The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 118

1 i attractive or lacking In talent they may have seemed to me." Lillian Albertson actually is as considerate of others ns that statement would lead anyone to believe. As Adela Kogers St. Johns once said of her, "Alwuys the heart shines through." Still, she recommends no more than two dozen tests a year. Miss Alberbon "decided" to be an actress at the age of 19. "I had no great dreams of fame, no burning love for art," she laughs.

"I just realized I had to do something, so I chose The choice, ar lt turned out, was anything but unwise. Her decision came one afternoon when she sneaked into the balcony of the old Alcazar Theater In San Francisco, where her family had moved after the Noblesville years. "The director was telling his cast every move to make, and I decided that anybody could be an actress." Her mother suggested she apply for extra work, and made her a lovely new dress as encouragement. She got the job. But she wasn't destined to be an extra long.

After four weeks, she had enough professional courage to seek a job with a stock company. Her homemade wardrobe was the factor which landed her nothing less than the leading role. "We put on a good show, too," she relates, "in spite of having to rehearse over a little sausage factory." FIVE WEEKS of that particular stock company was enough, so she tackled the leading theater in San Francisco, the Grand Opera House, and her luck held. She was signed as ingenue lead in "A Contented Woman." But she really wasn't until three weeks later when the star left for Broadway and she inherited that position. After 12 weeks in the theater, she was a star, with a fancy contract in pocket.

Broadway made her welcome the next year, but her great triumph didn't come along until "Paid In Full" in 1908. Lillian Albertson became business at the box office, and the show ran two seasons. Her New York career was long and full of successes. "Then, after 20 years of it, 1 had had enough, and returned to California to be a producer," 6he says. Acquiring Western rights to New York hits, she produced them concurrently with the Eastern run, "Hit the Deck," "Lady Be Good," "No, No, Nanette" made her a fortune.

Not to mention "The Desert Song," which cleared the better part of $1,000,000 for its producer. Too, it established a record ycar-and-a-half run which has not been' equaled in California by an operetta. "The bottom fell out wjth the depression. My next show was 'New- and guess what we netted? Twelve thousand dollars. My tinal show was, prophetically, 'The Last Mile Even with Clark Gable in it, it lost as much money as is possible on a one-set show.

That's when I gave up producing," Miss Albertson dis-, gustedly recalls. After a subsequent spell as coach at Paramount, she retired, until RKO beckoned in 1943. To have been so successful in everything she lias attempted acting, producing, writing, coaching Lillian Albertson is surprisingly simple and unassuming. Despite that, however, there is something continental about her, so that all who converse with her absent-mindedly ask themselves, "Now which country did she say she was from?" Only Albertson herself remembers her Indiana background. Lillian Albcrtsen, Nebltsvillcbern actress turned dramatic coach, listens while Barbara Hale and Bill Williams, co-stars in (tKO's "Clay Pigeon," run through pages of script.

Hollywood's "Miss By DAVID MtACAX H- LEK STUDENTS MAY WELL use her as a model, Indiana remembers her as Lillian Albertson and filmdom rates her a top dramatic eoach He LOLLYWOOD'S LOS FEUZ Boulevard became a for she has all the attributes which they will find handy for screen success. All, that is, save one she isn't particularly photogenic. But her voice is warm, her eyes alive, and her personality exuberant. Perhaps they should stop short of complete imitation, though, for she's -a "necklace fiddler" of the first water. Her "kids" seemingly worship her, and usually with reason, for she continually plays both ends against the middle to get better breaks for her -young players.

"Jane Greer is a real pet of mine," "Miss admits, "and you may put me down as saying she will be one of the biggest stars this town has ever seen. She has all the gaiety of Carole Lombard, and the role which will prove it is bound to come along some day." Miss Albertson is, in spite of her stage past, movie--struck. She prefers the screen medium above all, and particularly admired the work of Cary Grant. Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell, and Ingrid Bergman. Only one, Gable, is one of her proteges and he played bits for her for years on the stage before her production of "Last Mile" catapulted him into pictures.

This one-time Hoosier's advice to stage-struck In-dianians and would-be screen starts everywhere Is, "Bi sure you have real talent first. Only God can make an actor. Next to talent, you must have imagination and the power to concentrate. Get all the experience and training you can before tackling Hollywood. But beware of fake drama schools.

If they start teaching you 'surrealism' in acting, grab your hat and your checkbook, and make for the nearest exit." rfe INDIANAPOLIS STAR MAGAZINE elocution, and performed upon the slightest request. She also wore the most beautiful clothes of any little girl in school, for it seems her mother never was lacking in talent either. THE CLOTHES really were just a representation of a beautiful mother-daughter relationship that has continued even to the present. Her mother, who shares the new apartment with her, is now a chipper 87 and, in the language of her daughter, "maddeningly self-sufficient." "Miss as this former Hoosier usually is called at the studio, is the first "barrier" if it is polite to refer to a lady as that which must be passed over by every youngster who aspires to an RKO contract. Their first readings are for her, after they have bvn discovered by a talent scout.

If they are good "Miss recommends screen tests. But if not, their chances are slim indeed. She says though, "When they read, I can't help remembering that I was young once, and terribly frightened; and I like to believe that I have never sent one of them away hurt or humiliated, no matter how un more or less infamous street several seasons ago when James M. Cain pictured the criminal didoes of "Double Indemnity" as having occurred there. Now, however, that famous thoroughfare can be said to be on the road to reputational recovery If It continues to acquire residents of the caliber of its most recent addition.

She's a Hoosier native named Lillian Alberteon, and she'd be a good recommendation for any street. Nowadays, she is most noted as coach for RKO studios, and for having turned out such players as Barbara Hale, Bill Williams, Jane Greer, Paule Croset. She is well known, too, for having written the only authoritative book on "Motion Picture Acting" in print. People on the West Coast who recall when Los Angeles was a legitimate theater town remember her as the outstanding producer of the day. Easterners who remember anything of the Broadway of the early part of this century, recall Lillian Albertson as a top-flight star.

At one thing or another, this transplanted Indian tan always has been outstanding. Classmates at a Noblesville (Ind.) grade school will remember her, perhaps, as a shy little girl who studied 20.