The News And Views

BROADWAY . . . by Mark Barron

NEW YORK (AP)--One thing an actress, and especially a young actress, needs on Broadway is fortitude. She can be nice and pretty and gentle and young, but she has to be a gal who can, to put it politely, "take it on the nose."

If she is a salesgirl or a stenographer she can depend that her job is going to be almost limitless if she makes good in her first trial. But an actress not only goes through the ordeal of making good on her first tryout, but the longevity of her job equally depends upon how long the show will last. She may get a wonderful role, but find three nights later after the opening that all this is discounted by a closing notice posted on the stage bulletin board.

A typical example is actress Kim Hunter, a young actress with charm who is coming along nicely although she has been tossed on her cute and lovely nose a couple of times. And at the same time, she has had a few dozen orchids pinned on her lapel for her co-starring film roles in Paramount's "Anything Can Happen" and 20th Century-Fox's "Deadline U.S.A."

But most of all, Kim says, she's thankful for not crying "quits" when the going was so tough a few seasons ago.

"David O. Selznick dropped my movie option on me," she said, "and I left Hollywood for Broadway. I spent a year and a half of weary and fruitless rounds. I couldn't find a thing either in the theater or in movies or television."

Then, and this should be an encouragement to young actresses, when everything seemed blackest producer Irene Selznick asked her to take the starring role of Stella in "A Street Car Named Desire."

That was in the stage version and she won both the New York Drama Critics' and the Donaldson awards and these helped her win the same screen part for which she won the Motion Picture Academy award as the "best supporting actress."

"I've had some tough breaks and I've had some good breaks," Miss Hunter said. "At last, I think I've solved my problem."