Patricia Avery — From Stenography to Stardom (1927) 🇺🇸

“Why don’t you have a screen test made?”

Friends of Patricia Avery, who was employed as secretary at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, kept asking her this question for nearly a year, but somehow it didn’t seem to have any effect until recently.

And now, Miss Avery is the lucky young lady, still barely twenty, who has made stenographic work a stepping stone to a film career. She is appearing now in Annie Laurie with Lillian Gish. She has the only feminine role of importance outside that of the star, and she is hailed as one of the most important of recent discoveries in official circles of the M.-G.-M. organization.

Until a few months ago, Miss Avery had entertained no particular hopes of an acting career. She was quite happy apparently in attending to the clerical duties of her position as assistant to the art director of the big studio in Culver City. She had charm, refinement, poise,’ and personality — those things which invariably go to make a screen actress — but for some reason or other nobody seemed to notice this — at least, nobody who counted.

John Stahl [John M. Stahl], the director, is the one actually credited with her “discovery.” He took a test of her some months ago, and gave her a chance to do atmosphere in one of his pictures. She continued with her secretarial work, meanwhile. However, she showed so much promise in that picture, that she was put under contract for acting only.

Miss Avery is a third or fourth cousin to John D. Rockefeller. She was born in Boston, and has lived in Hollywood for some time.

Photo by: Clarence Sinclair Bull (1896–1979)

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, January 1927