Ann Rutherford

I started in low-budget westerns with John Wayne and in Gene Autry's first three features. There was no such thing as 12 hours between calls, you just slept faster. I began my career when my future agent spotted a picture of me in the newspaper for a radio show and called to see if I wanted to be in pictures. I was 15 and I'd heard of dirty old men who did that, so I hung up. He called my mother and when I arrived home that night, he was there. He told me that Mascot Studios was in trouble: their leading lady had eloped. He took me there the next day with my mother. I fibbed about my age and signed a contract. Later when he suggested that I join this new union that was going to protect me the rest of my life, I was all for it. And how right he was.