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Show 1 1 ppei "I Ifej Jo??61 iAi Poking at HOLLYWOOD TN HOLLYWOOD if s the girls who leave home who make good. Not a juvenile delinquency problem, but the record of careers of some leading lead-ing actresses here who leave their home lots as newcomers, go outside out-side to make important pictures, establish es-tablish careers and reputations for themselves, and then return to their home lots as stars. There's Anne Baxter, for example, exam-ple, the guest in Hunt Stromberg's "Guest in the H 0 u s e," the crowning role of her career. And she's had some pretty big ones, including "Magnificent "Mag-nificent Amber- x J Anne Baxter sons" and "North Star," both of which Anne made away from her j home lot. The "Guest" Linda Darnell role 15 a strong-willed strong-willed girl whose selfishness brings unhappiness to every ev-ery one she meets. Evelyn Heath (the guest) is to Anne Baxter what Mildred was to Bette Davis in "Of Human Bondage," what Scarlett O'Hara was to Vivien Leigh in "Gone With the Wind" we hope. Anne began her screen career on a loan-out back in 1940. David O. Sclznick first tested Anne and Twentieth Twen-tieth Century signed her on the basis of the test. Then Metro borrowed her for her first screen role in "Twenty Mule Team." A Flying Start Another example of the girl who made good away from home is Jennifer Jones, who won an Academy Acad-emy award for "Song of Berna-dette." Berna-dette." Selznick signed her, loaned her to Twentieth for the title role in the Franz Werfel story, then refused to let her play the title role in "Laura," which has put Gene Tierney among our first ten youngsters. young-sters. Linda Darnell had been playing juvenile leads at home Twentieth Century but they got hA- hardly anywhere. Then Rene Clair came along with "It Happened Tomorrow," Tomor-row," a picture which had a role made to order for Linda. She followed fol-lowed as a selfish Russian peasant girl in Chekov's "Summer Storm," and she completed the starring feminine fem-inine role in Bing Crosby's "The Great John L." Three top assignments, assign-ments, one after the other. Ruth Gets Around Ruth Warrick is a widely loaned-out loaned-out actress here. Under contract to RKO, she played opposite Edward G. Robinson in "Mr. Winkle Goes to War," then Pat O'Brien in "Secret "Se-cret Command," and then "Guest in the House." So what happened after aft-er that? Ruth was handed the top role at RKO in "China Sky," which Claudette Colbert had turned down. Same thing happened to Baxter. When she got back to Twentieth they handed her a good role in "Czarina," with Tallulah Bankhead. Ingrid Bergman, under contract to Selznick, is one of our most important impor-tant loan-out stars. After "Intermezzo" "Intermez-zo" for Selznick she did "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Gaslight," and "Saratoga Trunk," all at different studios and David made much money on the deals. Now she returns re-turns home for "Spellbound." Another Stray Metro killed Laraine Day off in a Dr. Kildare picture in order to help her escape from the series. Then Laraine began making the rounds away from home. First she did "Mr. Lucky," with Cary Grant, then C. B. De Mille's "Story of Dr. Was-sell." Was-sell." After those two pictures, opposite Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, Laraine was ready for stardom star-dom on her own home lot. so Metro gave her 'The Woman's Army." The most rented-out baby in town is Joan Fontaine, but she no longer cares, for always she gets top roles in top pictures. Leaving home in Hollywood has spelled success to some fine actresses, ac-tresses, given them the biggest opportunities op-portunities of their careers. In the old days the home lots groomed their young players for stardom, then built a fence 'round them a mile high so no one else would be able to cash in on their success. Today Hollywood doesn't hoard talent it lends at a profit. Because Hollywood is smart enough now to know that when girls leave home they'll return with a better fan following, a higher box office rating, plus experience. Secret, but Not Very Columbia studio isn't admitting that Jose Iturbl doubled for Cornell Wilde when Chopin takes to the piano pi-ano in "A Song to Remember." nor that Frank Sinatra doubles for Phil Silvers in a number for the harem ladies in "One Thousand and One Nights," but everybody's going to know it when the swooning starts. . . . Esther Williams, who made a terrific hit on her tour of hospitals with the song "Can't I Do Anything But Swim?" will sing it in "Early to Wed." I |