ONE OF “THE BEST PEOPLE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 34, 3 May 1927, Page 15

ONE OF “THE BEST PEOPLE”

MARION STERLY The nice little chorus girl to whom Bertie Lenox, of the “Best People” family, is so strongly attracted, has been played by Marion Sterly for a long time. This young actress was Alice throughout the record run for San Francisco for 20 weeks, and other places. Henry Duffy put Miss Sterly into “The Best People.” She first played under his management in “The Cat and the Canary,” and just before leaving America was opposite him in The Song and Dance,” a comedydrama. Miss Sterly is only 18, bur she has been a good while on the stage. This is her story: “When I was six, in Oakland, I had a notion that I would like to go on the stage, and like a cheeky child went to all the theatres and said that if they wanted a little girl for a play or a picture prologue I would like to be that person. When I look back I wonder how 1 could have done it. I must have made a funny little spectacle. I was very thin, and could not reach up to the top of the counters. Perhaps it was the funny spectacle that helped me. A fortnight later I was called up on the telephone and told I could be a street urchin in a play in Oakland. Since then I have never been off the stage, except for a period when, having grown too big for child’s parts and not having grown big enough for grown-up roles, I went to the high school.”