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GET THERE
By Earl J. Morris

Elsewhere in this publication you will find a similar article dealing with that same subject. It is so important that his writer deemed it sagacious to devote plenty space to it. It is the subject of getting to the top. Since this is the "Show-Down" its editor and publisher are interested in the things which actually push on to success.

The writer of these two articles appearing in this issue has forgotten all conventions and ethics. He simply tells you how they get there . . . not in the romantic Horatio Alger style, but shorn of all glamour.

Getting there is all that really matters . . . success.

If a John Smith owes you money and promises to be at your home at a certain time, you don't care if he comes on the street car, bus, train or airplane. All that matters to you is for him to . . . get there.

And to get there in the theatrical game consists of a by-product of that magic word . . . publicity. Simply being noticed. Selling it. That's all.

Following the staid rules of conventions prevents many from getting there. Set a goal and strive to reach it. To hell with everything when you arrive. 

It is unconventional to lie. Yet the lie has cause many to get to the top. They have pulled tricks to mislead, but they got there. 

Should you tell a lie . . . you succeed in getting to the top. That lie is called a "white lie." Your sin is forgiven. But if it is a failure, then you are a big liar and a so and so. That's the chance you must take.

I may seem somewhat brutally frank, but life is brutally frank. We have built glamour around life. We do a thing and then glorify it. So get hipped. Play the game. Success is really what counts. Get there. 

When pretty Jeanne Williams, a film extra, changed her name to Sonya Karlov and fooled Cecil B. DeMille into believing she was a great Russian actress fit for a long term contract, Hollywood got its greatest laugh since the beginning of films.

Sonya, as soon as DeMille heard of the trick that had been pulled on him, was out on the streets, unemployed, but her brave effort made Hollywood conscious of the fact that many of its great started very much that way.

Claudette Colbert began her career with a lie. She couldn't have gotten started any other way. On the set of 20th Century-Fox's "Under Two Flags" she revealed that her first lie was to Brock Pemberton when she told him she had three years' experience on the stage. AS a matter of fact, she had none, but the lie moved her into the leading spot in a Broadway Play.

Warner Baxter, now a fullfledged star with March in "Zero Hour," was not averse to pulling tricks when it seemed he would never regain his place in films. Broke, and forced to sing over a Burbank radio station in order to eat, he pulled a fast one on Edwin Carewe, who was about to direct "Ramona."

Unable to get to the director through regular channels, he spent his last dollar attiring himself like Allesandro and appeared on the set so made up. He talked so fast and furiously that he signed for the leading role on the spot.

Most desperate measure ever taken to get into pictures is credited to Julia Graham. Julia took poison to attract attention and three weeks later was under contract. But the morbid streak in the girl came uppermost and she took a second dose of poison which ended her life.

Loretta Young was not beyond a pardonable trick. A director called her house and wanted to speak to Polly Ann Young, her sister, who was them much in demand. Polly was out and Loretta took a wild chance.
."I don't see why you want Polly." she said. "When I'm just as good looking and can play the part."
And she got it.

The goofiest technique belongs to Clifford Jones, youthful character player, who invested the sitting-waiting-praying system. His stunt was to sit in the Cafe de Paris and wait until produces and directors noticed him. He looked so much like a cross between Bolivar and Napoleon that studio executives kept him working for a solid year.

Marlene Dietrich was oing very poorly as an extra at a Berlin studio when an assistant director who was interested in her gave her a monocle to wear, hoping that this would make her outstanding. At least the glass would reflect the Klieg lights and attract attention.

The monocle distinguished her from an average group of extras and the director picked her to play her first "bit" in pictures. The assistant director, by the way, was rewarded later on. Miss Dietrich married him. 

Getting there... is the big thing. Being noticed. Plenty publicity is the thing.

A girl may put on pants. People will begin to talk. She is noticed then. Get your share of publicity. Peggy Hopkins Joyce will marry another guy when she finds her publicity waning.

I know that some will say that my copy this month is hot. Will criticize me for printing it. But those of you who know me personally, I dare anything. Yet I am telling you the truth unvarnished. But the truth hurts... the truth is the light. 

Get there. All the people who do get there have done just the things I have told you about in these two articles. Treat your fellow man squarely, but look out for yourself. For even God helps those who help themselves.

Get there... follow the road we have pointed in this article. Let the world know that the stuff is there... publicize yourself in all manners.

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