MODELING INTO THE MOVIES

August 8, 1936

By Jeannette Meehan, HOLLYWOOD 

From the women’s angle, there are simply too many gorgeous newcomers in Hollywood. That fact is plain. 

From the gentlemen’s angle, Hollywood is pleasantly crowded with the most alluring bits of femininity ever to delight the bald-headed row. This fact is even plainer. Oh, say it isn’t so, but there a new day dawning in the west for the Stage Door Johnnies. 

Whence comes this influx of Eves? Who are these girls of such attractive physical make-up? 

Well, sir, most of them are ex-models. 

The highway and by-ways to Moviedom are past counting. Those most traveled have been the extra route, the beauty contest route or the I-have-a-relative route. Yesterday our newcomers were night club crooners, radio personalities and million-dollar heiresses. Today the majority of candidates for stardom are no longer being recruited from these avenues. It now quite obvious that any girl who has been a model approaches the casting office with an asset that permits her to pass up the waiting list. 

Oh, phooey, what’s a model got that the others haven’t? 

Well, when Radio Picture wanted five beauties for the fashion show sequence in “Roberta” they tested 30 girls, and then sent out an S.O.S. to the ranks of professional models. That was a year ago. Those five models so delighted the camera that they’re still under contract. (1)

Just a few months ago, when M-G-M went scouting for 22 modern Venuses for “The Great Ziegfeld”, they discovered that the ex-models had a lot more poise and personality than the kids who were merely movie struck. Eighteen of those 22 “Ziegfeld Girls” were former models. Fourteen of the 18 were given contracts. You just can’t argue with “figures” like that, or should I say with “figures like theirs"? (2)

“Model your way to the movies” isn’t just a catchy phrase. Models come to Hollywood already equipped with the elementary essentials which studios spend a great deal of time and money trying to hammer into inexperienced youngsters. Models have already served their apprenticeship to the art of carriage, grace and charm. They’ve already passed a certain type of beauty contest. The girl whose picture helps to sell beauty preparations has to have a face that leads you to believe that the product is worth trying. A pair of silk stockings modeled on muscle-bound or “spindle” legs would scarcely lure you to the hosiery department. 

You never see a good model stumble over her train. She remains regal and sure-footed in the most confusing draperies. 

Figuratively speaking, these girls are above reproach. Most fashion houses require that their models be above medium height, broad through the shoulders, slim through the hips, and that their proportions be symmetrically arranged. Thus, they’ve long since graduated from the routine of diets, masseurs, and classes for corrective posture that faces tire average beginner. 

In other words, movie producers are finding out that modeling is a natural complement to screen work. Film executives are discovering that the girls who come to them from portrait and artists studios and from fashion salons are far ahead of those who approach Hollywood’s pot of gold with no training. 

Not only that, but these ex-models seem to be well-mannered, well-educated girls whose off-screen poise and chic rivals that of their screen betters. 

Oh, dear are they gorgeous? They’re enough to make us ordinary girls forget to look before we leap. Just for instance, take Pauline Craig [above] (3), an auburn-haired, statuesque beauty from Cleveland, O. She’s five feet six and one-half inches tall, weighs 118 pounds, and has a figure that only Jean Harlow (4) could be unconcerned about.  

Miss Craig was a “Ziegfeld” girl – now she’s under contract. She skipped the first grade in motion picture training, and I guess we all know why. She was a model. Her glorious smile has appeared in hundreds of advertisements. As a fashion model she worked for I. Magnins. (5)

Are you wondering if these girls observe any general rules for the maintenance of health and beauty? Miss Craig will tell you that most of them prefer fresh air to smoky drawing rooms, and that they substitute milk for alcoholic beverages.

Incidentally, her hobby is collecting pictures of the Dionne quintuplets. (6)

Another girl recruited from the model ranks for “The Great Ziegfeld” was Wanda Perry (7), a vivacious brunet from Brooklyn. She’s five feet five and one-half inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, and has brown eyes. 

With her classic features and her superb figure, there was a great demand for her in New York’s portrait galleries and exclusive clothing establishments. She has posed and modeled for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, McFadden Publications and for tooth paste ads. 

With an already perfect camera presence, she is not to be enrolled in the studio’s kindergarten for beginners. 

Over at Paramount there’s a queenly blond named Elizabeth Russell (8), probably the best known of former New York models. A favorite of such distinguished illustrators as Russell Patterson, James Montgomery Flagg, McClelland Barclay, Dean Cornwell, Paul Hesse, and Steichen, the photographer. Miss Russell is now in possession of a flattering long-term contract.

Artists agree that her features are photographically perfect. Artist or no artist, they’ll look perfect to you! She has modeled hose, nightgowns, and coiffures. Her blonde beauty has helped to sell cigarettes, jewels, soap, sheets, automobiles and first-aid kits. Very soon she’ll be helping Paramount sell “Girl of the Ozarks,” her first picture (9). Miss Russell is five feet eight inches tall, weighs 118 pounds, has blue eyes and naturally blond hair. 

Another beautiful blonde who modeled her way to the movies is Louise Stuart (10), a former Chicago debutante. After graduating from Miss Mason’s Castle (11) she went to New York to visit former school chums. It was during one of these visits that she was persuaded to pose for cigarette ads. One good look at her flawless countenance, and modeling jobs were her for the asking. With plenty of time on her hands, and nothing to do with it, she went to work. 

Miss Stuart attributes most of her success with the test director to her experience as a model. Posing for artists and photographers, she says, gave her a self-assurance which she has never lost. You’ll see her first in “Lady Be Careful.“ (12)

A third Paramount prize is Veda Ann Borg (13), a stunning, red headed girl from New York. Before the studio signed her to a long-term contract, her divine proportions and sparkling personality had created a sensation in the modeling field. 

One of the most exquisite of Hollywood’s newcomers is brunette Anita Colby (14) who stands five feet seven inches tall without her high-heeled shoes. Her face has smiled at you from magazine covers, commercial advertisements and from the pages of the nation’s smartest fashion periodicals. Her beauty is attractively framed in poise, wit and charm. She is conversant with world affairs, music, art and literature. Pictorially speaking, she’s a model of perfection. Radio proudly points to her name on its contract list. 

Radio has two other "model” charmers in the persons of Maxine Jennings (five feet eight inches tall), and Lucille Ball (five feet six and one-half inches tall). Miss Jennings (15), a former model for the famous couturier, Jean Patou, is a stately redhead as handsome a creature as you ever laid your eyes on. You’ll soon be seeing her in featured leads. 

Miss Ball (above), a blue-eyed blonde from Montana (16) and former model for Hattie Carnegie, is considered an important trump in the studio’s hand. Her bosses have thus far cast her in wise-cracking roles, hoping to develop her into a counterpart of the late Lilyan Tashman (17) – but Lucille doesn’t seem to need much help along those lines. Her poise, her suave delivery and her flair for clothes have already added to the gaiety of nations and have cannoned her well along the road to stardom. 

One of the most beautiful of the “model” brunettes is Hester Deane (18) who is doing much to enhance M-G-M productions. Her likeness on the backs of magazines has caused many a gentleman to change his brand of cigarettes, and she posed for automobile body advertisements long before the studio discovered that her presence on screen would “up” the grosses. 

She was born in Oklahoma City. Her education included art and music. Now, when she isn’t modeling or working in pictures, she designs clothes, takes piano lessons, and studies philosophy. 

A good look at Mary Jane Halsey (19) will have different reactions on you, depending on your sex. If you’re a woman, you’d just as soon she broke her neck.

Miss Halsey was born in Milwaukee. After her family moved to Los Angeles she became a model for a famous cosmetician. She is five feet six inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. She has blue eyes, and ‘shhhhhh’, she writes poetry. 

If these “model” newcomers get any taller, a few of our leading men will have to wear stilts. Extreme height, which has sounded the gong for many a beginners’ career, doesn’t seem to be a handicap for the ex-models. When these lovely girls began to invade Hollywood, apparently the enthusiastic producers forgot all about the traditional physical specifications for screen heroines. There was a time when all actresses had to be extremely petite and slim, like Gloria Swanson and Colleen Moore, and, more recently, like Claudette Colbert and Margaret Sullavan (20). Unless you were a diminutive little trick about five feet two inches tall, and weighed less than 100 pounds, you might just as well have stayed on the farm. Greta Garbo and Kay Francis (21) were overlooked for a long time because of their height. 

But the restrictions seem to have been called off. It appears that models can grow as tall as they like without the danger of facing dismissal from the casting office. Margaret Lyman (22), one of the prettiest of the model group to win a picture contract, stands five feet nine inches in her stocking feet, and weighs 129 pounds. 

One of the most photographed models of the country, Miss Lyman has posed for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The New Yorker and for cigarette and soft drink ads. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She wears a larger shoe than Garbo. 

And no less charming is pretty Jane Hamilton [below] (23), another popular girl who found her way into pictures through the route of her professional success as a model.

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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) “Roberta” was released by RKO on March 8, 1935. It was Lucille Ball’s 21st film.  Models were needed for the fashion sequences. The film also employed models Virginia Carroll, Diane Cook, Lynne Carver, Lorraine DeSart, Betty Dumbries, Myrna Low, Margaret McChrystal, Marie Osborne, Wanda Perry, Donna Mae Roberts, and Kay Sutton.  In addition to Lucille Ball, Wanda Perry, Maxine Jennings, and Jane Hamilton were in the film and profiled in this article.

(2) “The Great Ziegfeld” was MGM’s 1936 biopic of Florenz Ziegfeld, the showman who glorified female beauty on stage. Lucille Ball was not in this film, but was later part of the cast of “Ziegfeld Follies” (1951). This film employed dozens of showgirls and models to play the Ziegfeld Girls. Those profiled in this article include Pauline Craig, Wanda Perry, Hester Dean, Mary Halsey, and Margaret Lyman. 

(3) Pauline Craig (1914-97) made her screen debut in “The Great Ziegfeld” but only did five more films, leaving the business in 1939. 

(4) Jean Harlow (1911-37) likely did not know or care about Pauline Craig, even if Craig’s figure did give Harlow a run for her money. She was known as the original platinum blonde sex symbol. She died at age 26, at the peak of her popularity. MGM closed for her funeral. 

(5) I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. It expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, and later to Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas. Mary Ann Magnin founded the company in 1876 and named the chain after her husband, Isaac. The chain was bought out by Macy’s in 1994. 

(6) The Dionne quintuplets (born May 28, 1934) are the first quintuplets known to have survived their infancy. The identical girls were born just in Ontario. All five survived to adulthood. The Dionne girls were born two months premature. The Ontario government and those around them began to profit by making them a significant tourist attraction. As of this writing, two of the girls are still living. 

(7) Wanda Perry was born Helen Beuscher in Brooklyn, New York, on July 24, 1917. When she was sixteen, she was named Miss New York City, and was offered a movie contract by Earl Carroll. Helen moved to Hollywood and took her mother’s maiden name, Wanda Perry, appearing in films as a showgirl, an Earl Carroll Girl, a Goldwyn Girl, a dancer in “George White’s 1935 Scandals,” a fashion model, an extra, a bit player and a stand-in for Lucille Ball! Her final film was as an extra in Lucy’s Mame (1974). 

(8) Elizabeth Russell (1916-2002) was the sister-in-law of Rosalind Russell. She started doing films in 1936 and finished her career in 1960. (9) “Girl of the Ozarks” (1936) was a Paramount film also starring Virginia Weidler, Henrietta Crossman, and Leif Erickson. 

(10) Louise Stuart did two pictures for Paramount back-to-back in 1936. That was the extent of her film career.

(11) Miss Mason’s Castle is a reference to Miss C.E. Mason’s Suburban School for Girls in Tarrytown-on-Hudson, New York. It was open from the late 1880s to 1934. The castle was razed in 1944. 

(12) “Lady Be Careful” (1936) did not feature Louise Stuart as is said here, although records could be incorrect. The film did feature Elizabeth Russell, however. 

(13) Veda Ann Borg (1915-73) did her first film for Paramount in 1936, and was continually employed in Hollywood until 1963. She was the first actress cast as Honeybee Gillis in “The Life of Riley” TV series, replaced a short time later by Marie Brown, then Gloria Blondell. 

(14) Anita Colby (1914-92) was born Anita Counihan. Early in her career, at $50 an hour, she was the highest paid model at the time. She was nicknamed “The Face” and appeared on numerous billboards and ads, many of them for cigarette advertisers. She did three films in 1936 alone, the same year she appeared on 15 magazine covers in a single month. In subsequent years she only acted in three more films, returning to modeling. 

(15) Maxine Jennings (1909-91) did 10 films with Lucille Ball between 1935 and 1937.  After 1938, her film appearances were sporadic.  She made her final screen appearance on a 1968 episode of “Hawaii 5-O”. 

(16) Lucille Ball (1911-89) is stated as being a blonde from Montana. She was actually a brunette from Upstate New York.  

(17) Lucille is once again compared with Lilyan Tashman (1896-1934) a stage and screen actress known for her skill at verbal wit as well as her throaty delivery. She died at age 37, just one year after Lucille Ball arrived in Hollywood. 

(18) Hester Dean became known as ‘The Girl with the Fisher Body’ after modeling for the Fisher Automobile Company. Her only film was “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936). 

(19) Mary Jane Halsey (1913-89) was also in “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936) but by that time had done nearly a dozen films. She continued to act on screen until 1945. 

(20) Gloria Swanson was 4′11″, Colleen Moore was 5′3″, Claudette Colbert was 5′5″, and Margaret Sullavan was 5′3″. 

(21) Greta Garbo was 5′7″ (same as Lucille Ball), and Kay Francis was 5′9″. 

(22) Margaret Lyman (1915-2002) was one of the models hired for “The Great Ziegfeld” in 1936. She did two more pictures before leaving screen acting behind. 

(23) Jane Hamilton (1915-2004) was a Goldwyn Girl in “Roman Scandals” (1933) just like Lucille Ball. Hamilton, however, had done one previous film as a Goldwyn Girl, “Gold Diggers of 1933″.  She did seven other films with Lucille Ball. Her final screen role was in 1949.