Loretta was doing a lot of thinking about her career. Hollywood had completely changed since she had begun working. The people who created the film business were dying off, being replaced with Wall Street types. It made her sad. Besides, she was almost forty, and her days of portraying ingenues were over. What now?
She and Tom had noticed that a lot of television antennas were popping up on roofs all over Southern California. Then, when they bought their first television set, they saw first hand what a dramatic effect it had on their family. This was a new technology, with possibilities.
Loretta was strongly advised to forget thoughts of entering television. M.G.M.'s Louis B. Mayer was the first to phone. "If you get into TV," he warned, "you'll never be offered another movie script."
"But," Loretta asked, "If I could get one wholesome and positive idea into the mainstream of life each week, wouldn't it be worth any amount of work and risk?"
David Selznick, another studio executive, warned; "It will be at the expense of your motion picture career"
"If my movie career is over," she told Selznick, "so be it."
Next: See You Next Week?
Excerpts © copyright 2000 Joan Wester Anderson. All rights reserved.
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