AN EXCITING LIFE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20822, 5 June 1939, Page 3

AN EXCITING LIFE

"DOUBLE” FOR FILM STAR CUMEDIENNE IN HAMILTON Hamilton theatre-goers have just seen Claudette Colbert’s douole, Wilma Horner, who was one of the comediennes In the “Hollywood Hotel” Revue. "An accident insurance policy personilled”—that, in simple language, is a Hollywood double. Substantial weekly premiums are paid on those policies, which cover all the varied classes of humanity found in the cosmopolitan wonderland of American fllmdom, for practically every leading star has a double. Uf much the same size as Miss Colbert with a remarkable resemblance in features and build, Wilma Horner is, as she says, a “talking woman” (or comedian) in the “Hollywood Hotel Revue.” But Hollywood proper lias absorbed a considerable amount of her time within recent years, for she has doubled for Miss Colbert (pronounced “coal-bear,” corrected Mbs Horner) in severel pictures, including “It Happened One Night,” “Under Two Flags,” “Four Frightened People,” “Tovarich,” “She Met Him In Paris,” and her last show, "Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife.” Filmdom’s Class Distinction “If you go to Hollywood, do not call a double a stand-in,” warned Miss Horner. “It is a very doubtful compliment. Stand-ins are of a socially inferior class so far as studios are concerned.” They had to Ibe exact reproductions of their stars, so that cameramen could adjust lighting and cameras before the star came on to the set, dresses were modelled on them, and so on. Doubles, on the other hand, actually doubled for their stars in production. “It is not all fun,” comments Miss Horner, who admitted, however, that she “got a kick out of it.” For Miss Colbert she has ridden horses, driven motor cars, ski-ied, and skated for “She Met Him In Paris,” and on another occasion stood for three days under an ice-cold Honolulu waterfall. That last-named incident was her introduction to film life. Miss Colbert contracted a bronchial cold through standing under the waterfall, for although only a few minutes’ shooting was required, something always went wTong. The light failed, or the sun sparkled off the spray with too strong a glare, or there was something else, so for three days patient shooting went on. Miss Colbert's cold lingered for almost two years. “That,” confided Miss Horner, “is why she grew so thin.”