Cora Sue Collins — Head of the Family (1934) 🇺🇸

September 21, 2024

I first met Cora Sue on the Unexpected Father set, where her work fascinated me. She was reveling in it. “When does my scene come?” she kept asking. When her scene did come the director took her on his knee.

by Jack Jamison

“Now, here’s what I want you to do, darling,” he said. “You’re lying in that bed, asleep. Daddy Slim and Aunt ZaSu come in and talk together about you. You lie still as a mouse. Then they come over to the bed and Daddy Slim pats your head. Then he talks some more. And then you open your eyes, sit up, and put your arms around his neck.”

When he put her down, Cora Sue was jumping from one foot to the other, so eager was she to try it. Laughing, she dodged her mother and ran to the bed. Slim Summerville and ZaSu Pitts went into their “business.” Cora Sue went into hers.

“No retake!” called Thornton Freeland. “Perfect the first time.”

How does she do it? What is the secret behind this astonishing baby? Mrs. Collins understands it no more than you or I. She can tell you she felt she had a child different from other babies when Cora Sue was three days old. She can tell you that after the same length of time, the baby would turn her head to listen if anybody played the piano. And she can tell you that she has always felt that her daughter would be an actress. But that is all she knows. However, there is a story behind Cora Sue!

The family lived in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Mr. Collins was a salesman for a hosiery company. There is no use in hurting anybody, so let us say merely that their home life was unhappy. Mrs. Collins wanted to take Cora Sue to Hollywood. There was no money. However, maybe the hosiery company, which owed Mr. Collins back salary, would advance the funds for the trip. It was a gamble, but she got $100. On the money, the three went to Hollywood, riding in day coaches.

Their only chance of more money lay in a sample-case which an executive at the mills had handed to the mother with the check. Perhaps she would be able to sell stockings here and there. She sold a few on the train.

They arrived in Hollywood with $5, enough to pay the deposit on a tiny apartment. Cora Sue needed a doctor. There was no money for food. None came from the father in West Virginia. A theater manager in Clarksburg failed to send a letter of introduction to one of the studios. And, now that she was within reach of the studios, Mrs. Collins didn’t know how to get Cora Sue an interview.

That is the sort of predicament which ends with a caption in a newspaper: “Mother and babies found dead in apartment. Failure to find work the reason.” Luckily, in this case, it didn’t happen. Mr. and Mrs. Pat O’Brien met the little girl, fell in love with her and gave her pretty dresses. Then Nancy Smith, a top-notch publicity woman, ran across the family and volunteered her services. When Cora Sue finally got her “break,” it came through a stranger. A year after Mrs. Collins had come to Hollywood, she was standing on the Boulevard one day with Cora Sue. A woman touched her arm and asked, “Is the little girl in pictures?”

Mrs. Collins confessed that was why she had come to California.

“Wait a minute,” said the woman. Stepping into a drugstore, she telephoned Alice Calhoun. In a few days Cora Sue had an agent. And, within a few more, he had given her a chance at a part. Mrs. Collins was selling stockings when the call from the studio came, and the little girl had her first interview with a casting director alone. She vamped him shamelessly! And got the part.

And, of course, then other casting directors saw her on the screen — and other offers came.

Not that all these tales you hear of Hollywood’s rich rewards are true. No. Cora Sue still lives in a tiny apartment and rides on street cars. But they’re happy, that family. Cora Sue chatters of the day she will buy a home for her mama, a course at an art school for her sister and a trip to Europe for all of them. Six years old, she answers her fan mail herself, sitting at her own desk and using her own fountain pen. She has a kitten named Cuddles and a boy friend who lives next door. But, though romance is all very well, she has her career to think of, Cora Sue feels.

“Well, goodbye,” she says abruptly to her beau. “I have a call in the morning and must get my sleep.”

All of which tells you that she’s a sweet lamb. But which does not tell you where she gets her astounding ability. As for that, there’s no telling. She’s a born actress, that’s all there is to it, I guess.