Show 3 r Sunday Morning i ?Tljc March 23) 1941 Salt ffakc Wrlbunc r A- - Y tr 7n- - u iV t - By LUCIE NEVILLE I i I ' THE ' mv HOLLYWOOD smartest goodwill that Movietown made toward its nearest and biggest Latin neighbor is hiring ' Esther Fernandez ' -time the at knew Not that it hoW smart and diplomatic it was 'leing ‘Hollywood just took acouple of good looks at her eloquent black velvet eyes demure smite and slim curves and decid--: ed to takers chance on the visiting Mexican actress She ought i to be okay in Latin type bits any-- : lilm-buyi- ng V i ’ 1 way It was just plain dumb tuck that Hollywood found out in time or there might have been a minor revolution not to say an exchange of SUIT State Department notes 'Because casting Senorita Fernandez in a bit would - have been something like giving Bette or putting Ginger Davis a walk-o- n Rogers in the back line of a chorus It seems that the girl Paramount recently signed as a stock player is one of Mexico’s top feminine stars r ' Ip i i f Hollywood didn’t know But now Hollywood ICO 'kno’wsInowatacT that' instead of — YY YY A AA You couldn’t blame anybody for not knowing Hollywood protests plaintively Miss Fernandez didn’t have a press agent she didn’t even have a business agent! Nobody knew she was coming— except most of Los Angeles’ 250000 Mexican population And she didn’t behave like' a foreign star after she was signed Look at the way she acted when Paramount told her to pose for fashion pictures with a bunch of its minor cuties Not a peep out of her When the casting office asked if she could dance she Just said “Yes but didn’t mention the months she was a night club headliner at Mexico City’s snooty Hotel Regis Did she have any costumes maybe native stuff kicking around at “A few” and pretty home? soon wardrobe trunks full of velvet evening - gowns 'mantillas and began to thinks that will She dandy always has just But it wanted to play a menace seems that Mexico types actresses just as Hollywood does and after her first big role as a society girt with a heart of gold she didn't have a chance Not even in the film ’she produced “In that 1 must play the Good Girl too said Miss Fernandez regretfully “One of those ieetie naive Indian girls who follow the men in the revolution There is a mean girl too and in the end she kills me But anyway 1 died ANOTHER hint" the1 studio had that its new contract player was a prize package was when it began to be swamped with pleas from local Mexican theater managers and dignitaries Would Senorita Fernandez honor them with ‘ a personal appearance? Would she consent to appear at a benefit? Senorita Fernandez would because she is very appreciative of fans though she never answers their letters But she keeps every one of them yes indeed! That also is accepted manana style it seems Her explanation's simple: Even stars in Mexico 'can’t afford secretaries stamps and photos They not yearly con- work on tracts and Mexico doesn’t make a There’s no steady stream of films such thing as a studio fan mail department to foot the bills So she lust dumps the letters Into a huge wooden chest ’and fully expects to answer to she was coming every one of them some day hasn’t married Miss Fernandez though she’s at the dangerous old age of 20 In Mexico she says you forget about a career when you marry you aiJf o’clock you get there at 10 Everybody understands keep the house and the babies if you “An’ you know there are 2000 peo- - have them That’s why her aunt who was Aurora' Bermudez of the stage pie waiting for me at the train in Ail in china poblana— that never got in movies though she knew all the picture people But she helped is typical Mexican dress — with flowers and bands For an hour 1 must stand Mary Esther Fernandez (y Gonzales) inside because 1 cannot get out until to get extra work when she was 13 the police come an make them to saw her starred a year later in “El move Then they' follow me to the Paul Macabro” However business being what it was hotel an everybody there is looking out the windows to see for whom the and pictures few and far between Senorita Fernandez quit the movies to band plays (Every Week Maraitne— Printed In C S A) one-pictu- re 1 TVf 1SS FERNANDEZ 3 n t was when the studio The final tip-o- ff appointed a publicity man to get enough details from Senorita Fernandez' to compile a short biography Among other things he found that she had even produced a picture — and borrowed the Mexican army for battle scenes After some hasty revisions in the casting schedule Paramount now figures the least it can do is to introduce its Latin newcomer as the native girl in “Aloma of the South Seas” with a part only slightly smaller than Star Dorothy Lamour’s j be " very beautifully with a knife — like thees — in the stomach” She isn’t at all perturbed that Hollywood didn’t recognize her After she hadn’t been very definite abouLtne date of her arrival “Two or Ahree years ago the studios write and ask me to come to Hollywood" she said “I answer the letters myself an say yes I weel come “But right then 1 cannot So I came seex months ago That is Mexican style When you say you weel come j II ! - i 1 i ! I ! ! h"' A their-Mexica- ats from Max tarrinS - I arrive " i rV°rUt°n- teVmSS'pLS'r “No I do not tell the studios I am here They have letters from1 managers to show me around I go to some to Fox and to Warner But not to Paramount They have Mr Milton Lewis (head talent scout) to telephone and to see me" gold-embroide- red this-and-th- F"nd If ! i a i be a business womanl She was a and the men walk about and shout about the combs and the watch crysstenographer in a legal add engineering firm first but that lasted only a tals and1 they buy” Hut was i unfortunately" somebody stole month tbecause the boss making a an as worked she Next important piece of machinery passes d her which couldn’t be replaced Newma-chine- ry for six months clerk government would have cost as much as married Then friends of hers a Th£ the team for entire factory So she Just sold help appealed dancing wife was going to have a baby' But what was left and went back to movies i i they had a contract for a good engageAfter starring in nine pictures she ment Miss' Fernandez rmust take her' place-Ithe act' “That' was Tuesday' decided she’d like to produce one - hole in her they told me ’&nd! J have never 'Money was burning But the atory' she danced” she said ’ “But we must open" pocket again So in- - tour days I learned picked was “The Underdog” a classic Saturday ‘about the 1914 revolution “It had —acrobatic too — and got costumes’ “Then we were called td a smallt- lour big battles and I needed many soldiers” said Producer Fernandez own for a very important engage ment — some sort of government eele- - “So I went to see President Cardenas bration We were to dance three d)um- - and asked him to lend me the army bers — a tango a waltz and a typical He was very nice and a Iriend of Mexican one’ But there 'were some mine No 1 didn't have to pay— the new very popular vsongs then- - So at government 'already was paying them And 1 didn’t have to make the unithe last minutg we are told ihe government has ordered us to make Jwo new forms or the guns” dances to these songs Yes— we did ‘ Even with this economy and a mag- nificent premiere the picture was a it It was a great success’? - - - t ( i flop I In true Mexican tradition Miss ' IJETWEEN dancing making the pub-- U Ferpandez 'will not produce another licity for bathing suites and the ' J Her English after only six months soap and modeling I for pa inters ahd study ’isn’t as thick as Boyer’s Pos- -j sibiy because she thinks it’s very kind sculptors Miss Fernandez ol people to correct her when she the in wealth Sojvhen tically rolling -t family gardener suggested ia business makes mistakes in tense or pronunciInvestment she agreed “We did not atlon At first her bosses were a lit— need him because the garden wa so Be baffled because she was such an small so leetle” she explained ' “But apt but unretent ive pupil Under a studio teacher she’d' absorb pages of he also was a colonel who had esI do not America— from grammar in an afternoon next morn- S?uth caped " When he Ing come in having forgotten everyknow what he had djone told me about a celluloid factory that thing Then it discovered Miss Fermakes combs and boxes to put the pandez i was doing a little with Mexican pals exclusively powder puffs in) and iXatch crystals that do not break I bought it It was and talking always the Espanish Now she’s living with an American family a good business I had two men workIn named O’Brien who also correct th ing and I also ran a machine mistakes of a French and a Swedish Mexico City it is easy to sell oo beboarder ' cause everybody goes to the square s ! n ‘ r- i I was-prac-- 1 1 ii ’ k night-clop-pi- ng N t ’ - |