Lita Lopez — A Dream that Vanished (1926) 🇺🇸

The story of how Lita Lopez got her start in pictures is such stuff as idle dreams are made of. A director saw her, and begged her to go to work for him.

But alas, only the start of her career was like that! Soon she was “walking the weary” from casting office to studio, in New York City, facing the grim reality that it is sometimes easier to break into motion pictures than it is to stay in, even if a girl has talent.

She was working in a government office in Porto Rico a few years ago when a magnificent studio was built there and producers from New York came down to make pictures. She did not apply for work; the director sought her out. She foresaw years ahead of pleasant glory and easy money.

When the Porto Rico studios shut down she came to New York, expecting that everything would be easy. But she soon learned that the streets of that city teem with girls of arresting Spanish beauty. Now, after months and months of struggling, she is only just beginning to gain recognition. She played a small part in “Lying Wives,” followed by engagements in “Tin Gods” and “Red Kisses.” And her immediate prospects are promising.

But whatever success is hers, Lita Lopez will never quite forgive the unkind fate that made New York studios grubby, factorylike buildings. For she had looked forward to working always in just such an exquisite, ivy-scented garden as the studio in Porto Rico.

She has found that in New York a player is just a working girl.

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Photo by: Edgar Scott Spargo

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, January 1926