The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 53

DES MOINES, SEPTEMBER 24, 1941 SECTION 8. i i i 1 I 1 i4 i I i 1 t. DIPREZ JPJfJE 44 vt '4 M5 -v. 'rr. irv: 4 1 i v-- -i tf Mi iak A' If V- V-7X "7-17J-' r.

From Misery to Marquee, From Pawnshop to Penthouse Is Her Hollywood Story HOLLYWOOD "Down to Gehenna or up to the throne." That's the way it goes in this legendary land of lotus lovers. Ask 23-year-old June Duprez, who took out of hock last month a necklace her father gave to her on her sixteenth birthday; June Duprez, who was a shining star for Alexander Korda in 1940, was almost completely destitute only two years later and today is Cary Grant's romantic leading lady in one of the season's biggest pictures, the screen version of Richard Llewellyn's novel, "None But the Lonely Heart." June Duprez knows all about that lonely-heart business. The scars are still pretty deep in her own cardiac region. But she's reclaiming from Uncle Moc more of her lost jewels next week, nhso her piano; the piano on which, when times were tough, she composed "I Woke Up and Started Dreaming." It's a darn good song, too, bought, published and now being plugged on the radio by Bing Crosby's own music company. New Blonde June Duprez is a blonde; that is, she's the blond love potion in Cary Grant's current screen life.

But she was born with tresses (or acquired them soon thereafter) as dark and shining as a polished lump of anthracite born in London, the black-haired daughter of the American comedian, Fred Duprez. At 17, June turned her shapely back on Loudon finishing schools, also a possible career as a gifted concert pianist, to follow her none-too-willing Dad into the theater. The girl with the yellow-green eyes tackled the Coventry Repertoire company, and threw it for a loss. Eight months after her first stage part, she was the tops in British films. Alexander Korda signed her for the feminine lead in "Four Feathers," then starred her as the beautiful Oriental princess in his massive technicolor production, "The Thief of Bagdad." Now, "The Thief of Bagdad" was started in England, and completed in America at the Grand Canyon, where the technicolor cameras could do full justice to the scenic beauty.

As a keen student of his own production, the astute Mister Korda was aware that there are thieves in Hollywood as well as in Bagdad. Box-Office Smash So, to protect himself from the possible theft of a valuable brunet property, the Englishman brought June Duprez to this country under personal contract. "The Thief" was a box-office smash and Korda, having big plans at the time to establish his own company in Hollywood, hustled June to the film colony. There American producers clamored for the stellar services of the Bagdad princess. They offered fat, juicy, tempting sums, but they yelled in vain.

Korda refused flatly to lend her out. Korda's plans failed to jeli, and he returned a year later to England. June; being an American girl despite her early English upbringing, preferred to stay here. Also, her father had died shortly before she waved farewell to the white cliffs of Dover, and her mother had accompanied her to America. By now there were no offers, for producers tvith typical Hollywood single-sight, visioned her only as a definite exotic Oriental type.

The war was on. June and her mother couldn't get their money out of England. One by one, the Duprez jewels vanished from the Duprez dressing tables. June scraped up enough money on them to send her mother to Australia where she, at least, could live in comfort on the family funds from Britain. Discouraged Soon afterward, Mrs.

Duprez died there, leaving a very discouraged and parentless, not to say penniless, lassie in Hollywood. Months passed and the lonely actress managed to live by working occasionally in a North Hollywood store where she had sold some of her keepsakes. Ironic, that word keepsakes, eh? And along came a film part, now and then, too. But how few and far between, how lowly and insignificant! One was in a Frank Buck jungle thriller. Another was that of an Oriental menace in a serial.

Two others were two-day roles in six-day pictures. Early this year, June Duprez reached the end of her rope. An actress with less courage probably would have used the rope to hang herself. Instead, June decided to enlist in some sort of overseas service. So she called Nigel Bruce and his wife, knowing their daughter was in the Canadian Air Force Auxiliary.

Mrs. Bruce intuitively sensed misery in the telephone call, and virtually dragged June into the Bruce home to dwell in the absent daughter's bedroom. And then RKO began casting for the role of Ada, blond cashier of the Fun Fair, who becomes Cary Grant's first real love in "None But the Lonely Heart." Grant met June Duprez at the Bruce home, suggested her for a minor role. Director Clifford Odets had a better idea; he tested her for the feminine lead Grant kindly stayed after the day's work (scenes between Cary and Ethel Barrymore already were being filmed) and made the test with her. Hardly had she completed this powerful role in "None But the Lonely Heart" when RKO slapped a long-term contract before her.

She signed, and was immediately cast as co-star with John Loder in "The Brighton Strangler." 'June Duprez first starred In Korda's "The Thief of Bagdad." i -r 5 .4 'v7 i i ri 7 mmm 5r4- K'-r V'fc A 77 J- 3 A Art. 4 3 p7.77, Bi fi Fn in Mir ifltfifuri'i if 7i vol' u'lfjCB Tn'i fi im June and Michael St. Angel in a scene from "The Brighton Strangler." June with Cary Grant..