Greer Garson Wouldn't Be Warned Against Acting

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 192, 10 May 1940, Page 6

Greer Garson Wouldn't Be Warned Against Acting

("tREER GARSON’S best friends told V her not to try to be an actress and did everything to discourage her in a solicitous and helpful way. Yet these friends, including relatives and her own mother, were the most helpful “helping hands” in giving her the greatest encouragement and strengthening her determination to become an actress. This is the confession of the star who is teamed with Robert laylor in “Remember?” Had Miss Garson heeded the sincere advice of her friends she might today be a school teacher, for which she was trained. Though she bad won five scholarships and was succeeding in her teaching course she baulked at this profession and entered business in con-

nexion, with advertising in London. When she obtained a letter of introduction to a stage producer he advised her that the £lO weekly salary she was making was more preferable to the insecurity of stage work. Still persisting, she obtained a character role in “Street Scene.”

Partly because of illness, it was a <ear before her next role which came through pure luck. She was dining alone at the University Women’s Club when a young woman sat down at her table, introduced herself as Sylvia Thompson, and offered her the leading role in “Golden Arrow.” Miss Garson seized it. Within three years she appeared in 12 plays. She has made good, but still friends discouraged her against accepting her next offer. They thought it best for her not to go into motion pictures. Noel Coward was foremost in such advice. He directed her in “Accent on Youth,” and during the run of the play Douglas Fairbanks, jun., telephoned Miss Garson with an offer for a picture. Coward took the phone and said, “No, you can’t have her!” But Miss ’Garson went to Hollywood and waited a year for her big chance in “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” The “Mrs. Chips” role finally came and she became a star.

TN their first picture after their mar A riage, “The Butter and Egg Man,” Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan will play husband and wife.