EVEN HIS BEST FRIENDS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 32, 20 January 1939, Page 20

EVEN HIS BEST FRIENDS

DON’T KNOW HIMHave you heard that Tyrone Power is ungrateful, a poseur, a flirt? Then it’s time someone who really knows him sets you right about ‘this lad, who‘s wilier than a politician but still young enough to : / 7 39) --haveideals. ~ , !

By

Jennifer

Quentin

F' 1 had an atom of sense I wouldn’t try to ‘write about Tyrone Power. For what every writer learns the: very -instant after. purchasing his first batch of pencils and wad of paper is that one'writes really well only. about people one hates. After all, writing is just. gossiping. to the world at large instead of. to three or four friends in your Own’ parlour, and..you know yourself. how the conversation. ‘sickens’ and dies when you get around to talking about one of. those people about. whom . you. -have .to.say, ‘‘ Well, I’ve never heard anyone say. a word against her.’’ You really have to be able to pick flaws to get the’ conversation ‘going really -hot,, or . reveal some deadly: secrets. 'And-so it is’ with writing, too; yet here I am, sticking my: neck out, trying to write a piece about Tyrone Power, ‘against whom [- san’t say a word: Despite this almost rabid admiration { have, | can explain him to you. For this | knowand no two ways ‘about it-more misconceptions, "more nonsense, ‘more downright lies have been published about this young’ star than almost any other in. Hollywood. He has been painted in some quarters as being. ungrateful to the -people who "knew him when," in others as being a poseur, in still

others as being a heartless flirt, entirely concerned. with breaking lovely women’s hearts. All of which stories are nonsense, but which have arisen, . I think, from that sort of .destructive.. jealousy people get for. personalities they do not easily understand. Tyrone is no Gable, who is able to make everyone like hiin. instantly. He is no Robert Taylor, with: a boyish, ingratiating quality about him." He is, instead, at once subile and. shy, at once realistic and romantic: and in him there is a sardonic strain of bitter’: humour that rarely goes with acting. talent. His Favourite Tune TAKE, for example, the reason for " "Sing, Baby, Sing," being his favourite tune. When you know the reason. for this, you will understand much of the fellow himself. Tt will, I think, show you why he is now. the triumphant success that he is. It will ‘give you the basis for his deep friendship with Alice Faye, and to me, at least, it is the reason for believing that five. years from now he-will be an even. Sreater star than to-day,- and 10 years from now an even greater star than in five:years. Not that I wish to give the impression that Ty bounds out of bed every morning and joyously lilts away on "Sing, Baby, Sing" while bathing. One reason he doesn’t is because he is much teo moody a soul not to have mornings when he: feels like a wet August and wouldn’t sing if a gun were held to his head. The other is that he.can’t carry a tune even for the short distance between a bed and a bathtub.

But he does encourage his friends to "Sing, Baby, Sing" at him and it gives him a fine glow when he enters 2 restaurant, preferably an expensive one, and hears the orchestra playing it. -~ Ms Yet the reason for his’ liking this tune is as bitter a little pill as anyone was ever asked to ’ swallow. That song was the big hit of the picture of the same name and that picture was the . first one that Ty was cast in. under his Twentieth Century: Fox contract. Early Years ‘THE story has been told so often ' that you probably. remember how he got that contract, so right here Plt only repeat that the contract came to Ty only after weary years of job-hunting-when, due to his father’s swift and sudden death, if he was to eat at all he had to find work. He was just as talented and handsome a boy then as he is now. He had had acting experience, ever since he had, at the age of 17, graduated from Purcell High School in his native city of Cincinnati and had taken a job in a stock company. After his father’s death he went around to all the managers and agencies. where the name of Tyrone Power was respected. His father had been Tyrone Power the 2nd, and he was Tyrone Power the 3rd, so everyone was very polite in that utterly charming and completely defeating way that is possible only to people in the theatrical profession. in Hollywood they have a ‘word for those ultra-courteous ee

profitless meetings. They call them "the brush off," meaning you’re in and out of some big shot’s office before you know . what's happened. Ty went through nearly two years of "the brush off," getting thinner and hungrier and learning more and more about the economic facts of life the while. But finally he did get the tiniest bit in a Broadway show. A talent scout saw him and the Twentieth Century contract resulted. That was, of course, all that he had dreamed of. He was only 22 then, and his optimism bubbled over. Here was life being served to him with a platinum spoon off a Silver platter.

Kicked Out! ][T was, that is, until he was cast ‘ in "Sing, Baby, Sing." He appeared on the set early, anxious to show everyone that the great Darryl Zanuck’s faith in him was justified. He had studied his role valiantly and had worked out a couple of bits of business that he_ believed were distinctive. He couldn’t possibly have been more eager or more happy than he was that day. Two days later, he was kicked out of the cast-not only kicked out, but told that he might be Tyrone Power, the 3rd or the (Continued on next page)

The Real Tyrone Power |

(Continued from opposite page.)

9th, but he certainly was no actor and never would -be. — Now, Fy at that time didn’t know Alice Faye at all, She was the star of "Sing, Baby, Sing," you ‘remember. But Alice, alone and jinasked, sought out the humiliated, beaten boy, made him come to. dinner with her, took him along to a simple restaurant in Beverly Hills that is called "The Tropics" and spent the whole evening talking to him, telling him that he could set, that he would get his chance, that ‘he did have personality, and that, what-the-heck, his life was ‘still before him, wasn’t it? To-day, star of Hollywood's iggest pictures,. songht after, ‘licnised, Tyrone still, eats, night .after night, at "The Tropics. " ‘The place is ‘quiet and Secluded, not the’ giddiest Hollywood rendezvous, but it giyes Tyrone satisfaction to go there. And when he speaks of Alice, his voice is charged with emotion. He feels that without: her encouragement that black night he would have lost his nerve. completely, and if an actor ever does ounce lose his nerve he’s through. There is, too, the contrasting incident of Tyrone and a Hollywood Glamonr Girl. Around three years ago, ‘TY Tyrone, Wes in Hollywood, ut,

he had no work. Nonetheless, he knew a pretty. girl when he gaw one, and he knew how to. get an introduction, too, and the very moment he did meet the girl he tried to get a date with her. But she was a Glamour Girl and he was a nobody,.so she couldn’t be bothered. However, when Tyrone clicked, the girl sought him and. insinuated that a date with ‘her would be very much in order. But this time Mr. Power was busy, very ‘busy. You see, he has a remembrance of things past. [T is right here that I believe ‘Tyrone is deeply . fortunate. For. all his talent, for all his good looks, there runs through his life a strain of bad luck that.is the best protection he ‘has. The devastating loss of his father forced him into a quick maturity. The fact that he ‘couldn’t get work easily has shown him the awful yalue of money and the vast need of. true friends. Getting his ears slapped down by a director at the very instant when he first clicked in Hollywood undoubtedly kept ‘him from getting the big head. And the fact ‘that several lovely ladies of Hollysrood looked at him »With, eves. like ‘rozen glass before

he was a hit protects him from : those same ladies who now melt beneath his cynical glance. For one of the biggest distortions that has been printed. about this star | is that he is a "perfectly normal young man." He is as un-normal . -and don’t get me wrong: I said un-normal, "not abnormal-as they . come. For he is distinetly wiser than his years and wilier than an Irish |. politician (he’s Irish, anyhow, so} that’s probably where he comes by | the instinct) if, on Ais arrival in stardom, he did. the natural thing and took aut. attractive girls. like Sonja Henie, Loretta Young, . Janet. "Gaynor and numerous others, he now is retrsating just as quietly from the traps that are laid for ‘| his hanitisome feet.. And, believe you- me, those traps. are faid. In. -other towns, . a -peantitul girl , ‘is. pursued wherever she goes, but in Hollywood the reverse is dlevastatingly true. A handsome young man in Hollywood may be able to call nis soul his own, but. that is usually all that escapes. But, at the moment, Ty is quite fanecy-iree and I’d bet my bottom dollar that he has been heartwhole all the time. For, while he is undoubtedly romantic and will talk on and on. about his "ideal |. girl" (keeping her descriptions so j. generalised that she sounds. like no} one on earth), the thing he really. ; LOVES 1S. ACIDE. a, noee