Steve Richards saw Hollywood stars everywhere he looked in downtown Akron. Their bold names leaped off glowing marquees at the Palace, Colonial, Orpheum, Strand, Allen, Forum and Loew’s theaters.
When he left work each night at Polsky’s store, he could almost hear the hypnotic hum from the neon lights: Join us … Join us … Join us …
It took hard work, persistence and a new name (Mark Stevens), but he was destined to become a marquee attraction, too.
Born in Cleveland in 1916 but raised in Canada, Richards began acting as a teen in Montreal stock companies. He auditioned for Broadway shows but ran out of cash and moved to Akron in 1938.
“After a year of struggling around Manhattan, I suddenly found myself broke and with no prospects in view,” he later recalled. “So I decided to visit some relatives who were living in Akron at the time.”
He landed a job in the haberdashery department at Polsky’s, switched to cosmetic sales and won a promotion to floorwalker. But the movies beckoned.
“Everybody was treating me grand, but if a fellow has an ambition, he’s just naturally upset until he’s able to do something about it,” he said.
Richards applied for a job as a turntable boy at WAKR in First National Tower, hoping that radio could lead to film.
“For a whole month, I studied the technical end of radio at WAKR,” he told a reporter. “I worked so hard that I soon became operator, engineer and announcer as well. Several mornings, I would open the station, handling all three jobs simultaneously so that the folks in Akron would have some entertainment before they started the day’s work.”
10-hour days at WAKR
Working 10-hour days for $50 a week, he wrote, produced and starred in the WAKR drama Was I Right? and conducted interviews for Man on the Street. He served as an emcee for the All-American Soap Box Derby and Rubber Bowl.
Richards broke the news to Akron about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
“I’ll never forget that day,” he said. “We were sitting around the station’s newsroom, watching the teletype for material for our newscast when a flash came through on Pearl Harbor. Naturally, we made a hurried check and, after making certain that the whole thing was authentic, I broke in on a program to issue the announcement.”
Colleagues described him as nice, likable, cocky and moody. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 155 pounds, had brown eyes, reddish brown hair — and a legion of female admirers.
“How do you do?” he told one WAKR worker after being introduced. “I won’t be here long. I’m going to Hollywood.”
He gave a show-stopping performance in the 1943 Weathervane comedy Yes and No, developing giggles in a love scene with actress Vi Oakes, and halting the scene until regaining composure.
Richards attempted to enter the U.S. Army Air Corps, but was classified as 4-F because of chronic back problems. So he left Akron for Hollywood.
Bit parts to big break
Despite rejections from several studios, he landed a screen test at Warner Bros. His first role, uncredited, was as a soldier in a 1943 instructional film to promote rationing during World War II.
He landed bit parts in Destination Tokyo (1943) with Cary Grant, Objective, Burma! (1945) with Errol Flynn, Rhapsody in Blue (1945) with Robert Alda and God Is My Co-Pilot (1945) with Dennis Morgan.
After Warner Bros. dropped Richards, Twentieth Century Fox gave him a new identity. Studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck suggested a name change to Mark Stevens.
The actor’s career took off after he was cast as Joan Fontaine’s love interest in the drama From This Day Forward (1946).
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he told reporters. “What a break this is! I only hope I’m good enough for it.”
Reviewers compared Stevens to Alan Ladd, Dana Andrews and Robert Walker, and praised his work as songwriter Joe Howard in I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1946) and private investigator Bradford Galt in The Dark Corner (1946), a film noir starring Lucille Ball as his love interest.
Local marquees advertised movies with “Akron’s own Mark Stevens.”
Pitfalls of fame
In a letter to Beacon Journal Managing Editor Lynn Holcomb, Stevens admitted a growing apprehension about fame.
“If you ever know anyone who wants advice on how to get to the top in the movies, just tell him to forget it,” Stevens wrote. “It’s not worth it, for your life is not your own.”
He feared fame would make his head swell. “I just hope I keep wearing the same size hat,” he said.
Stevens took a 10-week break to recuperate from spinal surgery in 1946. He separated from his wife, Annelle, a beauty queen from Texas, after the birth of their son, Mark, but reconciled with her after a tabloid romance with Hedy Lamarr in 1947.
“I was a fool to ever leave my home and Annelle and the baby,” Stevens told gossip columnist Louella Parsons. “I’m going to try to make up to her in every way.”
In his most acclaimed film, The Snake Pit (1948), Stevens portrayed the husband of Olivia de Havilland (Fontaine’s sister!), whose character was committed to an asylum. She was nominated for an Oscar for best actress and the movie was nominated for best picture.
Over the next five years, Stevens served as leading man in a variety of genres, including action, romance, drama and comedy. He made a seamless transition to television, producing, directing and starring in 41 episodes of the NBC drama Big Town in which he played journalist Steve Wilson.
Waking up at 5:30 a.m. every day and working until 10 p.m., Stevens grew exhausted and considered dropping out of acting.
“Something has to go, and it might as well be the acting,” he told a reporter in 1955. “I just can’t do all three jobs and run this business, too.”
He didn’t quit, though. Stevens appeared in nearly 80 movies and TV shows in a 40-year career. His TV credits included Wagon Train, Rawhide, Kojak, SWAT, Simon & Simon, Magnum, P.I. and Murder, She Wrote.
After he and his wife divorced in 1962, Stevens settled in Spain, where he continued to act. He was 77 when he died of cancer Sept. 15, 1994.
New generations have found his work on Turner Classic Movies, which regularly shows his films.
Polsky’s clerk Steve Richards dreamed of being a star in Akron, and it literally came true. Tourists see his name every day on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, a five-pointed tribute to Mark Stevens.
Beacon Journal copy editor Mark J. Price can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.