Anita Page

There is only one person in Hollywood who doesn't marvel at Anita Page's rise on the silver screen. That individual happens to be Mrs. Moreno Pomares, Anita's mother.

With Anita's fan mail now pouring in at an astonishing rate, her producers are laying plans for a day not far away when she will be announced as a full-fledged star. And this in less than two years' time.

"Sensational" is the word Movietown uses to describe the career of Anita Page.But~ "I'm not the least bit surprised at the way Anita has gone to the top," explains Mrs.Pomares. "She always gets what she goes after. When she was fourteen, and we had hopes that some day she would be an artist, because she had a knack for drawing, she calmly informed us that she intended to go on the screen. We made the mistake of not taking her seriously at the time, for it wasn't long before we discovered that all her thoughts were in the general direction of Hollywood.

"Anita has always been that way~ever since she was a tiny baby. If she wanted a thing she just stirred up all the determination within her and went after it. If she failed the first time, she kept trying until she succeeded. She's not the sort who takes things as she finds them and lets go at that" says Mother Pomares. "When she wants anything, she works out in her mind a well- organized plan of just how and when she is going to accomplish her goal. That's the way she handled her entrance into films."

Despite that Anita was born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, things haven't come easily for this young lady from Murray Hill, Flushing.That's because she usually wanted things money couldn't buy. When she found that it required a considerable outlay of money to make the trip to Hollywood, and finance one's self until the studio gates were opened to her, she canvassed the casting agencies of New York until she landed a "bit" in the initial production of a small independant producing concern. "This idea that the world owes you something, is all wrong. You're entitled to what you work to obtain; you get what you go after." That, in brief, is the philosophy of Anita Page. Anita, determined to carve a name for herself on the screen, made the rounds of casting offices while still attending Washington Irving High School and took dancing lessons from Martha Graham and studied acting with John Murray Anderson. Finally, after many heartbraking refusals, Anita was introduced to Pathe by John Robert Powers. Kenilworth Co. an independant producing organization, about to make its first picture,gave her a small part. Her director decided he had a "find". Here was sheer beauty~ plus ability. Anita was given a long term contract and cast into a second picture 'Beach Nuts' for the company. Then it was announced that the Kenilworth would transfer its activities to Hollywood. Anita,her mother and little brother were ordered to prepare for the journey and arrangements were made for meeting the other players including actress Suzanne Hughes and executives in Chicago.

Anita's big chance had come!

But when Chicago was reached, they were summoned to the hotel suite occupied by the general manager. There they were to meet the president of the corporation. "Mr Thaw, this is your new star," said the manager as he presented Anita to his chief. Then Mrs Pomares was introduced. They chatted for a few minutes, before Anita and her mother departed for their own quarters to prepare for the second lap of the westward journey. As the door to Thaw's room closed behind them, Mrs Pomares seized her daughter by the arm. "Heavens," she exclaimed. "Do you know who that man is?" "No," replied Anita, puzzled over her mother's reaction. "Why,that's Harry K.Thaw, the man who killed Stanford White."

"It wasn't the most pleasant journey I ever took from that point on, but I was determined to make the best of it," Anita said as she revealed for the first time the inside story of her association with Thaw. "Before we left Chicago, the papers all over the country published the story of Harry Thaw's ownership of the company that had hired me, and told that he was taking Suzanne Hughes and me to Hollywood to dispose of our contracts to some of the bigger producers. "Everybody on the train had us spotted and seemed to be waiting to get a look at us as we boarded our Pullman. Mother and I remained in our compartment most of the time. But the trip west was nothing compared to what we suffered after reaching Hollywood. Everywhere we went people stared and stared. After a few days on the coast, Mr.Thaw decided to return to New York, for he had been unable to get a hearing with the producers either for the purpose of showing them the two pictured already made by his company, or to dispose of the contracts he held on Miss Hughes and myself. It was then that I decided that we would not return to the east regardless of the cost. There was just one thing to do, as I could see it. I went to Mr.Thaw and told him that I would not go back with him. I told him that I intended to stay in Hollywood and get into one of the big studios if it took the rest of my life to accomplish it" Mrs Pomares found an attorney to free Anita from her contract. "I think that was the biggest moment in my life, even bigger than the news from M.G.M that they had decided to cast me as William Haines' leading woman in my very first job for them." Freed from the Thaw ties Anita met up with an old friend from the East coast, actress Betty Bronson.

Betty introduced Anita to an agent, Harvey Pugh who got her a screen test at Paramount, Anita was over at M.G.M collecting her wardrobe for the screen test at Paramount when she was rushed off for a screen test with director Sam Wood. M.G.M offered Anita a contract to play opposite William Haines in Telling the World. Two hours after she had signed, she received word from Paramount that a contract was awaiting her signature there. "Mother was afraid I would never never get anywhere in Hollywood, after it was discovered that I was one of the two girls who had worked for Harry Thaw, but I never doubted for a moment that I ould get a job. 'I am perfectly innocent of the whole affair' I told her, 'so why should the producers hold it against me?' But mother just went on worrying and nothing I could say would convince her until I showed her that signed contract. "Once I started to work, everyone was so perfectly wonderful to me that I just couldn't help making good. In my first picture, Billy Haines gave me every assistance possibe -and every oppurtunity. I think he's just wonderful. Then Sam Woods, Harry Beaumont and Mal St.Clair, three of the first directors for whom I worked, went out of their way to make an actress out of me. They were so patient when I made mistakes and their advice was so helpful to a beginner, that I will never forget them."

Anita, who has had an oppurtunity to display her talents at both comedy and emotional acting, says she prefers the latter. Some day, she hopes to be hailed as "the best dramatic actress on the screen." That's her next goal. She doesn't want anymore "bad girl" parts such as she had in Our Dancing Daughters however.

"My fans seem like old friends to me," explains Anita, "and when their letters arrive protesting against a certain type of role in which I am cast, it hurts to have to go on against their wishes." To be successful on the screen, one must live the character one plays, Anita believes. "When you can do that, you can put your teeth into the part and your future is assured," she declared. "That's why I wasn't satisfied with my work in Our Dancing Daughters . I couldn't get myself into the swing of such a character. "That's why they rewrote my role in Our Modern Maidens, and it pleased me very much. I did far better in the sequel as a result."

Anita is one maiden in Hollywood who can say she has honestly never been in love. "Ever since I decided that I wanted to be a movie star, I have dodged romance," said Anita. "Love and a career don't fit in together. I have no 'boy friend' and I do not intend to have one until I am ready to step down and give up all thought of pictures. "The life of a screen star is short at the best, and when my time is ended I shall fall in love with some nice young man who has never been inside a studio. Then I'll settle down to domestic bliss and raise children. "But while I'm on the screen,my every moment will be devoted to it. There will be no time for love." Anita is indeed devoting alot of time to the screen, if Cupid can be deterred by anything so prosaic. Following the completion of Caught Short and Our Blushing Brides at M.G.M, she hurried over to Universal where she appeared in The Little Accident with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Then back to M.G.M again, where she is under contract, to give a very fine performance in War Nurse , and now she is at the same studio working on Sidewalks of New York, Buster Keaton's latest comedy.

I had sought out Anita on the set of Sidewalks of New York. "Too busy to talk to you now," she informed me, "but come up to the house tonight." There I found the "marvel" of the films ensconced in a newly furnished apartment. A family council was in session on the matter of hiring an assisstant to aid Papa Pomares in handling Anita's fan mail. Mother, her fingers busy with a needle that was converting a piece of satin into a new afternoon frock for Anita, was holding forth. "No," she was telling her daughter, "I can pitch in and help Dad until it increases some more. If we do it ourselves we will know it is done right." "Maybe when I get to be as important as Gloria Swanson, I'll have to have a maid and a chauffeur and a secretary," Anita confided.

But there's no maybe about it in the minds of those who know this daughter of the Pomares.

Anita Page already is "important" in the eyes of Hollywood.