The good reviews attracted Hollywood and Warner Brother's made another offer. Gene's father wouldn't let her sign; he thought that she could do better. Not long after, he advised her to accept a more lucrative offer from Columbia.
In 1939, Gene moved to Hollywood. She spent an idle six months in the talent pool while executives tried to figure out her "type". When the contract expired, she declined an offer to renew and moved back to New York. There she didn't make much of an impression in her first role for Ring Two, but she received good reviews when she replaced a pregnant actress in the cast of The Male Animal.
A few studios tried to woo Gene again, but she refused to sign a contract until she was guaranteed film work. Twentieth Century Fox accepted her conditions and she returned to Hollywood.
Now that she was making significantly more money, her father set up a corporation for Gene to save her earnings. The Belle-Tier Corporation would eventually be the cause of a lot of trouble in the Tierney family.
Gene's first film was The Return of Frank James, starring Henry Fonda. She admired Fonda's professionalism and earned a good reputation for herself around the set by following his lead.
To compensate for her inexperience, Gene would stay on the set after finishing her scenes to watch the other actors. She would also screen as many as five movies a night. She had a lot to learn though; when the Harvard Lampoon voted her the "Worst Female Discovery of 1940", she agreed with them.
Gene now had a hectic schedule. She made three movies in one year. The stress would cause her eyes to become swollen, red, and watery; sometimes the condition would prevent her from working. Doctors inaccurately concluded that she had allergies. Today, Gene's condition is known as "angionneurotic edema". Mental unease had caused her physical discomfort.
Despite her ailments, Gene settled into the Hollywood lifestyle, working late and attending parties on the weekends. It was at one of these parties that she met struggling designer Oleg Cassini and no one was happy about it.
Coming up in part two: Marriage, World War II, and stardom
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