DEANNA DURBIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1939, Page 3

DEANNA DURBIN

AN AMAZING CAREER. "I'm just lucky, that's all!” This is the only credit Deanna Durbin gives herself for her amazing Hight to cinematic stardom. Deanna, who is not yet sixteen, has starred in four great Universal pictures in a row. "Three Smart Girls." which introduced her to the picture-loving world, “100 Men and a Girl," in which she appeared with world-renowned Leopold Stokowski, "Mad About Music," and her latest. "That Certain Age" which will be at the Regent Theatre next Saturday. She’ credits her startling success to luck because neither she nor her parents anticipated Deanna’s screen career. "It happened accidentally," Deanna declares. She was thirteen at the time, attending Bret Harte High School in Los Angeles. Except for her voice, she was a normal child in every respect. Her parents, James and Ada Durbin, had speculated a bit on an operatic career for her. but nothing, outside oi singing lessons, had been done about it. Deanna's sister, Mrs Charles Heckman, a Los Angeles school-teacher, and internationally known as a fencer, had urged a further musical education.

Deanna returned home from school one day to be told by her mother that she was to go to see an agent. Jack Sherrill. Sherrill rushed her to the M.-G.-M. studios where Deanna made a test.

The test was a success and Deanna was placed under contract.

Then she learned that she was supposed to go into a picture with Madame Schumann Heink. the great diva, portraying the role of the singer as a girl. But the opera star became ill and the picture was cancelled. Deanna was released from her contract.

Sherrill managed tb interest Universal in his 13-year-old client and she was signed. Cast, in a small role in “Three Smart Girls” she amazed even hard-boiled studio executives with her freshness and charm as well as with her wonderful voice. Her part was stretched; additional money was spent on the production —and Deanna emerged a star!