“Can’t Act! Slightly Bald! Also Dances!”
So stated a disappointing Hollywood screen test for an aspiring actor/dancer in 1933. David O. Selznick of MGM, who’d commissioned the test, added in a memo, “I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test.”
It is a good thing that Frederick Austerlitz (also known as Fred Astaire), ignored his enormous ears, baldness, AND his critics. The world came to greatly appreciate the performer. He became widely regarded as the greatest popular-music dancer of all time. His stellar career in stage, film and television spanned 76 years.
The world has not always had much good to say about other gifted people either. In 1919, an editor at the Kansas City Star Newspaper fired an employee because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” The editor might have thought he was right to fire this man. He struggled for work and went bankrupt several times over the ensuing years. However that “unimaginative” ex-employee finally proved he did have just a little imagination. He was Walt Disney, and he founded Disneyland in 1955.
“Unfit for television”
That’s what a TV producer told a young Oprah Winfrey when he fired her as a Baltimore news reporter. It took Oprah a few years doing various forgettable jobs, until she took over the low-rated “AM Chicago” show. That show became “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” It made her a household name- and the richest African-American of the 20th century. Oprah, along with so many others, could have listened to negativity and never realized their potential or dreams.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
So said Thomas Edison about his creation of the light bulb. Edison was not one to dwell on his many failures. Even though he was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive,” Edison was anything BUT unproductive. Starting in 1869, he patented over a thousand inventions, many still in use today in some form (the light bulb, phonograph, motion picture camera, telegraph and telephone).
Albert Einstein altered the world of physics. Yet this slow-starter did not read until he was 7, and failed his university exams, reapplying a year later. Cinematic master Steven Stielberg has grossed billions with his blockbuster movies, but was rejected TWICE by his USC School of Cinematic Arts. Sir James Dyson had 5,126 failed prototypes before he finally hit upon his first working Dyson vacuum. All these talented people had something inside that made them keep on trying. They learned from their mistakes, and plodded on.
So the lesson is to keep moving forward and to not get discouraged and quit. There may be many others who are more talented, more intelligent, more gifted. However, there may not be those that are willing to keep on trying. Even in failure, they learn from their mistakes, and never give up.
By the way, it is said that Fred Astaire framed that negative screen test and put it over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home. It was not just as an “I told you so” against the naysayers that did not see his potential. It was more likely a reminder to never stop working on your goals, despite the obstacles. And to never listen to what the critics say- just learn from them.
Way to go, Fred.
