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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1957)
34 PASADENA PLAYHOUSE: (3 cran ad Do ax? tHhio S'O'cacrs Gilmor Brown By JOSEPH STOCKER 'ant to be a movie star? This is no guarantee, but your best bet may be the Pasadena Playhouse in California. The largest dramatic school in the nation, it has given a start to dozens of Hollywood stars. One of filmdom's early finds at the Playhouse was a young fellow from Georgia named Randolph Scott. He had come hoping to lose his drawl. But Hollywood took him, drawl and all, and made him a horse-opera hero. Another Playhouse product is William Holden. He was a junior-college student in Pasadena doing amateur theatricals at the Playhouse when Columbia was casting Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy." Columbia's Harry Cohn saw Holden and said, "There's our Golden Boy." Holden, in due time, became an Academy Award winner and one of Hollywood's most glittering "golden boys." Others following the Playhouse route to fame have included Victor Mature, Dana Andrews, Eleanor Parker, Louise Albritton, Joyce McKenzie (she was selling tickets in the Playhouse box office when a Hollywood scout spotted her), Robert Preston, Victor Jory, Edgar Buchanan, Marilyn Maxwell, Lloyd Nolan, and Wayne Morris. The prime mover in the development of this extraordinary talent factory is a tall, urbane man named Gilmor Brown. Under his guidance, the Playhouse has grown from shaky beginnings 39 years ago in a Pasadena burlesque house to a $1,000,000 organization. Its greatest value, however, is the training and encouragement it gives young Americans who hope to star on our stage and screen. Newcomers get a chance to work with ex perts like Billie Burke (left) in first-run plays that attract major audiences. Appearing before the footlights is only part of the training, so students also learn how to design and construct a set. The Playhouse has a $70,000 costume department, an extensive library, and four stages for "classrooms." WEI3;n vast fkl V " The Playhouse, a burlesque theater 39 yearj ago, is now a $1,000,000 or ganization. Some 250 students study the drama in palm-lined surroundings and hope that some Hollywood producer will notice their next performance. The Pasadena Playhouse has trained such film stars as Louise Albritton (above) and Academy Award winner Bill Holden. Family Weekly, October 13, 1957
