Sophie Tucker — Sophie Bless Her! (1937) 🇬🇧
One good turn deserves another, says an old adage, but the average person who does good turns has learned never to expect a return. If it does come, it is not the sort that the adage would expect one to look for.
"Appreciation is a word found only in the dictionary," said someone the other day as he laughingly included the above adage in the list of those which should be relegated to the discard. But here is a real true story about a good turn which came after many years and it is a story about two women universally known and loved not only in London and Hollywood but in all parts of the world — Marie Dressler and Sophie Tucker. Sophie told me about it as we sat at luncheon in her lovely home near Laurel Canyon. Incidentally, it used to be Edmund Goulding's and he has rented it to Sophie, but its nine bedrooms are all too few for her family and visiting friends. When she builds, if she does, Sophie's "little place" will have to be about the size of the Savoy!
Sophie's friends are a matter of theatrical history. Absolutely no other artiste in opera, theatre or studio has so many friends and such a variety of them. They rank from the highest to the lowest and she is equally kind to the down-and-out-one-time-star as to her important friends.
Sometimes this kind heart of hers gets Sophie into all sorts of troubles. Its fame is so widespread that it has brought upon her a number of leeches who are persistent in their efforts to secure assistance (usually of the pecuniary sort).
She has been obliged to call a halt to many demands of this type. The day I visited her, she was signing some hundreds of letters to friends and fellow-players asking them to contribute to the cause of the orphan children in Palestine. Her first pound came from a man who had long been out of work and whom she had — I happened to know — helped out frequently. Sophie did not ask him to contribute. He gave it unsolicited. I fancy that she had also been instrumental in securing an engagement for him; Sophie does things like that.
Although I had often seen her on the stage, Sophie Tucker and I met for the first time in London when she was rehearsing Follow a Star. I had ample opportunity to judge of her popularity then and since.
For instance, when the train drew into Manchester for the show's tryout, an old music hall comedian came down in the rain to meet and bid his friend welcome to Manchester. He wanted nothing but to shake Sophie's hand and tell her how good it was to see her again.
Some of my London friends have written asking me how Sophie Tucker is standing Hollywood. It is not necessary to tell those who know her intimately that she is unchanged and will always continue to be unspoiled no matter how great a favourite she may become. She is too genuine to change.
But to return to the story of Marie Dressler and Sophie.
Many years ago, when Sophie was a "nobody," she met the great Marie Dressler, then at the height of fame, in London. It was at a large affair in Marie's honour with Sophie one of many guests. Just a casual meeting, a handshake and a few words, but the memory of that meeting lasted through many years.
It was not long after her London triumphs that Marie Dressler had a stretch of bad luck. Her play failed on Broadway, she did not click in variety, and the films would have none of her.
Finally her agent secured a spot for her as Master of Ceremonies on the Hotel Walton Roof, Philadelphia. Marie had no idea what was expected of her, yet she was in dire need of an engagement of some sort. She picked up a paper and read that Sophie was heading the bill at Keith's. She sent her an "S.O.S." Everyone who knows Sophie could anticipate her reply.
As fast as she could get to the Walton, she visited Marie and arranged to show her the way an M.C. should act. The opening night Sophie rushed in costume and make-up from her theatre and took charge of the roof show with Marie looking on. Every night that week she stood by helping and making suggestions.
The engagement went over fairly well, but all Sophie's instructions could not make a nightclub artiste out of Marie. She had not the style, the temperament, nor the ability to wear clothes well and as for singing and dancing, so essential — it was almost nil and so she faded out of the picture within a few short weeks.
Just a little later came success and fortune in the movies.
When Marie Dressler died, every character woman in the studio and theatre, as well as many would-be character women, hoped fervently to succeed her in the films.
Tests and tests were made and a number of women tried out but somehow they could never approach in a small degree Miss Dressler' s technique on the screen. Something was missing and the M.G.M. executives tried in vain to find out what it was.
Last year Sophie Tucker played an engagement at the Trocadero in Hollywood and was asked to make a test at the studio. Several days were spent there but nothing came of it so she went back to New York, a bit disappointed.
In a few weeks Louis B. Mayer wired her to come on for a role in “Broadway Melody of 1937.” This was in the nature of a real tryout for the Marie Dressler roles and Sophie's success lead to the signing of a nice long contract. More than that, her first starring picture, work on which begins in a few weeks, is the story of a real incident in the life of Marie Dressler, written for the screen by Frances Marion.
This is the gist of Molly, Bless Her. It tells of a period in Marie Dressler's career (probably about the same time as the Master of Ceremonies episode) when she was particularly up against it and desperately in need of work.
She lived in a theatrical boarding-house off Broadway with a happy-go-lucky group of other players, equally unsuccessful. If one secured an engagement, he or she shared the proceeds of the pay envelope with the others and they all tried in every way to cheer each other up.
Summer was approaching with no shows in prospect and their spirits were particularly low. A friend of Marie's on Long Island offered her a home, but it would be impossible to make the rounds of offices looking for work when car fare was so heavy.
At last she told this friend that she had made up her mind to get whatever she could to do, and asked her to stand as reference. So she went to the employment agencies and was one day offered a position as housekeeper. Marie was ready to accept it.
The man who was hiring her told of his vast estate and many servants which she was to supervise and then asked suddenly "And how do you happen to be looking for work of this kind?" Marie explained about the peculiarities of the theatre and the man laughed. It seems he had been a chorus boy in one of her shows who had made good in pictures.
He was on the top of the wave and offered Marie money to carry her over. "But I'd rather have the job," she said. She took the place for the summer and eventually replaced his servants with her pals from the theatrical boarding-house and they had a grand time all the summer. Good little story and one which should fit Sophie like the proverbial glove.
Sophie, bless her, deserves all the good luck in the world and her many friends in London and the States think it is coming to her.
Sophie Tucker — thousands of theatre goers know that face and ample figure, but her real screen career is just beginning.
Collection: Picturegoer Magazine, July 1937