MARGARET SULLAVAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1939, Page 5

MARGARET SULLAVAN

LIKES TO FORGET. When Margaret Sullavan steps out of range of a motion picture camera, she completely forgets she’s a star. She climbs into slacks, runs a comb through her bobbed hair, slips a pair of sneakers on her feet, and makes herself thoroughly at home in the first real house she has had since choosing the business of acting as a profession. In spite of the fact that this is, more or less, defying Hollywood convention, it is nothing new to the actress. She defied family convention by becoming an actress in the first place. First of all, Margaret wanted to be a dancer. By the time the family shpcl calmed down, she had changed her mind, and joined E. E. Clive’s company at the Copley Theatre, in Boston. Here she met a group of collegians and together they pooled their interests and organised a group known as the University Players, with headquarters on Cape Cod. For three summers she played juvenile leads with the troupe and then returned to Norfolk, Virginia Convinced that the social round was not for her, Margaret returned to the University Players. It was during f tour of this group that Elmer Harris saw her perform in “Strictly Dishonourable,” and engaged her for the lead in “The Constant Nymph-” With this her stage career was launched, Pictures followed her performance in the stage play, “Dinner at Eight.” John M. Stahl found in her a leading lady for “Only Yesterday,” and so the star left Broadway for Hollywood. Hollywood scared her for a long time, but now that she knows the ropes better, she likes it. However, premieres, previews, and big parties still frighten her, and she is seldom, if ever, “among those present.’ ’

Margaret Sullavan recently complete ed “The Shining Hour,” with Joan Crawford. Her first was “Three Com? rades,” which was a tremendous success. Then came '“The Shopworn An? gel,” in which she is starred with James Stewart and Walter Pidgeon.