TTE keeps an eye on the entire cast of each picture evert to bit parts “Maybe a bit player has only one line to “But maybe that one speak” he explained line is spoken to Clark Gable or some other $7000-a-wee- k star That makes the bit im- portant” Sometimes i while inspecting the selections Grady finds a promising actress Such a one is blond Virginia Gray She came out of an chorus and is being trained toward a future in dramatics Gfady has and has to have a memory as long as from here to yonder Recently he was asked to choose a player Tor a certain role in "His Brother’s Wife” Grady mulled over (he problem and his memory went back 20 years to an act he had booked in vaudeville— Leon Errol and Jed Prouty Prouty — that was the guy and just the one for this part Grady had no idea where Prouty was but an assistant found him right here in Hollywood ' They needed a type for "Murder Man" Grady thought of a certain amiable youngster who had played a bit on Broadway m "All M-G-- Patsy Kelly was a stooge Frank Fay when Grady tucked her under She's doing all right now wing $25-a-we- for his Jimmy Cagney 'and Joan Blondell were in It wasn’t a show titled “Penny Arcade” sensational entertainment but on the stage make would it a figured good movie Grady He borrowed $15000 from A! Jolson bought the show sold it to Warnet Brothers foi $17-50As part of the agreement Warners also had to-- hire Grady’s clients — Cagney and Miss Blondell They never regretted it married another ol Jolson incidentally Keeler — Grady's proteges Ruby Part of Grady’s job is seeing all the movies — about eight a ‘week He must study every Good Americans" Jimmy Stewart got the And a contract part |