BILLIE SIM RETURNS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 77, 22 June 1927, Page 13

BILLIE SIM RETURNS

SCREEN ASPIRANT “MISS N.Z.” SEMI-FINALIST AUSTRALIAN FILM WORKS lyriss BILLIE SIM, one of the ITA semi-finalists in THE SUN’S “Miss New Zealand, 1927,” competition, was an arrival by the Marama yesterday from Sydney. The New Zealand girl, who has achieved considerable success In Australian pictures, will appear with the 15 other semi-finalists at the Regent and Majestic Theatres on Friday. It is three years since Miss Sim was last in Auckland, which city, incidentally, is her birthplace. Despite the fact that she has crossed the turbulent Tasman about IS times, Billie Sim is not yet a good sailor. Nevertheless, she willingly answered a cabled summons from Auckland, and is looking forward with the keenest delight to entering into the great screen contest. “I realise just what it means,” said Billie Sim, “and I think that the girl who wins the trip to Hollywood will indeed be fortunate.” Miss Sim has considerably more picture experience than any of the candidates, as she has taken part in all the big Australian productions of recent years. PLAYED IN NOUMEA She even went to Noumea to star in “Plantation Love,” a film of New Caledonian life, which was successfully produced by a French company. “Tall Timbers,” one of the best Australian releases, Arthur Shirleys “Mystery of a Hansom Cab,” Beaumont Smith’s “Hullo, Marmaduke” (with Claude Dampier), and “Painted Daughters,” for the Australasian Films, were all pictures in which this New Zealand girl appeared. Her latest appearance has been in “Six Cylinders and Cynthia,” which Len H. Roberts, of “The Term of His Natural Life” fame, produced. Miss Sim was co-starred in this feature with Compton Coutts, the English comedian now in Australia. Billie Sim gained experience with the Wanganui Amateurs before she tried her luck in Australia. Small parts in the “Bing Boys,” the “Peep Show,” and with Frank Harvey in “Seventh Heaven” and “The Silver King” have all furnished her with ad-