Evelyn Pierce — Another Newcomer (1925) 🇺🇸

We have heard the cheese-and-cracker story, and other variations of film actresses’ early struggles, but Evelyn Pierce’s is, at least, novel. For her most poignant recollection of her first hungry months in Hollywood is of boiling the same coffee grounds for a week!

Evelyn’s father wanted her to learn to cook and play the piano, as other nice girls at home did, but this ambitious Texas Miss was not blind to the fact that film stars wore gorgeous clothes and jewels and did not have to spend lives of drudgery over the kitchen range. Her mirror replied that she was pretty, and she knew that she could dance and had a graceful figure.

So, armored with self-confidence and a letter of introduction from an El Paso movie school promoter, Evelyn set out to storm the citadel of filmdom. Her pilgrimage in search of fame almost proved a wild-goose chase. The letter was of no value and the self-confidence soon evaporated.

Extra work and teaching interpretative dancing to a few children earned her an average of sixteen dollars a week, enough to sustain her until Bob Mclntyre [Robert Mclntyre] of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, scouting for promising talent, astonished her by presenting her with a contract. Following minor roles, she was given a real opportunity in “Escape.”

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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, June 1925