Medford mail tribune., May 11, 1958, Image 50

"Rose of Washington Square" with Alice
Faye, an actress who didn't scare him.
TYRONE POWER (Continued)
We found something in common: we both had unusual first names
that we'd been teased about as children. v
Lucretia played a role that every man admires she was a good
listener. She didn't ask where I went when I didn't come to see her, or
suggest we go places I couldn't afford. In fact, I never took her out and
never saw her outside the restaurant. Lucretia was not beautiful, or am
bitious, or foolishly romantic, or brilliant, but I kept going back to see
her. She was one of the few women I've met who didn't frighten me a bit!
Two other notable exceptions were actresses Alice Faye and Kath
arine Cornell both of whom helped me immeasurably.
After several seasons in Chicago I moved on to New York, still
broke but determined to crash Broadway. I had with me a letter of
introduction to Miss Cornell, one of the great actresses of our time.
' I went to see her with fear and trembling,
H"-" and found her warm, friendly, and com
pletely disarming. She took me. on as a $30-a-week
understudy, and in 1935 and '36 I
played with her in "Romeo and Juliet" and
in her magnificent production of Shaw's
"Saint Joan." ' -
I had discovered by this time , that some
important actresses refuse to work with sup
porting players of outstanding talent, for fear
of competition. I know leading ladies who
don't allow younger or prettier actresses on
the stage with them. Miss Cornell, on the
contrary, insisted on getting the best player
possible for every part.
My experience with Katharine Cornell
landed me my first film contract. I arrived
in Hollywood as a green youngster of 22. My
first picture assignment was a musical called
"Sing, Baby, Sing," in which I played a
newspaper reporter opposite Alice Faye. In
the cast were veterans like Ted Healy, the
Ritz Brothers, Patsy Kelly, and Adolph
Menjou. When the camera started turning,
these old hands threw the script out the win
dow, ad-libbed dialogue, and cut capers all
over the set. I stood there not knowing what
to do or say. Finally the director took me
aside and suggested I'd better sit this one out
and wait for another picture to come along.
I walked off disgusted, mad at myself and '
at Hollywood. I intended to forget about mo
tion pictures and go back to Broadway. Alice
found me sulking over a cup of coffee in
the studio commissary and asked me to have
supper with her that night.
She gave me a .real pep talk. "You're not a quitter," she said. "You've
got what it takes to go places in pictures."
I argued that I wasn't cut out for musicals. "I think you are," she said.
"Just stick around and I'll prove it to you."
Not long afterward Alice asked to have me play opposite her in "Rose
of Washington Square" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band." They were
two of my earliest box-office hits, and they were both musicals. It all
happened because Alice Faye is a good guy, the kind who gives the other
fellow a break instead of a knock. There's nothing about her to give a
man the jitters.
One of my closest friends is an international airline pilot named Bob
Buck, who lives in Westfield, N. J., with his wife, Jean, and' their two
kids. Bob is away a lot and when he comes home he's often tired. Jean
doesn't bother him with questions and problems when he walks in the
door. She just gets a tasty pot roast out of the oven.
I visit the Bucks often, and their home is a place any man would fly
the ocean to come back to, because Jean is doing her job right. She's
pretty intelligent, but she doesn't spend her time worrying about her
own beauty, or her career, or proving how smart she is. She hasn't time
for romantic dreams or gossip because she's too busy being a good wife.
She doesn't scare me at all, and Bob, I might add, is one friend who
doesn't look enviously at my bachelor penthouse.
The great Katharine Cornell, another ac
tress who helped Power, is seen here with
him in play, "The Dark Is Light Enough."
Family Weekly, May 11, 19S$
11
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