She May be a Baby Star — But It’s a Laugh to Judith Wood (1932) 🇺🇸

September 23, 2024

Two cars skidded on a rainy night — crash! And Judith Wood, gorgeous blonde movie siren, found herself stretched out on a hospital cot surrounded by doctors, nurses and flowers. Gruesome accident? Very! But is Judith down-hearted and blue? On the contrary, being a philosophical soul, she lets her friends do the worrying.

by Hale Horton

“Can’t a girl even break her nose,” she inquires querulously, “without crashing all over the headlines? We just skidded and I landed in the hospital. That’s all. I get a big laugh from those newspaper stories that claim that my face was so badly battered that I had to have it remodeled — and that even now my screen career may be at an end. Ridiculous! My nose was reset, yes. That’s why I’m breathing through my mouth. But in spite of these funny bandages— and they look pretty terrible, don’t they? — the doctor tells me that before so very long my face will heal perfectly, not leaving even a blemish!”

And after a moment of silent reflection Judith bursts out laughing, only to stop short with a painful cry — for mirth comes hard while sporting smashed lips. However, it’s like her to try.

Life to Judith is one big laugh — her laughter alternating between silent, sardonic amusement, sparkling from her eyes, and prodigious, mocking guffaws. And her biggest laugh goes to Hollywood. Even after living here only a comparatively short time and already earning a long-term Paramount contract, winning the honor of being elected a Wampas Baby Star and being made an Honorary Colonel in the American Legion, she considers it all a huge joke! “Hollywood’s swell!” she cries. “It’s so fantastic! It gives you a laugh a minute! I wouldn’t be without it! But as far as treating it seriously goes — phouf!

Never! It doesn’t mean a thing!”

She’s serious about this

Only one thing causes the Colonel’s laughter to die away. A slight to her interrupted art career spells trouble — for even after successful portrayals in nine or ten pictures such as “The Vice Squad,” “Women Love Once,” “The Road To Reno,” “Girls About Town,” and “Working Girls,” there are moments when she says that she is not a movie actress at all. She’s “just an artist on a holiday!”

Born with a penchant for drawing and designing — her father being Merle Johnson, the cartoonist, and her real name, Helen Johnson — she began studying art at Flushing High School, New York City. And after a year in the art department at Skidmore College, she decided to further her career in Paris, being just seventeen at the time. On returning to New York she entered into various kinds of commercial art: department store dress-designing, painting silk screens, drawing advertisements, designing wallpaper, textile designing, and painting Christmas-card ideas.

And only last Fall, when a friend suggested that if she would design his Christmas cards, she could scratch her movie contracts and cock-eyed bank accounts. They’re all just a part of the fantastic life of Hollywood. Especially this business of being elected a Wampas Baby Star.

“It’s all so unimportant!” she’d have you know. “When we go out on a stage for a personal appearance and simper something about being glad to be there, do you think the audience gives a darn? We don’t mean a thing to them! We’re not important enough. After all, Wampas Baby Stars aren’t stars in any sense of the word. They’re simply kids who might — by the grace of God, the public and some miraculous breaks — become stars, sometime, maybe. I think the Wampas is an organization of grand fellows, and I’m not saying that just because they’re all publicity men. Nevertheless, I don’t think being elected a Wampas Baby is anything to get hepped-up about! In fact, it’s dangerous! It’s apt to give a new player the big-head, which in Hollywood spells ruination to a movie career.”

Judith not only avoids the “big-head,” but she actually goes about town panning herself, running herself into the ground, telling people her hips are too big and that her face is funny-looking, and when anyone mentions her unquestionable acting ability she all but laughs outright!

“I always feel they’re soft-soaping me,” she explains, “and for fear they’ll think I actually believe them I go about being disagreeable. As a matter of fact,” she adds thoughtfully, “I wish I weren’t so perverse. If I’m not careful, I’ll talk myself out of ever becoming a star!” Not that it worries her much, for the minute she grows tired of that “artist-on-a-holiday” feeling, she’ll catch the first boat for Paris and continue with her art career. In the meantime, Suh, the Colonel’s having a swell time and a lot of laughs out of being a blamed good movie actress out Hollywood way!