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Show Betty Compson, Native of Frisco, Tells of Her Start In the Movies ' i Not everyone is familiar with the fact that the section west of Milford had a prominent place in the filmin;.; of the great movie spectacle, "The Covered Wagon," and tlmt Milford wus the outfitting place and headquarters head-quarters for tlie gigantic production; hut this was the case and the rose! -voir west 0f lluihank fuini .hed a fitting fit-ting scene for the out.stiinding Snake river crossing of the emigrant train. More people, perhaps, ure cognizant of the fact that Frisco, locate.: some fifteen miles we-t of Mjlford and u thriving mining town of an earlier day, was where Hetty Compson, wellknown movit. actress, spent her gi rlliood. In the illustrated section of a recent re-cent issue of an eastern tabloid appeared ap-peared the first-person story of the life of Miss Compscui and excerpti from her inteivting narrative are reprinted re-printed Udow: I am the Hetty Compson whom the film-going public knew first a. a Christie comedy girl and in old-time western serials then, as star, in '"Tlui Miracle Man," my first treul success then, tn the golden wagon, -tarring with Paramount in the big-money big-money days with fan mail that averaged av-eraged a thousand letters a day. . . . Thirty-.six now, witli four careers behind be-hind mo and ahead of me the proof that there are strong roles for the mature woman to play, P.hat there is no age that hasn't its appropriate dranva. . . . My early years were sent in the drab little mining Uiwn of lii-co. l'uih, which jutted like a wait on the side of an oven-dry mountain. My grandmother, who ciuue We.-l in a covered wagon, had had as Iter ocond husband an army officer who had re-igned his commission to go into the mining game. My mother's childhood was bleak. Siie married Virgil K. Conp.-jn, a Cornell graduate, gradu-ate, mining' engineer and geologist. I was born in 1 S'.'T. I was christened Lucime . My father, immediately after I was born, had gone to Ala-ka in the gold ru.-h. He returned three years later with 5ll",000, which he promptly lo-t in stock speculation. I do not know when I first wanted to be an actre-s. Nothing in Fri-co, . L'tah, suggested it. My mretits loved the theatre and u.sd to gu awuy from timo to time to see shows, taking mo along-. At six 1 was busy playing role.s from memory. Mother encouraged mo. When 1 wa.s seven, they took mo to Salt Lako to see Olga N'etheisole in "Sapho," and in tbo siluiice just before the second act curtain, when the hero carried Sapho upstairs in his urm.s the audience was KUirtled by my sinull shrill voice: "Does he ruin her now, Mother'.'" My mother laughingly said I was alniorbing the fundamentals of the drama. When I was ten we moved into Salt I-ake. Really it wa.s done so that 1 could get a better education, and lie-cause lie-cause my father knew ho was dying of tulierculo-is. Hut 1 was a heedless, thoughtless youngster, and felt a-hamed because he was now in! the groceiy business, and later be-! cause we took in boaixlers When I ! t was fourteen, ami in my second yeari of high school, he died. Mother now i worke.1 day and night. Meanwhile I had studied the violin. I had thought it was drudgery to practice two hours a day beside-going beside-going to school. My boy friend,' Catty Jones, and I Used to go to the Orphetim together, hold hands, and for my part I had had sparkling! visions of our being a vaudeville pair! I playing the. violin while he' danced, with our names outside the theatre in the biggest light-'. ; There came a time when there were no boarders and not food enough to go around. My mu.-ic teacher, George K Skelton, finally found ne a job as violinist at the ti--ion theatre. Vaudeville two or three short motion pictures of the vintage of 1!12 and that was my first contact with the -creen. Picture my playiirr a oft accompaniment to Farle Williams' love-nuking, and imagining myself his leading lady. I was greatly interested, too. in James Cruze and Marguerite Snow. I'd read a magazine article about their hapiry married lifo it said they were expecting a laby. Gazing at (Continued on last page) BETTY JXMPSON (Continued from first page) Cruze, I dreamed of falling in love with him and becoming his wife. Not many years later I did. 1 became an actress very .-ud-denly. One night an act that had gone alcoholic failed to appear. I was put on the staire to play a violin solo. My friends applauded and that was how it happened that I quit my job. joined a small new company under an amateur promoter. We played a skit at Ogden, went to San Francisco and distended. I had to find work and did, playing cheap theatres in and around San Francisco, Fran-cisco, from tne Barbary Coast to San Jose. My mother joined me, and we went gloriously broke, ending the summer by working as domestics in the home of the wealthy John J. Haviside, and after that at a summer resort in Inverness. But I never cesed to think of myself as an ac-trv.s.. ac-trv.s.. Ami when Margaret Whitney, a Salt like woman, organized an act called "The Wrong Bird," which was 1-ooked over the Pant-ages circuit, I got a job at $25 a week. I played the violin. This act succeeded, and "The Shadow Girl" followed it. I'p in Alberta, Canada, I ran into an old actor-friend, Robert Bradbury, and told him L had screen ambitions. Ho said: "It's easy, Luicime. You are a prety girl You'd bo great in pictures. I'll tell wu what when you get down there on this trip, call Al McQuan-ie, who plays character roles at Universal City. 1 know n photographer in Portland who'll make, some pictures for you nnd let ymi pay him a little each week." The art reached I.os Angeles. I telephoned McQuarrie, who said: "If you've got half the stuff Bob Bradbury Brad-bury says you have, you'll le a sensation." sen-sation." Through him, I was finally iifroduced to Al Christie, who was associated with his brother, Charlie Christie, in making short romedies. I had a screen test, with the usual noncommittal: "I'll let you 'know." Hundreds of girls had been turned away with the snnw soothing promises. pro-mises. But I didn't know that. 1 wrote my mother that I'd he"n "siened." The tour over. I returned to Salt Ijike to find a letter from Al Christie, Chris-tie, calling me to work |