That broad-shouldered, black-haired young man received me with a slap on the back as he pressed my hand, and hurried me off to the studio in the city of Hollywood.

On his lips was a song he kept humming, interrupted only by a smile thrown here and there to the studio workmen he passed; and often he would wink at the girls in jest, saying, "One wink at a girl is enough for people to accuse me of being in love with her."

And so I made the acquaintance of Mario Lanza, the young man whose throat is worth a million dollars, who in the space of five years has been able to attain surpassing fame.

How I had expected to find Mario Lanza dif-ficult of temper, as people describe him; but he is vexed by this mistaken reputation, and says: "I am not difficult, but I cannot bear to be thrown out; my way is to fight first, before I think. And I know that I am wrong. But am I nervous? Of course... and without the nervous temper there is no Lanza... I am what I am... I was created to sing... and to make people happy with my voice." And he began to sing as he paced the room to and fro. He was not putting it on... he is made for singing... for him it is as important and as natural as breathing is to a man.

The story of Mario Lanza is truly an enter-taining story, for it proves that anything can happen in the world of the cinema. At the start of his life Mario Lanza had nothing to qualify him for reaching the rank of glory at the age of thirty-one.

Alfred Arnold Cocozza was born in January of the year 1922 in South Philadelphia. As for his name Mario Lanza, it is borrowed from his mother's family name; and to this day he is still called Freddie — among his family and his wife. He was an only child, and lived in a milieu that taught him to fight. "That is why I allow no one to throw me out now," as he says with decision.

He lived near a music shop, and he remarks: "Ever since I was a child I admired opera, and when I was only seven I listened to one of Caruso's records twenty-seven times in a