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"EASY TO HURT"
A Joan Crawford Story By Ruth ftiory
MN CANADA .15 CENTS ^
November
W O H H
t £ 3 &
WHAT A PICTURE! Jean Harlow's "Bombshell
si
By Elizabeth Wilson
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<=/w Stance . . cJn dtawaii . . cJn tAvnetcLccL .
In Deauville, Paris and the other fa- mous French cities, whose names are synonymous with style and beauty, che Marmola method is known and proved.
As in America, France and ten other Countries, news of the success of Mar- mola has spread to remote Hawaii. They fight ugly fat this way.
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Now Demanded the World Over. .
This Tested Way To Reduce!
YOURE STILL AS SLIM AS A GIRL, HELEN, AND YOUVE
BEEN MARRIED 12 YEARS'
DON'T ENVV ME-TAKE MARMOLA
IF TOO MUCH FOOD TURNS TO FAT !
FAT Hasn't
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rears
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MARMOLA
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OCT "3 1933 ©ciB 202416 -
REFLECTING the MAGIC of HOLLYWOOD O NOVEMBER 1933 f &EE/oT /
ELIOT KEEN
Editor
Elizabeth Wilson Frank J. Carroll
Western Representative Art Director
CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURES pace
CHARLES LAUGHTON AS HENRY VIII io
i EASY TO HURT Ruth Biery 12
Incidents Which Reveal the Sensitive Soul of Joan Crawford
THE GIRLS THEY PICK Helen Louise Walker 14
A Certain Type of Girl is in Demand in Hollywood THE GREAT GARBO Adela Rogers St. Johns 16
Hollywood's Six Greatest Women: Number Three
YOU'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT "BOMBSHELL". Elizabeth Wilson 18
The Story of Jean Harlow's New Picture
SEX IS BEAUTIFUL! Patricia Keats 20
Mae West Sexplains It All WHO WILL BE THE QUEEN OF HOLLYWOOD? Muriel Babcock 21
// Mary Pickford Abdicates— W hat Then, Little Man?
STUDIO NEWS S. R. Mook 22
How They Act When They Are Acting BOB MEETS THE CUSTOMERS Lenore Samuels 24
Robert Montgomery Makes a Successful "Personal Appearance"
'WATCH THESE STARS--' Maude Cheatham 26
Walter W anger Talks About the Leading Players
TRACING THE TRAVELS OF LEE TRACY Jack Jamison 29
He Hasn't Stopped Yet
SH-H! I'M HAPPILY MARRIED!" Ben Maddox 47
Fay Wray's Successful Marriage
SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS
The Opening Chorus 5
Reviews— In a Few Well Chosen Words 6
"You're Telling Me?" 8
Overtures to Beauty.. Mary Lee 9
Pretty Girls Are Taken At Their Face Value
Topics For Gossips 11
Reviews of Recent Pictures 50
A Movie Fan's Crossword Puzzle Charlotte Herbert 74
The Final Fling The Editor 74
ART SECTION — Rotogravure Portraits of Leading Stars
Dorothy Lee Returns to The Screen 31
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Barthelmess, Vacation Time 32
Katharine Hepburn, Established Success.. 33
Richard Arlen and Julie Haydon 34
Anna Sten, German Beauty 35
Jack La Rue, More Villainy 36
Lilian Harvey and Lew Ayres 37
Garbo at Work on "Queen Christina" 38-39
Spencer Tracy, Versatile 40
Jean Harlow's New Home. 41
Picture Lovers 42-43
Charles Farrell, Welcome Back 44
Russ Colombo, Sari Maritza, Mi mi Lawlor, George Bancroft 46
COVER PORTRAIT OF CLAUDETTE COLBERT By JOHN ROLSTON CLARKE
SILVER SCREEN. Published monthly by Sereenland Magazine, Inc., at 45 West 45th Street, New York, N. Y. V. G. Heimbucher, President; J. S. MacDermott, Vice President; J. Superior, Secretary and Treasurer. Chi- cago Office; 400 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Yearly subscriptions $1.00 in the United States, its de- pendencies, Cuba and Mexico; $1.50 in Canada; foreign $1.60. Changes of address must reach us five weeks in advance of the next issue. Be sure to give both the old and new address. Entered as second class matter, September 23, 1930, at the Post Office, New York, N. Y. under the Act of March 3, 1879. Additional entry at Chicago, Illinois. Copyright 1933.
MEMBER AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS
1 (Opening Chorus
Alice Brady
IT IS not enough to play a part as if the character were drawn after the player's ' own outline. Real acting comes only when a new personality seems to have taken pos- session of the player. Alice Brady is such an actress— and a great one. She's next in "Stage Mother."
WHEN young Jackie Cooper moved over to the Paramount lot to play in "Lone Cowboy," he spent his first lunch time vis- iting Mae West in her dressing room. Just another West fan. His mother, however, visited Harpo Marx. . . . Bing Crosby, a most ardent angler, has been fishing for marlin for over two years, but didn't have any luck until, the day after he finished "Too Much Harmony," he dashed over to Catalina and, after a half-hour struggle, landed a 197-pound marlin swordfish. . . . Lionel Barrymore is crazy about playing acting games and will sit up all night— any night— to play "In the Manner of the Word." . . . Mae Clarke and Sidney Black- mer are Hollywood's newest lovers, and Mae is that thrilled she almost flutters. Not that we blame her in the least, for we could work up a good set of flutters over the fascinating Sidney any time. . . . Marie Dressier would have you believe that this bicycle fad is nothing at all. Why, Marie claims she was one of the first bicycle fans in America, and startled all New York in the Gay Nineties by riding her bike around the reservoir in Central Park with Lillian Russell. . . . Freddie March had to spend his birthday recently working from nine A.M. until midnight on the "Design for Living" set. His wife had planned a grand dinner party for him but it had to be called off. So even a movie star can't enjoy his birthday in peace. . . . King Vidor, who gave Miriam Hopkins such a rush, is now being seen around with Helen Vinson. . . . Lil Tashman was greatly upset over those rumors of a rift with Eddie Lowe. Why Eddie even gave up his personal appear- ance tour to rush back to Hollywood to be with Lil while she was so sick.
5
The camera crew setting up on the "The House on 5 6th Street" set.
IN A
FEW
WELL
CHOSEN
WORDS
This style type indicates recent pictures.
Italics indicate pictures previous- ly released.
RE VI!
ANOTHER LANGUAGE— Splendid. (MGM) The plight of an artist when introduced to her husband's prosaic family. (Helen Hayes-Robert Montgomery).
BERKELEY SQUARE— Grand (Fox) Leslie Howard superlative in illusive role of man whose mind leaps back & forth bewilderingly from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Give your imagination a break 1
BEST OF ENEMIES — Good. (Fox) Buddy Rogers does a swell comeback in this amusing comedy, with Frank Morgan, Marian Nixon &• Joseph Hawthorn.
BIG EXECUTIVE— Fair. (Par) Elizabeth Young makes her debut in this story which fails to make the grade even though Ricardo Cortez and Richard Bennett exert every effort to brighten it up.
BITTER SWEET — Fine. ( UA) Noel Coward's enchanting operetta transferred to the screen with excellent results. Don't miss it if you like musical romances.
BLARNEY KISS, THE— Good. An English pic- ture that is moderately entertaining. That grand old lady, Haidee Wright, is in the cast.
BLIND ADVENTURE — Good. (RKO) A mystery laid in London, with plenty of fog to thicken the atmosphere. (Roland Young, Laura Hope Crews.) ,
B'WAY TO HOLLYWOOD— Fine. (MGM) Three generations of a vaudevillian family provide as en- tertaining an evening as anyone might desire. Splendid cast includes Alice Brady, Frank Morgan, Madge Evans, Jackie Cooper.
CAPTURED — Good. (WB) The serious side of war is shown here in a German prison camp, with Les- lie Howard 6V Doug Fairbanks, Jr., as unhappy prisoners.
DEVIL'S MATE — Fine. (F.D.) An engrossing mystery, the solution to which escapes detection until the last reel. (Preston Foster, Peggy Shannon.)
DINNER AT EIGHT— Superb. (MGM) Don't bother about the food. It's the impressive cast that counts! And what a story! If you miss this, you're crazy. (Dressier, Harlow, the Barrymores, Beery, Evans, Billie Burke.)
DISGRACED — Good. (Par) Helen Twelvelrees as the wistful model led astray by Bruce Cabot, the society man engaged to Adrienne Ames. Poor Helen!
FAITHFUL HEART— So-so. An English drama that leaves much to be desired. Herbert Marshall is always worth seeing, however. Also Edna Best.
FIDDLIN' BUCKAROO— Good. (U) // horse operas entertain you, see this by all means. Ken Maynard as the hero, and Fred Kohler as the bad man.
FIGHTING PARSON— Good. (Allied) Our western hero, Hoot Gibson, steps into the shoes of a revival minister by mistake.
FLYING DEVILS. Fair. (RKO) Come to the carnival air circus and watch the daring performances of Bruce Cabot, Ralph Bellamy &* Eric Linden.
GOODBYE AGAIN — Amusing. (WB) Satirical study of a vain author whose secretary keeps his feel on terra fir ma. (Warren William, Joan Blondell.)
HEADLINE SHOOTER— Amusing. (RKO) Swift action and many laughs follow in the wake of a sob-sister's romance with a newspaper cameraman. (Frances Dee, William Gargan.)
HER BODYGUARD — Fair. (Col) Eddie Lowe in the role of a wise-cracking sleuth hired to guard Wynne Gibson's virtue and her jewels.
HER FIRST MATE— Amusing. ( U) One of the
best of the ZaSu Pitts-Slim Summerville comedies, with Una Merkel thrown in for good measure.
HOLD YOUR MAN — Fine. (MGM) Here's a Gable- Harlow story that may make you weep a tear or two. Sex takes a back seat now and then. Different, eh?
I HAVE LIVED — Fair. (Chest.) Life is made ex- citing for Anita Page by Alan Dinehart and Allen Vincent. Of course she pays for her funl
KING OF THE ARENA— Good. ( U) Ken May- nard as a Texas Ranger who leads an exciting chase after a famous criminal.
LADIES MUST LOVE— Good. ( U) Four ladies of the evening make a unique contract, broken only when "true love" creeps in during an off-moment. There are some musical interludes and June Knight of the Broadway stage.
LADY FOR A DAY— Grand entertainment. (Col) All about the apple woman who temporarily goes "high society" to impress her daughter's titled in-laws. (May Robson, Warren William, Jean Parker.)
MAMA LOVES PAPA — Very Amusing. (Par) Can you name a more delightful team than Mary Boland and Charlie Ruggles? See them and laugh from sheer
joy.
MAN WHO DARED — Good. (Fox) Fictionized life story of the late mayor of Chicago makes absorbing film. Preston Foster, Zita Johanrt in fine cast.
MARY STEVENS, M.D.— Good. (WB) Kay Francis as a baby specialist! Lyle Talbot as the man she should have married, but doesn't 'til the last reel.
MASQUERADER, THE — Charming. (UA) Ronald Colman plays a fascinating dual role against the back- ground of England's Parliament. Elissa Landi is the feminine complication,
MAYOR OF HELL — Fine. (WB) It's a joy to see Jimmy Cagney figuratively smash a grapefruit in the face of an unscrupulous reform school super- intendent. Madge Evans gladly lends a hand.
MIDNIGHT CLUB— Good. (Par) It's fun watch- ing a suave little group of English crooks trying to outwit an American detective. (Geo. Raft, Clive Brook, Helen Vinson.) ■
MR. BROADWAY— Good. Meet the celebrities during an entertaining tour of the N. Y. night clubs, conducted by Ed Sullivan of the Daily News.
MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS — Fine. (U) Tuneful melodies, colorful sets, youth, romance, laughter
— they're all here in abundance. A swell cast loo, in- cluding Mary Brian, Roger Pryor, Alexander Gray.
MORNING GLORY— Fine. (RKO) Katharine Hepburn's captivating performance helps to make this story of a small town girl's bid for theatrical fame seem new and exciting. (Adolphe Menjou, Doug. Fairbanks, Jr.)
MYRT AND MARGE— Fair. ( U) The popular radio team of Myrt and Marge heads a moderately entertaining back stage story.
NO MARRIAGE TIES— Good. (RKO) As an "ad" man, brimful of slogans and liquor, Richard Dix has pet theories about women, trying them out successively but not successfully on Elizabeth Allan and Doris Kenyon.
ONE MAN'S JOURNEY— Fine. (RKO) As the idealistic country doctor, Lionel Barrymore lives up to his well-earned reputation. Dorothy Jordan and May Robson are in the cast.
ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON— Fine. (Par) The simpler, but not less dramatic side of the Gay Nineties is portrayed here. (Gary Cooper, Frances Fuller.)
ONE YEAR LATER— Fine. (Hoffman) A fast- moving train is the setting for this exceedingly en- tertaining comedy-drama, featuring Mary Brian, Donald Dilloway, Russell Hopton.
PENTHOUSE— Colorful. (MGM) An exciting pic- turization of Arthur Somers Roche's mystery novel which appea.-ed serially in Cosmopolitan. (Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Chas. Butterworth.)
POLICE CALL— Fair. (Showmen's Pict.) Think- ing he killed a man Nick Stuart escapes to South America and finds romance and adventure.
POWER AND THE GLORY— Brilliant. (Fox) The engrossing drama of one man's life unfolded in most unusual fashion. Don't pass this one by. (Spencer Tracy, Colleen Moore.)
RAFTER ROMANCE— Good. (RKO) He oc- cupied the garret by day — and she by night. An unconventional situation providing many laughs. (Norm?n Foster-Ginger Rogers.)
SAVAGE GOLD — Fascinating. If you don't rale a vacation this year, get a vicarious thrill by exploring the wild mountain passes of Ecuador with Commander G. M. Dyolt. Head hunters 'n' everything!
SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM— Fair. ( U) A mystery melodrama with its full share of murders. (Gloria Stuart, Lionel Atwill, Paul Lukas.)
SECRETS OF HOLLYWOOD — Fine. (Scott) This 1933 talkie, with smoothly interwoven shots from popular silent pictures, provides a thrill for movie fans who are tremendously fascinated by the old days.
SING, SINNER, SING— Fair. (Maj.) The story of a torch singer inspires the cinema emotions of Paul Lukas, George Stone and Leila Hyams.
SONG OF SONGS — Excellent. (Par) Dietrich more glamorous than ever as an artist's model who slips gracefully down the primrose path.
6
Silver Screen
SPHINX, THE — Fair. (Monogram) Lionel) Atwill cast once again in the rdle of a ruthless murderer. Sheila Terry is attractive as the heroine.
j STORM AT DAYBREAK — Good. (MGM) The old reliable triangle whipped into story form again — this time with war-ridden Hungary as a background, and Waller Huston and Nils Aslhcr being very serious about Kay Francis.
STRANGE CASE OF TOM MOONEY — Inter- esting. (F. D.) Pathetic film record of Tom Mooney's apparently hopeless fight for freedom during the past 17 years.
STRANGER'S RETURN — Fine. (MGM) Come back to the farm with Miriam Hopkins, and meet Grandpa Lionel Barrymore, Farmer Franchol Tone and Stuart Erwin.
TARZAN, THE FEARLESS — Good. (Prin.) The kids will eat up this new Tarzan story, and cry for more. Buster Crabbe is the present jungle-galloper.
THIS DAY AND AGE — Excellent. (Par) Cecil De Mille can take the bows for this effective picture about a group of highschool youths who wage a spectacular war against gangsters during Boys' Week.
THIS IS AMERICA — Fine. Entertaining anthol- ogy of our country's historical events, as well as our material and mental progress since 1917.
THREE CORNERED MOON— Fine. (Par) In- troducing the mad, mad Rimpelgars, as amusing a familv as ever hailed from Brooklyn. (Claudette Col- bert, "Mary Boland, Richard Arlen, Hardie Albright.)
TUGBOAT ANNIE — Fine. (MGM) Marie Dress- ier gives another excellent characterization, aided and abetted by her sparring partner, Wally Beery.
VOLTAIRE — Splendid. (WB) George Arliss su- perb as the sly old philosopher at the court of Louis 15th. Doris Kenyon lovely as Madame Pompadour.
WRECKER, THE— Fair. (Col) Jack Holt in the kind of melodrama we have come to expect of him. Genevieve Tobin and Sidney Blackmer in cast.
Making "Design for Living'
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A Difference of Opinion Is As Good As An Introduction.
What do you think? Tell us The best ideas each month whether criticism or praise, will be awarded prizes. $15 for firsi prize, $10 for second prize, $» for third. Address "You're Telling Me?" Editor, Silvei Screen, 45 W. 45 th St., N. Y. C
First Prize
"RADIO stars mean big money to the movie business," writes Bessie E. Tyler of Newport, R. I., "but what about the radio fans? The wise ones will pass all pictures with their favorite star. Why? Because a radio star's charm lies in the imagination of the listener."
That's the most interesting observation I've heard lately. "The imagination of the listener." It is possible to continue the appeal on the screen if the material is imaginative. See "Morning Glory"— that's what I mean.
Second Prize
"WITH all due credit to Charlie Chap- lin's mastery of the pantomimic art, I do wish he'd capitulate and make a talking picture. A silent film, instead of being a novelty, is a boresome entertainment," writes Betty Patterson of Monitor St., Pitts- burgh, Pa.
The trouble is that now he is a gallant little fellow, half-dream, half-real. Talk would bring him to earth.
Third Prize
"WHAT a joy to see the first still of Louisa M. Alcott's 'Little Women,' and to read: 'Beginning a cycle of wholesome pic- tures!' I am certain that many parents of children, especially in the adolescent age, join me in rejoicing over this news," writes Mrs. Estelle G. Perkins, of Main St., Fair- haven, Mass. "The party responsible for 'Little Women' has my deepest respect."
Mr. Merian C. Cooper of Radio please take a bow.
"I LIKE 'Rambling Over Hollywood with S. R. Mook.' I just shrieked at his descrip- tion of the set of 'Three Cor- nered Moon,' " writes Betty Grace of N. Madison St., Marshall, Mich. "It deter- mined me to see the rest of the movie."
O.K. Dick.
"TIMES are bad. Depres- sion and Disaster have been stalking the land. When we go to see a picture, what un- folds on the screen? Problem plays, family disputes, erring daughters, etc. In short, we
r
might as well stay home," writes Harry K. Cline of Cumberland, Me. "John Jones, who has his -- troubles, does not like to visit the Smiths, because they, too, have troubles. And so with the pictures. People want to be entertained with tales of der- ring do; with stories of fantasy; with pic- tures of adventure. So, what? Dig out some of the old masterpieces. Wild adven- ture, clashing of swords at dawn, a wild ride over cobbled streets to make the pulses jump and the heart race, while the grim twins mentioned above are forgotten."
The movies have advanced beyond that, Harry. We respond now-a-days to the clash of emotions, and thrill to the bravery of pretense. Giddap!
DOROTHY CASH of Sebring, Fla., writes "You would get more box office trade if you would make a couple of musical com- edies, then change to some other kind of picture, for instance a murder case."
In this world there can be only one "WOW" at a time. Right now it's musicals.
"WHEREVER have the colored pictures been hiding themselves?" asks Algernon Lewis of Wellington Ave., Chicago, 111. "Remember how thrilled we were with the brilliant natural coloring of the scenes. Why not insert a bit of color in the west- erns? Surely, there is scenery enough to warrant it."
Walt Disney has made some wonderful color cartoons. See them.
Lona Andre and "Bing,': her favorite blood hound.
"I MUST say I received quite a shock when Ricardo Cortez slapped Loretta Young down in 'Midnight Mary,' " writes Madonna Charrlin of Vermillion, S. D. "I hope that the slapping phase in pictures will be passe soon."
That's modernism, Madonna. Sex equal- ity—bam! Ladies that lie—Zowie!
"MAE WEST is the answer to father's prayer," writes Roderick Dhu of Clifton Ave., Chicago, 111. "She looks like they used to look when he was young. That's why father and thousands of his contempo- raries now stand in long lines before the- atres showing Mae West pictures. They hanker for a sight of curves."
No, son, that isn't it. Mae represents an end of the mealy mouthed hypocrisy that put over prohibition; etc.
"I'M THROUGH! After seeing Marlene Dietrich in 'Song of Songs.' I think any one of a hundred American girls could fill the role just as effectively as Marlene," writes Jasper B. Sinclair of 20th Ave., San Fran- cisco, Calif. "Am I bigoted? Maybe . . . Hollywood proceeds on the theory that romance and glamour are found on the other side of the world . . . never in their own backyard."
Mention one from our backyard who has Marlene' s classic beauty.
Irwin Pollack of W. Mon- roe St., Chicago, III., writes: "After seeing 'College Humor' with Mary Carlisle, I won- der why they pay for big stars? I would rather see starlets."
Lasky is making a picture with all beginners.
Girls, who want to be Alice in Wonderland, apply to Paramount's casting director.
8
Silver Screen
Overtures to Beauty
Pretty Girls Are Always Taken at Their Face Value.
By Mary L ee
MORE beauty means more time, and there's no kidding ourselves about that. Smart housewives and "busi- ness gals"— and that includes the Hollywood stars, too— know that in addition to their daily hour or half-hour at the dressing table, they must set aside several hours each week for a complete beauty over- hauling . . . shampoo, facial, manicure and what not. Sunday morning seems to be the most opportune moment for most of us ... so let's see how it can be used to the best advantage.
As soon as you wake up— get up. I know it's hard sometimes. But if you've waked up naturally, then you're at the end of your best sleep, and you should hop right up. Oh, you can stretch and yawn to your heart's delight. That's good for you. (Watch a cat wake up sometime and learn how it manages to keep so limber and flex- ible*! It's the s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g that does it!)
Use a good mild soap and warm water on your face to remove every vestige of that night cream which I trust you put on be- fore you tumbled in. (And if you were too tired, then I'm ashamed of you.)
After your tub, take a good hasty rub down with a brisk towel, and dash some cooling, fragrant astringent lotion over your face and neck. But no make-up for a while yet, please! Keep your face au naturel as long as you can. A little free breathing won't hurt it. And even if you have an observant husband sitting across the breakfast table— he won't mind. He'll quite probably appreciate the opportunity of seeing you as you are— in the flesh, as 't'were, for a change.
After breakfast, get "up and at" your beauty "chores." And if, in the back of your mind, you're harboring a forlorn wish
for a personal maid of your own— forget it. Even the Hollywood stars, who have per- sonal maids, often prefer to do these things for themselves. You just can't drag Joan Crawford away from her boudoir for the better part of her Sundays, because she's too busy trying first this coiffure, then that, and maybe brushing her finger tips with a new shade of polish— then wiping it off, and trying another. Joan wants to experiment with everything for herself— things must suit her as well as the fashion. And this is what is partly responsible for that grand self-assurance she possesses.
First, see that all your aids and accom- plices are handy on the shelf. The shampoo comes first. If you use soap, always use it in emulsion form. Just shave tiny flakes of the soap into a jar of hike warm water, and let it dissolve; or cook this emulsion over a fire for a few minutes, and let it cool. After you've lathered it well into your hair and scalp, rinse just as carefully and as thoroughly. You may have a special rinse for your shade of hair, or you may want to use the old-fashioned stand-bys- lemon juice to keep your hair light, or vinegar to cut the grease.
Then out into the sun— if there is any, and you can get to it— with a hairbrush in one hand, and your manicure "props" in the other. First massage your head vigorously, moving your scalp along with your fingers. After ten minutes or so, when your fingers are a wee bit tired, plop them into a bowl of lukewarm water, and proceed with your manicure. The sunlight and air carries on the good work on your hair.
When your nails are finished, and nicely lacquered, take your brush in hand and go to work on your hair again. Separate it
into thin strands and work close to the scalp. Maybe you won't use a brush all week long, because of a newly set wave, but you haven't an excuse in the world for not using it now. Your hair is naturally a little dried from the washing. So coax the oil from your scalp up into the hair follicles with a good sturdy brush. It's going to add to the sheen, and bring back the natural oil, which is a big boon in setting your wave.
Back to the bathroom again to set your hair. Use a good wave-setting lotion. One that's not too sticky— and won't flake when it dries. Put your wave in with your fingers, or with combs, as you like. But remember to keep them well up and back on your head.
Then, when that's done, pin a towel around your head— or just a strip of gauze or cloth, several inches wide— to keep the hair in place, and to protect it from what you're going to do now to your face. You should do something special, don't you think, or your face is going to feel, (and look) slighted. A facial consisting of cleansing cream, tissue or a good circulation cream, as well as an astringent cream or lo- tion, is brief and to the point. If you haven't a circulation cream, you can use a plastic cream or pack instead, after your cleansing cream, to stir up a sluggish cir- culation. There's a new one I know of; it's thin and melty at first, but during the fifteen minutes you're supposed to keep it on, it hardens and tightens, and you can actually feel your skin responding.
While this plastic cream is drying, get out your depilatory and go to work on your legs. They've just got to be done once a week, if they're addicted to hair, and if [Continued on page 72]
Building up a reputa- tion for beauty. Gene- vieve Tobin practices her magic arts.
for November 1933
9
I
CHARLES LAUGHTON AS HENRY VIII.
Under the title "The Private Life of Henry VIII," a picture has been made in England which gives Charles Laughton the opportunity he deserves. At the top, the much married king is shown with his ministers, and below you see Henry with one of his six wives — Ann of Cleves — played by Elsa Lanchester. Authentic cos- tumes and period furniture were used.
10
Silver Screen
TOPICS FOR
GOSSIPS
"Fire Chief" Ed Wynn has suscepti- ble Marie Dressier a-burning. A great actress, whether working or fooling.
SlLVE
WELL, did Hollywood gasp the night of the brilliant open- ing of "'Dinner at Eight" at the Chinese, when Carole Lombard appeared on the debonair arm of her very late ex-husband, Bill Powell. Carole and Bill hadn't been seen to- gether since a week before Carole, one bright morning, started out for Reno— "and she didn't say why." Carole and Bill were the guests of Gloria Swanson and Mike Farmer, and it looked just like old times seeing the four of them together. Carole wore a beautiful white evening gown and has never looked better. But we can't say so much for Gloria Swanson, who had a wreath of little tight curls across her forehead and not one single little bit of make-up. Those 1886 curls might be all right for Little Women but Gloria just doesn't seem to be the type. During the intermission, when all eyes were glued on Carole and Bill, not to mention the Swanson coiffure, Mr. Farmer would gallantly kiss his wife's hand every few moments. Just to prove to Hollywood that they are happily married? Or is he a hand-kisser by choice?
WHEN Mae West goes on her personal appearance tour as soon as she finishes her next picture, "It Ain't No Sin," she expects to make one-night stands in towns all over the country. But the appearances will not be made at the local theatres, as is the custom, but at the auditorium or town hall, whichever has the largest seating capacity. Mae will sing several songs, do a scene from "She Done Him Wrong," and finish up with a mono- logue on Hollywood that will send them rolling into the aisles.
ALTHOUGH she had about the smallest "bit" (that of the - cook) in the all-star cast of "Dinner at Eight," May Robson, at the premiere of the picture in Hollywood, received about the biggest applause. "I guess I was too old to be invited to that famous dinner," she said, "so they just asked me to cook it."
Mrs. Robson is an inveterate preview goer and gets a big thrill out of pictures. "I have to keep my eyes open wide at my pic- tures," she told me at the "Beauty for Sale" preview, "for if they droop for one second I miss seeing myself entirely."
TRVING THALBERG, JR., Norma s little boy, spent all of his J- third birthday looking at Walt Disney's colored creation, "Three Little Pigs." He was so fascinated by it that it had to be run over and over again for him. The birthday party and his little guests just had to get along without him for Irving Jr., had no intention of leaving those three little pigs. Which all goes to prove that young Irving is a chip off the old block and knows a good picture when he sees it.
■ — «<§>— «
'"THERE was much laughter at a Hollywood dinner party the ■*- other night when a well-known sensational actress said, "I am twenty-six. I know I look older and I know I am older, but I'm twenty-six."
"\| EET me over on Stage 7 when you finish your fashion pic- J-VL aires," Una Merkel iold Madge Evans at the M-G-M studio one day. So, as soon as Madge had finished she hurried over to Stage 7, pushed open the door, and bumped right into Garbo, all dressed up in boots and things for "Queen Christina."
"I'm looking for Una Merkel," Madge gasped while Garbo glared. Immediately six guards swooped down upon her and lit- erally picked her up and carried her to the door.
"Who are you? What do you want? You can't come in here. Can't you read signs? Have you a pass for this lot?" they pro- ceeded to demand in their most cop-like voices.
"I'm Madge Evans. I work on this lot. And I'm looking for Una Merkel," Madge managed to say as she was dropped on the other side of the big stage door.
"We don't care who you are. You gotta stay off this set," one of the guards snapped back and closed the door with a bang.
"I think they thought I was you— a fan writer," Madge told me later. "Trying to crash in to interview Miss Garbo. Well, I was never so forcibly ejected from a place in all my life."
And now, my children, you understand why fan writers DON'T interview Garbo.
MAX BAER got so mad because Jean Harlow wouldn't "take on" over him at the Colony Club the other night that he couldn't work the next day. Max thought all the dames in Hol- lywood would go for him.
CAROLE LOMBARD, after weeks of silence, has finally gotten around to announcing to the press that she and Powell are definitely through, with absolutely no hopes of a reconciliation. But she expects to see him now and then because that's her idea of civilized divorce. Some day there's going to be a divorced couple in Hollywood who hate each other and say so, and who refuse to be seen with each other or even go to the same parties— and that, my hearties, will be NEWS.
JOHNNY has given Lupe a new bracelet (she's got them up to her shoulder blades now) which Lupe is so proud of she has to show it to everybody. It's a platinum circlet set in vari-colored stones which spell "Dearest." A row of diamonds for "d"; a row of emeralds for "e"; a row of amethysts for "a"; and a row of rubies for "r"; etc. Johnny is one of the boys who has gone in for white mess jackets for evening wear in Hollywood and he and Lupe, all in white, made a most striking looking couple at the opening of "Dinner at Eight." Lupe begged Johnny all evening to give his Tarzan call, but for once Johnny was adamant and absolutely refused.
CLARK GABLE lost thirty pounds while he was in the hospital with appendicitis. "Dancing Lady" waited for him for over a month. [Continued on page 48]
for November 1933
11
"Easy
to
Hurt
yy
Incidents Which Reveal the Sensitive Soul of Joan Crawford.
By Ruth Biery
IT WAS Easter Sunday morning, 1927. I dropped in to see Joan Crawford in her former home in Beverly Hills. She was sitting at the little kidney desk in the living room, writing a letter. The tears were rolling down her cheeks. A sob mingled frequently with the scratching of the pen. Page after page of the letter which she was wi it- ing was strewn around her.
"Why Joan, what is the matter?"
"I am writing to my mother. We quarreled. I am
Joan as she is in her next picture.
She wears a wig in the big dance number.
apologizing. I didn't mean it. I am begging her to forgive me."
I looked at her in bewilder- ment. I knew about that quarrel with her mother. Joan had been in the right. Her mother had made a mistake- as any mother might.
"But, Joan, your mother—"
"Please! I was wrong. I am her daugh- ter. I should not have quarreled. And it is Easter. It is the day on which all mistakes are forgiven—"
Joan sent the letter in which she assumed all the responsibilities; the letter which brought her mother back to her.
Probably no woman in Hollywood is more misunderstood than Joan Crawford. A woman who combines glamour and sen- sitiveness as she does, could not but be mis- understood. A woman who dramatizes life as Joan does could not but be accused of self-dramatization. Joan does dramatize herself. She cannot help it. She is as sensitive as the strings of a very old violin. Each motion of those about her hits upon one of the strings, causing a vibration. She can no more help this than a Florida resi-
dent can prevent a cyclone from de- scending upon him. Only the Florida inhabitant has a forty-eight hour warn- ing of his storms. Joan has no warning.
Last month a motion picture maga- zine carried a letter from a fan which called Joan "artificial, shallow, insin- cere." It condemned her for allowing Franchot Tone and Robert Young to steal "Today We Live from her. It condemned her for her divorce from Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It reminded (oan that she had said, two years ago, "If two people love each other, noth- ing can separate them." It said: "This proves to me that Douglas has high ideals and Joan false ones."
Joan read that letter. She read it again. She read it for two days. She carried it around with her; she carried it to bed with her. She answered it. She wrote: "You are not only unfair to my career but to my private life. I do not choose my pictures. My inti- mate friends, who know all the details, have not criticized me. Why should you, who know nothing of my marriage, nothing of my working conditions, do it?"
Then she tore up the letter. Instead of let- ting out the hurt within her by a letter, she let it
Franchot Tone and Joan Crawford in "The Dancing Lady," and an off-stage snap- shot of Joan.
out in hours of tears— tears wept when the world was not looking.
"I will never forget that letter," she told me.
Joan was not exaggerating. She will never forget. A woman who feels as deeply as this does not forget the things that have hurt her. She can t. It would be easier for her if she could. Those people whom God has created to feel too deeply do not
12
Silver Screen
|
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| |
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It |
|
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L* |
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Fred Astaire, fa- mous stage dancer, and Joan on their way to "The Danc- ing Lady" sound stage at M-G-M.
The famous cellophane set of "The Dancing Lady," with Fred Astaire and Joan in foreground. No double for the girl who danced her way to fame.
have an easy path. They must stumble continually over sharp stones, prickly tumble weeds and muddy ruts. There is never a straight, well-graded stretch of road before them.
Last week Joan greeted her old friends, the Lawrence Oliviers, upon the set of "Dancing Lady." She had not seen them for many months. The Oliv- iers had accompanied Joan and Doug on their trip to Europe. It was not an easy meeting. So much had hap- pened to Joan since that journey. So much must always happen to her between journeys.
There were fifty chorus girls on the set. In- numerable people of all descriptions. It was a big scene. Joan sat her
"Easy to Hurt" Joan in a tragic scene. Left, posing for a close-up.
guests upon canvas chairs and drew her own close to them, dropped her voice to a confidential murmur.
Suddenly, a girl sitting close by, pulled off dark glasses. "Oh, hello, Joan."
The girl was another famous motion pic- ture actress; one under contract to the same studio.
"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" Joan exclaimed. "I did not know that you were. You had your back to me."
A character shot of Joan in exotic costume.
And, the next day, a worker in the studio told Joan that this other actress claimed that Joan did not recognize her. "Getting high haf. Success has gone to her head. I used to know her well. But now—"
Joan went to the actress; apologized the second time. "I didn't recognize you—" Joan turned away crying. She cried until the new make-up, which she had put on at noon as she al- ways does, was ruined. "You must not cry about little things, Joan—" the director told her.
But Joan cries about little things as well as big. She has always cried about them. She always will. A woman whose soul is tuned like the susceptible strings of a violin must always feel the small vibrations as well as the large.
Last Christmas, Paul, the script boy on Joan's pictures, was run over by an auto- mobile. "Little Paul" she called him. The hospital called her at four o'clock Christ- mas morning.
"What shall we do?" she asked. "Do! Do! Why take care of him, of course."
[Continued on page 70]
for November 1933
13
G
GIRLS! Lots and lots of girls. The prettiest girls you ever saiu —simply swarming all over the lots since the revival of musical pic- tures. The studios are very pleasant places to visit, these days! There is even a shortage of lovely young things —as dance director Dave Gould found when he began casting "Rolling Down to Rio" over at Radio.
Busby Berkely has signed a hundred and eight of them for "Roman Scan- dals," the Eddie Cantor opus. The shrewd Warners have put fifty or so little dears under contract— sort of left-over from "Forty Second Street," "Gold Diggers of Broadway" and "Footlight Parade." Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer has four musicals in produc- tion and some more scheduled for early autumn, with requisite choruses and ballets. Well, you can see the fix Mr. Gould must have been in!
It isn't easy to find them. Sammy Lee. at Metro, rehearsing twenty-eight for numbers in "Dancing Lady," in- formed me, laconically, that the group was the result of some five thousand applicants and interviews and tests.
"Well, how in the world do you choose them?" I gasped, watching the rhythmic gyrations of the chosen. "What do they have to have?"
"Beauty— of the photographic va- riety. The sort of
Jack Oakie surrounded by the beauties of "Too Much Harmony," Bing Crosby's piece.
Wide World The girls of "Roman Scandals," the Eddie Cantor musical, have a little more here and there and not so much elsewhere.
beauty which registers in a flashing close-up. Youth— the sort of— er— dewy kind youth. Freshness, innocence, enthusiasm. That is why their time is so short in this sort of work. Two years— three at the very most. It is different, of course, on the stage. The audience isn't so close to them!
"You see, they become accustomed to the job so quickly. They meet a lot of people, they stay out at night, the whole thing gets to be an old story so soon. Then they are no good to us any more— for choruses or ballets. En- thusiasm—interest—these are more important than anything else. If a girl wants to be at- tractive, she must be interested in something —eager about something.
"So far as physical attributes are concerned, it is difficult to give any rules. The dancers average five feet one or two inches in height.
Show girls may be anywhere from five feet three to five feet ten! We look for well rounded figures— but a very tall, thin girl with no figure to speak of may be a breath-taking per-
14
Silver Screen
A Certain Type of Girl is in Demand m Hollywood, and Here Are the Specifications.
By Helen L
ouise
Walk
er
and forth, across the great, echoing stage, to the blurred, tinny sound of a piano. Mr. Lee's two assistants lounged in directors' chairs, watching them, interrupting from time to time with curt admonitions.
"Strengthen that line, Peaches . . . Adrienne, what do you think you are doing? No! No! Now, girls, snap it up! Heads up, hands thrown back— 'way back— Give it something, do you hear? Now, let's see you do it!" The men had the mechanical patience which you see in teachers of very
"Lots of girls have wanted to see how they would look if they turned platinum blonde. They have succeeded merely in taking all the character out of their faces, making themselves look artificial and a little cheap. A natural blonde is interest- ing, nearly always, because she is so rare. Artificial blondes are so common, these days, that they are a drug on the market. We want girls who look like natural beau- ties ... no matter what type of beauties they are!"
I invaded the "Roman Scandals" com- pany one evening, in search of that ener-
Le Roy Prinz, Dance Director of Paramount, advising Mary Blackwood, Harriett Haddon, Theo DeVoe, Dorothy White, Ann Nagel and Vina Gale how to get to be great chorus girls.
son if she knows how to carry herself— how to make the most of that length of form. It is difficult to find very short girls who are well proportioned.
"They must have good teeth! They must have lovely, graceful, hands and dainty wrists. They must have feet with delicate arches, slender ankles. Slender thighs are important.
"They need not be trained dancers. Any girl who has a sense of rhythm— and most young things have— can be taught to dance. Of course, it requires some intelligence . . . enough to memorize simple routines."
All this time the twenty-eight girls were twirling obediently back and forth, back
young children.
Back and forth, back and forth . . . Lovely young things. Blondes, red-heads, startling brunettes. Little feet tapping, bodies swaying, rounded legs twinkling. . .
"They must not," Sammy Lee was saying, "tamper too much with their own natural coloring. I had to keep one of my favorite girls out of this picture because she had dyed her auburn hair black. It added ten years to her age . . . made her hard . . . it didn't go with her skin. 'I just wanted to see how I would look!' she told me. Well, the way she looked just kept her out of a job.
getic young man, Busby Berkely. The United Artists lot hummed with an un- wonted activity.
"Mr. Berkely is on stage Five. No, he is on Three. Well, he was on Three. . . ." I trudged to and fro. Plate glass and chromium sets were being built. Carpenters and electricians looked up from their work and rose with courteous directions. The red-haired girl in the little office was busy swapping stories with shirt-sleeved men. There were guffaws. . . . Someone opined, at last, that Mr. Berkely might be found in the wardrobe, "dressing some girls." I [Continued on page 63]
for November 1933
15
The double page illustration on pages 38 and 39 ivas especially taken for Silver Screen. It is practically the only offstage shot of Garbo and her company at work, and is the first picture of her as "Queen Christina."
Great
Garbo is Great on the Screen Because in Her Own Life She is Cap- able of Deeds of Beauti- ful Graciousness.
Garbo is a serious artist. Her selec- tion of the story of a Swedish Queen was inspired by a fine sense of patri- otism.
THE great Garbo. They have put that adjective in front of her name so many times that it sounds almost as natural as Greta Garbo.
In 1925, a young, unknown Swedish girl landed in Hollywood. On the studio lot, they laughed at her. Her clothes were certainly ridiculous and she was unlike any other actress who had ever reached the heights. Today that girl is the queen of motion pictures— her name is known in
every city and hamlet of the globe— ana she has influenced the thought and style of a whole generation of women.
That makes her a great screen star, the greatest, next to Mary Pickford, who ever lived. There can be no question that she is a great actress.
But is she a great woman? Is she one of Hollywood's six great women of all time?
So few people know anything about Garbo, the woman. Millions of words have
been written about her and left behind them only a greater mystery. Sometimes it almost seems that there is no such person as Garbo, the woman; as though, once she left the magic shimmer of the silver sheet, she vanished, like some princess in a fairy tale.
But I know certain things about Garbo, the woman, and I do not hesitate for one moment to rank her as a great one.
For she possesses to a remarkable degree
16
Silver Screen
Garbo
B
y
Adela Rogers St. Johns
This is the third article in the series, "The Six Greatest Women of Hollywood.11
Pi?
In the old silent days, Garbo and Gilbert made "A Woman of Af- fairs" and discovered new possi- bilities in love.
three of the greatest qualities a human be- ing can possess— loyalty, courage and hon- esty.
How do I know? I will tell you. Greta's first years in Hollywood were not happy ones. The glorious and exotic, the
When "Flesh and the Devil" was made, the affection between the players was real. Many thought marriage would follow.
world-famous figure which we know today was then only a homesick young girl, a stranger in a strange land. All her life she had been intensely shy. Behind her was a background that gave her neither ease nor camaraderie, neither worldly knowledge nor social training.
From the poorest of poor families, from the lowest class of Swedish home, without a single advantage except those she car- ried within herself with infinite courage, the girl had fought her way up step by step from a barber shop, a department store and a tobacco shop into the theater and the motion picture studio. It had required the greatest sacrifices to win her chance at all.
She was not like most American girls, accustomed to meeting people and able to handle any situation.
So, still in her teens, inexperienced and frightened, she found herself in Holly- wood, 6000 miles from home and with but one friend— Maurice Stiller, the Swedish di-
ll Together Again! John Gilbert will W play opposite Greta Garbo in f "Queen Christina" at her request. And is John happy!
rector who had insisted that she be given a contract to accompany him to America.
It was with Stiller, long before the recent drama that brought Garbo and Gilbert together once more, that Garbo showed for the first time that great loyalty which never forsakes her, which she carries through at any cost, which she will go to any lengths to uphold.
For, when Stiller, who had been a very successful director in Europe, failed miser- ably in America, Garbo— who, on the other hand, had scored a great hit and was of- fered a fine opportunity and a fabulous salary— wished to return with him to Sweden, there to make pictures with him. Garbo fought for Stiller, long before she was in a position to fight for anything at the studio. When misunderstandings robbed him of a chance to direct at all, she begged that he be given one opportu- nity to direct her. When he was taken off the picture, at first she refused to go on with it without him. Only the fact that Stiller would not accept her sacrifice prevented her from throwing up her new and wonderful career and following him into the obscurity in which, not so long afterwards, he died.
Her loyalty to the man who had given her her chance was unbreakable, and to this day she never fails to give him credit, though he can no longer know nor benefit by it.
Some women, of course, might have done that. But not many, for it is not easy to give up a glowing future.
However, few women would have done the amazing, astounding, the generous and loyal thing which Greta Garbo has just done for John Gilbert.
[Continued on page 61]
for November 1933
17
WW *
YOU'RE K
Jean Harlou^'5 New Picture Turns Holly- wood Inside Out.
SO YOU'RE going to Hollywood this winter? Well, don't. Just put the money back in the bank, or your stocking, or under- neath the mattress or wherever you are keeping your money this year. For twen- ty-five cents, or fifty if you want to be de luxe, you can see "Bombshell" in a few weeks now, and my darlings, when you have seen "Bomb- shell" you have seen more of Hollywood than the oldest na- tives.
By Elizabeth Wilson
A scene still of Jean with Una Merkel. Una, as maid to Jean, has a sort of Daisy DeVoe part in "Bombshell."
A Wampas Ball at the Cocoanut Grove, a quiet but by no means dull afternoon at Palm Springs in the desert, the topsy turvy Brown Derby, a studio set on the M-G-M lot with an actual picture in production, the authentic interior of a star's dressing room, the hot cha cha Tia Juanna (which, translated, means Aunt Jane for no reason I have ever been able to find out), the publicity offices of a major studio, the good old county jail, and one of those little rented forty room affairs in Beverly Hills which a movie star so quaintly calls "home." They're all there, and what's more they are actually what they are.
The exteriors of the movie star's home are actually exteriors of Mary Miles Min- ter's home. The Cocoanut Grove is actu- ally the Cocoanut Grove, where the most famous stars in the world have danced to- gether and started rumors. And the star's dressing room used in the picture is actu- ally, my dears, Jean Harlow's own dressing room on the Metro lot. The portable dressing room on the sound stage, where "Red Dust" is having retakes made, is also Jean Harlow's own personal portable dress- ing room.
That's seeing the real Hollywood now, isn't it? No tricks done with mirrors in this picture except Frank Morgan's nose.
No snares or delusions. No hokum. As Ted Healy says of his sister in the picture, "She's all wool and flat on the table." It doesn't make sense? Naturally. It's Hollywood.
"Yes, Hollywood is really laughing at it- self at last," they tell you. Ha, ha, ha. Hollywood can take it. Ha, ha, ha. Well, it has been a long time since Eddie Lowe first glared at Victor McLaglen and snorted, "Oh yeah?" But it's still a good answer on occasions like this. For between you and me and the Rimplegar's gatepost, Holly- wood can't take it. There's too much gosh-awful truth there for the village of make-believe, where tears come out of a glycerin bottle. Already the rumors have started— the whispering campaign is on. The studio press agent took great pains to explain it to me as we drove along Foot- hill Boulevard, on the way to Palm Springs where the "Bombshell" company was on location.
"Of course, it really isn't Hollywood," the nice man said. "It's only the Hollywood of the fan magazines. (Huh) It's what people from Iowa and Kansas and Texas expect to see in Hollywood and never do. It's what the public likes to think of their movie stars— not what they actually are. In other words, a tourist's conception of Hollywood. Now you and I know there's no truth in it."
Well, that "Oh yeah?" still holds good. I just happened to have read the script of "Bombshell," and I just happen to know what's been going on in this town the last few years behind closed doors and satin drapes. And, my dears, take it from your Aunt Hattie, who has seen so much she's pop-eyed, "Bombshell" isn't just what Kansas thinks of Hollywood— it's what Hollywood really is. Every incident in the story has actually happened here at some time or other. Good old Hollywood in the flesh, not a picture. Hovvja do!
I guess to make sense, although it is a bourgeois trait these vague days, I had bet- ter tell you about the people in "Bomb- shell" before we go into those little inci- dents that have actually happened— and how! The Hollywood Bombshell is the trade name of Lola • Burns, screen star, played by Jean Harlow. And, according to Jean, it's the best role she has ever had, which is saying a Joe E. Brown mouthful when you consider how well Jean did by "Red-Headed Woman" and "Red Dust." Lola Burns is a real movie star, and don't let the "confession" stories tell you dif- ferently. One minute she is as sentimental and sticky as a candy Valentine, and the next moment she goes bombastically mad, screaming and scratching in as beautiful a tantrum as Pola Negri ever had. The pub- lic sees her as an exotic orchid and as
18
Silver Screen
mysterious and shimmering as the seashore in the moonlight. To them she is GLAMOUR. But we see her as a rather dumb little girl from Peoria, imposed upon by a chiseling family, and forced into a hardened sophistication before she is even out of her teens. She's merely the pawn of Publicity.
And that brings us to Lee Tracy, who plays Space Hanlon (there happens to be a Scoop Conlon in Hollywood) who is the dynamic press agent for Monarch Pictures and generally accepted as the "guy who put Lola Burns over." Frank Morgan plays Pops, Lola's bibulous father, who used to run a livery stable back in Peoria but now breeds horses in Beverly Hills with Lola's money. And where have you heard of Pops before? Ted Healy plays Bro, a drunken, gambling ne'er-do-well, who hasn't seen the necessity to do a day's work since Lola was "discovered." What a family! But I've seen worse in Holly- wood.
Then there's Una Merkel playing Miss Mac, Lola's chiseling secretary, and the little items brought out about Miss Mac are faintly reminiscent of the Daisy De Voe trial. Remember Clara Bow's Daisy? And there's the Marquis di Binelli di Pisa who is eager to keep himself married to one of Hollywood's richest stars. And where have we heard of a Marquis before? Nils
The "Bombshell" company on location, with Jean Harlow surrounded by Mary Forbes, Frank Morgan, C. Aubrey Smith, Ted Healy and Fran- chot Tone. Victor Fleming, the director, in foreground.
Jean as "The Hollywood Bombshell," with Frank Morgan as "Pops," her bibulous father.
Asther was supposed to play the part of the scheming Marquis but walked out on the role and it fell to Ivan Lebedeff, the hand-kisser of Holly- wood. When Lola tells Space that she is thinking of marrying the Mar- quis, Space snorts, "What are you do- ing? Playing follow the leader?"
Then there's Jim Brogan, the director, Lee Tracy, who who "knew Lola is co-starred Burns when" and is with Jean, on eager to pick up the the sidelines old — er — friendship with Isabel now that she has be- Jewell. [Cont. on page 54]
for November 1933
19
riFUL
Mac West S explains It All
Wide World Mae as a lion tameress in "I'm No Angel."
WELL, Aunt Emma can keep the birds and bees. She can get a thrill out of their nesting and hiving for we don't need them any more. Mae West has torn the veil from hyp- ocrisy and come right out into the open (well almost) on this Sex business. And it's about time somebody did. Hollywood has been smirking and giggling over Jean Harlow's slipping gowns, Marlene Dietrich's pants and Ernst Lubitsch's beds for months and years now and feeling so naughtily aban- doned. They had poor old Sex so deformed and disfigured by their insinuations and pretenses that the poor dear was just about to be blackballed from the best clubs- women's clubs. Sex is beautiful, really— Mae West says so. Yes, it took a blonde from Brooklyn to grab Sex up out of the mire and put it on a paying basis. And does Sex pay! If there's any doubt in your mind just examine the boxoffice receipts for "She Done Him Wrong."
Let's get analytical about this Sex busi- ness for a moment or so— fascinating sub- ject, isn't it, or do you prefer long walks? If you take Sex seriously it isn't Sex, it is just vulgar and low, but if you go in for that thing with a joie de vivre and a hey nonny nonny and a dash of vermouth, and let yourself be carried away by a wave of genuine emotion, then who shall say you are this and that? Well, of course, some people will always say you are that. Im-
agine being a great hit on the screens throughout the country, not to mention London and Paris and Pago Pago, and all because you didn't pretend what everybody else was pretending. That's the secret of Mae's success. For example, when Jean Harlow first started in pictures she pre- tended to be a nice girl who didn't notice that her dress had practically slipped off of her. But Mae notices, there's the differ- ence. There's ho hypocrisy about Mae's brand of Sex. And if you're going to talk about Sex, says Mae, all right, but don't think you're going to talk about lilies and birds and bees.
Just look at "She Done Him Wrong." You probably have, three times or more. No movie star in Hollywood has ever had such a personal triumph. The picture has already netted over two million dollars for Paramount and it isn't through yet. To date it has played seven thousand return engagements— which, as Gregory Ratoff says, is "sensational!" And even "Night After Night," Mae's first picture in which she played only a "bit," has chalked up over 5500 return engagements simply because
She writes her own shows and then puts them over.
on the second runs Mae got top billing. Does Sex pay? I'm telling you.
And how does Mae feel about this Sex she has let loose in the cinema city, where the cosmic urge is still believed to be a violet ray? I was eager to know myself, so one morning, recently, I invaded the for- bidden precincts of stage 23 on the Para- mount lot, where Director Wesley Ruggles was putting Mae and Kent Taylor through a snappy scene. In "I'm No Angel," the next Westian opus, as you doubtless know, Mae is a voluptuous lion tamer in a circus, who has made a lot of rich and eligible men— has made them see things her way. Particularly has she "fascinated" Kent Tay- lor, a very indigo blue blood who is so eager to "come up sometime" that he is panting in the nostrils. But Mae's a dame what takes her time.
Her opulent hips (padded, my dear) were sheathed in a clinging petunia colored velvet dressing gown which frankly told all. Mae turned on the heat, the cameras began to sizzle and Mr. Taylor began to burn. She shifted from left to right in a series of undulations that would turn the North Pole into Hot Springs, and then she gave him the famous Westian eye business —down on his shoes, his ankle, his knee, [Continued on page 56]
20
Silver Screen
Who Will Be
the QUEEN
Holl
y
woo
If Mary Pickford Abdicates — What Then, Little Man ?
WHERE will we find the next royal home of Hollywood society, should Pickfair happen to go on the
block?
Who will succeed to the crown worn un- til now in great dignity and formal sim- plicity by Mary Pickford— almost from the moment of her marriage, thirteen years ago, to Douglas Fairbanks?
A few chance lines in a gossip column— "Mary Pickford is planning her last party at Pickfair. It will be a sumptuous, formal occasion and will no doubt mark the pass- ing of Pickfair as the hospitable home of the great visitors to movieland'"— set me to wondering about the future of Hollywood social leadership. Wondering, as you have, no doubt, since you heard of the crash of the Pickford-Fairbanks dynasty.
Will lovely, dignified Norma Shearer, will merry-hearted, generous Marion Davies, will the poised, brilliant Ruth Chatterton, or— perchance a man, Gary Cooper— succeed to the dictatorship of Hollywood? Unless, of course, Mary discounts all rumors and keeps Pickfair running again this winter in the sumptuous style of the past.
A social leader in America today, and this should hold true of Hollywood too, is one who has ancestors, the prominence of achievement, or who possesses a large sum of money.
Mary, Norma, Ruth and Gary all have one or more of those qualifications. Then there is, if it should care to be reckoned with, the Barrymore family. Dolores Cos- tello Barrymore, if she wanted to, might qualify. She is young, beautiful, of a famous stage family and is
married to a bril- liant, wealthy and famous scion of an- other stage family. Here are real aristo- crats of Hollywood.
There is, too, Marie Dressier, who belongs in the Social Register, and whose best friend was, for years, the great social queen, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish.
By
Muriel Babcock
Mary rules by her beauty, her pres- tige and her flair for selecting the right people.
Beautiful Mrs. John Barrymore may rule Hollywood society.
Norma Shearer could be the queen if she -wished.
Tallulah Bankhead estab- lished a social cult in Lon- don: "Tea at Tallulah's."
All of these people men- tioned have qualifications of varying kinds for the job. For it is a job. Before tell-
Marion Davies, a hostess to the famous.
ing you about them, let's draw a brief pic- ture of the way Pickfair has functioned— an imaginary picture, say, of the "last party," should Mary decide not to continue her social activity and keep her crown.
Guests will travel to Pickfair, a simple, unpretentious looking white house from [Continued on page 60]
for November 1933
21
Anna Sten, the newcomer, with Mitchell Lewis in "Nana."
O UCH a spell of unusual weather as we've been having out here! The sets are literally blazing in- fernos. Everybody is in a bad humor and nobody speaks to anybody else, except the visi- tors from Podunk and Squee- gee, who are used to humidity back home and who still find it all too, too wonderful.
At Columbia
TWO sets roused me from my torpor. One of them was at Columbia— no less! —and was erected for "A Man's Castle." which not only has Frank Borzage for di- rector but that swell actor Spencer Tracy for the star and Loretta Young, who's cer- tainly improving by leaps and bounds with every new part she plays, for the leading lady.
But that set! I've seen impressive ones in my time but this is probably the most picturesque one ever erected. It's called a "depression camp" and is laid on the banks of the East River in New York. Now, you might think a depression camp (the home of a lot of down-on-their-luckers with no place to live) would be very depressing and uninteresting, but far from it.
It's nothing but a lot of lean-to's. The roofs are weighted down with over-turned baskets, bricks, washtubs, cracker boxes, broken chairs, sticks, worn-out brooms, pipes and what-have-you. An entire stage has been converted into this camp. Dirt has been piled on the floor, whole hills thrown up and, at one end, a shallow stream of water has been constructed along the floor which, when photographed, will fool you into thinking you're seeing the East River. Shrubs are growing up out of the floor. There is a clothesline with a man's shirt and a pair of long drawers hanging on it, to give the place a lifelike atmos- phere.
It is a night shot and in the background (and the whole background is constructed in what is called "miniature"— that is, the buildings and all are scaled down so that when the camera photographs them they will seem to be as far in the distance as
Watching Stars at
As good as "Seventh Heaven" — Frank Borzage directs "A Man's Castle" with Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy, and again makes a great picture.
though they really were a mile or two away) is New York's sky-line— the Wool worth Build- ing and the Empire State Building (with even the light atop it) and other noted structures! The Brooklyn Bridge is there and below it, running at an angle and dwarfed in comparison, is another bridge over which a miniature train runs. There is the sound of the river swishing.
Spencer's shack is on top of one of the hills. A guard rail made of two strands of barbed wire runs along the path leading up to it. Hardboiled set-visitor that I am, I gasped and gulped and my throat tight- ened. This isn't a reproduction of New York— it is New York and the work and ingenuity that must have gone into the construction of this scene gets you.
Spence is a footloose roamer, irresponsible and hating restraint of any kind. At the moment, to make ends meet, he is dressed in full evening clothes (silk hat, cane and all) and wearing a sandwich board adver- tising a certain brand of cigar. "Why," you ask, "the evening clothes?" Because, my dears, if you saw a man in evening dress wearing a sandwich board you'd turn around to look at him, whereas if he had on dilapidated clothes you'd pay no atten- tion.
In his wanderings he encounters Trina (Loretta Young) who has no place to go. So big-hearted Spence offers her half his
How They Act When They Are Acting.
"Without Glory" is Constance Bennett's last picture for Radio. Gilbert Roland plays opposite her.
bed and board. They have just reached the camp and he is showing her the lay-out. "Here we are, Whoosis," he announces. "Bagdale on the Hudson— the fastest grow- ing community in the East. Some day when I'm in the mood I'm going to start a Chamber of Commerce to tell the world about it. How do you like it?"
"Gee!" says Loretta enthusiastically, "it's swell!" She looks out over the squalid little settlement and her enthusiasm mounts. "I've been here a whole year and never even knew there was a place like this.''
"That's the best part of it," Spence an- swers, his face glowing, "the privacy. No rent, no taxes— no nothing. It's the only way to live. Running water (pointing to the river— a whole river of it. And," he adds impressively, "the joint is simply lousy with southern exposure."
To my way of thinking Spencer Tracy is the best actor on the screen today. There's nobody who reads lines with the naturalness he does.
"Hey, mugg," he says coming over when
22
Silver Screen
Work
By
S. R. Mook
the scene is finished, "I thought you were coming up to dinner last month when I saw you."
"I was," I mutter. "I might just as well tell you the truth: I forgot." And a dull red suffuses my mobile face.
She finally gets him on the radio and eventually his big chance comes. He's a sensation and, of course, gets the swelled head. Sev- eral times he arrives for his broadcast in a drunken condi- tion. Once he is so intoxicated he knocks over the microphone. The next day the spon- sor of his program (Joseph Girard) ar- rives at the station. He and Jory are in the latter's office— a modernistic alfair with silver -striped
From the set of "A Man's Castle" I wan- der over to the next stage which gave me a thrill, where Helen Twelvetrees, Wallace Ford and Victor Jory are acting in "My Woman." This is the picture Nancy Carroll walked out of when she went to Honolulu. Helen is home today playing with the baby and Wally Ford is laid up with blood poison- ing, so Victor Jory is
The much discussed "Design for Living," with Franklin Pangborn, Miriam Hopkins and Thomas Graydon.
holding down the fort.
There is nothing startlingly new about the plot but it's a good one with several novel situations, and it is the sort of thing both Helen and Wally do best. They are
for November 1933
"The House on 5 6th Street," a gay nineties story with Kay Francis and Gene Raymond.
married. He is a shiftless, lazy, ex-vaudevil- lian, vain and egotistical. On a steamer going through the Canal with them is Jory, head of a big broadcasting chain. Helen meets him and asks for an audition for Wally.
The picture "Penthouse" gives George E. Stone a "killer" role, Warner Baxter has the role of a detective.
walls and low furniture. In the window is a bronze nude.
"Is that nude a reproduction of a famous statue?" I ask Victor Schert- zinger, the director.
"It's a genuine bronze," he replies, "and here's something funny: I've a bisque reproduction of it in my home."
The lights are set and the scene starts. "It's an absolute imposition, Mr. Brad- ley," Girard storms to Jory. "We're spend- [Continued on page 6j\
23
OB
Meets tk
e
The sprightly verve of Bob on the screen is the real Bob.
When Robert Mont- gomery Made a "Person- al Abearance" the Girls Came in Crowds.
fending member gingerly.
"My editor promised me that you would be gay, insouciant and charm- ing," I admonished him none too gently. "I might have known you'd go and have a toothache or some- thing."
"No, just a sore throat," he said soothingly. "You won't mind if I lie down, will you?"-suiting the ac-
ON A hot afternoon in late summer, I went to see Robert Montgomery. He was then making personal appear- - ances at the Capitol Theatre in New York, and, for several days past, scraps of infor- mation concerning his sensational welcome there had been leaping up at me from every newspaper I chanced upon.
At each performance the theatre was packed to overflowing. Apparently Mr. Montgomery was serving as a magnet to draw more money into the Capitol coffers than had any single film star before him. In the unique language of "Mr. Glogauer of the Movies," it was COLOSSAL! And I had thought there was a depression going on.
With such far-flung popularity and suc- cess to set his sails, naturally it was with blithe assurance that I forced a path through the hungry (not in a dietary sense) group of pretty girls and eager matrons who blocked the stage entrance.
At the head of a flight of cold stone steps, in a tiny cubby-hole of a dressing- room, I found the cause of all this excite- ment-a tall, slim chap, with large clear blue eyes, light brown hair, a fair skin and
24
as genial a smile as I've en- countered on the face of any man.
"You'll have to excuse me," he said after we shook hands, "but I've almost lost my voice. The cooling system in the thea- tre has done things to my throat." And he patted the of-
SlLVER SCREEN!
USTOMERS
By L
enore Dannie
Is
tion to the words with the deliberate ease of a thoroughly healthy individual deter- mined to make the most of a temporary indisposition.
"Go right ahead. I've always had a yen to try out my bedside manner on a good-looking young man."
"I'm sure you'll do very well indeed," he assured me with a puckish grin as he reached out and dragged the nearest chair closer to his couch. "I have to conserve my voice, you see."
I saw, or, at least, I heard. My boasted feminine intuition also warned me that perhaps this exceedingly gracious young man might have preferred sleeping or reading or gargling his sensitive throat during these few hours allotted him be- tween five performances each day, but I very wisely refrained from letting him know how intuitive I was.
And so, as they say in the legal profession, we got down to cases.
"Are you surprised at the ovation you're receiving during this 'personal appearance'
Books are a large part of Montgom- ery's life. His so- phistication has brought him unaf- fected simplicity.
The "finest leading man" is a husky tennis playing six footer, but his gentle manner makes you forget his inches.
f engagement?"
He nodded his head WF so emphatically there
was no need for an f answer.
"Well, then, are you being bothered by the crowds that haunt the stage doors begging for a sight of you?"
"H'm! I'd be a good deal more bothered if they weren't there at all! The worry is that there may come a time when they won't be there. . . ." His voice trailed off into space and I said nothing knowing that Time, in its flight, sometimes behaves most perversely.
"Have you ever studied mob psychology?" I went on. "What sort of people do you suppose they are— these anxious auto- graph hunters, I mean, who hang around for hours waiting
for the briefest glimpse of a celebrity?" He parried my question with another.
"Haven't you ever hung around the street waiting for a prominent person to show up?"
Sheepishly I had to confess to a full hour spent around the Hotel Astor waiting for President Roosevelt to put in an appear- ance that never materialized.
"And I once waited hours for a glimpse of President Coolidge," Mr. Montgomery informed me with a sorry shake of his head, "only to learn that 'in person' he was just as disappointing as his unkindest critics have accused him of being."
"At least your curiosity was gratified," I said. "But these crowds downstairs— do they ever catch a view of you coming or going? I felt sorry for them when I came in, it was so warm on the street and they looked so eager and hopeful."
"The other night," said Montgomery, "coming from dinner at Sardi's, I stayed
[Continued on page 58]
for November 1933
25
"Watch These Stars—"
suwHflHHKBHBBBMl
T
Says Walter Wanger
The Man Who Has Picked Many Winners Selects the Most Promising Stars of Hollywood.
By Maude Cheatham
I HE day of the beautiful dumbell is over. It takes talent to win success on the screen now."
So says Walter Wanger, dynamic young production executive, who has been a forceful influence in motion pic- tures ever since he became affiliated with them in 1920.
Wanger is always the pioneei and he is responsible for many of the forward steps in the film industry. Sincere, and with the courage of his convictions, he is ever eager to fight to win his goal, ever ready to gamble on some new per- sonality, story or innovation that looks promising.
While bubbling with enthusi- asm, he is level headed and prac- tical. He has no slams for past failures or mistakes, and he is optimistic as to the future. He thinks motion pictures the most exciting and most progressive of all industries.
I caught Mr. Wanger in his "watch tower" office at the Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer studio the other morning, and, sand- wiched in between previewing a reel of a new film, confer- ences with two directors and, at least, a dozen phone calls, I gathered enough material to fill a volume of movie history. He is a fluent talker and I hate to
Mae West is a surprise success. No one under- stands her popu- larity, nor can deny it.
Elusive, mischie- vous Miriam Hopkins, who has one of the brightest futures in pictures.
One of the best bets of the year is handsome, talented, humorous Bing Crosby.
leave out a word, for everything he said was interest- ing and his comments, touching many screen favorites, were illuminating.
"It doesn't require genius to find new personalities and new talents," he said. "Hollywood is full of both. There is no question that personality is ninety percent of success on either stage or screen— a player must have that indefinable something that captures the interest and intrigues the imagination of the audi- ence. There must, however, be talent to back this up.
"Silent pictures were merely a manufacturing process and didn't depend upon acting ability. Physical
26
Silver Screen
beauty and appeal sufficed. But. with the coming of sound to the films, there was a demand for dramatic technique to insure sus- tained careers. A few silent players made good, but many stage trained actors were drafted to take the places of those who de- pended wholly on looks to get by.
"Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo are two glorious exceptions. Neither have had stage experience, but both are women of rare intelligence and possess so much creative imagination that they have set a swift pace for even theatre trained stars to follow. They are students of their art and take their careers seriously, recognizing a responsibility to the vast audiences that have ac- claimed them.
"We have stars, writers, directors and technicians who are skilled. Talent abounds. The point now is to co-ordinate. It isn't temperamental stars we have to deal with in Hollywood; it is temperamental and often ignorant men in charge who hinder the development of motion pictures.
"Now that we have sound, I believe pictures should subsidize the theatre. After all, they are basically the same. Both stage and screen will be enriched when players can go back and forth between the two, getting fresh inspiration from each medium. I've always contended that if an actor can hold a theatre audience, he can do the same in a screen play. Granting that sometimes the camera detracts or increases the personality of the player, the fact remains that acting and dramatic talent are the same in essence whether given directly over the footlights or via the screen.
"I was Production Manager of Paramount Studio for ten years and when sound came in I was responsible for bringing many stage stars to the screen. I recall when I decided to see what Jimmy Durante could do in films. My associates said I was crazy, but Durante had been bowling over revues and night clubs with a special brand of humor and I was convinced he could do the same in films. He was anxious to try it too, and was tremendously serious about the whole thing. We put him in a picture, 'Road House Nights,' and his success fully justified my opinion. Du- rante still interests me as much as any screen personality and I consider him a genius with overwhelming talents.
"Miriam Hopkins, on the New York stage, displayed a sparkle
and an elusive qual- ity that would en- hance the screen. We tried her out in a little film, 'Fast and Loose,' and she ful- filled our expecta- tions even though the picture was not so good. Chevalier was due to make 'The Smiling Lieu- tenant,' and Ernst Lubitsch, who was to direct it, gave Miriam a chance in that. The result is screen his- tory. She is one of the rarely talented film players we have today.
Walter Wanger, now Associ- ate Producer of M-G-M and directly in charge of Garbo's new picture.
"Claudctte Colbert in- variably suggested glamour on the stage and there was no reason why, with her youth and beauty, she should not carry it to the screen. Her first picture, 'The Lady Lies,' proved this. Claudette is Glamour —personified.
"Here's something amus- ing. Every actress we took from the stage, Miriam Hopkins, Claudette Colbert, Kay Francis, to mention but a few, were deathly afraid of the screen, afraid of Hollywood. They wouldn't sign a contract unless there was a clause saying they could return to the stage when they wished. Yet not one of them went back. There's an excitement in motion pictures, a greater variety of roles, more money and world fame. Who can resist such a combination?"
Mr. Wanger tells, with a laugh, how he was responsible for the re-discovery of Lee Tracy. Lee had been dropped by Warner Brothers following "The Blessed Event" and seemed out in the cold, cinematically speaking. Wanger engaged him for "Night Mayor" and he turned in such a grand job that he was soon off to what has proven to be one of the most spectacular careers of the screen. All he needed was a boost and "Night Mayor" gave it to him.
It was Wanger, too, who borrowed Nils Asther for "The Bitter Tea of General Yen," in which he made a sensation. Now he is being starred, the result of another boost at the critical hour.
"I consider the Marx Brothers among our greatest artists. We gambled with them several years ago, for one picture. Gambled, you understand, with Paramount and its resources back of us. At the time we felt that one film would go well in New York, Chicago and a few other large cities where these comedians were known as popular vaudeville headliners. Well, we were due for a big surprise, for the film made a tremendous hit all over the country and even became an international success, showing for twelve weeks in London, where the Marxes had failed dismally in their one vaudeville appearance.
"Why was this? No one knows-. No one knows what movie audiences want, they don't even know themselves. They think they want this or that, but when it is handed to them on the golden platter, they go trailing off to another theatre were some- thing entirely different is being shown. No one knew they wanted Mae West— or 'She Done Him Wrong.' Probably if audiences had been asked, they would have said, 'We want our heroines slim and willowy; we want our plays up to date; we yearn for refined fun.'
Yet look at the riot Mae and her picture have created.
"Perhaps it is a surprise quality in star or story that movie patrons like. People absorb so rapidly [Continued on next page]
"There are still- to-come conquests for Jean Harlow," says Walter Wan- ger.
Franchot Tone has MMM vindicated Mr. Wanger's wisdom; and Loretta Young > is his pride and ; joy. Franchot and Loretta in "Mid- ; night Mary" were delightful.
for November 19
these days. When they want something, they go out and get it in such large quan- tities that they are soon satiated and hegin looking for something new. So the screen must keep supplying some novelty, some fresh angle to please them. Too, I believe there must be glamour and romance throb- bing through all motion picture entertain- ment in order to catch the public's fancy."
Mr. Wanger describes Hollywood as the backstage of a vast theatre, an exciting, busy work shop. But backstage offers only the theatre atmosphere, with its gossip, its politics, its heartaches and triumphs. When the show is over it is good for players to get away from behind the scenes long enough to get a fresh perspective. He says that is where Chevalier is so smart. He makes a couple of films, then goes to Paris and back to the stage, and thus never gets stale.
"Chevalier is a great chap," said Mr. Wanger. "I first met him in Paris, soon after the war, at dinner with a mutual friend, Wally Johnson, of the American Embassy. I was tremendously attracted to him at that time, but, of course, neither of us dreamed that within a very few years Jesse Lasky would bring him to America, and that we would be so intimately asso- ciated in pictures.
"Lubitsch is another remarkable man. He is one of the greatest forces in this busi- ness and I hope to see him become a pro- ducer as well as a director. With his keen sense of dramatic values his judgment would be invaluable in the production of pictures."
When I asked Mr. Wanger which, of all the pictures he had supervised he con- sidered the best, his reply was quick and emphatic. " 'The Royal Family' and 'Laughter.' Each held a particular charm for me and I am proud of my share in their success. However, 'The Letter,' super- vised by Monte Bell, is perhaps my favorite
picture. In fact, I do not believe this has ever been topped in point of dramatic and emotional climaxes. Jeanne Eagles, what an artist she was! She was ill during the filming of the picture but insisted on keeping on. It was amazing to watch her as the great actress rising to thrilling emo- tion and power before the cameras, only to droop into a sick little girl the minute they stopped clicking. Both stage and screen lost something very precious, very fine with her passing.
"And Jean Harlow, there's a star! Just watch her. It was Charles Laughton who suggested Jean for the role of Alice, in 'Alice in Wonderland.' I agree that this would be an inspired choice, for she would not only be the pictorial ideal but she also has the rare dramatic powers so necessary for Alice's portrayal.
"Loretta Young is another of my favorites. I consider her arnong the most promising of our younger players. She has 'class,' and distinction: she glows with an inner radi- ance, and her beauty is fairly breath-taking at times.
"Joan Crawford has not yet reached her pinnacle. Joan burns with ambition and masters each rung as she climbs to the top."
This year is destined to be especially eventful in screen history, so Mr. Wanger believes, and he hopes one of the high lights will be the luring of Noel Coward to films. In him, says Mr. Wanger, will be found not only a new personality but an actor of individuality who would prove a great asset to motion pictures.
Among the players that he expects to make the most important strides are Bing Crosby, Jean Harlow, Mae West, Loretta Young, Franchot Tone, Miriam Hopkins and May Robson, grand character actress who is having her chance, at last, to prove that films appreciate acting at its finest.
To my question as to whom he considered the greatest personality so far developed on
While Claudette Colbert was recovering from her attack of appendicitis, we took her picture. She's off on location now, making "Four Frightened People."
the screen, Mr. Wanger paused a moment, then replied, "There have been three; Mary Pickford, who for years was truly America's Sweetheart; Rudolph Valentino, who spelled Romance as no one else has been able to do, and Greta Garbo, our greatest star today.
"Garbo is remarkably like Isadora Dun- can, in artistry and in temperament. Both, beyond criticism. Both, honest and sin- cere. Both, inspired."
Mr. Wanger laughed, "You had better not get me started on Greta Garbo, for I am one of her most ardent devotees. I have always admired her acting, her dignity and courage, and now that I am associated with her— you know, I am supervising her new picture, 'Queen Christina'— I find her a wholly delightful woman. True, she is moody, she is shy and reticent. These are characteristics of the Swedish people. My wife comes from that country, and I have many Swedish friends, so I appreciate the temperament. But among those she knows and likes, Miss Garbo is a charming, entertaining woman and a gracious com- panion. She loves pictures and is well in- formed on every angle of the business. She has no conceit, no false vanity and she does not like to be yes-ed. You'll admit it takes supreme courage to stand by and see herself misunderstood, criticised and con- demned merely because she insists on living her life as she pleases and refuses to babble her private affairs all over the front pages. Garbo could not live in a crowded atmos- phere and her diffidence is absolutely sin- cere, it is not a pose.
" 'Queen Christina' was Miss Garbo's own idea, she suggested it and has spent months in research during its development. She is more interested in it than any picture she has ever made. On her return to Holly- wood, she viewed Marlene Dietrich's film, 'The Song of Songs,' directed by Rouben Mamoulian, and was so pleased with its subtlety and delicacy and especially with the handling of the romance, that she asked for Mamoulian for her picture. I firmly believe this combination will prove the most brilliant that has ever been achieved between star and director.
"Mamoulian is thirty-two years of age, of Armenian birth but Russian education, and an artist to his finger tips. He directed some of the New York Theatre Guild plays and I brought him to the screen because I felt we needed his fresh and original viewpoint, and his courage.
" 'Christina' offers Greta every oppor- tunity for her talents-. It tells the story of a 17th century Queen of Sweden, who lived a 20th century life. It is vivid and dramatic."
Walter Wanger began his career early, when, at the age of twenty, he formed a partnership with Nazimova, to produce her in "Ception Shoals." Now, at thirty-nine, he has brought his splendid executive abil- ity to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer staff. He told me in his quick, emphatic way, "This is the most amazing organzation, with ter- rific strength back of it. Everyone from the highest official to the least technician, strives for high quality in each picture. As I say, no one knows what the public wants. A bit of lunatic comedy, stark tragedy, political intrigue, a horror picture, sweet romance or a gangster struggle may strike public favor. But aways, there must be a realism that carries the audience along with it.
"It is a huge gamble. Perhaps that's one of its pulls. Once in the business few wil- lingly leave it. There are heartbreaks and disappointments that equal its triumphs— but over it all is drama. And how we all love drama."
28
Silver Screen
Tracing
lhc Travels
TRACY
By Jack J
amison
E
I VERY star in Hollywood owes his suc- cess to personality, but that old saw holds truest of all for Lee Tracy. Personality— his mile-a-rhinute conversation, his zippy wise-cracks, his bouncing energy, his snapping fingers— is what Lee has to offer to the screen.
All of us want personality, so we're naturally curious as to where Lee got his. His life so far hasn't been measured in months and years, like most of our lives, but in a chain of adventures, and all of them exciting.
Lee's father was a railroad executive. He was moved around the country a lot, and Lee's life, from his boyhood up, reads much like a railroad time-table— Arrive 8:03 A. M., Leave 9:01 A. M., you know, like that. From the time he was a baby, his family moved to a new city regularly once every four years. Lee's life and adventures can be traced by the towns he lived in. For instance:
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Not many people have adventures when they're only one year old, but Lee had one, at that age, in Atlanta, where the family was living at the time. A colored nurse, a gigantic woman as black as coal, used to take him out for a ride in his baby-buggy every afternoon. Her name was Campaspe. Campaspe had a gentleman friend, down the street from the Tracy's house, a col- ored man named George, who was a gar- dener for one of the neighbors. She used to park Lee in his buggy out on the side- walk, and go in for a chat with George.
The street happened to be on a hill. One afternoon the brake on the baby-buggy let go, while Campaspe was visiting her friend, and Lee, in his buggy, started rolling down the hill, going faster and faster with every foot. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was a lamp-post at the bottom of the hill. The baby-buggy brought up against it with a crash, and Lee sailed through the air. As they say, after an accident, there were no fatalities; but Lee's adventuring, you see, can really be said to have started when he was no more than a year old.
"Miss Lonely- hearts," in which he directs the lovelorn, is Lee's next.
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY They moved from Atlanta to Louisville when Lee was 4. Just before they moved from Louisville he was 8. And, just before he was 8, Lee became a local hero.
The family's house in Louisville was next to a bunch of vacant lots, on which a fine nop of weeds flourished. During the summer the weeds dried out, and, as was more or less inevitable, one day somebody tossed a match or a cigarette-butt into them, and they caught on fire. A solid sheet of flame was roaring down on the Tracys' house inside of an incredibly few seconds. Lee was alone in the house with his mother, who was upstairs in bed, re- covering from a dangerous appendicitis operation. Most small boys of 8 would have gone to pieces. Lee did not. Keep- ing his head, he told his mother not to worry, trotted to the corner, smashed the little glass in the red fire-alarm box and turned in an alarm, and trotted back home to tell his mother that it was all right; the fire-engines would be there in a minute. And they were!
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI From Louisville the railroad transferred Lee's father to Kansas City. Lee arrived there dressed in a cowboy outfit that was complete even to goatskin chaps. He
thought he was in Indian territory for sure! But there were no Indians, so, for the time being he had to stop having adventures. The only adventure he had was to get himself elected cap- tain of the school baseball team, and this he accomplished by studying the game from a rule-book. Moving so often from town to town, he had never gotten in with a crowd of chil- dren his own age and he did not know how to play any boys' games. So he bought the rule-book, a ball, and a mitt, and sneaked off by himself after school in the afternoons, where the other boys couldn't see him. There, alone, he practised catching the ball —tossing it up on the roof and catching it when it fell off. It is a slightly absurd pic- ture, and, at the same time, it catches you by the throat— the small, tow-headed, lonely boy trying desperately to learn to be like the other boys. Soon he was umpiring every sand-lot game the kids in the neigh- borhood played. It really sounds like a Horatio Alger story, but within a very few months he was not only the steady "ump," but team captain as well.
Maybe Lee's screen success isn't such an accident after all!
ALTON, ILLINOIS
After an eventful session in a St. Louis high school, Lee's travels brought him to a military academy in this town. On his very first day there he was caught smok- ing. In six months more he was down for every crime on the list— tardiness, not keeping his room clean, sloppy uniform, all of them.
But then, suddenly, something happened to him. To the commandant's astonish- ment, overnight he turned into a modest cadet. The reason was that, by this time the war was on. When he reached the
[Continued on page 53]
for November 1933
29
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John Miehle
DOROTHY LEE
THE witchery of Dot is not confined to Hallowe'en or to "Take a Chance," which she made recently. After her two years in vaudeville, she is back with Wheeler and Woolsey, and working on a (• t- contract for Radio, with only time out to feed her Thanksgiving
chickens.
Ernest A. Bachrach
■St
ELrner Fryer
MR. AND MRS. RICHARD BARTHELMESS
DICK'S vacation in the Indian country this year so inspired him that he is quite excited over the plan to do "Mas- sacre" next. How well he is looking! Success, which dogs Richard's footsteps year after year, cannot change him, nor adulation steal from him his modest charm.
KATHARINE HEPBURN
" k ikORNING GLORY" made a tremendous success. It I V 1 played to one hundred and fifty-four thousand people in one week at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The tender pity that Katharine stirred in our hearts for the little heroine, promises well for "Little Women."
RICHARD ARLEN
JULIE HAYDON
WE LIKE "location" pictures and loathe trick shots. Dick Arlen and Julie Haydon actually travelled to the vast wheat fields near Pendleton, Oregon, to make "Golden Harvest." Julie Haydon, the girl who looks like Ann Harding, scans the far horizon as Dick points the way to a golden
harvest in pictures.
ANNA STEN
AFTER months of patient study, Anna is ready now to make a picture in i English. An adaptation of "Nana," by Zola, will form the basis of her first film. This beautiful German girl is expected to outshine all other imported stars. Which is pretty tough on Garbo, Dietrich, and Lilian Harvey. She is lovely enough, certainly, so let her win if she can, and welcome.
JACK LA RUE
JACK is a western hoss-opera villain now in "To The Last Man," and he takes it in his stride. SinGe his forceful personality first appeared on the screen, he has tackled many parts, mostly mean, and made each vicious
role shudderingly real.
Above, Jack LaRue in "The Story of Temple Drake," with Florence Eld- ridge and Miriam Hopkins. Below, Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes and Jack in "Farewell to Arms." As the priest who understood impetuous lovers, LaRue was unforgettable.
LILIAN HARVEY LEW AYRES
IF "MY WEAKNESS" has as gay an atmosphere as these pictures indicate, Lilian Harvey and Lew Ayres have a success to put up with. Here is no panic-stricken stranger trying to make good, but a rollicking, beautiful spirit, poised and
confident. We are glad that Lew, too, has a break.
FIRST STILL
/ / I\'DER the direction of Rouben Mamoulian. the much talked of picture which signalizes Garbo's return to the screen is now under way at the Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer studios.
GARBO AT WORK ON "QUEEN CHRISTINA"
HIS exclusive photograph shows Greta Garbo as Queen Christina, in a scene with C. Aubrey Smith. The story of "Queen Christina" is based upon the life of a Swedish ruler of the picturesque years, when every garment was a "costume." It is in this picture that John Gilbert plays the part of a Spanish nobleman— lover of the queen. Mamoulian, the director, is seated
on the stool at the right. (See story on page I 6.)
T
"A Man's Castle," with Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young, promises to be a sensation.
Colleen Moore and Spencer Tracy in "The Power and the Glory," the picture which introduced a new method in story telling.
SPENCER TRACY
MORE Power and more Glory to Spencer, whp has come through as one of our best picture players. His versatility enables him to wear a sailor's cap in "Shanghai Madness" and a silk top- per in "A Man's Castle."
Clarence Sinclair Bull
JEAN HARLOW
I HIS is the swimming pool of Jean's new houss — and Jean herself.
She has a great deal to smile about, for the notices of "Dinner at Eight" were very complimentary, and "Bombshell" is already winning favorable comments.
CLAIRE TREVOR GEORGE O'BRIEN
"The Last Trail," with George and virtue triumphant.
ADOLPHE MENJOU BENITA HUME
"The Worst Woman in Paris" and the old tempter.
HELEN VINSON
GEORGE RAFT
It's "Midnight Club," and who's afraid.
JUDITH ALLEN BING CROSBY
In "Too Much Harmony." Why, that's impossible!
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Character studies of Charl ie in "Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men."
CHARLES FARRELL
"AGGIE APPLEBY, Maker of Men" is Charlie's ** new picture for Radio. He has been study- ing steadily since he left Fox, and great things are in store for him.
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FRANCES FULLER'S beautifully smooth hands add much to her charm. With GARY COOPER in Paramount's "ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON."
NEW! Try Hinds Cleansing Cream for your face ... by makers < Hinds Honey & Almond Cream. Liquefies, floafs ouf dirt . . . 40c, 55
Kenneth Alexander
RUSS COLOMBO
Begins his screen career in "Broadway Thru a Keyhole."
Ernest A. Bachr
SARI MARITZA
Cast in "Beautiful," with Ann Harding
MIMI LAWLOR
Educational Pictures discovers a beauty for their comedies.
Kenneth Alexa
GEORGE BANCROFT
Twentieth Century Pictures sees in George just the man for "Blood M
Silver Screen for November 1933
47
"Sh-h! I'm Happily ^ Married"
Fay Wray Has a Tough Time With Monsters, But Gets Along OK. at Home.
By Ben Maddox
IOVE, as grandma talks about it, seems to have had about as much chance in career-bent Hollywood as a dowdy gown in La ("Stream- line") Crawford's fall wardrobe. I mean love— the real thing!
What with so many divorces and separations, to "preserve" mutual respect, annoying us lately, most of us have been ready to adopt Mae West's creed that love is just a losing racket for a movie girl and you're going to get your fingers burned if you play.
Then Fay Wray eases into the spotlight and completely upsets the theory that husbands and lady stars won't mix!
Now Fay isn't a newcomer. She's been acting in the movies for quite awhile. But it didn't seem to make much difference. A pleasant-enough ingenue, her spot was a modest one, in the back- ground.
All of a sudden she has been given some meaty roles, and her excellent work forces us to realize that she has evolved astonishingly. Today, recog- nized as a first-rate actress, she is right up in the definitely important class. In the money, too, with contracts at both Twentieth Century and Columbia and frequent calls from the other major studios to be filled in her leisure.
When we stop to figure the how and why, we come smack against the fact that it is her happy marriage which is directly responsible for her increased charm and ability.
She doesn't want to emphasize her success in love. Fay is a little superstitious, claiming that those who have bragged the loudest have tempted the gods. She is content to be thankful in private. And that is why you have never once heard her discourse on how to catch or hold a man, standard topics for interviews.
Yet last June she celebrated, quietly, her fifth wedding anniversary! Maybe the dis- illusioned cynics are wrong. Look what love has done for Fay!
It has transformed her from an extraor- dinarily shy, vague girl into a poised young woman of depth and. understanding. It has taught her to think courageously and it has given her marvelous inspiration.
"I used to be guided by my intuition rather than by intelligence," she frankly [Continued on page 72]
John Monk Saunders, p 1 aywri gh.t and director.
Fay's happy marriage to John Monk Saun- ders is not a pub- licity gesture, but a real romance of two happy people and the world well lost.
48
Silver Screen for November 1933
Wide World
Primo Camera and Max Baer in a fight scene from "The Prize Fighter and the Lady." The law forbids shipping real fight films, so smart old M-G-M has taken the boys in action, to show the fans just how the world's Heavyweight Champion and the Con- tender match up. Jack Dempsey referees the fight in the picture, which turns out to be a draw.
THAT robin's egg blue car you see chasing across the country belongs to Georgie Raft, and that dark young man at the wheel is Georgie. He has a month's vacation from his studio and has decided to drive to New York and give Broadway the once over— and incidentally let Broadway give him the once over.
— .
THE greatest sensation that has been made on the Metro lot was caused by Ed Wynn asking the publicity office to send more sight-seers over to his set. Poor dear Mr. Wynn doesn't know yet that a movie star is supposed to growl every time a tourist or a writer comes on his set. . — <$>. — .
TACK OAKIE calls Bing Crosby "The « Groaner," which is a very good name for him if you happen to be one of those people who dislikes crooners.
WAIT'LL you see it! Whew— and a couple of oh boys! That spider web negligee Mae West wears in "I'm No Angel," with a big rhinestone spider placed just so on it!!!
— #- — ■
TEANETTE MacDONALD will dance in J "The Cat and the Fiddle" and Barbara Stanwyck and Carole Lombard will sing in their next little opuses, respectively en- titled "Broadway and Back" and "The White Woman." If you haven't sung— or danced— in a picture these days, well, you can't belong to our club.
LORETTA YOUNG is being seen around ' a lot with Spencer Tracy these days— and nights. Guess you heard that Spencer and his Missus have come to the parting of the ways.
MORE
the Cocoanut Grove Jimmy gets the credit, or the discredit, and it makes tilings sort of hard for Mrs. Jimmy Cagney. Bill was getting awfully sick of this mistaken iden- tity himself until the other day when he really got a break. He was walking to the Green Room on the Warner lot when a stranger came up to him and stuck a ten dollar bill in his hand.
"Thanks, Jimmy," said the stranger, "that's the ten bucks I borrowed from you last year in New York."
Now Bill has decided that the mistaken identity business may be remunerative after all.
TACK OAKIE and Judith Allen were J walking into the Paramount restaurant together while "Too Much Harmony" was in production. Judith was carrying her Pekingese, which happens to be a breed of dog that Mr. Oakie just can't admire under any conditions.
"You'd better leave that thing out here," Jack said to her. "Look at that sign on the door. NRA. It
Acme
Marie Dressier stops at the mike, as she attends the premiere of "Dinner at Eight," to say a word to her friends everywhere.
RAMON NOVARRO insists there is ■ nothing "serious" between him and Myrna Loy, but Ramon never misses a day visiting Myrna at the studio. —.#>—.
JIMMY CAGNEY'S next picture will J be "The Finger Man" and he'll have two leading ladies, Mae Clarke and Pa- tricia Ellis. In one of his early pictures Jimmy once socked Mae Clarke in the face with a grapefruit, and the sock was heard round the world as every news- paper reviewer commented upon it. It was the first time a "dame" had ever been socked so effectively on the screen. The first day of "The Finger Man," when Mae and Jimmy were going over their lines together on the set, a huge box of grapefruit arrived. Everybody laughed but Mae.
BILL CAGNEY, Jimmy's brother, has had a lot of interesting and ex- citing experiences since he arrived in Hollywood because he is the very "spittin' image" of his famous brother. Every time Bill takes a girl dancing at
Acme
Clara Bow is at work on "Hoopla," which is "The Barker" done over. Here she is with her two cousins, Johnny and Lillian Bow, during training schedule. Clara now weighs one hundred and fourteen pounds.
Silver Screen for November 1933
49
GOSSIP
means No Rabbits Allowed."
■ — «#« — >
SALLY EILERS' two most ardent fans are her mother and her father. Her first important picture break came in "The Goodbye Kiss," a feature made some years ago by Mack Sennett.
"It played down in Los Angeles at the Million Dollar Theatre and mother and dad went to every performance," Sally will tell you. "They saw it exactly twenty-five times. The ushers all got to know them, and kept two seats reserved just for them. 'Good afternoon, Mrs. Eilers,' they'd say, 'We hope you will enjoy the show again.' "
n ik§>0— <
THE prop men on the "Queen Chris- tina" set (lucky boys) will tell you that when John Gilbert came on the set for his first day's work in the Garbo pic- ture he found Madame in a medieval bed.
"Gee, it's colossal," John blurted out like a little boy, but these prop men, un- imaginative creatures, don't know whether he was referring to the bed or to the fact that he is once more Garbo's leading man. But we know all right. "Colossal" used to be John's pet word in the old Garbo-Gilbert days and you can be quite sure Garbo remembers it well.
; „_„<£„_„
ONE of the most attractive foursomes about Hollywood is made up of Una Merkel and her handsome husband, Ron- ald Burla, and Madge Evans and her fiance, Tom Gallery.
TOE E. BROWN really « isn't superstitious- well, not much— but there must always be a red-headed property man working on his set.
John Gilbert and his wife, Virginia Bruce, at the costume party of Kay Francis at the Vendome Cafe in Hollywood.
Acme
Wide World
Acme
Host and Hostess, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth MacKenna, and a Grade A cow. Kay Francis, as a milkmaid, and Ken, as a cop, helped to make their party a great success.
A coupla Farmers, no less. Gloria Swanson and her hus- band, Michael Farmer, at the barn dance given by Kay Francis and Kenneth MacKenna.
T^HE virtually obsolete term "polyandry" has assumed a new signifi- cance now that Lubitsch is filming Noel Coward's "Design for Living," which deals with poly- andry in polite modern society. (That's right, you'll find it under "p" in the dictionary.)
Anyway, when Dick Ar- len asked a stenographer at the Paramount studio if she knew anything about "polyandry," the bright young thing sweet- ly replied, "Oh, you mean Lona Andre's sister? No,
I don't know her."
Look out, Gracie Allen!
WHENEVER that grand actress Alison Skipworth wants to get out of some- thing she doesn't relish (like a "sitting" in the gallery, or an interview, or an afternoon tea) she always says, "I'm sorry, but I'm leaving for New York on Monday."
"It's really no fib," "Skippy" explains. "I don't say which Monday, and when I do leave it will be just like that. I'll pack Saturday, rest Sunday and fly on Monday."
GARY COOPER likes the role of "Bill Grimes," which he plays in "One Sun- day Afternoon," better than any part he has ever had in his long movie career. Personally, we liked him best as the young ambulance driver in "Farewell to Arms."
50
Silver Screen for November 1933
Reviews
OF RECENT PICTURES
PADDY, THE NEXT BEST THING
Rating: Delightful— Fox JANET GAYNOR, a little Irish girl this J time, with a far better accent than you usually find on little Hollywood Irish girls, simply romps through her latest picture with such infectious gayety that we get all rompyish too. We haven't liked the petite Janet so much in a long time. There's little or no plot to the picture, but with a superb cast and the most marvelous scenery that these old eyes have feasted on in many a day, we can't go straining at gnats' wings. What's more, there's Walter Connolly, that simply grand actor of the New York stage, getting his first really big picture break. As Major Adair, Janet's charming and im- pecunious father, Mr. Connolly dominates the picture and gives a performance that will long be remembered.
The story's about two sisters, Janet and Margaret Lindsay, who live with their father in an Irish seacoast town— in a great big ancestral home, every brick of which is heavily mortgaged. But Margaret is in love with Harvey Stephens, and Janet's in love with life, and Walter Connolly can't
Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter.
worry long about anything, so they're all quite happy until Warner Baxter drives up in his Rolls Royce and insists on marrying Margaret, whom he met three years before. Margaret doesn't want to marry Mr. Baxter because she's in love with Harvey, but she feels that she owes it to her father, poor dear, to bring some money into the family. So Janet feels called upon to fix things in order that Margaret shan't sacrifice herself on the Golden Altar, and she manages things so effectively that Warner Baxter falls in love with her and Margaret re- fuses to speak to her for over a year. But of course there's a happy ending. There's a charming atmosphere about this picture and young and old will like it.
BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS
Rating: Exciting— Warners
THIS picture is laid almost entirely in the department of the police force which is given over to the search for missing per- sons. Naturally, then, there are a lot of sub-plots and a lot of people wandering around quite breezily. But the main plot concerns Lewis Stone, Pat O'Brien, Bette
Davis and Alan Dinehart. Pat is a de- tective on the robbery squad, who is trans- ferred to the bureau of missing persons and attempts to bring two-fisted methods to that department.
Lewis Stone, the head of the department, tries to teach him a gentler method of dealing with missing ones, but Pat refuses to soften up until Bette Davis enters his life. Bette is searching for a fictitious hus- band, who is in reality a murderer who has escaped justice by allowing her to be suspected of the crime.
Alan Dinehart is splendid as the mur- derer. Allen Jenkins and Hugh Herbert
Bette Davis and Pat O'Brien.
contribute most of the very gay comedy, with Glenda Farrell also making merry in a big way. All the little sub-plots are in- teresting, too, and you can count on this picture to give you an evening's entertain- ment.
TORCH SINGER
Ratinar: Fine— Paramount
THE worst woman in New York— and the best torch singer! That's Claudette Colbert in her new picture. And why didn't somebody tell us that she could sing before? Naughty old Paramount for holding out on us like that. Why that gal can put over everything from a honky- tonk song to the most sensational torch song of the year, "Give Me Liberty or Give
Me Love," with little lullabies about "baby boats" tossed in now and then. Whew, she's a honey.
We find Claudette bravely and gallantly trying to support her illegitimate baby, whose father has gayly skipped off to China leaving her to go through hell alone. World weary and broken, and almost crazed by the cries of her hungry baby, she signs over her little girl to an institu- tion for adoption, promising never to try to find the child again.
Life has given her a raw deal and she no longer has any respect for life or men or herself. She gets a job in a honky-tonk, clicks almost over night, and becomes the swellest torch singer in New York, in Broadway's most glittering night club. Her escapades and love affairs make her notori- ous—which naturally helps business at the club.
She meets Ricardo Cortez, an official of a broadcasting company, and while visit- ing him at his studio one night finds "Aunt Jennie" fairly fainting with fright over her first broadcast on the Pure Foods hour. Claudette (the torrid Mimi Benton) saves the situation and broadcasts the Aunt Jen- nie program. She is a tremendous hit and is signed by the president of the company at once— provided the identity of Aunt Jennie be kept a deep dark secret.
And so Claudette is torn between the what-the-hell-does-it-matter attitude of the infamous torch singer and the maternal tenderness of Aunt Jennie, who loves little children and tells them bedtime stories over the radio. A great yearning for her own little daughter possesses her— but the institution will tell her nothing of the child's whereabouts. By means of the radio, Claudette starts her mad search for a little girl named Sally whose birthday is September 2nd. In a fairy-tale man- ner, but quite all right, she finds her baby- in the home of its father, David Manners. Sentimental and all that, but you'll love this picture. And you must hear Claudette put over a torch song!
SOLITAIRE MAN
Rating: Excellent— M-G-M
Claudette Colbert.
Ralph Forbes, Elizabeth Allan and Herbert Marshall.
SIX people in the narrow confines of a passenger plane's cabin, high above the English channel. ... It doesn't sound very thrilling, does it? But that's where you're wrong. This is one of those intensely dramatic pictures which, by its own re- straint, makes you break out in a cold
Silver Screen for November 1933
51
perspiration. It's as exciting as the edge of a volcano.
Herbert Marshall plays a thief (and when Herbert Marshall plays a thief there is none better) who has pulled his last job and is on his way to his native England to live in peace and security with his co-workers, Elizabeth Allan and May Robson and Ralph Forbes, for the rest of his life. Yes, he going to turn honest and furthermore he is going to marry Elizabeth Allan.
But Ralph Forbes is in love with Eliza- beth too, so he turns yellow and tips off a police informer, Lionel Atwill (who does a little thieving and murdering on the side) that Marshall is on the plane. Well, things happen. The sixth passenger is none other than Mary Boland playing a nervous, talkative American tourist who takes a sentimental interest in Mr. Marshall and eventually brings about his release when the plane lands in England. The pic- ture is perfect anyway you look at it. Don't miss it.
WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD
Rating: Dramatic Entertainment— Warners
HERE'S a picture that packs a regular Primo Camera wallop! It's about the youth of today, both boys and girls, who are forced by poverty to leave their homes and roam the highways and byways seeking food and shelter wherever they can. All of us, who have made any automobile trips at all this last year, have seen dozens of these kids, jumping freights or hitch-hiking or gathered in shivering groups around road-side fires at nights. Young nomads of the road.
your mind for a long time. His dramatic plea before the judge wins an acquittal for himself and his pals— and a chance to go to work. This is one of the most thrillingly dramatic scenes that the screen has offered in months and it will make your hair stand on end. You haven't heard of Edwin Phillips and Dorothy Coonan before, most likely, but after their swell performances in this picture you'll just naturally be demanding to see them in more pictures. Also in the cast and doing good work are Rochelle Hudson, Minna Gombell, Grant Mitchell and Sterling Holloway.
TURN BACK THE CLOCK
Rating: Explosively fast— Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer
SOMETHING new in plots. Listen: Lee Tracy is an old man married to Mae Clarke, and he sits around bewailing the fact that if he had his life to live over again he would have taken the 1400 he had saved up when he was young and gone into partnership with George Barbier, and cleaned up a million. Yes sir, by cracky, that's just what he would do if he had his life to live over again. Also, he would have married Peggy Shannon, the beautiful daughter of the rich old Barbier. If only he could turn back the clock!
Dorothy Coonan, Ann Hovey and Frankie Darro.
Frankie Darro (remember his swell per- formance in "The Mayor of Hell"?) heads a gang of these wandering kids who are willing to work, but can find none. With his pal, Edwin Phillips, he takes to the road when his parents are thrown out of work and are too poor to support him. On the road, Frankie and Edwin meet up with Dorothy Coonan and other young boys and girls in the same plight. They" go from city to city living off anything they can get.
Frankie is finally picked up by the police as a suspect in a theatre robbery. He and his companions, though innocent, are sent to jail and later brought up before the judge for sentence. This is young Darro's big scene and, believe me, it will last in
Otto Kruger, Mae Clarke and Lee Tracy.
Well, the clock turns back and we next see Tracy, a young man now, investing his $400, and by his ability to forecast events becoming a powerful financial leader. Sure enough he marries Peggy but she two-times him behind his back and carries on some- thing awful with C. Henry Gordon. Be- tween the unhappiness brought him by his money and his wife, Lee is pretty miser- able and all ready to go back to his little cigar store and Mae Clarke and lead a simple, wholesome life once more. But he has to wait for time to roll around again.
It sounds like a "moral" picture— and so it is— but it's so fast and brittle and funny and pathetic that you won't even notice that there's a lesson in it. Lee Tracy has a grand part, of course, and puts everything into it. Peggy Shannon is beautiful and gives an extraordinary fine performance of the giddy wife. Mae Clarke, Otto Kruger and Clara Blandick are all good.
NIGHT FLIGHT
Rating: go%—Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
THE best thing about this picture is its cast of characters, which is something to get hot about on the coldest day of winter. What a cast! Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, Leslie Fenton, Frank Conroy and C. Henry Gordon. What a cast! But, alas and alas, they're all working under the NRA system and have practically nothing to do. It's quite disheartening.
The story is quite technical, all about
an aviation nut (played by John Barry- more) who drives men to their death in his relentless determination to introduce airmail in South America. Regardless of climatic conditions, rain storms and hur- ricanes, he forces his pilots to take oil
John Barrymore and Helen Hayes.
with the mail every night knowing full well that they will meet certain death.
Lionel Barrymore, always scratching with eczema, plays the "watch dog," who would like to be friendly with the death-marked pilots but is forced by the maniacal John to carry out the iron-bound rules of the company. Clark Gable, Robert Mont- gomery, William Gargan and Leslie Fenton are the night-flying pilots. Helen Hayes is Clark Gable's adoring wife, though she is never shown with him in the film. Myrna Loy has a brief moment with her husband, William Gargan. The photography is ex- cellent, with sensationally thrilling scenes in the air pockets of the snow-covered Andes and over the rain-drenched Atlantic, where Clark Gable, blown from his course in the most horrible storm you've ever seen, meets his death. Except for Lionel's eczema, there isn't any humor and there isn't any romance— but if you have the slightest in- terest in aviation you should see this. At the preview Tallulah Bankhead was so im- pressed—or depressed— that she said, "Well, I'll never send an air mail letter again."
SHANGHAI MADNESS
Rating: So-So— Fox
SPENCER TRACY, a likeable young lieu- tenant in the United States Navy, gets kicked out of the navy over in Shanghai for firing on a Communist settlement in China.
Eugene Pallette, Spencer Tracy and Herbert Mundin.
52
Silver Screen for November 1933
BING CROSBY SCORES
The fact that the Communists fired on his boat, killing several of his men, does not change the verdict of guilty. Such is justice in the navy, it seems. Embittered by what he terms a raw real, Spencer tries to get on every boat pulling out of Shanghai, but no captain will have him on the crew on ac- count of his discharge from the navy.
Finally, because he befriends the son of a wealthy Chinese war lord, he is given a place as gunner on a river boat, captained by the hard-drinking, humorous Eugene Pallette. The river boat is carrying arms to the garrisons that are fighting against the Communists. Spencer bravely leads an attack upon a group of the Communists about to take an American settlement, and as a reward for his bravery and daring is received back into the navy.
Fay Wray is the daughter of a rich American in Shanghai, and spends most of her time pursuing Spencer. She even stows away on his river boat, but is put ashore at the American settlement where Spencer later rescues her. Well, it's one of those pictures you might like and you might not, depending upon your mood. Anyway, Spencer Tracy and Eugene Pallette give extraordinarily good performances. Also in the cast for small parts are Ralph Morgan, Herbert Mundin and Reginald Mason.
TOO MUCH HARMONY
Rating: Peppy— -Paramount
THIS picture has the speed of Gary Cooper's Dusenberg and the dash of Jean Harlow's new evening gown. (We saw the latter at the opening of "Dinner at Eight" and we're still gasping!) In fact, it's got so much snap and pep that when it's over you feel as if you'd just spent the night on a roller-coaster. It also has the swellest music and dance routines that you've seen in many a day. And, of course, there's Bing Crosby, the schoolgirl's de- light, so say no more about it.
The story's about three young and healthy members of a vaudeville team who are getting no place in particular and hav- ing a hard time getting there. They're Jack Oakie and "Skeets" Gallagher and Judith Allen (you last saw her in "This Day and Age").
It's just an old routine of four-a-day or nothing to them until Bing Crosby, a big New York star, happens to catch their act
Bing Crosby, Judith Allen and Jack Oakie.
—and falls head over heels in love with Judith Allen. Bing wants to sign her for his own show immediately, but Judith won't go unless he takes Jack and "Skeets" too.
On the opening night, in New York, Jack has to pose as a millionaire and make love to Lilyan Tashman, Bing's former sweetheart, so that Lil will give Bing his
walking papers. It just so happens that with all the funny business going on. poor old Jack is simply crying his heart out for Judith— ye olde Laugh, Clown, Laugh motif again— but Mrs. Offield's little boy Jack puts it across so well that you don't mind at all. And, by the way, Mrs. Offield (or Mrs. Oakie, if you prefer) gets her first movie "bit" in this picture by playing Jack's mother, and is about the proudest mother you've ever seen. In a cast brimful of talent. Jack walks away with all the honors. But that isn't demeaning the rest of the folks for they're right there on Mr. Oakie's heels. Especially Kitty Kelly, Ned Sparks, Harry Green and Grace Bradley. Whew— this one breezes along like a Texas tornado.
BEAUTY FOR SALE
Rating: Excellent— Metro-Golcluyn -Mayer
SOMEBODY had the bright idea of writing a "Grand Hotel" about a Beauty Shop, which was quite a good idea until Madge Evans and Una Merkel and Florine Mc- Kinney came along, and got us so inter- ested in their lives that we didn't care a hangnail about permanents and manicures and facials and such.
These three girls are operators in Madame Sonia's (Hedda Hopper) classy beauty salon, but it is their life away from the shop which intrigues us so. Madge Evans, as Letty Lawson, has her best screen opportunity to date, and she gives a per- formance so charmingly sincere and emo- tionally beautiful that you'll think about it for many months to come. Madge falls
Una Merkel, Madge Evans and Eddie Nugent.
divinely in love with Otto Kruger, rich and married, and can't make up her mind what to do about it. Una Merkel, hurt by life several years before, has become a professional little gold-digger and is out to get big prizes. She does! Una certainly makes Sin look attractive. Florine McKin- ney falls desperately in love with Phillips Holmes, and when he walks out on her she jumps to her death from her apart- ment house window. This decides Madge. In an effort to forget the fascinating Mr. Kruger she accepts Eddie Nugent, Una's wise-cracking brother, but when she reaches the church door finds out that she just can't go through with the marriage
But ah. in the meantime, the devastating Alice Brady, playing Kruger's jabbering and neurotic wife, has found a new inter- est in life— an ambitious young architect. So she's off to Paris to get her divorce and leaves her sweet, ingratiating husband free to marry Madge, who has been carrying the torch for him all the time. May Rob- son is perfect in a small part and so is a newcomer to the screen— Isobel Jewell, known about town as "Lee Tracy's girl friend."
BRIEF MOMENT
Rating: Most entertaining— Columbia
CAROLE LOMBARD does some of the best acting of her entire screen career— and by-gosh, can she act! Just as we were beginning to think that maybe she's just a hot looking fashion plate, along she comes and delivers the swellest acting performance we've seen since Miss Katharine Hepburn's "Morning Glory." And she still looks like a million dollars.
Carole plays a night club singer, the classy kind, who is very much in love with her play-boy husband, Gene Raymond.
Gene Raymond and Carole Lombard.
Gene's blue blooded family resents his mar- riage to the blues singer and does every- thing to break it up. Gene's a happy-go- lucky boy without any ambition except to get drunk every night with his pal, Monroe Owsley. Carole puts up with him as long as she can, but when he continues to hit the bottle she leaves him. Later Gene realizes how much he loves his wife, so he reforms and goes to work under an as- sumed name.
As the spoiled play-boy husband Gene gives an excellent performance, and the restrained way he handles his drunk scenes is something to get excited about. Arthur Hohl plays the night club owner, who is secretly in love with Carole and always hovering around to see that she gets a square deal from Gene. Reginald Mason plays the social register father, who is not at all concerned with his son's business success, but deeply interested in his social success. A most entertaining picture, all in all, and you're bound to rave about Carole and Gene when it's all over.
I LOVED A WOMAN
Rating: Excellent— Warners-First National
WELL, fatherhood hasn't hurt our Ed- ward G. Robinson any. His newest picture is his best yet— and it seems to me that we've been writing about Eddie in su- perlatives ever since "Little Caesar." But, honestly now, this is the best. The picture started out in life as "Red Meat" but will be released as "I Love a Woman," which is sort of quaint and Hollywoodish, isn't it?
Silver Screen for November
But with its title change its quaintness ends, for here is the most powerfully dra- matic picture you have seen in a long time. It is biographical of the life of one of Chicago's millionaires whose disgrace made sensational headlines not so long ago.
Eddie plays John Hayden, the head of Hayden and Company, the leading meat packers in Chicago. We meet him first as a young man ecstatically appreciative of the beauties of Greece— a sunset and a Grecian urn mean more to him than all the canned meat in the world. But his father dies in the midst of his vacation, and Eddie has to return to Chicago to assume the leadership of the meat packers.
Still romantic by nature, he meets Genevieve Tobin, the daughter of a rival packer, and she woos him with "Annie Laurie" and plans for child welfare among the children of the factory hands. Eddie is so busy being romantic and philanthropic that his business almost goes bankrupt. But, in the meantime, disappointed in mar- riage with the scheming Genevieve, he has met Kay Francis, a young and ambitious woman who knows that she has the power
Romance in Chicago
Kay Francis and Edward G. Robinson.
1 93 3 53
in her to become a great opera singer if she can get the financial backing. She sings "Home From the Range" to Eddie, always a sucker for songs, and Eddie not I only gives her the money necessary but also gives his love. Kay thrills him with the power of leadership, and for the first time Eddie, wholly under the influence of this beautiful and dynamic woman, swears he will reach the heights in his own career.
Kay returns to New York for a concert season, and Eddie learns from her own lips that he has always been just one lover among many in her life. Infuriated, he plans to become the richest man in the world, intending to use the World War to double his millions. But he has be- come crazy with power and frustration, and the day the Armistice is signed he finds that he is a ruined man— with a Government Investigation on his heels. He turns to his wife— but she, in jealous revenge, refuses to stand by him. And so alone, but for his faithful secretary, he flees in the dead of night to Greece. A thrilling and dramatic picture! You must see it.
Lee Tracy
{Continued from page 20]
minimum age-limit he could go to war as an officer, if he left the school with a good record.
When graduation time came, the former bad boy left school with a perfect record. He was chosen, one out of 28 boys in the whole school, to go to Camp Lee, Vir- ginia.
CAMP LEE, VIRGINIA And at Camp Lee, Fate played Lee a bad trick. They made him an officer the instant he was 21, and he thought sure that he was headed for France and real adventure— but, sad to relate, with all his military experience he was too good. Offi- cers able to drill the new recruits flooding in from all over the nation were badly needed. Lee was kept at the camp to drill rookies!
"But I got my little wound just the same," he chuckles ruefully.
He strolled out to the camp proving- grounds one afternoon to watch some ordinance officers test a batch of new trench-mortars. Nothing much was hap- pening except a lot of noise, so, bored, he turned and started so saunter away.
BOOM!
A big mortar blew to bits. Three ord- nance officers were killed, and a half a dozen men in the distant camp streets were badly- injured by fragments. Lee got a good- sized piece of jagged shell-case through his right hip.
SAYRE, PENNSYLVANIA The War over, Lee went home in his best uniform to decide on a future career. The way he decided is absolutely charac- teristic of him. An engineer? "Not the way I hate mathematics." A doctor? "Not when I flunked German three years straight." A lawyer? "Not when every second man you meet on the street, almost, is a lawyer."
"So," he says, "I picked the show-busi- ness because, if you made a hit in it, the rewards were tremendous." Just like that.
NEW YORK, N. Y. When you go to New York to be an actor, however, it occurred to Lee, the thing to do is to get a job on the stage. Other people seemed to have trouble doing that. But did Lee? That, too, is a characteristic answer. He looked up a list of plays for
three years back, memorized half a dozen casts and names, located an actors' agent, breezed in, and, before the agent could catch his breath, was rattling off:
"I was leading-man with the No. 4 road company that toured the South."
Talk about Horatio Alger! The agent did give him a job, in a vaudeville sketch which, by coincidence, actually played the South!
That's how easy it is when you have a Lee Tracy personality! For, once he had gotten in, work on Broadway followed easily enough.
HOLLYWOOD
If we wanted to tell you all of Lee's adventures in Hollywood we'd have to go back and start all over again. But here, at least, is a sample.
Not so long ago Lee drove up to Santa Bar- bara with a girl-friend to sit on the sand and twiddle his toes in the sun. Somebody lent him an Eskimo kayak. (They rent them on the beach at Santa Barbara.) You know what they are— those little canoes that you wear like a pair of pants. The darned things turn turtle if you so much as breathe on them, but, oh, no, Lee had to get in and paddle halfway across the Pacific! Of course, when he got out a mile or so, his lunch shifted in his tummy and over he went, hanging upside down under con- siderable water.
So what did Lee do? So he nonchalant- ly swam in, dragging the kayak behind him. When he finally made the beach, bystanders noted that he still wore the tasty white beret which— you saw it— he wore in "Night Mayor."
Acme
Charles Chaplin has done a lot of funny things in his time, and while taking his exercises follows the tradition. That's Charlie in the middle, with Pauline Goddard tickling his feet. It's all in the spirit of fun in which the comedian delights. It is his yacht and his party.
54
Silver Screen for November 1933
You're Going to Talk about "Bombshell" [contnued from page i9]
come a leading star. Pat O'Brien plays the director so perfectly that it is hard to keep his identity a secret.
Well, it looks to me like a lot of Holly- wood skeletons are coming out of the hall closet for a little air. They're Hollywood people all right and don't let the "tourist's conception of Hollywood'' fool you.
And, as for those incidents that actually happened. The authors didn't have to sit up nights making them up. Oh no, they just had to exercise the old memory a little. Everybody in Hollywood knows about the fight between the director and the star's boy friend— well, we can hardly say "the" fight as there have been so many of them. But just which incident the picture uses for its big fight between Director Brogan and the Marquis di Binelli— well, that is for you to find out.
Then, in "Bombshell,'' Lola Burns, in a sentimental moment, adopts a baby but has to return it to the institution when the ladies committee find that her home life is most unfitted for bringing up an infant. That's happened a number of times in Hollywood. And then there's the time that Lola is seen in the nursery de- partment of a large store buying baby things. Mrs. Brown phones Mrs. Smith who phones Mrs. Jones, and Winchell and the columnists get it, and before long the poor star even begins to believe it herself. These whispering campaigns in Hollywood have helped ruin many an innocent star's repu- tation.
The Wampas Ball at the Cocoanut Grove, the arrest of the Marquis di Binelli by the U. S. Government for overstaying the time on his passport, the star walking out on a picture after a fight with the publicity office, and trying to hide and "get away from it all" at Palm Springs while she has a little love affair on the side— all these things have actually hap- pened in Hollywood, some of them too, too often. "Bombshell" a tourist's con- ception of Hollywood? That's out.
When we reached the scene of the "lo- cation," the patio of a charming hotel, I realized that after all was said and done I was really a lucky girl. Usually on these location trips, you travel miles and miles and get stung by bees and blistered by the sun, only to arrive in some awful place eventually and discover that all the stars have taken the day off and a few extras are working on a scene which will inevit- ably be found on the cutting room floor. But lucky gal that I am, I found Jean Harlow, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone, Ted Healy, C. Aubrey Smith and Mary Forbes acting one of the funniest scenes in the picture. And, waiting for his scene— which was next— was Lee Tracy accom- panied by his girl, Isobel Jewell. And watching their "Baby" were Mr. and Mrs. Marino Bello, Jean's mother and step- father. What a field day for a fan writer! But before I could even greet anybody I was ssh-sshed.
"Turn 'em over. Quiet. Camera," shouted the director. I fell as quietly as possible (I'd like to see a studio chair that doesn't squeak just once before I die. And of all the squeaking studio chairs, Joan Crawford's is the worst) into a chair with "LOLA BURNS" printed on the back. The publicity man whispered to me that Lola, who has fled to Palm Springs to get away from it all, has become engaged to Gifford Middleton (played by Franchot Tone) of the elegant Boston Middletons, and in this scene the Hollywood Burns and the Boston Middletons (Mary Forbes, Ralph Forbes' mother, and C. Aubrey Smith, play Mr. and Mrs. Middleton) are meeting each other for the first time. Pops, with
A cm e
"Hello yourself, Jean!" "Dinner at Eight" opened in Hollywood, and Jean Harlow heard herself "put over" a fine performance.
his red beak shining, is in all of his glory.
Pops: (wringing Gifford's hand) Yes, a thoroughbred, I can see that. Fine head —eyes wide apart. So you're taking the one jewel from my crown, eh? Well, my boy- Lola: (quickly) Here— father— sit down- Pops: (to Mr. and Mrs. Middleton) I pre- sume this was all as much a surprise to you as it was to me? Well. I guess we oldsters can't keep pace with the modern trend of today— eh, Mrs. Middleton. (He gives her a poke with his cane.) Things move faster than when you and your husband got together, eh? Mr. Middleton: (quite hoity toity to Pops) I knew a Burns at Harvard. George Burns. Class of '98. Any relation? Pops: Probably the New England branch of the family. I prepared for Harvard myself. Splendid school. As my tutor used to say to me when we traveled through Europe together- Lola: (uneasy) Here, Pops, have some tea. Bro: (trying to be pleasant) Maybe the folks would like a little dramiola? Pops has a pint on the saddle. Pops: (inspired) A small libation? Gifford, how about a loving cup for the occasion? Mrs. Middleton: (icily) Gifford never touches a drop.
There's an interruption while a little girl comes up and asks Lola Burns for an auto- graph, explaining that it is for the Lola Burns club at home. Mr. Middleton: What a forward child. Mrs. Middleton: What on earth does she
want your autograph for? Lola: (to Gifford) Didn't— didn't you tell
them, dear? Gifford: Why no— not yet— I thought
they'd meet you first and then- Mrs. Middleton: Tell us what? Lola: That— that I've been in pictures.
Mrs. Middleton: An actress? That— that movie star?
Mr. Middleton: You're not the Lola Burns we've been reading about in all the news- papers?
Lola: Yes— that's right— but I can explain
it all. You see- But Mrs. Middleton has fainted and has to be carried out, while Pops takes a good strong drink to brace himself. It's the first time he ever met a lady who wasn't thrilled at seeing a movie star in the flesh.
Naturally they had to shoot the scene over and over again, so between enforced silences I talked to Lee Tracy who is one grand guy if there ever was one. I had seen Lee and his girl at the gala premiere of "Dinner at Eight" the night before, and Lee was never so dressed up in all his life. Tails and scarf and a high topper. Whoops, my dear. When he entered the subdued silences of the Chinese theatre the audience began to applaud (the only star they ap- plauded before the official introductions) and poor Lee turned as red as a beet. I guess it's the Jewell influence.
Lee used to look pretty shoddy, and the studio couldn't get him to dress up or put on any "dog," but now Mr. Tracy, with the cute little Isobel on his arm, is seen in all the gay social places. Did you see Isobel Jewell in "Beauty for Sale?" It was her first picture and believe me she kept those other girls stepping around to keep her from stealing the picture from them. Lee was so proud of her that he actually accompanied her to the preview. Isobel has a "bit" in "Bombshell." She plays a little demi- mondaine, named Nellie, whom Bro picks up down in Tia Juanna and brings back to the Lola Burns mansion promising her a movie contract. A small part— to be sure— but it won't be long now before she'll be getting leads. Isobel has been known so long in Hollywood as "Lee Tracy's girl friend" that it will be most amusing if she becomes a hit and people start saying of Lee Tracy "he's Isobel Jewell's boy friend."
I asked Lee what he liked most about the picture and he glibly replied, "The assist- ant director. He's a" smart fellow. Instead of getting me down at eight o'clock this morning, when he knows darn well I won't be needed until afternoon, he shows the rare intelligence of giving me a two o'clock call. It's never been done before. Ever since I have been in Hollywood there has been an assistant director's league against me to keep me from getting any sleep in the morning." Lee is a guy what loves his sleep— in the morning— and don't we all.
"And what I don't like about this pic- ture," Lee contributed, "is Franchot Tone. The very idea of putting him in a bit. Phil Holmes refused to do it. Why Fran- chot Tone is about the best of the young New York actors today. He's swell on the stage. He's one of the best bets in pictures, too. I don't suppose I'll ever be able to understand the movie merry-go- round. After giving him leads in "Stranger's Return" and "Today We Live," now they start sticking him in bits. But that's Hollywood. What time did you get home from the Colony last night?"
Well, we won't go into that. The ice cream man arrived, so Lee bought us sev- eral containers and I persuaded him and Isobel to have their pictures made to- gether.
And still they couldn't get that scene letter perfect. Jean had to take time out to refresh her make-up, so I swooped down upon her like a vulture.
"If the public gets as many laughs out of this picture as we're getting," Jean said, [Continued on page 56]
Silver Screen for Novembfr 1933
55
Official in all the biq *tudio§..
"We're washing almost every fabric here in Lux — dresses, negligees, flan- nels, even draperies," says N'Was Mc- Kenzie (right) of Warner Brothers- First National. "Lux keeps stockings and costumes new looking twice as long. It cuts down cleaning bills, too. It would pay us to use Lux even if it cost $1.00 a box."
• "The new fashions you see on the screen are smart and so practical — really thrifty, if you follow our Hollywood way of keeping everything new looking with Lux," says Joan Blondell, smart young star appearing in "Footlight Parade."
"My maid always uses Lux for my stockings, gloves and lingerie, of course. But since saving has been the fashion at the studio I've learned how many of my frocks and blouses can also be kept like new at home with Lux."
• YOU, TOO, can keep smart fashions crisp and fresh with Lux at absurdly little cost. Rubbing with cake soap or using soaps con- taining harmful alkali is expensive because too often colors fade and delicate textures are spoiled. Of course, with Lux there's no rubbing, no harmful alkali. Anything safe in water is safe in Lux.
MEMBER
ho
TRU§¥ TO l_UX
Silver Screen for November 1933
56
doing tilings with a lip stick, "it will be great. I have to break clown and laugh nearly every scene I have with Frank Mor- gan. I've never laughed so much in all my life."
"Yes, 1 know,'' I said. "I just mined a take for them by giggling out loud when Pops reached for his pint."
"Well, if you think this scene is funny," |ean continued, "just wait until you see some of the others. The Mae West one, particularly, is a scream."
"Mae West," 1 shrieked. "Is she doing a bit in this too?"
"Mae West is a goldfish.'' Jean explained. "We named it that because of her figure, and, believe me, Mae certainly can take it. The Marquis and Brogan are fighting in Lola Burns' house, and among the things they wreck is the artistic and futuristic goldfish bowl. The scene had to be taken eight times— and eight times poor Mae West found herself in a smashed bowl, floundering on the floor. I never saw a fish lake such a beating, but I believe she loved it. When Mae is marooned on the carpet I pick her up and start sobbing over her because I think she is dying. I
shout for some water to put her in, and she, of course, is squirming through my fingers. So I drop her in a pitcher of punch. Pops comes along and practically swallows her. That's the funniest scene in the picture and I go into convulsions when I even think of it. If you could only have seen Mae West's expression!
Poor Mae— she's likely to turn up any place these days. But when one studio takes the trouble to publicize the star of another studio I guess that's fame. Even if they do call her a poor fish. Well, Mae can take it.
SeX IS Beailtlful [Continued from page 20]
now on the third waistcoat button, now his tie, there at the neck, the eyes— my heavens he can't take it. That's the sexiest eye trick in the world, if you really want to know. Marlene Dietrich's left to right eye shift is like a bottle of sarsaparilla in an absinthe shop compared with it.
"When may I see you?" gulped Mr. Tay- lor, all scorched and singed, "Breakfast, luncheon, dinner?"
"Well," said Mae applying the torch, "I always have breakfast in bed— so that's out. I never eat lunch and as for dinner— urn- why not make it supper— um— you fascinate me."
Gloria Stuart is making "The Invisible Man" — why there he is beside her!
Poor Mr. Taylor is practically suffocated, so Miss West carried on.
"I like sophisticated men to take me out," Mae challenged him with the childish naivete of a cobra.
"I'm not really sophisticated yet," an- nounced Mr. Taylor.
"And you're not really out yet either," contributed Miss West.
And so it went until there was finally a good "take" and they had to give the cameras a chance to cool off— not to men- tion Mr. Taylor. Mae had a few moments to give me before she had to change her dressing gown and get ready for a scene with Cary Grant, the next victim for the furnace. And poor Cary, right fresh out of the hospital too. Mae is such a tiny little thing to look so fleshy on the screen that you sort of have to get acclimated to her all over again. She is really only five feet four inches tall, and weighs only ri6 pounds. The minute she smiles at you you know she is a swell person with a grand sense of humor.
"What kind of a character are you play- ing in 'I'm No Angel?' " I inquired, sim- ply because most interviews start that way.
"Well," said Mae, "I can give her to you three ways. She's the kind of girl who is intimate only with her friends— but she
hasn't an enemy in the world. She is also the kind of girl who has climbed the ladder of success, wrong by wrong. And just in case I haven't made my meaning clear she's one of those girls you've heard about who could lose her reputation and never miss it. When she's good she's good, but when she's bad she's better. See?"
"See," I repeated, "I can't wait to see. I'm afraid she's no angel. And now that you are relaxing for a few moments, would you talk to me seriously about sex?"
"Talk? Um— talking ruins sex. How- ever, I'll tell you what I think about sex. You know I'm rather delighted that movie fans could take it the way I gave it to them in 'She Done Him Wrong.' Why, sex is beautiful, really. It is one of the great natural things of life. We alt know that. Why evade it then? Why, the loveliest verses in the Bible glorify sex— um— and how.
"Certainly I believe in sex. Without it there can be no romance or beauty in love. Why, love is pretty nearly all sex— and don't let the bookworms tell you differently. It takes plenty of sex appeal for a man and a woman to get by in the world today. Look at the divorces in Hollywood. Most of them could be easily avoided if the wife would take the trouble to apply a little allure. Why, the most absurd thing I ever heard of are these Hollywood divorces with the two principals announcing all over the newspapers how much they still love each other though they don't want to keep on living together. Of course they don't love each other— that's too silly for words. One or both of them has lost sex appeal. It all comes down to that. If I get married— and I certainly expect to one of these days— I mean to make it stick. I've never been married and I mean to take my time about it— but when I do marry I'm going to hold my man— for life— and I mean to do it with sex.
"I get hundreds of letters every day from men and women who want to know how they can attract members of the opposite sex. Strong sex appeal is my invariable prescription and by that I mean the radia- tion of an attractive personality. Not neces- sarily beauty of face or figure. Every girl is born with a varying amount of sex at- traction, but the things some of them do to conceaf it, you'd think sex was the smallpox. Why, there's nothing ugly about sex— it's beautiful— like everything else in life that's frank and natural."
There were dozens of other things I wanted to ask her, but Cary Grant had ar- rived for his scorching and Mae was up and at him.
"Lights— start 'em rolling— speed— scene 566— action."
"Then I can depend on you. You will bring Kirk back to his senses?" inquired Mr. Grant quite coldly— but he'd melt in time.
"Um— well, that does start a new line of thought. You know you're sort of unusual
yourself." Mae sidled up and gave him the eye business. "Um— you fascinate me. I think you'd better go."
1 knew darned well Mr. Grant wouldn't go and that that scene would probably go on for an hour, so I left. So sex is beauti- ful; Mae says so, and Mae ought to know.
I learned a few interesting and amusing things about Mae West from her working associates on the lot that day. The people you work with daily are really the people who know you best. And Mae gets A plus on her studio test. She has never yet bit- ten or snapped at a fellow worker or re- fused to have her picture taken. She must get quite a personal satisfaction, however, out of having the Hollywood "great" come to her. Only a few days before, Mary Pickford had called at the studio and asked to be taken on the "I'm No Angel" set and introduced to Miss West. After the intro- duction Mary said, "Miss West, I have wanted to meet you ever since I saw you in 'She Done Him Wrong' and I have gone to a number of Hollywood parties just in hopes that you might be there. But you never showed up at any of them, so finally I gathered up my courage and came over to meet you. You are one of my favorite actresses."
Then Mae told Mary what a lovely face she had.
"But I haven't sex," said Mary.
"Not on the screen," said Mae.
Helen Hayes is another actress who has called on Mae at the studio, to meet her and watch her work. Helen even asked the cameraman to take a picture of herself with Mae, and has kept it as one of her prized possessions. But celebrities are noth- ing new in Mae's life. They all "come up sometime." Mae won't- go to their parties because she doesn't like to smoke or drink or gossip— so all the Hollywood Mahomets have to go to the mountain.
Blake McVeigh, of the Paramount pub- licity department, who gave the world "curvacious" and "Westicism" in connection with the dynamic Mae, had just been to the prize fights with the lady the night be- fore. Mae, as you know, goes to three fights a week in Hollywood. She would go to more, but there aren't any more. She has been to more than two thousand fights in her life, which is some kind of a record. In fact, Mae is just crazy about fights. Hollywood parties— she can't be bothered with. But Hollywood fights — um — they fascinate her. Blake told me how the Westian slang has penetrated far into the prize ring and is rapidly becoming a part of the fight vernacular. Two of the fighters were grappling together on the canvas without any oh. the punches that the crowd loves so much. Suddenly one of the fans shouted, "Hey you. why don't you have that right come up sometime."
And then, again, later on the same night, there were two fighters who seemed to be a bit dainty about everything. In fact they'd sort of fall into each others arms
ver Screen for November 1933
57
1 to 2 Hours Longerl
The new record in keep- ing breath pure . . . fresh
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and go into a dainty clinch. In great dis- gust a big male truck driver snorted, "You hoo. You fascinate me."
Well, the prize ring isn't the only place you find the Westian slang these days. The sun never sets on "come up sometime." Parisians, who never bothered with English before, since the advent of "She Done Him Wrong" are now saying "You can be had" all over the Left Bank and even the King of England looks at Queen Mary's hats and says, "You fascinate me." Several years ago when she was in vaudeville Mae started the popular expressions, "What a man," and "Don't call me Madame." She's got a couple of new ones for you in "I'm No Angel," but it wouldn't be cricket for me to tell you— nor badminton either for that matter.
Of course it was all right for Mae to up- set the Hollywood sex drama and make it look ridiculous, and it was all right for her to put a little gin and bitters into the King's English— but now she must go and wish pansy beds and aviaries on our heads. They say that the Paris coutouriers— Schiaparelli, Mainbocher and Jean Patou— all took a good look at "Lady Lou" (She Done Him Wrong) and with one accord shrieked "Chic." And that means only one thing— alas and more alas— it's going to be a hard winter for us poor working gals. Big picture hats, piled high with flowers and feathers and tulle, are due for a "come- back," and now the neck will come into its own again and be used for something be- sides necking.
And that isn't all— groan groan— there'll be taffeta petticoats hooked around the waist with nice old fashioned hooks and eyes, there'll be long trailing feather boas that look like sick kittens after three drops of rain, there'll be marabou dressing gowns and birds of paradise and plumes, and "sheath" dresses— and horrible horrible- corsets. Mae, did you have to do this to us? And we were so happy in our little sweaters and berets.
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58
Silver Screen for November 1933
Bob Meets the Customers
[Continued from page 25]
in the taxi when it readied the stage door. I hen I told the crowd that I had jusi time enough to sign all their autograph books before I made up for my next appearance. I implored them not to jostle or push, be- cause if they remained calm and quiet no one would be passed by."
"That was nice," I said warmly, and added naively, "a crowd can really behave quite well if only handled properly."
Mr. Montgomery muttered something that faintly sounded like "Oh, yeah!" But I really cannot deliberately accuse him of such a colloquialism. Aloud he said: "They did nothing of the kind. They broke the glass of the taxi's windows, they tore my tie, my shirt and everything on my person that they could lay their hands upon. I didn't have a chance in the world until the theatre hands came out and rescued me."
"There!" I murmured with just the slightest trace of sarcasm. "That's what I
Spring" is a favorite of mine also.
"Do you feel nervous," I asked, "when you meet celebrities in other professions than your own for the first time?"
"Do I!" His expression was utterly con- vincing. "I was fearfully worried that Nathan might not like me. He's such a sensitive, finely wrought sort of person. I had an idea that he might expect me to be flamboyant and wise-cracking, as I appear in some of my films."
No analysis is further from the real Bob Montgomery than this. However, I was curious to know how the meeting went off.
"Oh, we got along fine. Nathan auto- graphed a copy of 'One More Spring' for me, writing an original poem on the spur of the moment. I wish I had it here to show you. He's a grand person."
Knowing that Montgomery has a keen appreciation of literature, having dabbled a bit with a pen on his own account, I asked him if, had he been the author of
FIRST Ann Harding and Patricia O'Brien in "Beautiful." "When Ladies STILL Meet" and "Double Harness" boosted Ann's stock back up again.
mean by mob psychology. None of them got an autograph, and yet you were quite willing to give each of them one."
"Ah, but you're wrong," he corrected me softly and without the" slightest trace of sarcasm. "After I got safely inside the theatre, I sent the doorman out for as many autograph books as he could get, and signed every one of them."
"Bravo!"
Mr. Montgomery modestly changed the subject by offering me a cigarette.
I glanced at the books strewn all around the dressing-room. "I see you like Robert Nathan," I said, picking up a copy of "The Fiddler in Barly." "Have you read his 'One More Spring'?"
"Have I! I consider it the finest book of the year. I met Nathan, by the way, the other night."
At this I sat up in my chair and paid attention, so to speak, for "One More
"One More Spring," he might have written the last chapter differently. It seemed strange to me that two of the characters in the book, having experienced the worst type of poverty, should deliberately have scorned all hopes for a comfortable future.
He disagreed emphatically. "I should leave the ending just as it is. Once having known the joy of complete freedom from conventional standards of living, I can see where certain people would never be con- tent to tread old paths again."
"Perhaps if you had known real hard- ships, poverty . . . you might think dif- ferently."
He smiled enigmatically, but said noth- ing. Since that day I have read his intimate biography, and know now that he has experienced many hardships and several years of grinding poverty. But it was like him not to mention them. He is not the type to grunt about the past when the fu-
ture and the present loom up so vitally in front of him.
Just then we were interrupted by the ar- rival of Bessie Mack, the Capitol Theatre's good-natured publicity agent. It seemed that a beer concern wanted Montgomery to pose with one of its executives, both drinking a large _class of beer. "I sup- pose," said I reluctantly, "this is the cue for my exit."
Mr. Montgomery patted my hand absent- mindedly. "Stay right where you are," he said politely, and I breathed easily again. "If there's any one thing I'd rather not do at this moment," he murmured sotto voce, "it's to go down and pose drinking that beer." His eyes were fixed trance- like on the ceiling and he settled his six feet something or other more nonchalantly on the couch, which was a trifle short.
Miss Mack went into a trance also. She is a stoutish woman and the afternoon was somewhat warm. Very quietly she mur- mured to the room in general: "I've kept you absolutely free of pestiferous appoint- ments. In fact I've done more for you than I have for any other star I can think of. Just why, I don't know. Anyway, the beer is excellent. Here are a couple of bottles. Try some."
Montgomery came out of his trance and did his duty as a host. The beer was ex- cellent. I told him so. But he ignored the suggestion and would have none of it himself. Like a small boy, he muttered, "I don't want to do it, really," nevertheless he rose with amazing alacrity, put on his coat, adjusted his tie, and turning to me, said: "Come on down in the back yard and watch me get my picture taken."
While he was getting snapped, Miss Mack informed me that Montgomery was writing history for the Capitol Theatre. Certain important pictures had brought the box- office receipts up to where they were climb- ing now, but no star doing a "personal ap- pearance" act had ever created such a furore. Even Ethel Barrymore, considered the High Priestess of the American theatre, didn't cause the slightest flurry in the Capitol's personal stock market.
"To what do you attribute it?" I asked, discounting for a moment the Montgomery charm and trying to stick to solid facts.
"To the fact," retaliated Miss Mack, "that in person he is exactly as he appears on the screen. His voice, his smile, his manner are just the same. So the fans are not disappointed. They go home and say: 'Why he's just like he is in the pic- tures. You ought to see him.' His is a 'word of mouth' popularity."
The photographs taken, we repaired to the cubby-hole again, where we discussed his future plans. If Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is willing, he is anxious to return to his first love, the theatre, this winter. He has a droll play, with a Continental flavor, in mind, the very thought of which sets his mobile lips to twitching.
"Doesn't the stage frighten you some- what, after being in the movies so long?" I asked.
"I'm scared half to death before every personal appearance," he admitted frankly.
"You certainly don't show it," I re- marked, recalling the marvellous ease with which he "put over" his scene from "Pri- vate Lives" with Irene Purcell on the stage of the Capitol Theatre.
"I'm an actor, aren't I?" laughed Mont- gomery. "But I'll tell you a little secret. I've always been a bit diffident; even as a child I was nervous when making new acquaintances. But of course I'd never let them know that they awed me in the slightest."
"Then, perhaps, you agree with the psy-
Silver Screen for Novemohr 1933
59
chiatrists who claim that the inferiority complex invested in the child is sometimes subconsciously retained in the adult, no matter to what heights he climbs in later years?"
"There's more in that theory than meets the eye," agreed Montgomery reminiscentlv.
A valet knocked on the door to inform him that it was time to make up for his next performance.
"This time I see it is my cue to go," said I with unfeigned regret.
"I'm afraid it is. But we've still got— let me see— three minutes. So shoot! Ask me anything you can think of— quick!"
Now don't be surprised at the number of questions a curious interviewer can fire at an amazingly gracious young actor in the course of a few minutes. I learned that
Alice Brady (with him in "When Ladies Meet") was loads of fun to work with on the set . . . Louise Closser Hale was in his first stage play twelve years ago and she died after appearing in his last picture, "Another Language" ... he likes to sing and play the piano and modestly acknowl- edges the possession of a good tenor voice ... he favors modern musicians, like Ravel, Gershwin, Berlin . . . his favorite pastime is reading but I promised not to reveal the titles of the three books he carries around with him on all his travels . . . his idea of an ideal day away from the studio is to go sailing, preferably off the coast of Mexico ... he has just purchased a farm up in Putnam County, New York (which is not quite as simple as it sounds, having a gun room, a polo field and two lakes) in the hope that M-G-M won't be an old meanie and keep him from doing that stage play in New York this year . . . and his favorite food is oysters. . . .
Well, it looks as if the world is going to be his own particular oyster for some time to come. If everything works out as it should, you will be seeing him in M-G-M's version of Manuel Komroff's dramatic Bib- lical story, "Two Thieves," in which he may co-star with Clark Gable. In addition he has been loaned to Columbia for "Night Bus," a story of the Trans-Continental Bus Lines. M-G-M has also cast him in "Over- land Bus." Judging from the titles, these two pictures should keep him considerably on the jump. He is also scheduled to appear in an English thriller called "Mys- tery of the Dead Police."
"Call me up tomorrow if you've forgotten anything," called out this amazing Mont- gomery person as he escorted me out into the corridor. I leave it to you, girls, did I— or didn't I?
Dorothy Coonan made a hit in "Wild Boys of the Road," and Warner Brothers rewarded her with a con- tract. She has a million freckles.
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Silver Screen for November 1933
Who "Will Be Queen of Hollywood? [continued from page ■>,]
the outside, by a winding road, which oddl) enough forms the shape of a heart.
They will be admitted by liveried serv- ants. There will be cocktails in the draw- ing room. Possibly one, possibly two or three, but no more.
Then, the butler will announce dinnei to Miss Pickford, who will in turn announce it to her guests, asking them to follow her to the huge dining hall where seventy or more may be seated at once and served almost simultaneously. At each plate there will be a menu. (Menus are an invariable Pickfair rule and guests have been known to treasure them highly.)
There are never, I might say right now, buffet suppers at Pickfair. Never anything as casually informal as a plate supper, where guests might help themselves.
In tlie huge dining hall where the "last guests" will gather, the butler will stand at the head of the table, watching with eagle eye to see that the second man, the third man or the fourth man make no glaring mistakes.
Over the fireplace at one end of the hall, a portrait of Doug will grin down at the assembled party. The formal dinner service of Pickfair will glisten in the candlelight. At the head of the table, kindly, and with ever an eye to her guests' comfort and likes, will sit Mary.
Perhaps, as she surveys the scene, there will come to mind memories of other oc- casions when she has entertained with similar pomp and ceremony . . . George, a prince of England. Shira Bibi, famous Hin- du mystic, turbaned potentates of India, here for the international Olympic games, along with diplomatic and important rep- resentatives of other countries, dukes and duchesses and— Bull Montana and impe- cunious young men and women who hap- pened to have the social graces and the social background to admit them to Pick- fair. For Mary, like any good hostess, has not confined her guest list to the famous. She invites whom she pleases.
I wonder if, as her entertainment for the evening, she will have her famous fortune tellers and, if so, what they will portend for the future. For Mary, as you may re- call, has on many occasions enlivened hex evenings— particularly stiff, formal occasions —by calling in these witches of the past and of the future.
I wonder if they will whisper in her ear, and in the ears of her guests, the name of the one who will succeed her as the social queen of Moviedom. I wonder, for I should like to know, as I am sure you would.
Some say that this person will be Norma Shearer. It's an interesting thought. For
Norma, who is as beloved a star and as popular as Mary was a few years ago, has charm, elegance, friends, position (her hus- band. Irving Thalberg is wealthy, success- ful, important) and popularity.
I remember my first meeting with Norma Shearer— seven years ago. She v. as then on t lie first steps of the threshold of her career. She was living very quietly in a bungalow at the Garden of Allah. I went to get a short interview about the picture in which she was appearing. I asked her if she was engaged to Irving Thalberg. She neither confirmed nor denied the ques- tion, but talked pleasantly about her work and sent me home— I had no car— in her Rolls Royce. I was impressed, hoped some- body would see me lolling in the back seat of a movie star's car (nobody did), and recall, to this day, her quiet poise and air of elegance.
That "quiet elegance" is still there. She lives today with Irving Thalberg, Sr., and Irving Thalberg, Jr., their small son, in a roomy, but not pretentious home in Santa Monica.
Simple in exterior design, built for com- fort rather than "entertaining," it is her home. Here she and Irving have asked their intimate friends, and occasionally have given large parties to which more casual acquaintances and associates have been asked. To these last are also invited the moguls of movieland, a scattering of stars and Norma and Irving's closer friends.
Unlike Pickfair, there are no liveried servants. One houseman, a quiet English butler, takes care of the Thalberg needs. Dinners are simple. There are no menus. There is no pomp.
Often, for entertainment, moving pictures are shown. The room, a combination li- brary and den, just back of the drawing room, is used as the projection room and chairs are put in the drawing room for the guests.
You gain the impression that the Shearer house is a home rather than a setting for social gatherings. Here live two quiet peo- ple who have work to do— a woman who works at her career, at the business of being a wife and mother; and a man who is in business.
From all of which I come to the con- clusion, as you may, that unless there is a great change in Shearer-Thalberg habits of thought and feeling for work, social supremacy will be something for which they will not strive, nor care to achieve. They just haven't the time for the job!
Before mentioning Norma, perhaps I should have taken up the case of Marion Davies, who, next to Mary Pickford, has entertained more lavishly than anyone else
in Hollywood. Marion's huge Santa Monica beach home is much more adapted to great gatherings than that of anyone else in moviedom today.
There are some thirty rooms in the house and it takes ten servants to run the place. The rooms are enormous. There is a great dining hall, a ball room, a drawing 100m and a library where first editions worth fabulous sums, and paintings by great ar- tists vie for attention. Guests can have anything and everything they desire.
Marion, as a hostess, is superb. And she has entertained the famous, from Charles Lindbergh to George Bernard Shaw, from the Earl of Warwick to the daughter of her cook who died. The Earl of Warwick was a house guest for a couple of months, the daughter of the cook stayed on much longer.
The chief difference between Mary Pick- ford and Marion Davies in the hostess line lies in attitude. Mary Pickford has always taken her position seriously, as a respon- sibility, almost a duty. Marion takes hers light-heartedly. She entertains formally— and informally. She has fun as a hostess. If anyone tells her that she gives awfully good parties, she is apt to say and believe, "Oh, but I have much better times at so-and-so's. I love to go there."
Marion could be the great social queen of Hollywood, but she will probably never take the job seriously. For it is a job!
Then there is Ruth Chatterton— a poised, witty individual, capable of making a beg- gar, a poet, a king or a movie star feel equally happy and important. Her gather- ings have that fine note of distinction which only a hostess of distinction can convey.
Miss Chatterton does not entertain a great deal. She asks to her home only people who interest her and these, mostly, are individuals of achievement or bril- liance. She is one of the few people in Hollywood, or perhaps the only one, who can be said to have anything resembling the famous salons of the Continent.
Yet you never read in the society col- umns of Ruth Chatterton's parties. You seldom hear when she entertains famous writers, novelists, musicians, painters. One reason is that she doesn't have large parties. Another, that she seldom speaks of them. She told me once that she never liked hav- ing more than eight people for dinner.
"Like a family dinner," I remarked.
"Exactly," she returned. " "Dinners should be intimate, so that everyone can join in the conversation, and everyone can know the others."
So— Ruth Chatterton, as the next social leader of Hollywood? No. Definitely no, because of her sense of exclusion. Family parties, or gatherings akin to family din- ners, are nothing with which to climb the ladder to social success.
I mentioned the Barrymore family. Irene Fenwick (Mrs. Lionel Barrymore) is a woman of great charm and poise. She has that dignity that befits the wife of such an aristocrat as Lionel. She has many friends. But she is not well and much of her life is spent in pain and suffering.
Dolores (Mrs. John Barrymore), on the other hand, might, if she chose, aspire to the heights. Dolores has beauty and love- liness. She has fine tradition behind her. She has prominence and achievement through her husband. But she, at least so far, has lacked enthusiasm for the job. She has been content to be a "hausfrau" for John, and a sportswoman-companion on his yachting trips.
Tallulah Bankhead comes to mind as the daughter of one of the South's finest fam- ilies and one who has achieved the con-
Cary Grant made a hit as Mae West's leading man, so now he has been borrowed for "Born To Be Bad," with Loretta Young.
Silver Screen for November 1933
quest of London and the Continent. In the brief time she spent in Hollywood she entertained royally. But, Tallulah prefers New York.
If Winfield Sheehan ever takes himself a bride who loves festivities, the great Sheehan home will become the new social center of moviedom. For Mr. Sheehan, head of the Fox corporation, loves to play- host and his typically "man-like" arranged affairs these days are well attended and im- portant. Mr. Sheehan has a great feeling for distinguished people and for doing things correctly. He is a charming, hos- pitable person. But— he is a bachelor.
What will the fortune tellers portend when the "last party" is held at Pickfair? I cannot predict, but, from what I know now, it should be most interesting. The next social dictator of Hollywood has much to live up to. But maybe we wonder too soon— perhaps Mary herself— minus Douglas —will continue to reign.
Marlene Dietrich sailed from Paris re- cently. She -was met in New York by Josef Von Sternberg. The talk is that Marlene will do "Catharine of Russia." We haven't seen a good Czarist picture since Emil Jan- nings made "The Patriot."
The Great Garbo
[Continued from page 17]
When Garbo was alone and friendless in the gaudy cinema capital, she met John Gilbert and they fell in love.
But how different things were then, how swiftly the wheel of fate revolves in the land of the silver screen.
For in those days, when first these two, who were to become the great lovers of this decade both on and off the screen, met, it was John Gilbert who was the great one, the favored star, the outstanding box office attraction. His popularity was at its height, he was not only the leading matinee idol of the time but the critics' favorite actor. The name "John Gilbert" in elec- tric lights that blazed and glittered in every city in the world brought thousands of people and millions of dollars into the box office.
His yearly contract ran into staggering figures, probably the highest salary ever paid an actor.
On one corner of the Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer lot he had a beautiful bungalow, exquisitely furnished. His word was law concerning his pictures. The "powers that be" bowed before him and actually said "Yes, Mr. Gilbert." Such hits as "The Big Parade" and "The Merry Widow" had made him a figure standing at the very top of the glittering heap of stars and near-stars that make up the motion picture industry.
Garbo?
It's hard, I know, to think back to a time when Garbo, the glamorous, Garbo, the mysterious, was not the foremost of all women stars.
But when she and John Gilbert first played together, she was actually second fiddle. The Swedish girl, ignored and al- most ridiculed during her first months on the lot, had made two pictures— one, a pro- gram picture, and a second in which she had merely been featured. Compared to the great John Gilbert she wasn't very important. The authorities at the studio regarded her as a fine "starring possibility."
It was, in fact, the critical moment of her career. Many actresses have come so far and no farther. Many have been wrecked upon the treacherous rocks of stardom.
Calendar fear first preys upon the mind . . . then upon the body. The periodic worry of a lapse in normal femi- nine routine often brings on the very break which is so dreaded . . . To the average married woman this means con- stant tension . . . fading eagerness and youth.
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Silver Screen for November 1933
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Would Garbo make good or would she slip away inio that limbo that is filled with those who flamed briefly, flashed in the pan and then disappeared.
That was the question when she and John Gilbert began a picture that was to make screen history, "Flesh and the Devil." And it was as part of the team of Gilbert and Garbo that Greta actually succeeded, actually came into her own.
It would not be fair to say that Gilbert was responsible for Garbo's enormous suc- cess in that picture. But it would be less than the truth to say that he didn't have a great deal to do with it.
Of course he was in love with her, al- most from the first moment they met on the set. The great lover and matinee idol, who had been twice married and divorced and the central figure in other Hollywood romances, was completely bowled over by the strange, silent girl from the Norseland.
But three things he certainly did. He was the greatest help to her during the making of that picture. Not only because, being really in love, they portrayed for the camera what are still regarded as the great- est love scenes of all times, but because he knew so much more than she did about American methods of picture making, and was able to convey to her what he knew. The fan that she spoke hardly any English made it hard for her to take direction. Jack had infinite patience with her. An- other star might have made it more diffi- cult for the girl, still strange and nervous in these new surroundings, might indeed have taken advantage of her ignorance to get the best of the picture for himself, but Jack went to the other extreme and worked patiently on every scene until Garbo was at her best.
He taught her a good deal of the English it was so necessary for her to acquire. And he gave her real happiness, which buoyed up her spirits and made her glad that she had stayed in Hollywood. His yacht was always at her disposal and they made many cruises together. His home was always ready to receive her and there she escaped that loneliness that was so bad for her. Often, too, he acted as her business advisor.
So it was in "Flesh and the Devil" and "Love" that Garbo scored her first great successes, and it was as co-star with Gilbert that the public first acclaimed her.
Then the wheel turned again.
Garbo and Gilbert, the two names that had actually become part of the English language, were separated— first in pictures, because now Garbo was able to carry her own pictures and there was no need to have those two enormous salaries in one cost- sheet; and then, in love.
It was, as everyone who knew them in Hollywood understands, really Jack who brought about the end of that chapter. It was Jack who, realizing that they could never be happy together, decided that it was better that they should part.
They just didn't belong together, these two. Garbo, who more and more found that she wanted to be alone, who became more and more wrapt up in her work. Garbo, who was afraid of people, who hid in mysterious silence, who could never ac- custom herself to gaiety and conviviality. And Gilbert, who loved fun, enjoyed his friends, and detested the hermit-like exist- ence to which Garbo condemned him.
They quarreled and parted, were recon- ciled. But, in the end, it was Jack who decided that a clean break was best, and only a short time later married the brilliant and beautiful stage actress, Ina Claire.
Life swept on at Hollywood's own swift pace and the paths of the great lovers were separated. They did not see each other any more. They never played together in a picture. It was ended none too happily, no matter what they may think now them- selves, after a space of years. They did
not part enemies, but neither could it be said that they parted friends.
The newspapers all over the world were filled with stories of that break, as for years they had been filled with stories of the love affair. Some of the stories were not very flattering to Garbo. Jack's marriage had taken place so suddenly, only a few weeks after he met Ina Claire, and before most people had realized that he and Greta had actually broken off their long association. So it was hinted that Ina had stolen Jack from the screen's greatest siren. It was at least suggested that Gilbert had thrown Greta over for the stage star.
It wasn't true, but most women would have burned beneath the implication. Garbo said nothing. She offered polite congratulations upon his marriage. When she spoke of him it was always with ad- miration.
Unexpectedly, swiftly and inexorably, misfortune befell John Gilbert. The talkies came and they accomplished his comet-like fall. Like a burned out skyrocket this man, who had been among the few really great ones, dropped to earth.
Two things conspired to bring about that spectacular descent and neither of them were Gilbert's fault. Jack was the first man to make love in speech on the screen. Love scenes which he had played many times during the silent days— and al- ways to spellbound audiences— when ac- companied by passionate and romantic dia- logue, so new to audiences, startled and embarrassed them. On top of this, the microphone was then very imperfect. They had not learned to control it nor to keep the needle from performing strange gyra- tions. John Gilbert's voice, a perfectly natural, pleasant, masculine voice which had been successful on the stage long be- fore he went into motion pictures, came out of this new-fangled machine sounding very strange.
Altogether, he bore the brunt of the new invention.
Inexplicably, his popularity ceased. As fine an actor as he had ever been, he suf- fered a momentary eclipse. And it would have been only momentary except for other considerations. Jack's salary was huge. He was in the midst of a slump. And the studio did little or nothing to rescue him. They gave him worse stories and worse casts tnan anybody else on the lot. Perhaps they hoped that he would grow discouraged
Lowell Sherman is directing Constance Cummings in "Broadway Thru a Keyhole," the Walter Winchell story that aggravates Mammy singers.
Silver Screen for November 1933
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and break his contract, thereby saving the terrific outlay.
High strung, proud, suffering under what seemed the bitter injustice of not being given an honest chance to prove to the public what he could do. Jack stuck it out to the bitter end. His contract ended, and with it, apparently, went his last chance to prove himself.
He announced his retirement from the screen. No other company, it seemed, wished to take a chance on a Gilbert come- back. He was through. Only thirty-three, just at the time when he should be reach- ing his peak, his great career was over. His life work was done.
Two months ago, anybody in Hollywood would have given you very large odds that John Gilbert would never be given an- other chance. Such things do happen in Hollywood and no one can ever quite ex- plain why. But there it was— John Gilbert was dead to the screen.
But they had reckoned without Garbo.
She speaks little, the great Garbo. She wastes no breath upon discussion. When she speaks, when she acts, it is with pur- pose and finality and she puts all her strength behind it.
Leading man after leading man— Laur- ence Olivier, Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone— had been rejected for the wonderful part opposite her in "Queen Christina," the film that was to bring Garbo to the fans after a long absence. No one suited her. The picture was held up. the delay w:as costly. But there seemed to be no pleasing Miss Garbo, and certainly in this matter it was all important that she be pleased.
At last she spoke.
"I would like to have Mr. Gilbert play that part," she said.
It is doubtful if any words spoken in any studio since Hollywood began ever caused a greater sensation.
Garbo wanted John Gilbert, she wanted
again the famous Garbo-Gilbcrt combina- tion, never forgotten by the fans. If there was one thing that would give Jack his chance, one thing that would insure his return to popularity, it would be to have a dashing, romantic role opposite- Greta Garbo.
John Gilbert and Greta Garbo. Time could not, had not, dimmed the magic memory of what those two names meant.
Miss Garbo smiled, gently. "Nothing," she said to everyone who cared to listen, breaking her usual silence, "could make me happier. Mr. Gilbert is a great actor. Our association has been a most pleasant one and it will be gratifying to resume our careers