The Virgins of Hollywood

In ancient Rome the Vestal Virgins were six daughters of patrician families who were appointed at the age of six to ten to keep a flame constantly burning in the temple of Vesta, Rome's goddess of the hearth. Twenty centuries later, when Producer Gabriel Pascal got around to casting six Vestal Virgins for RKO's Androcles and the Lion (TIME, Oct. 15), no less than 2,200 hopefuls from Hollywood's horde of extras felt eminently qualified for the parts. One literal-minded applicant enclosed a medical affidavit certifying her eligibility, but many felt that photographs of themselves clad only in scanty Bikini bathing suits would be more effective.

Last week, after completing the touchy job of interviewing the applicants, Dialogue Director Jus Addis was looking a little shaken by his ordeal. "In any other role, you can tell a girl she looks 'too young' or 'too beautiful' for the part," said he. "What can you say to a girl who won't make a suitable Vestal Virgin?" But he had apparently found just what he was looking for. The lucky six: two divorcees, aged 39 and 47, three married women, aged 23, 56 and 60, and one unmarried girl, aged 20.

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