Northwest History. Alaska. Feature Articles.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Eskimo; Ray Mala; the North; motion-picture actor; civilized communities; the United States; the Arctic Circle; Seattle; Hollywood; Igloo; Robinson Crusoe; Candle; Alaska; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Mongolian Emperor; Raymond Cannon; traffic tag; the native; South Sea Islands; Call of Wild; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Arctic; Pacific; eskimo*; walrus*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91231

Mala, Eskimo Film Actor, Does Not Long For North! Mala, Eskimo Film Actor, Does NOT Long for North! Shed no tears for the "stifling of the Arctic spirit" of Mala, the Eskimo who came out of the North and became a motion-picture actor. He has no wish to "commune" again with a nature whose fingers are long strips of ice. Ten years of living in highly civilized communities of the United States have made Mala urbane. He has no longing to hunt and fish along the rim of the Arctic Circle again. He doesn't want to go back to the snow. Mala stood at a Seattle cigar stand today and shook dice for his cigarettes. His tan shoes were well shined. His double-breasted gray suit was striped in red and chalk white. There was a definite Hollywood flair to the set of his hat. Not Mala, but Ttay' This man wasn't Mala, the natural hero of "Eskimo," and "Igloo," the simple soul of "Robinson Crusoe" and "Last of the Pagans." He was Ray Mala. Ray to the stars of Hollywood, as he was Ray to the whites of Candle, Alaska, where he was born. Candle, near the Arctic Circle and about seventy-five miles south of Kotzebue, holds no illusions for Mala. 'They have about 100 inhabitants," said Mala, with a very town-and-country air of amuse-men. "When they have 100 people up there, they're having a boom." Ten "years in Hollywood, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle— they can make a man as civilized | as though he had been born there and reared on a patent milk bottle, instead of teething on a bit of walrus tusk. "Great story," said Mala briefly of his next picture, "The Mongolian Emperor," written and to be directed by Raymond Cannon. Mr. Cannon, Mala's manager, and the actor came north to Seattle "just for fun," after studying Chinese methods of acting in San Francisco. He Has Traffic Tag In his wallet (calf, not sealskin) Mala had a ticket from a California policeman who'd caught the Eskimo passing another automobile on the wrong side. Mala thought it was a huge' joke. "I just thought I'd sort of ease by," he said. But if Mala has learned the ways of the white man, he has not forgotten the joys of the native, and he has learned the joys of the southern native. He made a picture in the South Sea Islands. "It was the only place that ever ! made me cry when I left," he said. j "The white moon, the big fires for the dances, swimming in the surf— it was wonderful." Dimples in his big cheeks deepened and his brown eyes seemed to grow softer. They do that, however, when he speaks of "big city thrills."