1953-12-24 — Page 8

THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1953.

I have often wanted to find out what happens to a person when fame strikes fast... and 1953 has thrown up the perfect specimen

The Golden Girl of the Year

by

LOGAN

GOURLAY

PIOTURED" HERE IN HOLLYWOOD WITH THE DIAL HO (À WRITING ABOUT IN THIS GRAMS

T8 p.m. on Sunday, November 22, Audrey Hepburn could sit back happily in her Hollywood apartment as the most envied girl in Show Business. With only two leading parts to her credit-in a play hnd a film-she had created an impact unequalled for a decade.

But Audrey Hepburn, star of Roman Holiday, didn't know how to mix a Martini. I. as a dinner guest in her home, had asked for one. So she said, looking cannily at the modest array of bottles on a small table:--

not

sure

how inuch

"I'm gin and how much Vermouth

to put in. But lot me try."

in

:

NEXT WEEK

ALMOST A MARRIAGE

•

At 85 she had succeeded mixing a Martini, W. Somerset hem, Holland, while the Ger- Hepburn

faced her second Maughan, who once told me muni wire in occupailon, il fest, untrained and untutored,

conclucred himself the ten-year-old pig-talled Audrey at an audition for the Ameri greatest Martint alser out encountered the first test for can musical comedy High But Elde the bartenders' guild, which she was unprepared. for Shoes. would probably have consider-

ed the Hepburn blend unsubtle,

but I found it palatable.

The drink

Rself

Ls,

of

course, unimportant.

Baffled

She had come to London

a

few months curlier to continue the ballet trutaing the had started in Holland. But she de DORN in Brussels of an Eng-

cided, with A ས characteristic flash of self-assessment, that lish father and Audrey Hepburn-who Was

a Dulch she had no future

in classical that

interesting girl

she had been sent to bailot. second mother

She would have to try from the right in Lendon telcol In England. Taken to

musical comedy, und Holland

"The trouble whs I knew about modern dance nothing steps, and my ear wasn't tuned to the "rhythms,

chorus three years

ago

A

a

of

in

at the beginning of who is 1053's Golden Girl of the war by her mother, she Stage and Screen— will never couldn't speak word have to cam a living with

Dutch. cocktali shaker,

Arst morning school," she sak, "I sat at my little bench. completely baffled I wont home at the end of the day, weeping. For several days I went home weeping.

the

carcer.

The incident, however, is a minor but significant key to Hepburn character and The remarkable Hep- burn 'story

was dislod that small Martini glass.

She told me: "Again

"But I knew I couldn't just give up. I was forced to learn the language quickly. And I did.

"Considering what and

again throughout my life I'vo happen to me later.

was to

It was a

been asked to do thingy for useful basle experience."

which I wasn't fully prepared

or trained. I've just had to do

the best I could at the time."

AT NINE O'CLOCK one grey AT 10.30 on a bright morn- -morning-during-1040-in-Arn--ing-in-London in 1940, Audrey

A

ROYAL

Rhronometer

ET

by

VACHERON CONSTANTIN

chronometer

worthy of Kinge and Princes -- in a

word. for the Elite avorywhere.. A gift that will live to de

honour to the long tradition of orufia-

manship that made

it.

GENEVA

un

Ho replied: "Yes, indeed. even carried a mald's tray in a Sho wasn't

outstanding straight play, was, preparing - to dancer. But she had a person- face. a hypercritical metro- ality that attracted you im politan audience as leading lady. mediately. You know what I mean-THERE WAS SOME- THING ABOUT HER."

(Note that phrase. It crops up again and again in the Hepburn story. It remains nebulous. The "something"

do- cannot be fined because it is applied to an indefinable quality the magic which makes a star of a chorus girl.)

AT 8.30 P.M. in the Alvin Theatre, New York, on Novem ber 24, 1951, when the curtain rose on the first night of Gloi, Audrey Hepburn faced her third test without adequate experience and background.

While playing a small flm part in the south of France, she had been noticed by the cele- brated Calette, who wrote the book on which Gigi was based.

With murprise spilling from at her brown saucer eyes she had

been whisked into rehearsals.

"Looking back today, I don't koow how I had the nerve to go to that audition." To her aston ishment, she got a job in the chorus at £0 a week precisely

suddenly rich.

and " felt secure,"

THE

Personality

other week in New York

Parker, who appeared in High Button Shoes in London, if he had noticed the little girl in the chorus.

ROYAL

Chronometer

ACHERON (CONSTANTIN

One of the Tácy few. watches. te

Within a few weeks a 21- year-old tyro, who had never

10

I was in New York at the time and I went backstage wish her luck. She said: need more than that. You'll have to pray for a miracle."

זיי

THE

TWO FACES OF AUDREY HEPBURN

+

Indies on either sido of the At- luntle. The play in Ondine, translated from the French of Giraudoux, which will open in New York at the beginning of 1054,

Roman Holiday... the grave little princess of the film

Now I was back in Hollywood hiding her broken heart; Real Holiday ... the shining having

informal dinner thia smile that they say is a certain "heart-stealer,'

with the subject of all culogy. As I flashed that Mar- tini, which she had mixed with the eznerns were turning, the enthusiasm of a deb, un- was convinced sho could corking her first bottle of cham- give an outstanding formance in Roman Holiday.

perpagne, she retreated to her small kitenen with the self-conscious Audrey herself,

had alr of young spinster experi- played only bit parts in a few menting in the role of hostess. Brush films, was not convinced, Star Gregory Peck, who was came accustomed to experienced lead- ing ladies, shared Audrey's

and

Becretly I was inclined to perception. They haven't for agree I knew she could shake given me yet. a shapely leg in the chorus, but I have forgiven her freely for that was all, It would be too proving me so completely easy to be wise after the event, magniäcontly wrong. But I confess now that I feared a Hepburn disaster in Gigi I said as much to my New York colleagues who asked me about her while we waited for the curtain to rise.

It is theatrical history that she triumphed. Although she lacked technique ho revealed that she had instinctive talent, natural polso, charm which -wall between audience.

THE FOURTH TEST

who

But after the weeks of shoot-

for the untrained Audrey about nine o'clock on a sultry morn- doubts. ing in Rome during May 1952 when she faced the cameras for thirst scene in her first major Alm role in Roman Holiday.

and that innate demolishes the Her

players and

doubts

chiefs:

In private life who is a con- fusing but captivating amalgam of adolescent gaiety and adult gravily.

She cooks

ing Peck was so impressed he sent this enble to the Hollywood

"Suggest Audrey Hep- QHE does her own cooking and burn be given co-star billing in housework in the apartment, Roman Holiday.

which could be classified as the It was a rare and unusual Hollywood

of a equivalent gesture because

But of Betors-even Kensington bed-sitter. modest, level-headed actors like course It has better plumbing Peck-guard their billing as and a few extra mod, cons-like

IRECTOR WILLIAM WY

leagues were convinced that I her potentialities when trying had been withholding Informa- her out for the part by film- tion or that I was lacking in ing her when she didn't know

Some of my New York col-DLER, who had discovered zealously as they preserve their the dining alcove with Regency

SAM WHITE'S PARIS LETTER

WHAT A SHOCK FOR THEM!

PARIS- But-Herriot's first-public-post-

In

OR Frenchmen the shock has always held first place in little like being of Lyons since 1905 and it was his heart. He has been, Mayor told that Marianne would his attachment to Lyons which no longer be the symbol of decided him against going to the Republic or that the in- Britain after the French collapse scription "Liberty, Equality, in 1940.

I he returned his Legion Fraternity was to be erased of Honour to Fetain because the from public buildings.

Vichy government had awarded Edouard Herriot, who has an- the some honour to French nounced his virtuşi retirement volunteers with the German from politics, is a Churchillian army. After that followed house figure in whom every Frenchman arrest and finally deportation to

Germany. aces a litle of himself.

ny.

Не has immense erudition. Herlot, a magnificent "gratory great literary talent, staunch has been Speaker of the French for the past six Republican principles, political Parliament skill, an eye for a pretty girl and years. He has played little

CORINNE CALVET

The cute accent needs a brush-up..

hair-lines.

So the now girl acquired slar status before the film was com- picted.

few months It was only since she had rushed across the street in New York after the first night of Gigi to see tho billing changed from

GIGI with Audrey Hepburn to AUDREY HEPBURN in Glat.

It was just over a year since she had timorously shed her chorus girl's tights."

decor and the inviting sun patio.

The apartment at 260 month, a low rental for thesa parts-is all she can afford at sho is the the moment For

sha only because Golden Girl basks in the glow of sudden fame.

Her salary will leap but it is still not much rapidly, beyond £400 a wock

And despite suggestions about changing her hair to an appro- priate shade the Golden Girl has firmly remained a brunette. Just as she has resisted other

altempts to aller her

sphere Hollyonya

In the entertainment Fame hadn't struck so fast, so unexpectedly, and so resound- ingly for at least ten years,

As

I

Exciting

S1 few in the over-night plane from New York 10 Hollywood and walted for a sleeping-pill to act, I was turn ing these events over in my

mind.

I had made the samo journey

basic'

She was ingenuously new to the place when she arrived in Hollywood to make her second starring

Sabrina "Fair (Roman Holiday was shot on- tirely in Rome).

The cluizens had to admit that she had exhibited allure, appeal,

even sex

in Romani but she lacked what Holiday, they consider tho essential physical equipment. It includes a prominent bust line, j

In fact it is almost a mathe

in Hollywood.

to Hollywood only a few weeks matical axiom

to

before, but I had been unable that the graph of a girl's suc- spend much time with Audrey coas is in direct proportion – to

her bust measurement. Hepburn Still I would probably

have postponed another meet! ing and the writing of this heard in New York. story-but for these romarkos

Elfin

"She's

the mort

exciting YET here was a slim creature thing to hit Hollywood since with a frail frame, a tiny Garbo and that other Hepburn. ellin faco under arantidy

---Katharine.”

a gargantuan oppetite for good direct part in politics during palatively poor man, with only food and wine.

those years except as adviser, a book-cluttered flat in Lyons to but he has intervened directly retire to, he intends to devote and with considerable effect on himself to writing to supplement For 50 year

his immense two occasions.

his income. frame and his square, peasant- The first was when he joined

DIZZY RETURN - like face, with a pipe julling out forces with President. Auriol to of it, were at the centre of the check General, do Gaulle's TWENTY-SEVEN-YEAR- French political "stage.

seemingly irresistibio

drive to OLD French-born dlm star Of humble parentage, ho power. The second was recently, Corinne Calvet has returned to

The speaker was Sam Gold- became at an early age one of when he became the centre of France after a five-year absence, wyn, veteran assessor of Holly France's most brilliant classical opposition to the European Army apparently a little

dizzy from Wood careers. scholars.

"She'll be the biggest atari in her Hollywood success. Her hair is dyed a colour which she calls Hollywood within two years," he kept publishing volume after

This came volume of brilliantly-written There are two

champagne."

from Sol Slegal, Reason for the

visit

to France? who has a shrewd producer's historical treatises which finally Herriet's life his wife and his won him a place in the French cook Cosmarine, both of whom Says her publicity agent with sonso of Hollywood values Sabrina. Fair, had oven been

rare tack "She have been with him for 47 years to France

has come back

scheme.

Throughout his turbulent fe

women in

fringe of hab and nothing out of proportion except her · size 81% feet, which she has

called 'embarrassingly Elg.”

Her curve of fame sonred upwards, but her anatomy re- mained dat by Hollywood stan- dards.

Billy Wilder, director of

Aondemy.

heard to say: "She will make to brush up her It should be mentioned that bosome a thing of the past," To the chagrin of the extreme They are both delighted at the French nocent. She has almost Mesara Goldwyn ard Siegel French Right, which at the time news' of his retirement.

lost if by now. You know that have no financial interest in the She was striking at the", very was Royalist and Catholic and Says his wife: "At last he will

he will cute French accent-It sure is Hepburn future.

foundations of the Hollywood which liked to claim a monopaly get some rest.?!

one of her great uswetu."

agreed to direct the play pundits cherished beliefs. of French scholarship, ha be- Host is the last thing he in- Another tactful comment, this they got Audrey Hepburn for was as though someone were came a Radical politician and tends, for although his legs are timo by Miss Calvet: Paris the leading part." a meraber of the party which is almost completely paralysed his clothes? Not for me. I prefer There were the words of world was flat. anti-clerical and derives directly mind is as activo as over. And the ready-made clothes you can actor-director Alfred Lunt, who They from the 'French Revolution. since he leaves politics a com- buy in New York."

con take his choice of loading worried.

JOHNNY HAZARD

YHELPLES BEFINES LANDET İS BUN, JOHNNY GRIMLY ANAITE, THE FATAL BRALET WHENK

› MUDDY AND BATTERSEL HAZE SUPPENLY RAVERSEG FROM UNDER THE ROCKS/

......

By Frank Robbins

GREYSTONE!!

trying to tell them that tho were sceptical and

On sale exclusively at SENNET FRERES

be Branded, the

distinction of haying Kha -half-

mark stampo di pi

sach' - Migrenstemi.

this situation

calls for

San Miguel