Hollywood Starlet (1932-1935)
When the starry-eyed Miss Fitzpatrick arrived in Hollywood, CA, in 1932, she was determined to make something of her newfound fame. Brought out to the studio thanks to the "Panther Woman" contest, she went in for a screen test with Gary Cooper and felt fairly confident about her performance. Despite her confidence, she discovered she did not win the title. However, this did not slow Fitzpatrick down. Paramount was impressed with her talent and offered her a standard contract for newcomers. Keenly aware that film studios were looking for tall, dark-haired actresses, she ended up in Paramount's office on a mission. "I floored them by coming in by myself and asking to negotiate it," Patrick told James Bawden for Film in Review, "I said I must have $75 a week to start, not $50." Fitzpatrick also requested no "cheesecake stills" and blacked out other contractual requirements. Her negotiation skills paid off, and she officially became a Paramount Pictures starlet. The studio quickly gave her a new stage name, Gail Patrick, and the "Hollywood treatment." In her first few months at the studio, she mainly starred uncredited in background roles while they molded her to their liking. "I was groomed, given speech lessons to lose my Southern 'r', and posed in hundreds of stills," Patrick later told interviewers. Patrick described herself as "shanty Irish" when she arrived in Hollywood, and was sad she had to drop her Irish surname, Fitzpatrick. She admitted to feeling tall, lanky, and terrified on set, which she was certain made her seem more haughty than she would have preferred.
Gail Patrick in an early Paramount
test shoot
(1933)
Fredric March (L) and Gail Patrick (R) in Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Joan Crawford (L) and Gail Patrick (R) in No More Ladies (1935)
Gail Patrick (second row, second from left) pictured with the winners of Paramount's "Proteges" contest
By 1935, Gail Patrick had a steady career in acting, appearing in over a dozen films in less than two years. Patrick quickly established her on-screen persona as she often played various wealthy rivals, ex-wives, ex-girlfriends, or ambitious socialites. These roles may not have matched Patrick's demeanor off-screen, but they successfully launched her into more notable films with big-name stars. One of her most notable early roles was in Death Takes a Holiday (1934) opposite Fredric March, Kent Taylor, and Katharine Alexander. The film, directed by the well-known Mitchell Leisen, gave Patrick the confidence she needed to act with more prominent names in the industry. She discussed how Fredric March helped her find herself while acting on set by saying, "He was very kind and so smooth as an actor, I lost some of my fright when with him." Thanks to the film, she caught the attention of Joan Crawford, who insisted she star in her next film, No More Ladies (1935). Patrick once reflected on this moment by sharing how Crawford went out of her way to make her role stand out by offering her wardrobe, stylist, and lighting tips for the film. "Paramount began to realize they had an emerging player on the lot," Patrick told James Bawden in 1979, "At 19 I was being cast as 35-year olds complete with black strands and pearls. At 35, I was still playing those parts."
In 1935, Paramount studio held a contest for its newcomers and selected a group of "Proteges" out of 280 names. Gail Patrick, along with fellow southerner Ann Sheridan, were both lucky enough to make the list. The two received the title of "six girls under contract most likely to succeed." From 1933-1935, Gail Patrick's career blossomed from an unexpected opportunity to a growing presence in Hollywood. These early roles would shape her into the established "other woman" on screen that we remember her for today.