The Girl On The Cover


In January 1927 Olive appeared on the cover of Photoplay magazine. This is the article about her -




Olive in 1927



The Girl On The Cover

Beautiful Olive Borden, a new star rising in the West







Most girls sit around the casting offices of Hollywood for five or ten years waiting to be discovered. Olive Borden has been the most discovered girl in pictures. Somebody is always sighting Olive and making a great big discovery. The newest Olive discoverer is the public, and so big a public is it, that Olive is about to be starred. If Olive's story followed the pattern, the yarn would stress, first, her unusual beauty, then her youth, then her personality, and finally her talent. The big sob would be how, with all that equipment, she had to starve for death for years waiting for the lucky break. But such a story doesn't fit the Borden baby. Olive, born in Richmond, Virginia, entered, at a very early age, the Mount St. Agnes Academy in Baltimore, Maryland. When she graduated, she urged her mother to let her go to Hollywood. She wanted to be an actress, and nothing else. She talked the idea and dreamed the idea until even her mother caught the fever and they left for the West together. There was a revue being put on at the Screen Writers Club a week or so after Olive arrived in Hollywood and that was her first chance.




In A Dressmaker In Paris



Sam Rork saw her in the revue and gave her a small part in "Ponjola". Jack White, the comedian, saw her in "Ponjola", and made her leading woman for his company. Hal Roach saw those comedies and signed her for his organization. Paramount saw the Roach comedies and gave Olive one of the most important roles in "The Dressmaker From Paris". That's the way that girl had to struggle and starve for a year! Two small companies sent for her to do leads in dramatic productions. Even camera men and electricians began discovering her, with the result that Olive screened better and better. Thus Fox heard of her and put her under a long time contract. It took her two pictures at Fox's to come into her own -
"Fig Leaves" and "The Three Bad Men". After that Fox gave her own starring vehicle in "Yellow Fingers". Meanwhile, in both "The Three Bad Men" and "Fig Leaves" Olive had George O'Brien for her leading man. George is very handsome and very charming. Olive isn't married. Neither is George. But Hollywood whispers that they soon will be - to each other.



In Yellow Fingers



With George O'Brien (Courtesy of David Menefee)