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However, she was lead down a slightly different path.

She was "discovered" by talent agent Jack Sherrill, while singing at a recital, in 1935. She signed with MGM, who let her go after only six months, without any work. Legend has it that after making a screen test with Judy Garland (who was similar in age and stature to Deanna), studio chief Louis B Mayer ordered his employees to "get rid of the fat one". Not knowing to which girl he was referring, Deanna was fired. He had been talking about Garland.

Deanna then signed with the financially troubled Universal Studios. With only enough money left to produce B-movies, Universal took one last shot in the dark and made the romantic comedy Three Smart Girls starring Durbin, Barbara Read and Nan Grey as sisters trying to get their parents back together.

The film was a box office hit, nominated for three Oscars and made an overnight success of 14-year-old Deanna. Photoplay magazine said the film was, "Clever, intelligent and wittythis delightful bit of entertainment has a genuineness which is rare." While Halliwell's Film Guide states it: "made a world star of Deanna Durbin". Not bad for her first film.

She followed this success with A Hundred Men and A Girl, playing Adolphe Menjou's daughter, who sets out to convince the world-famous conductor Leopold Stokowski (of Fantasia fame) that her father needs a job in his orchestra. This time the film was nominated for a staggering five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Musical Score. The Radio Times Guide called it "The quintessential feel-good movie" and the TV Times added, "Deanna is delightfulit's the little girl's show all the way." The public certainly agreed with this. With her first two films being box office smashes, she is credited as single-handedly saving Universal from bankruptcy.

When her third film Mad About Music premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 7th February 1938, Deanna, at only 16, was forever immortalised by having her hand and footprints set in cement in the theatre courtyard.

The following year Durbin received her first screen kiss, from Robert Stack, and amazingly this made front-page news. The film was First Love, which saw Deanna starring in an updated version of Cinderella. Durbin plays an orphan who moves in with her rich relatives, including an evil cousin in the shape of the beautiful but ruthless Helen Parrish. Again the film was nominated for four Oscars and Deanna did a marvellous job in her first grown up' role, while still having

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