One-Day Stars (1932) 🇺🇸

Were these players equipped for one, only one, great  rôle?

by Madeline Glass

The first group includes Barthelmess, Beery, Dressler, Swanson, and a few others who are capable of giving many great and varied performances.

The second group includes Billie Dove, Buddy Rogers, Clara Bow, et al, none of whom can be identified with a single great performance but whose personalities won them tremendous popularity.

And in the third group we have those strange "one-day"-stars who seem to be physically and artistically equipped for one, and only one, great rôle.

Let's have a look at these one-day stars.

Often the single great opportunity comes to them at the beginning of a career and a new star is heralded. In other instances it appears after years of endeavor and we exclaim. "At last!"

But those who achieved fame in a sudden, unexpected burst of artistic merit haven't since duplicated the performance, and for those who triumphed after years of effort the achievement appears to have been their swan song.

These actors, it seems, had one great rôle to play, and. having played it, their store of artistry is unequal to another of like caliber.

Take the case of Lois Moran. Lois will resent being classed as a one-day star, yet her career points to that conclusion.

In what part do you best remember her? Unless you are awfully young, her work in Stella Dallas springs immediately to mind. In this picture, made about six years ago, Lois portrayed a girl from the age of nine to the time of her wedding. She "grew" before one's eyes in a manner that was simply wonderful. The characterization was difficult — and perfect.

That performance won acclaim for Lois and shortly afterward she was starred. But she has never since equaled that first great performance.

Far be it from me to hold a post-mortem over the career of Richard Cromwell. But his short and peculiar professional life offers food for thought.

During 1930, Tol’able David, the fine Hergesheimer story, was disinterred and Hollywood was combed for a youth who could portray the title rôle in such a way that it would stand comparison with the matchless performance given by Richard Barthelmess nine years previous.

Young Cromwell was finally chosen and his work was amazingly fine. He deserved, but didn't get, the Academy award. And what happened? Cromwell was kept idle for eight months and has since been playing featured rôles. Is that day of glory to be his last? I hope not. Cromwell is a fine chap — even if he does drink coffee excessively.

And there was — I say was advisedly — Dorothy Janis, as pretty and dainty a little person as I ever saw. Dorothy had her day of glory and has dropped from view. No one could have been more perfectly cast than she as the half-caste girl who shared honors with Novarro [Ramon Novarro], in The Pagan.

Against the tropical verdure and lovely sunsets of the South Sea Islands, she glowed like a golden lotus flower. But it was months before she received her next assignment, that of the waif in Lummox.

Though her work was adequate in that picture it was by no means sensational, and many months passed before she was given the lead in East of Borneo and again sent across the Pacific to film the picture on authentic locations.

Later the picture was recast and remade on local soil and Dorothy did not appear in even an inch of the finished production.

"Miscast," explains Universal, laconically, though it beats me why they didn't discover their mistake sooner. Anyway, diminutive Dorothy got a lot of foreign travel during her brief career, which is something.

And do you remember "His People" filmed about five years ago? If you saw that perfect picture you have not forgotten George Lewis, who was so utterly captivating as the Jewish lad. It was George's great moment and every one who saw his work predicted a great future for him. On the strength of that one performance Universal signed him to a five-year contract — and then featured him in a series of frothy collegian two-reelers. George might have survived that had he not lacked that adaptability which separates the one-day star from his more versatile brethren.

He has been making routine Spanish versions for months and I doubt that a rôle to compare with that of the lovable Sammy Comminsky will ever come his way. Too bad.

Molly O'Day received her one big opportunity with Barthelmess, in The Patent Leather Kid. Working with this star has put many a beginner on the road to lasting success, but in this case the charm failed to work. Molly had other chances, notably in "Shepherd of the Hills," but that first glowing achievement was never repeated.

To-day she lingers on the fringe of the industry, doing bits, living luxuriously with sister Sally O'Neil, in spite of their recent bankruptcy, and wearing evening gowns which reveal too, too much of Molly's buxom figure.

And there was David Lee, the unforgettable Sonny Boy in Al Jolson's The Singing Fool. For a while Davy was known to more people than are Andrew Mellon and H. G. Wells combined, but comparatively few remember him now.

He, like his brother, Frankie Lee, who created a sensation in "The Miracle Man" thirteen years ago, seems to have been born for one exquisite, perfect rôle, and with the doing of that, his star glory is over. Perhaps in the years to come Davy will again triumph in an unforgettable rôle but such an opportunity has not come the way of Frankie, and it is doubtful if it will come to Sonny Boy.

About eight years ago Tom Terriss made an exquisitely photographed picture called "The Bandolero." Playing the star part, with Renée Adorée as leading lady, was one Manuel Granado, who had recently arrived from the Argentine. On finding Hollywood cluttered with dark young men wearing Latin names and insinuating expressions, Manuel dubbed himself Paul Ellis in the hope of increasing his distinction.

Manuel, or Paul, did a fine job of his first assignment. Critics wrote praise and the fans wrote letters, but for some reason nothing ever came of that excellent debut.

After several years of playing parts that shrank from small to infinitesimal, Manuel disappeared in the jungles of Hollywood. But what a thrill I got out of his one and only starring picture!

So far Arthur Lake has created just one outstanding characterization — Harold Teen. In that rôle he was perfect. Arthur is an odd type, the personification of gangling, self-conscious, likable adolescence. It seems physically impossible for him to develop and mature, and rôles calling for his unique talents are few and far between.

Arthur is a first-class lad, and I wish him well, but I suspect that his one perfect rôle has been played.

The friends of Margaret Mann rejoiced when she won, after years of extra work, the star part in Four Sons. Her acting as the mother in that picture was excellent, and we expected similar rôles to follow. So far they have not, and Miss Mann has to content herself with extra work and bits. But at that it must be gratifying to have had one great rôle.

John Wayne and Don Terry found their one great chance in The Big Trail and Me, Gangster, respectively. Since that one burst of histrionics Wayne has done nothing of consequence, and his future looks none too promising.

As for Terry, in spite of his hit in the gangster picture, he has had no such opportunity since, and recently he went into business in Hollywood. Two lads who were particularly suited to two particular rôles, but who lacked versatility. The list of those who won a day or a moment of fame in pictures, and were then forced back to obscurity, is long — heartbreakingly long.

Yet for some of these I have mentioned there is still hope. Perhaps another great opportunity is just around the corner, and a name which is drifting to oblivion will be again lifted to electrics. Here's hoping!

Yet, in spite of the chance of a comeback such as Hollywood has witnessed — Lionel Barrymore's is one — it seems that certain players are doomed to play one outstanding rôle.

Margaret Mann sprang from obscurity to fame in Four Sons. To-day she plays mere bits.

All Quiet on the Western Front made Lew Ayres famous overnight, but is he as famous to-day?

So far Arthur Lake has created only one outstanding characterization, Harold Teen.

George Lewis flashed into prominence in "His People", and then his career dwindled.

Jetta Goudal has given many brilliant performances but her hit in "The Bright Shawl" was the beginning of an ill-starred career.

Molly O'Day made a hit in "The Patent Leather Kid" and then headed for obscurity.

Though several long and lucrative contracts have come to Lois Moran, she has never equaled her performance in Stella Dallas.

Dorothy Janis was perfect in The Pagan. Where is she now?

Richard Cromwell bids fair to live in memory only as Tol’able David.

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, April 1932