Inside Hol lywood By DOROTHY CLARK HASKIN
Fifth of Six Installments
Dorothy Clark Haskin was brought up on the stage as a toe dancer and dramatic actress. Her mother dabbled in cults, in cluding Christian Science. In none of these did Mrs. Clark find contentment of mind. One day she shot herself. Dorothy, in her grief, quit the stage and began asking the question, “ Where is my mother?” She asked the Christian Scien tists, the Catholics, the Spiritualists and others. Attending a week-day Bible class she found the Lord Jesus as her personal Saviour. An Actress at Biola a ^HERE is so much to know about the Bible. How can I ever learn all these people know?” I used to think as I glanced over the congrega tion on Sunday mornings. At a Wednes day evening meeting, several of the young peeple testified, “I am going to Biola to study the Bible.” “ That is what I need to do,” I real ized. But going did not seem possible. It was during the depression and my hus band did not feel that a married woman needed to return to school. This typi cally masculine attitude was “ You have enough to do caring for the home.” But I prayed. At a women’s missionary meeting, Mrs. Irwin, a friendly, well-dressed woman invited, “ I’m having a prayer meeting at my home Saturday morning. Won’t you come?” I quailed. I had never prayed aloud in front of anyone and the idea fright ened me. Because I hesitated, she per sisted, “ And stay and have lunch with me.” She was so gracious as to invite me to lunch that I felt I must accept. Never theless it was with apprehension that I drove to her home in Beverly Hills on Saturday morning. I need not have wor ried for like most Christians she used the term “prayer meeting” loosely. It was actually a Bible class with Mrs. Titus teaching Isaiah. I enjoyed the lesson and, after the other women left, ate lunch with Mrs. Irwin. We discussed my conversion, the news that Marguerite Goodner was go ing to China as a missionary and then, Mrs. Irwin remarked, “ It’s wonderful JUNE, 1 9 5 2
for these girls to go to China, but I’d like to put my money in someone in whom I could see the results. Why don’t you go to Bible school?” “ I’d like to,” I gulped. And that casu- ally, she agreed to buy me a Weymouth translation of the Bible, pay the ten dollar registration fee and give me a dollar a week for my car fare.
dollar. It was humiliating. I who had earned hundreds of dollars a week now had to be obsequious for a dollar. One week she forgot to give it to me. My husband supplied the money, but cau tioned, “ If she forgets again, you may not be able to continue.” I prayed, and the next Sunday she said, “ It is too easy for me to forget. Here is money for a month.” I could have caught the bus within half a block from my home but I had heard of some girls from the church who were driving to Biola, so I decided to go with them instead, give them the dollar, and walk a mile in order to do so. There were four girls including Dor othy Goodner (now Mrs Clyde Kenne dy) and Grace Murray (now Mrs Rudy Atwood). This was the closest I had ever come to Christians and my training had made me critical of them. But though I watched the girls closely none of them ever did one thing to which I could ob ject. Biola opened up a new world to me from an educational standpoint. Before I had studied mainly the so-called arts— dancing, dramatics, music, but at Biola, though all the classes were founded on the Bible, there were many other inter esting subjects related to it. There were English classes in which nouns and verbs were studied from the Bible. There was a weekly missionary speaker who told of world conditions. There was church history which related the history of the world previous to the coming of Christ. There was geography with Jerusalem at the center. How dumb I was! One of my first as signments in English was to write a composition telling the story of the first chapter of Daniel. I read of the children of Judah (v. 6). Judah sounded like a girl’s name to me, like Julia, so I wrote of their mother Judah. The theme was returned with the terse comment, “ We do not change the facts of Scripture.” I wondered what fact I had changed! Even then my talent for writing was evident and Dr. lone Lowman used to encourage me to write but no informa tion was given the students regarding the many and varied Christian publica tions. Lacking direction, I did not know what to write. Page Seventeen
Dorothy Clark Haskin at Biola The semester had begun but I was allowed to attend classes with the un derstanding that I was only a “ special” until the school heard from my refer ences. It was not until some years later that Miss Mabel Culter, then Dean of Women; told how dubious she and other members of the faculty had been about permitting this ex-actress to attend Bi ola. What a shock it would have been to my Christian growth if they had re fused ! I would have remembered the many times that mother had told me Christians were narrow, and bigoted. Miss Culter called me into her office and cautioned, “ I don’t think it would be advisable for you to discuss your former career with the other girls.” “ I’m not proud of it,” I answered, thinking of the low sex standards of theatrical people. Apparently my answer suited Miss Culter for I was accepted as a student. It was not easy for me to attend. Each Sunday, after the morning serv ices, I had to go around to the side en trance of the church where Mrs. Irwin came out and wait until she gave the
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