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SCANNED FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF
PFA Librar)' and Film Study Center,
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
bampfa.berkeley.edu
Coordinated by the
Media History Digital Library
www.mediahistoryproject.org
Funded by an anonyTnous donation in memor>' of Carolyn Ilauer
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. BERKELEY ART MUSEUM & PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2009 with funding from
IVIedia History Digital Library
http://www.archive.org/details/photoplay3536movi
The T\lational Quide to 0\/Iotion 'Pictures
^
i Madge
Bellamy
Menace
of
Hollywood
>./ ■ '^ #
X"*** Winners of » f.OOO"-" Contest!
^ ^ ^ Never, never has the freshness of a Candy been Guaranteed
MA
WHEREVER you buy Baby Ruth you are guaranteed a candy whose freshness is unmistakable Freshness — savory with mingled flavors of nature's tastiest and most recently harvested delica cies. Freshness — swiftly captured and pro- tected by the most modern methods known to the confectioners' art.
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©1928, C.C
AMERICA'S MILLION
Photoplay Magazine — Advektising Seciion
rloTT can I escape tkis modern plague of gum disorders ?
Questions:
by You Answers :
by the Dentists
YOU: "This morning when I brushed my teeth, my gums felt tender and bled a little. Do you suppose I could have pyorrhea?"
DENTISTS: "Probably not. The chances are it's nothing more serious than a soft and tender spot somewhere on your gums."
YOU: "But ifhat could be the cause?"
DENTISTS: "Lack of exercise, more than hkely. In this day of soft foods your gums grow weak and flabby be- cause they have no vigorous chewing to do."
YOU: "But 1 can't change the household
arrangements about meals. ' '
DENTISTS: "No need to. Simply mas- sage your gums twice a day at the time you brush your teeth. Use your brush or your fingsrs, whichever is more comfortable."
YOU : " What good does that do ? ' '
DENTISTS: "It stimulates the flow of
blood through the gum walls. It builds up and tones the tiny cells. It makes your gums firm and healthy."
YOU: "Sounds sensible."
DENTISTS: "It is. And if you want to get better results, use Ipana Tooth Paste for the massage as well as for the regular cleaning of your teeth. Brush both your gums and teeth with it, thor- oughly, twice a day. If you do this con- scientiously, you'll see an improvement within a month. Your gums will be firmer in texture, pinker and healthier in color."
t t t
An imaginary dialogue, you say? Yes — in form, perhaps, but not in sub- stance. For Ipana's amazing growth rests upon its professional support — the clearest proof that thousands of dentists are daily speaking to their patients in the vein of this conversation.
Ask your own dentist about Ipana. Let him point out the benefits of its marvelous clean- ing power, the refreshing sense of health it brings to the whole mouth. And, most im- . ^ portant, let him tell you why he sees it as a weapon in the fight against gum troubles.
For Ipana contains ziratol, a stimulat- ing antiseptic and hemostatic long used by the profession. Its presence gives Ipana the power to tone and invigorate weakened gums — to build them back to sound and sturdy health.
Ipana deserves a full month's trial
The coupon offers you a ten-day sample, gladly sent. But the full-size tube await- ing you at the nearest drug store makes the better test. For it contains 100 brushings, more than enough for a month. So get a rube today and let Ipana start tonight on its good work for your teeth and gums.
BRISTOL-MYERS CO., Dept.I-19 73 West Street. New York. N. Y.
Kindly send me a trial tube of IPANA TOOTH PASTE. Enclosed is a two-cent stamp to covet partly the cost of packing and mailing.
Name
Address
Ciiy Suit
Whcti you write to ajvertlsers please mention PHOTOrLAT M.4GAZINE.
Photoplay Mac.a/.ine — Advertising Section
now it's on the screen— i^ith talking, singing and sound!
■^
C Thrill to the mag- nificent voice of Jean Hersholt! C, Hear Nancy Carroll as she sings, while Charles Rogers accompanies Iier on ibe piano!
^■■t
..S>*B^»..
J^
And watch for! "Interference"
ThtfiruQUALITY Alt-Talking
Emil Jannings in
■'Sins of the Fathers"
*
■'The Canary Murder
Case"
With Sound and Dialog
*
"The Case of Lena Smith"
Slarriog Esther Ralston
*
Richard Dix in
"Redskin"
Sound and Technicolor
f^
f „U secure „;ciare "»* .,-« the o*?*"
°* , molVow V^'^' _„, picture it •
?"
Hot*""' ' ,1 \
Paramount
paramount famous lasky corporation
ley >'-^-v<:>-
U .i.-..-l
ADOLPH ZUKOR, PRES., PARAMOUNT BLDC, N. Y.
Every advertisement in PIIOTori/AY MAGAZINE la rnnianteed.
The World's Leading Motion Picture Publication
PREDBRICK JAHE» SMITH
UANAalNO BDITOB
MARK LAKKIN
WBHTFRN KOlTOn
Contents
Vol. XXXV
For
January
1929
<^=
James R. Quirk
= EDITOR AND PUBLISHER :
No. 2
=i»i>
The High-Lights of This Issue
Cover Design Charles Sheldon
Madge Bellamy — Painted from Lite
As We Go to Press 6
Last Minute News from East and West
Brickbats and Bouquets 8
The Voice ot the Fan
Brief Reviews of Current Pictures 10
A Guide to Your Evening's Entertainment
Recipes for Party Hostesses 15
Let Photoplay's Cook Book Be Your Guide
Friendly Advice on Girls' Problems
Carolyn Van Wyck 16 Photoplay's Personal Service Department
Close-Ups and Long Shots James R. Quirk 27
The Editor Tells You What's What and Who With- out Fear or Favor
Sonny Boy Tad Hastings 29
Little Davey Lee Follows Brother Frankie to Fame
Diet — The Menace of Hollywood
Katherine Albert 30 Typical "Star" Luncheons Are Fatal to Health and Happiness
Girl Wanted — No Experience Required
Cal York 34
Charlie Chaplin Picks — Literally Out of the Sky — a New Leading Lady
The Studio Murder Mystery The Edingtons 36
Two Conflicting Confessions Baffle the Police. There's $3,000 for Solutions of This Crime
Here Are Winners of $5,000 Contest 40
Awards Made for Photoplay's Annual Cut Picture Puzzles
The Stars That Never Were
Margaret E. Sangster 44 Chinese New Year — A True Story ot Hollywood
46
50
52
56
58
Gossip of All the Studios Cal York
What the Film Folk Are Doing and Saying
My Life — So Far As told to Dorothy Spensley Janet Gaynor Relates Her Hollywood Experiences
The Shadow Stage
Reviews of Latest Silent and Sound Pictures
What Do You Mean — Intellectual?
Katherine Albert
Aileen Pringle Hates to Be Tagged "The Darling of the Intelligentsia"
Conrad in Quest of a Voice Mark Larkin
Wherein Mr. Nagel Talks About the Talkies
Doug's Ofifice Boy Makes Good Cal York 63
But Barry Norton Did It on the Screen — Not Be- hind a Desk
Photoplay Reviews the Film Year
Frederick James Smith
Fifteen Stars and Players Scored More Than One Best Performance in Photoplay During 1928 '
Good Girl (Fiction Story) Alice L. Tildesley
Ken Laurel's Heart Stood Still for Years, Until —
Amateur Movies Frederick James Smith
Interest Grows in Photoplay's $2,000 Contest
How to Make a Winter Hat for $3.50
Lois Shirley Esther Ralston Demonstrates the Way
"Imagine My Embarrassment — "
Vernon Bailey How Don Terry, Tourist, Found Out That He Was "Just the Type"
Questions and Answers The Answer Man
What You Want to Know About Films and Film Folk
Casts of Current Photoplays
Complete lor Every Picture Reviewed in This Issue
64
66
70
72
74
85
124
<%^
=<5^
A complete list of all photoplays reviewed in the Shadow Stage this issue will be found on page 12
■<&)=
=<!^
Published monthly by the Photoplay Publishing Co.
Editorial Offices, 221 W. 57th St., New York City Publishing Oflice, 750 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, III
The International News Company. Ltd.. Distributing Agents. 5 Bream's Building. London. England
James R. Quirk, President Robert M. Eastman. Vice-President Kathryn Dougherty, Secretary and Treasurer
Yearly Subscription: S2.50 in the United States, its dependencies. Mexico and Cuba; S3. 00 Canada; S3. .SO to foreiijtn countries. Remittances
should be made by check, or jiostal or express money order. Caution— Do not subscribe through persons unknown to you.
Entered as second-class matter April 24. 1912. at the Postofflce at Chlcaso. III., under the .Act of March 3. 1879.
Copyright. 1928. by the Photoplay Publishing Company. Chicago.
As We Go
to Press
Last Minute
News
from
East and West
MAURITZ STILLER, director and discoverer of Greta Garbo, died sud- denly in Stockholm. Miss Garbo was prostrated by the news and work on her new picture has been held up.
WALTER BYRON, the young English actor, and Carolyn Bishop have announced their engagement. Miss Bishop, a cousin of Frances Marion, was once re- ported engaged to Gene Tunney.
BYRON has just been loaned to Gloria Swanson for "King Kelly." Tully Marshall plays the heavy. Erich Von Stroheim is rushing (yes, rushing) work on the film, working night and day, and Holly- wood is holding its breath. Miss Swanson is living at the studio in a suite of rooms, so that she can be on hand for Von Stroheim's rapid fire shooting schedule. Will wonders never cease?
FINDING no producer ready to sign him up at his figure, $3,500 a week. Rod La Rocque has gone ahead with his plans to leave the picture business. He is opening up a brokerage business in Los Angeles and is already dealing in bonds and mortgages.
ESTHER RALSTON and her husband, George Webb, start a European vaca- tion this month.
RICHARD DIX gets his wish. He is back in Ne\y York, to work at the Famous Players' Astoria, Long Island, studio. It will be a talkie ver- sion of "Bulldog Druramond" and Victor Schertzinger will direct.
OUR GANG is back at the Hal Roach studios after a tour of 287 of the country's theaters.
NOW they're talking of do- ing "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" over again at the Fox plant. Remember the superb Harry Myers version of some years ago? This time it will be an all-talkie and Will
Vilma Banky takes time out to become an Ameri- can citizen. She recently signed her first citizenship papers in I-os Angeles. The freckled observer is Carter J. Vermillion, United States Naturaliza- tion Examiner. Miss Eanky was born at Buda- pest, Hungary
Rogers is mentioned for hero from Bridgeport.
Mark Twain's
FRED THOMSON and Frances Marion celebrated their ninth wedding anni- versary on October 13th as "Denial Anni- versary." In other words, they deny all rumors of an impending divorce.
LUCILE MENDEZ isn't going to divorce her husband. Director Ralph Ince. They're reunited again.
JOAN CRAWFORD'S first starring vehicle will be Josephine Lovett's sequel to her highly successful "Our Dancing Daughters." The sequel is "The Brass Band." After this Miss Crawford will star in Adela Rogers St. Johns' "The Single Standard."
SHARON LYNN'S playing in "Red Wine" won her a five-year optional con- tract with William Fox.
JUNE COLLYER is spending Christmas with her parents in New York. Rumor persists that the Fox studio will not renew its contract with Miss CoUyer.
CHESTER CONKLIN has purchased a yacht. This tops a collection which in- cludes a swimming pool and a pipe organ.
TIM McCOY is spending Christmas with his wife and children abroad. The children are in school on the other side.
YOU will see Betty Compson opposite Richard Barthelmess again in "Weary River." She was with him in "Scarlet Seas." "Weary River" has patches of dialogue and song.
THE temptation to change a Barrie title is over-powering. Paramount has just shifted Sir James' "Half an Hour" to "The Doctor's Secret." This is an all-talkie with Ruth Chatterton featured.
ADOLPHE MENJOU and Florence Vidor will appear in a talkie version of Leo Dietrichstein's success, "The Concert." Lothar Mendez will direct. After "The Concert" the Menjous start on a vacation.
BACLANOVA and Nicholas Soussanin may be married by the time you read this page. The wedding takes place this month.
REGINALD DENNY and Betsy Lee were scheduled to be married on No- vember 24th as this issue went to press. The Honolulu honeymoon will be held up until Denny finishes "His Lucky Day." By the way. Universal has just taken up its option upon Denny's long term contract for another year.
THE Fox Movietone powers are planning an annual picture to be called "The Movietone FoHies." This will be modelled after the Ziegfeld FoUies.
Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section
f>tmNX >s NO
WORD FOU IT
You need "HILARIOUS," "RIB -SPLITTING," and "UPROARIOUS" to de- scribe Colleen's latest laugh success.
Brisk and bubbly, swift and sprightly, it's the kind of a hit you've been hankering for ever since "Her Wild Oat" and
"Oh Kay!" . . .
» •* * She was too Good to be Famous — so she HAD to be Bad!
She warned to Sin and Suffer — and get it over with! . . .
"I'll show Don Anthony I can be Crushed and Broken! — Then he'll have to make me leading lady in his new play!"
A gang war and a mis- leading lady give her her Big Chance . . . But her only "crushing" oppor- tunity comes in a role she never expected to play!
Yon Call H£ AR It!
If your theatre shows "Sound" pictures, you'll H£AR a beautiful musical accompaniment by a famous orchestra, and exciting sound effects in ^'Synthetic Sin." You'll see handsome Antonio Moreno, too, as leading man, in this William A. Seiter production from the brilliant play by Frederic and Fanny Hatton.
JOH]^
Mccormick
j^rickb
Three prizes
are given e'very month
for the best letters'^
$23, $10 and $S
Bouquets
The REAL CRITICS,
the FANS, GIVE THEIR VIEWS
The Monthly Barometer
nPHE Talkie situation still has the center of •*• the stage. Photoplay's readers would like theater managers to differentiate more sharply between pictures with spoken dialogue and pictures with incidental noises. Also there is a demand for more music, singing and dialogue and fewer distracting incidental noises. And now that the novelty is wearing off, the me.hanical imperfections are beginning to jar on the nerves of audiences.
Since "The King of Kings" has been pre- sented at popular prices, it has become one of the leaders in popularity. "Wings" still re- mains a fa\-orite while, among the newer iilms, "Our Dancing Daughters" and "The Singing Kool" are by all odds the most popular.
Richard .\rlen. Xils Asther, Joan Crawford, (rcta Garbo and John Gilbert received the greatest number of bouquets.
And Photopl.av's Life Stories are the most dis;ussed feature of the magazine.
What have you to say about the movies? This is the pla:e to air your opinions, griev- ances or enthusiasms.
$25.00 Letter
Grand Rapids, Mich.
It is too bad we hear so much about IT and the sex appeal of movie folk, for it gives some persons unacquainted with photoplays in general the impression that the main function of the movies is to depict red hot love scenes. As a club woman associated with many organizations having unofficial movie censor- ship committees, I regret this. And I have been interested to note that among the movies I have seen during the past year or more, the biggest drawing cards had nothing to do with sex appeal — some of them did not even involve a man and woman romance. Among these were: "Stella Dallas," "The Patriot," "The Jazz Singer," "Beau Gcste," and "The King of Kings."
In "Beau Geste," for instance, that powerful drama of courage and brotheriy love, there was (he merest suggestion of a boy and girl romance — and no love scenes. Vet so moving and appealing was this splendid picture that, as the lights went on, I could not sec a dry eye. Quite a compliment to the "morons" who at- tend the movies! The major theme of the popular "Stella Dallas" was mother love; of "The Jazz Singer." the religious passions and lofty domestic ideals of a colorful race. "The
8
The readers of PHOTOPLAY are in- vited to write to this department — to register complaints or compliments — to tell just what they think of pictures and players. We suggest that you express your ideas as briefly as pos- sible and refrain from severe per- sonal criticism, remembering that the object of these columns is to exchange thoughts that may bring about better pictures and better acting. Be con- structive. We may not agree with the sentiments expressed, but we'll pub- lish them just the same ! Letters must not exceed 200 words and should bear the writer's full name and ad- dress. Anonymous letters go to the waste basket immediately.
Patriot" depicted the love of a man for his oppressed country. The affair with his mis- tress was the merest incident. And "The King of Kings" speaks for itself.
Mrs. Pendleton Stew.'vrt Morris, Jr.
$10.00 Letter
Laconia, N. H.
Visiting at the home of a friend, I was sur- prised when the daughter, aged eight years, presented me with a typewritten invitation to witness " Seventh Heaven." It transpired that a number of children, eight or ten years of age, belong to a Photoplay Club, under the care of a chaperon. With her, they see certain pictures and proceed to study the principal points and characters. .-Yssigned to their parts, the chaperon teaches them every necessity for a production. .An unused garage has been fitted up with everything necessary for pro- ducing movies. The Club earned enough by selling Photopl.ay subscriptions to furnish the necessaries. The boys ha\e been taught how to handle scenic effects and one girl gives her time as pianist.
Benches are used for seats and ten cents for admission helps along the project. The "coach" is fifteen years old, but he knows his business, and the realistic production I wit- nessed was perfect.
.After the show, "stars" and audience were asked for criticisms and plans were made for the ne.\t produ lion. .\nd then the mothers offered light refreshments. Worth-while?
Pleasure and instruction and a new good use for Photoplay. Incidentally, the idea was invented by a crippled child.
Mrs. Charloite Hill Twombly.
$5.00 Letter
Chicago, III.
When will movie magnates cease to believe that aviatrices, channel swimmers, football heroes, baseball wizard:, cl alia, can attract fairly intelligent mo\'ie patrons? What a pleasure to witness real acting by an artist! But what an insult to the intelligence to see persons of questionable, or even unquestioned, prowess in fields of endeavor far removed from acting exploited because of their "fame"!
(iive us an overdose, if possible, of great artists like Garbo, Jannings, Chaplin, Bac- lanova, \'eidt, and others of their calibre. Spare, oh spare us from "great" flagpole sitters, marathon dance winners and so on, foisted on us as great depicters of all human emotions!
Let the roller-skate marathon winners and the sensations in all allied activities join the side-shows in circuses and get publicity for whatever they excel in. 15ut by all means keep them out of a field in which they have abso- lutely no place, except, perhaps, as news-reel features.
Betty Benkett.
Going Up!
Chicago, III. Joan Crawford certainly is shooting up like a sky-rocket. Her pretty legs and dancing feet took her to stardom, but her fine acting wUl keep her there.
Harriett Lafquert.
Personal to Doug and Jack
Rush City, Jlinn. Here's my brickbat to a couple of stars, and I think many thousands of fans will agree with me:
Douglas Fairbanks! Please discard the gypsy outfit for at least one picture, and let's see how you look in a straw hat.
John Barrymorc! Please face the camera. Some of us might get a chance to go to Holly- wood some day, so give us a chance to recog- nize you.
.\rxold W. Ogren. [ co.ntinued on page 12.s ]
Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section
rrSie famouf lover
ivai it aWvay*
Oee and Hear^
The [huiiJct ot ,t Imti'lrc! Hamirii; frigaio ac Jiraih ^rip? — TIk- most colorful nj\al Lombat ill iiistorv rL-enauied iii rich detail — Tht shouts of chom:itiJ« m bfcjth- less battle aaion- ice ^ fjmuus .mists in .1 single picnirc — Coilrme Griliith. H. B. WjrriLr. Victor Vartoiii. Ian Keith. Marie Dressltr, Sec dirci-tof Fcink Lk-yJ outJo the difc-i-torul brilliantc ct "The S(.-.i Hi^k. — PrcstntcdbyRichardA RowbnJ
A lirAt
national
Picture
Takes the Guesswork Out of "Going to the Movies"
Delilah's love sent Samson into slavery- For Salome. King Herod sold his sod- And Pelleasfell at his brother's hand 1,1 the arms of lovely Melisande.
r * f f
The world has called these glamor- ous women great lovers. Yet all of them made sacrifice of the men they loved —
How much greater, then, is a devo- tion that dares to sacrifice LOVE ITSELF. ... An emotion so mighty that, when Love spells Ruin for the Man, a glorious beauty re- nounces her last hope of happi- ness to SAVE HIM FROM THEIR LOVE!
* f r *
No wonder the romance of
luxurious Lady Hamilton and world- renowned Lord Nelson has been called ihe greatest of all Great Loves . One of history's most thrilling sirens and the famous hero of Trafalgar, united m a reckless love pact that was at once the scandal and the salvation of an Empire . . .
No wonder First National Pic- tures chose this epic story, from E. Barrington's great bestseller, as theme for a vast screen spectacle of unimagined splendor, planned to mark a step for^-ard in picture
art
No wonder millions ate plan- ning to see— and hear—
ConnneQfiiTfnn
ieDIVlNE lADY
w /tt jouncl
Brief Reviews of
Current Pictures
indicates that photoplay was named as one of the SIX best upon its month of review
*AIR CIRCUS, THE— Fox.— Collegiate stuff in an :ivi;ition training school. Good. (November.)
AIR LEGION, THE— FBO.— Story about the air mail service that has nothing but a good idea to recommend it. {Dec.)
Al R M.ML PILOT, THE — Superlative. — .'Another air mail storv which breaks all the rules of aviation. (Dec.)
ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE— Metro-Goldwyn- Maver. — The old favorite, revived with William Haines. Good. (Oct.)
ANN.\POLIS — Pathe. — Pleasant romance and drama among the admirals of tlie future. (November.)
AWAKENING, THE — United Artists. — First starring picture of \'ilma Banky and Walter Byron. He's a nice looking lad. .\ "IVlaric-Odile" plot. (November.)
B.'VBY CYCLONE, THE — Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer.— .All right, if you like Pekinese pups. {.Seplemher.)
BACHELOR'S PARADISE — Tifiany-Stahl.— A somewhat rowdy comedy-drama with a little old- fashioned pie-throwing and an invigorating prize- fight. Witli Sally O'Neil. (July.)
BANTAM COWBOY, THE— FBO.— Only good because Buzz Barton is in it. (Ocl.)
*BARKER. THE— First National. — Human and humorous slory of circus life. With Milton Sills. See it. (September.)
BATTLE OF THE SEXES, THE— United Artists. — Hnw a happy homo is wrecked by a blonde. Sophisticated drama. (September.)
BE.\U BROADWAY — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. — Aileen Pringle and Sue Carol fight for the affections of Lew Cody. Gay, inconsequential comedy. (July.)
BEAUTIFUL BUT DUMB— Tiffany-Stahl.— Patsy Ruth Miller in gay comedy. (Ocl.)
BEGGARS OF LIFE— Paramount. — The low- down on hoboes. Good entertainment. And hear Wallace Beery sing a song I (Dec.)
*BELLAMY TRIAL, THE — Metro-Goldwyn- Maver. — The auflience is admitted to the court room of the most thrilling murder mystery of the year. (.August.)
BEWARE OF BLONDES— Columbia.— Emerald, emerald, wlio's gut the emerald? (November.)
BEYOND THE SIERRAS — Metro-Goldwyn- Ma\-er. — .\ Tim McCoy Western that will put the kids to sleep. (July.)
BIG HOP, THE— Buck .Tones. — Mr. Jones crosses the Pacilic. .\ good film. (Ocl.)
BIG KILLING, THE— Paramount.- Wallace Beery and Ra\'mond Hatton becotne all tangled up in a 1-Centuckv feud. (.■Insusl.)
BIT OF HEAVEN, A — Excellent. — Broadway vs. Park .Avenue. .\ good performance by Uia Lee. (Ocl.)
BITTER SWEtTS— Peerless.— Fun in the life of a girl detective. (Dec.)
BLACK BUTTERFLIES— Quality.— Exposing tlie wicked ways of tlie fake Bohemians. (November.)
BRANDED MAN, THE— Rayart.— The best part of this domestic opera is the titles. Why not do your reading at home? (.August.)
BROADWAY DADDIES — Columbia.— Trite story but well acted. (Ocl.)
BROKEN MASK, THE— Anchor.— Ugly story of revenge but well told and acted. (September.)
BROTHERLY LOVE — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. — Messrs. Dane and .Arthur in burlesque prison re- form. The big moment is a football game between two rival penitentiaries. (November.)
BURNING BRIDGES— Pathe.— Better- than - usual Western, with that good hombre^ Harry Carey, in a dual r61c. (Dec.)
BURNING GOLD— Elbec.— A story of dirty deeds in the oil fields. (August.)
BURNING THE WIND— Universal.— One of Hoot Gibson's lapses. (Oct.)
•BUSHRANGER,THE— Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer — Tim McCoy goes to Australia and plays some rousing tunes on the boo men ng. (.August.)
BUTTER AND EGG MAN, THE— First Na- tional.— The amusing adventures of a country lad (.lack Mulhall) who becomes an "angel" on Broad- way. (.August.)
CAMERAMAN, THE— Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. — Buster Keaton redeems himself in this one. Lots of laughs. (Ocl.)
CAPTAIN CARELESS— FBO.— You'll like Bob Steele. (Oa.)
CAPTAIN SWAGGER — Pathe.— Good comedy in which Rod La Rocque. as a naughty aviator, is per- suasively reformed b\- Sue Carol. (November.)
♦CARDBOARD LOVER, THE — Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. — Snapps- Frencli farce comedy with Marion Davies — also Jetta Goudal and Nils Asther. Sophis- ticated and charming. (Oct.)
CAUGHT IN THE FOG— Warners.— The plot gets lost in the fog, too. (.August.)
CELEBRITY — Pathe. — .A prize-fighter gets cul- ture. Meaning Mr. Tunney? (Ocl.)
CERTAIN YOUNG MAN, A— Metro-Goldwyn- Maver. — Romantic two-timing in Arlenesque London society. A bit languid, but well played by Ramon Novarro. even if he isn't precisely the perfect .Anglo- Saxon. (July.)
Pictu res You
Should Not Miss
"7th Heaven"
"The Singing Fool"
"The Divine Lady"
"Interference"
"Mother Kncws Best"
"Street Angel"
"The Patriot"
"Four Devils"
"Wings"
"The Godless Girl"
\s a service to its readers. Photo- play Magazine presents brief critical comments on all photoplays of the precedini; si.^ months. By consulting this valuable guide, you can deter- mine at a glance whether or not your promised evening's entertainment is worth while. Photoplay's reviews have always been the most author- itative published. And its tabloid reviews show you accurately and con- cisely how to save your motion picture time and money. The month at the end of each review indicates the issue of Photoplay in which the original review appeared.
CHARGE OF THE GAUCHOS — FBO.— How
the .Arsenline Republic got that way. With Francis X. Bushman. (Dec.)
CHEYENNE — First National.— Ken Maynard in one particularly swell Western. (Dec.)
CHICKEN A LA KING— Fox. — More lessons in Kold-dig'jing. Funny, but rough in spots. With Nancy Carroll and Ford Sterling. (.Augu^l.)
CIRCUS KID, THE— FBO.— You can sleep througli It. (Dec.)
CLEARING THE TRAIL— tJniversal.-Again saving tlie old ranch. (Ocl.)
CLOTHES MAKE THE WOMAN — Tiffany- Stahl. — Help! The Czar's daughter is with us again, this time played by Eve Southern. The picture lias its good moments. (July.)
CLOUD DODGER, THE— Universal.- A battle in the air for a dizz\' blonde! (Oct.)
CODE OF THE AIR— Bischoff.— More air stuff. Good adventure story. (Ocl.)
CODE OF THE SCARLET— First National.— Ken Maynard gets /nv m^ui. Good out-door storj'. (Seplember.)
COME AND GET IT— FBO.— Contains, among other things, a good boxing match. (Dec.)
COMPANIONATE MARRIAGE — Gotham.— Lots of propaganda. With such a live topic, tins should have been a better picture. (Oct.)
COP, THE — Pathe-De Mille. — Once more the war- fare between the cops and crooks. Some good melo- drama well acted by William Boyd, Alan Hale and Jacqueline Logan. (July.)
*COSSACKS, THE — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.— Love, sport and murder among the cowboys of Russil. Jack Gilbert is the lure. (.August.)
COURT-MARTIAL— Columbia.— Melodrama about the less civil aspects of the Civil War. (Dec.)
COWBOY KID, THE— Fo.x. — .A Western for the simple-minded. (September.)
♦CRAIG'S WIFE— Pathe. — Splendid drama with Irene Rich as the too perfect wife. (September.)
CRASH, THE — First National.— Wo/ an under- world melodrama, but a swell thriller with a good per- formance by Milton Sills and a rousing train wreck. (November.)
CROOKS CAN'T WIN— FBO.— Good celluloid gone haywire. Will someone please stop the liliii crime wave? (August.)
DANGER PATROL, THE — Rayart. — A big wholesome, fresh air drama of the Northwest with three rousing murders. (July.)
DANGER RIDER, THE— Universal.— There's a saving dash of originality in the plot of this Hoot Gibson Western. (July.)
DANGER STREET — FBO. — .A rich bachelor, disappointed in love, drowns his grief in a gang war. Well, that's one wa^• to forget. (November.)
DAWN — Herbert Wilcox. — .An English production that gives a fair and impartial presentation of the Edith Cavellcase. (.August.)
DEMON RIDER. THE— Davis.— Just a West- ern. (Dec.)
DESERT BRIDE, THE — Columbia. — Betty Compson. as a Parisian beauty, raises havoc in the Foreign Legion. (.August.)
DETECTIVES — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. — Karl Dane and George K. .Arthur in a collection of gags — and some of them are not exactly spotless. (July.)
DEVIL'S TRADEMARK, THE— FBO.— Aggra- vating bunk. (September.)
*DIVINE LADY, THE— First National. — The old dirt about Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson, told in romantic fashion. Pictorially beautiful, thanks to the lovely face of Corinne Griffith. (Dec.)
DIVINE SINNER, THE— Rayart.— Austrian drama with daring but grown-up theme. (Ocl.)
DO GENTLEMEN SNORE?— Roach-M.-G.-M.— A siiort farce turned into a panic by the appearance of a real, live gorilla. (.August.)
*DOCKS OF NEW YORK, THE— Paramount.— A drama of two derelicts, powerful, dramatic and stirring. Superbly acted by George Bancroft and Betty Compson. Worthwhile adult entertainment. (November.)
DOG JUSTICE— FBO. — But the story is a cruel injustice to Ranger, the canine star. (.August.)
DOG LAW — FBO. — Giving Ranger a good break. November.)
I CONTINtTED ON PAGE 1 2 |
10
Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section
T T
se Talking Shorts /^^ Really Features Elaboi'ately Produced at\^S)^ Movietone Qt^
Napoleon's Barber
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Brief Reviews of Current Pictures
[ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 ]
DON'T MARRY — Fox. — An amusing little ro- mantic comedy iliat will please the gals. Gayly played by Lois Moran and Neil Hamilton. {July.)
DO YOUR DUTY— First National.— Charlie Murrav plays his piece about the honest traffic cop and the crooks. Not so hot. {Dec.)
*DRAG NET, THE — Paramount. — Vivid and swiftly mo\'ing underworld story with grade A acting bv George Bancroft, William Powell and Evelyn Brent. {July.)
*DRY MARTINI— Fox.— Sophisticated comedy among tlic Anirrican dry law ex-patriots of the Ritz bar in Paris. Naughty but neat. {Novejnber.)
DUGAN OF THE DUGOUTS— Anchor.— Gag- ging the Great War again. (September.)
DUTV'S REWARD— Elbee.— More cops, crooked politics, etc. (Dec.)
END OF ST. PETERSBURG, THE— Sovkinc— What the Soviet wants >-ou to believe. St. Peters- burg destroyed by trick camera angles. {August.)
EXCESS BAGGAGE— Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.— Vivid and realistic picture of stage life. See it. (.August.)
FAMILY PICNIC, THE — Fox- Movietone.— Pioneer all-talking comedy. See it and write your own remedy. (September.)
FANGS OF FATE— Pathe.— Klondike, the dog growls through an old story. (September.)
FAZIL^Fox. — Proving the sheiks make bad husbands. Torrid necking in the desert. Not for the kindergarten class. (August.)
FIFTY-FIFTY GIRL, THE— Paramount.— Bebe Daniels inherits half a gold mine. It turns out to be a gold mine of laughs. James Hall is her leading man. Recommended to your kind attention. (July.)
FIGHTIN' REDHEAD, THE— FBO.— Buzz Bar- ton eats up the Western scenery. (September.)
FIRST KISS. THE— Paramount.— Young love, played by Fay Wray and Garj- Cooper and set in a deep sea background. (November.)
FLEET'S IN. THE— Paramount.— Clara Bow among the sailors. Of course, you won't miss it. {Noi'ember.)
FLEETWING— Fox.— A story of Araby, a giri, a sheik and a horse. (September.)
FLYING COWBOY, THE— Universal.— Fun— and lots of it — on a dude ranch. With Hoot Gibjon. (July.)
FORBIDDEN HOUR. THE— Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. — Ramon Novarro is at his best as the prince- at-play. Tlie story of a king who gave up his throne for love. .And Renee Adoree is in it. You'll like this one. (July.)
FORBIDDEN LOVE— Pathe.— English film brought to this country merely because it stars Lily Damlta. (Dec.)
♦FORGOTTEN FACES— Paramount.-Under- world storj' of regeneration and sacrifice. Fine story, fine acting, and 100 per cent entertainment. {Sept.)
•FOUR DEVILS— Fox.— Dramatic and beautifully presented story of Continental Circus life, with great performances by Janet Gaynor, Charles Morton and Barry Norton. You'll want to see it. (Dec.)
*FOUR WALLS— Metro-Goldw\'n-Mayer.— Story of Jewish gangster, splendidly played by John Gilbert. Don't miss it. {September.)
FREE LIPS — First Division. — Virtue triumphant in a night club. Just another one of those pictures. With June Marlowe. (July.)
FURY OF THE WILD— FBO.— More real meat for Ranger. (November.)
GANG WAR— FBO.— Yep, bootleggers and crooks again. (September.)
GATE CRASHER, THE— Universal.— Glen Try- on in a hit-and-miss comedy. (September.)
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW— Fox-Movietone.- Mr. Shaw ontert;\ins liis public with an imitation of Mussolini. It's a wow. (September.)
GIRL HE DIDN'T BUY, THE— Peerless.— Light story of a Broadway love affair with an original twist to the plot. (.August.)
GIRL ON THE BARGE, THE— Universal.— A little slow but pleasant enough. Sally O'Neil wears her one expression. (Dec.)
GIVE AND TAKE— Universal.— A silly story but made into good entertainment by the expert comedy offered by Jean Hersholt and George Sidney. (July.)
♦GLORIOUS BETSY— Warners.— The romantic story of Jerome Bonaparte and Betsy Patterson of Baltimore. Tricked up with a happy but unhistoric ending. Mildly charming, and decked out with Vita- phonic outbursts. Dolores Costello starred. (July.)
^GODLESS GIRL, THE— Pathe-De Mille— A vitally interesting and vivid story told with all the force and power Cecil B. De Mille could give it. In- cidentally, it takes a poke at reform schools. -A real picture with splendid acting by Marie Prevost. George Duryea, Noah Beery and Lina Basquette. (July.)
GOLDEN CLOWN, THE — Nordisk-Pathe. — Even Denmark has a clown who laughs to conceal a broken heart. Turgid foreign drama with a fine per- formance by Gosta Eckman. (July.)
GOLDEN SHACKLES— Peerless.— You can't see the picture for the plot. (August.)
GOLF WIDOWS — Columbia. — Comedy drama built on one of the terrible consequences of country club life. With Harrison Ford and Vera Reynolds. {July.)
GRAIN OF DUST, THE— Tiffany-Stahl.— Inter- esting drama based on the David Graham Phillips novel, with the grief rather heavily stressed. {Nov.)
• Universal. — Dumb
GREASED LIGHTNING -
Western. (September. )
GREEN GRASS WIDOWS— Tiffany-Stahl. —
Walter Hagen in a goofy golf story. He should know better. (September.)
GUARDIANS OF THE WILD— Universal — Too bad that Rex, the wonder horse, can't write his own stories and put som,e horse-sense into them. (November.)
GYPSY OF THE NORTH— Rayart,— A better than usual melodrama of the Northern mining camps. {August,)
HALF A BRIDE— Paramount.— Wherein a bride is cast away on a desert island with the wrong man. (August.)
HANGMAN'S HOUSE— Fox.— A good drama of Ireland, with some splendid backgrounds, a fine horse race and an excellent performance by Victor McLaglen. (.August.)
HAPPINESS AHEAD— First National.— What might have been merely tawdry melodrama is turned into fine entertainment by the splendid acting of Colleen Moore, Edmund Lowe and Lilyan Tash- man. {.August.)
HAUNTED HOUSE. THE— First National — Too much Chester Conklin and not enough m^'stcry. {November.)
HAWK'S NEST, THE— First National.— An in- teresting and colorful melodrama of Chinatown, ex- cellently acted by Milton Sills and Doris Kenvon. (July.)
HEADIN' FOR DANGER — FBO. —The best Western in months. New plot, new situations, new gags and Bob Steele. (July.)
HEAD MAN, THE— First National.— What happened in a small town when the Ladies' Auxiliary drank too much lemonade. (August.)
HEARTS OF MEN— Anchor.— And producers ain't got no heart. (Oct.)
HEART TO HEART— First National.— Agreeable and original comedy of small town life. You'll like it. (September.)
HEART TROUBLE— First National.— Harr>' Langdon writes liis own finish in pictures. (Sept.)
HELLO. CHEYENNE— Fox.— That distinguished litterateur, Mr. Tom Mix, in a Western that is pep- pered with new stunts. (July.)
HELL SHIP BRONSON— Gotham.— Noah Beery does some of his best acting as a rip-roaring old sea captain who is licked and frustrated by two women. You'll be sorry when virtue triumphs. Swell enter- tainment. (July.)
HEY, RUBE— FBO.— Carnival life film that has the real stuff. (Dec.)
HIS LAST HAUL— FBO.-Just a tear ierker. (Dec.)
HIS PRIVATE LIFE— Paramount.— One of those French farces that is full of doors and bores. However, it has Adolphe Menjou. (Dec.)
HIS RISE TO FAME— Excellent —Prize ring stuff with night club trimmings. (September.)
HIT OF THE SHOW. THE— FBO.— A lot of grief about the hard life of a small-town actor. Just a tear-fest. (July.)
HOLLYWOOD BOUND — Warners. — Talkie farce that sounds as though it had been written by someone who never had been nearer Ho!l>'\vood than Parsons, Kans. (November.)
HOMESICK— Fox.— Sammy Cohen as a New York tourist in California. Fairly funny. (Dec.)
*HOME TOWNERS, THE— Warners— Smooth- est talkie so far. Good lines, by George M. Cohan, and a fine performance by Doris Kenyon. (Dec.)
HOT NEWS— Paramount.— Bebe Daniels hunts for thrills in the news reel game. And finds 'em. (September.)
HOUND OF SILVER CREEK, THE— Universal. — Dynamite, the new dog star, blasts an inferior story to success. (Aiigusl.)
HOUSE OF SCANDAL, THE— Tiffany-Stahl — If you are not sick of cops, crooks and the inevitable girl who reforms. (July.)
I FORBID — Fan-Maid Pictures. — An over-ripe Kosher film of breaking hearts. {November.)
INSPIRATION— Excellent.— Too little of the title role. (Dec.)
♦INTERFERENCE — Paramount.— Drama and suspense in a Grade .A murder story. Well acted and well spoken — yes, it's a talkie. (Dec.)
INTO NO MAN'S LAND— Excellent.— An un- usually dull war picture. (Dec.)
JUST MARRIED — Paramount. — Honeymoon farce on a transatlantic liner. Lots of laughs. (September.)
Photoplays Reviewed in tke Shadow Stage This Issue
Save this magazine — refer to the criticisms before you pic\ out your evenings entertainment. M.a\e this your reference list.
Page
Adoration — First National 54
A Man of Peace — Warners 93
Amazing \'agabond, The — FBO 93
Avalanche — Paramount 54
Avensing Rider, The— FBO 92
A Woman of Affairs— H.-G.-JI 53
Black Ace, The— Pathe 93
Cavalier, The — Tiffany-Stahl 93
City of Purple Dreams, The — Rayart. . 92
Driftwood — Columbia 92
Geraldine — Pathe 54
Harvest of Hate, The — Uni\-ersal 92
Head of the Family, The — Gotham.. . . 92
Page
King Cowboy— FBO 92
King of the Rodeo — Universal 92
Legend of Gosta Barling, The — Swedish
Biograph 92
Making the Varsity — Excellent 92
Napoleon's Barber — Fo.x-Movietone. . . 93
Naughty Baby — First National 54
On Trial — Warners- Vitaphone 55
Outcast — First National 52
Power of the Press, The — Columbia. . . 92
Queen of Burlesque — Tiffany-Stahl. ... 92
Red Mark, The— Pathe 54
I'age
Red Wine— Fo.x 53
Riley the Cop — Fox 55
Romance of the Underworld — Fox. ... 52
Scarlet Seas — First National 53
Shakedown, The — Universal 93
Silent Sheldon— Rayart 92
Sinners' Parade — Columbia 92
Sins of the Fathers — Paramount 52
Sioux Flood— M.-G.-M 92
Someone to Love — Paramount ! 54
South of Panama— Chesterfield 92
\'iking. The— Technicolor-M.-G.-M. . . 55
1^
Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section
'.1
KID'S CLEVER, THE— Univt-rsal.— But the film isn't. {Novt-mbtr.)
*KIT CARSON — Paramount. — FrcfJ Thomson in an above par western. (Oct.)
LADIES OF THE MOB — Paramount. — Clara Bow becomes a gunman's "moll" and handles a dramatic story skillfully. {September.)
LADIES OF THE NIGHT CLUB— Tiffany- Stalil. — A clown and a millionaire are rivals for the affections of a cabaret girl. Synthetic heart interest. {Aususl.)
LADY RAFFLES— Columbia.— A mystery melo- drama witli a real mystery — of all things! And some snappy team work by Estelle Taylor and Lilyan Tashman. (Jw/y.)
LIGHTNING SPEED— FBC— Adventures of a new.-^paper reporter — as the movies see 'cm. {Nov.)
LIGHTS OF NEW YORK — Warner- Vitaphont. — First all-talkie feature and. naturallv. pretty crude. Squawking night clubs and audible murders. (Stp Umber.)
*LILAC TIME— First National.— Thrilling and romantic war drama with enough sentiment to lift it above the run of war plays. {.August.)
LINGERIE— Tiffany-Stahl.— Alice White and Malcolm McGregor in a war romance that you'll like. {Oct.)
LION AND THE MOUSE— Warner-Vitaphone.— Partli' dialogue witli some effective performances. But the story belongs to a past decade. {September.)
LITTLE SNOB, THE — Warners. — A Coney Island kid tries to crash society but discovers that the freaks are better company. With May McAvoy. iJuly.)
LITTLE WILDCAT, THE— Warners.— Nothing to shoot up the blood pressure. {November.)
LITTLE WILD GIRL, THE— Hercules.— Lila
Lee gets mixed up in a lot of old-fashioned hokum. {September.)
LITTLE YELLOW HOUSE, THE— FBO— An
awful fuss about nothing at all. {Aususl.)
LONESOME — Universal. — Barbara Kent and Glenn Tryon in a good human interest story of young love in modern backgrounds. Lots of trick camera work but, on the whole, worth your while. {July.)
LOST IN THE ARCTIC— Fox— Interesting and wortliwliile story of .\rctic Exploration. {Oct.)
LOVE OVER NIGHT— Pathe.— Mystery stuff casLd over witli some good comedy. {September.)
MADELON— Universal.— A talkie— so bad that it should be a museum piece. {November.)
MAGNIFICENT FLIRT, THE— Paramount.— Mother and daughter in a mix-up of romances. Suave direction and the fascinating work of Florence Vidor put this picture across. (August.)
MAKING THE GRADE— Fox.— An excellent movietone, based on a George Ade story. {Dec.)
MAN FROM HEADQUARTERS. THE— Rayart. — Thrilling and enthralling Secret Service yarn. Above average. (Seplemher.)
^MANHATTAN COCKTAIL— Paramount —A story of life in New York's theatrical circles — told with a kick. {Dec.)
MAN IN HOBBLES, THE— Tiffany-Stahl — What "in-laws" can do to an ambitious artist. Good cnmedy. (Dec.)
MAN IN THE ROUGH, THE— FBO— Not a golf siory. A Western with slinn- villain, foolish old man, tomboy daughter — and Our Hero! {July.)
MARCHING ON— Fox.— Chic Sale in a char- acter study of a Civil War veteran. Tears and laughter. It's a Movietone. {Dec.)
MARKED MONEY— Pathe.— Pleasant comedy with human interest. {Dec.)
MASKED ANGEL, A— Chadwick.— Just dumb.
{Oct.)
MASKS OF THE DEVIL— Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. — John Gilbert is great in a weird and sinister story. {Dec.)
♦MATING CALL, THE— Paramount-Caddo.— Thomas Meighan, Evelyn Brent and Renee Adoree in an unusual stor>' of strong dramatic appeal. (Oct.)
*ME. GANGSTER— Fox.— Sentimental, melo- dramatic and yet completely absorbing. Introducing an unusual newconier, one Don Terry, whose perform- ance is worth seeing. {November.)
MICHIGAN KID, THE— Universal.- Thrilling melodrama and beautiful scenery successfully smother a Horatio Alger plot. With Conrad Nagel and Renee Adoree. {July.)
MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE, A— Rayart.— Some- thing verv niftv and baffling in the way of a murder. {July.)
MIDNIGHT LIFE— Gotham.- Night club stuff and a bit bloodthirsty. (Oct.)
MIDNIGHT TAXI, THE— Warners.— Bootlegger and hijackers run riot. {August.)
MODERN MOTHERS— Columbia.— Show folks vs. Babbitts. {Oct.)
MORGAN'S LAST RAID — Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer.— An old-time melodrama made passable by modern endnlhshments. {November.)
*MOTIIERKNOWSBEST— Fox.— Edna Ferbers
story of a stage motlicr whoye dominating, relentlei^s ambition for her daughter sends the girl to fame. A remarkable performance by Madge Bellamy and great acting by Louise Dresser and Barry Norton. {November.)
MUST WE MARRY?— Trinity.— Must we make pictures like this? (Dec.)
MYSTERIOUS LADY, THE — Metro-Goldw>n- Majer. — Greta Garbo as a spy in a war romance. And. oh what fun for the officers! {September.)
NAME THE WOMAN— Columbia.— And also name the plot. {Oct.)
NED McCOBB'S DAUGHTER— Palhe.—Plenty
of action plus sound drama plus fine acting. {Dec.)
*NEWS PARADE, THE— Fox.— A snappy and original melodrama of the exploits of the news reel photographers. Nick Stuart and Sally Phipps head tlie cast. Excellent way to spend the evening. {July.)
NIGHT BIRD. THE — Universal. — Reginald Denny goes back to tlie prize-ring, where he is at his best. {November.)
*NIGHT WATCH, THE— First National.— War story with navv background and some good drama. /l"d BillieDove. {Oct.)
*NOAH'S ARK— Warners. — Big cast, big theme, big flood. Your money's worth. {Oct.)
NONE BUT THE BRAVE— Fox.— Once more the college hero makes good. {Oct.)
NO OTHER WOMAN— Fox.— One of 'Dolores Del Rio's early movie mistakes, dug up for no good reason. {September. )
NO QUESTIONS ASKED— Warners.— William Collier, Jr.. and Audrey Ferris in one of those "first year ' stories. Just so-so. {July.)
OBEY YOUR HUSBAND— Anchor.— Horrible moral lesson for naughty wives. (September.)
OH KAY! — First National. — Colleen Moore in some agreeable nonsense. (Oct.)
OLD CODE, THE— Anchor.— Heaven help the Indian on a night like this! {Oct.)
OPENING NIGHT, THE — Columbia. — One moment of cowardice wrecks the life of an otherwise fine man. A drama worth seeing. lAugiist.)
ORPHANS OF THE SAGE— FBO.— Boss pitcli- er. {Oct.)
*OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS — Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer. — Lively and very modern romance in the younger set, staged in a luxurious background and ornamented by Joan Crawford, Anita Paee and Dorothy Sebastian. John Mack Brown and Nils Asther also lielp a lot. (.'\ugust.)
OUT OF THE RUINS— First National.— Dick Bartlielmess in a pretty uniform and a Buster Keaton expression. {Oct.)
OUT WITH THE TIDE— Fearless.- Great hand- fuls of melodrama. {November.)
PAINTED POST— Fox.— Tom Mix's swan song for Fox. (September.)
PERFECT CRIME, THE— FBO.— Clive Brook, as a great detective, is in search of a perfect crime. How he finds it is the basis of an unusually fine m\'stcry >'arn. (July.)
PHANTOM CITY, THE— First National.— Fun and mystery in a deserted mining town, with Ken Maynard as the spook chaser. (.Xugust.)
PHANTOM PINTO, THE— Ben Wilson.— Why expect a pinto pony and a flock of horses to furnish all the brains of a picture? (August.)
PLASTERED IN PARIS— Fox— Pretty tire- some. {Dec.)
POLLY OF THE MOVIES— First Division.- Inexpensive but eiitertLtining film about an ugl\' duckling wlio would be a movie cpieen. {September.)
PORT OF DREAMS— Universal.— Proving that you can't make a "7th Heaven" just by slowing down the scenes. Tliis one is full of yawns. (November.)
*POWER — Pathe. — Romantic adventures of Bill Boyd and Alan Hale a couple of dam good workers — or good flam workrr>. .\nd verj' funny, too. (Sept.)
PRICE OF FEAR, THE— Universal.— Something to avoid. (Dec.)
PROWLERS OF THE SEA— Tiffany-Stahl. —
Devastating eftects of a beautiful Cuban girl on the morale of a Navy officer. {Septetnber.)
QUEEN OF THE CHORUS, THE— Anchor.— Routine. Temptations of a chorus girl, with virtue triumpliant. {August.)
♦RACKET. THE— Caddo-Paramount.— Thomas Meiglian, as a lone cop, cleans up a ganp of racketeer'^, headed by Louis Wolheim. Don't miss it. {August.)
RAIDER EMDEN, THE— Emelka-Columbia.— A thrilling reproduction of the most spectacular sea exploits of the War. {A ugust.)
RANSOM^ — Columbia. — Childish rumpus over a heav>' international secret. Third rale. (Oct.) 1 CONTINUED ON PAGK 111 ]
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Twelve Times
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Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section
VVt)
'Audiences are sacfing it, Everywhere ; —
Xtlasty PICTURESr/zarTALi; Me LIVING PEOPLE/
Vitaphone Talking Pictures are electrifying audiences the country over!
For Vitaphone brings to you the greatest of the world's great entertainers . . .
Screen stars! Stage stars! Opera stars! Famous orches- tras! Master musicians!
Vitaphone recreates them ALL before your eyes. You see and hear them act, talk, sing and play — like human beings in the flesh!
Do not confuse Vitaphone with mere ^'sound effects."
Vitaphone is the ONE proved successful talking picture — exclusive product of Warner Bros.
Remember this — if it's not Warner Bros. Vitaphone, it's NOT the real, life-like talking picture.
Vitaphone climaxes all prev- ious entertainment achieve- ments. See and hear this mar- vel of the age — Vitaphone,
aviTAww'
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If itsj/^/ g WARNER PICTURE it^s !^/ VITAPMOWt
Every advertisement In PnOTOPLAY MAGAZINE Is goiaranteed.
r(.edpes
for
Party
Hostesses
Three good dishes,
furnished by the stars,
that your guests are
sure to like
MANY readers have written to me, asking for suggestions for "something different" to serve at evening parties. They tell me that they are tired of sandwiches and would like to give their friends something special for a change. As a rule, women like salads, esp'ecially if they are served attractively, while men want something more substantial. The problem of most hostesses, unless they have several well-trained servants, is to find something to serve that will not take too much last minute preparation. So the three recipes that I am suggesting for parties are all practical for the hostess who, with one maid, must not only prepare the dishes but serve them too.
A very simple recipe which is fine for small evening parties was contributed to Photopl.^y's Cook Book by Harold Lloyd. It is called Eggs Dolores. Here :ire the ingredients but, of course, if you are serving twelve people, you must double the amounts:
\^ teaspoon salt cheese 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce Cayenne
Corinne Griffith takes a cooking lesson from O'ive. As a Southerner, Miss Griffith is partial to Dixie cooking. On this page, you will find a recipe for Nut Sticks, as they are prepared for Corinne by 0!ive
Strain tomatoes and put in double boiler. Boil up once. Add grated cheese and seasoning and cook until melted. .Add eggs, which have been beaten until lemon colored. Cook until eggs are set. Serve very hot on toast.
This, as you see, is a variation of Welsh rarebit and it is invariably popular with men.
MARION D.AVIES furnishes another good party recipe to the Cook Book. It is slightly more elaborate, but by making the pie crust the day before, you not only improve the quality of the crust but simplify the last minute prep- aration.
For the pie crust for Miss Davies' cheese patties:
IJ-^ cups flour l^ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons shortening A little cold water
1 can tomatoes
2 cups grated American 6 eggs
..^^
Photoplay Magazine
750 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 111.
Please send me a copy of Photoplay's Cook Book, containing 150 favorite recipes of the stars. I am enclosing twenty-five cents.
Be sure to write name and address plainly. You may send either stamps or coin.
Sift the dry ingredients and rub in the shortening ver\' lightly with the fingertips. .\dd the water slowly, just enough to make a stitl dough. Roll out very thin on floured board and line patty pans, being careful to make pastry come well over edge of pan.
For the filling:
2 tablespoons butter 3-^ cup grated cheese
2 eggs 1 teaspoon baking powder
}^ cup bread crumbs One third cup milk
Seasoning to taste
Beat the butter until creamy and add slightly beaten eggs, bread crumbs, cheese, baking powder and seasoning. Mi.\ in the milk. Place a small quantity in each tin and bake for fifteen minutes in a hot oven.
FOR Corinne Griffith's Nut Sticks, which are ideal to serve with salad: Work one-half teaspoon butter into a pint of flour into which you have sifted 1 teaspoon baking powder and }-2 teaspoon salt. I\Ii.\" thoroughly and add enough milk to roll into light dough. Roll out the dough until about one- fourth inch thick. Brush lightly with milk and spread with chopped hickory nuts or almonds, pressing the nutmeats into the dough. Mold strips of dough inio thin sticks, place in a shallow greased pan and bake to a delicate brown.
In Photoplay's Cook Book you will find other recipes which will help you make your parties a success. By filling out the little coupon to your left, you may receive the Cook Book, with its one hundred and fifty star recipes, by return mail.
Cakolyn \'ax Wvck.
15
Friendly Advice from Carolyn Van Wyck
on
Girls' Problems
Men judge by appearances. And so, like Joan Crawford
as Diana in "Our Dancing Daughters," the girl who
has the reputation of beinga fiirt sometimes has a hard
time convincing a man that she really loves him
DEAR CAROLYN VAN WYCK: / am in love! And, though I am twenty, I am in love for the first time. l)oein't it seem a strange statement — coming from a girl who has been called "ultra modern"? Everybody in my crowd, thinks that I have been in love ever so many times!
And. oh. Carolyn \'an Wyck, that is my problem! For the man that I adore thinks so, too. He utterly believes that there have been other men — perhaps many of them — in my life. And, because he believes this thing, he has put up a strange sort of a mental barrier between us. And I can't seem to get beyond that barrier.
I'm — well. I'm just dizzy over him! And that's the truth. I can't sleep for thinking about him. And it is not a foohsh crush, for I'm a grown woman. I know, too, that he feels the same way about me, for — to be \'ery per- sonal— he can hardly keep his hands oft me. .\nd he can't control his eyes at all. But — this is the trouble:
I've always been what people call the "life of the party." I've danced the longest, and laughed the loudest, and stayed the latest. I've told the newest stories and sung the latest songs. I've flirted the hardest! And so I have the reputation of being spcedv. Only — I'm telling you the truth, Miss Van Wyck— my speed has all been on the surface. I've kept my lo\-e, all of it, for the man that I would s<ime day marry. I've kept myself clean for him.
>»ow — I've found the man. But I can't seem to put over with him the fact that I'm the sort of a girl I really am. He is judging me entirely by surface things — just as e\er so many others judge me. And before I know it he wiU go off and marry some little pero.\ide blonde with big eyes — who lisps. And who does things, in private, that I wouldn't even care to think about!
Can you gi\e me any advice. Miss Van Wyck? This is a vital matter, with me. My
16
life's happiness is hanging by a thread. And I don't know what to do to make it more secure!
WiLM.I K.
APPEARANCES— said the old -''■adage — are often deceitful. And it is the truth, this saying! Especially so in your case. Wilma — and, I ha\-e no doubt, in many another case that is parallel with yours. For you have gi\-en so much publicity to your youth and good spirits and desire for fun that you ha\-e allowed yourself to be quite misunderstood. And the sort of misunderstanding that you have permitted is the sort that is apt to breed serious trouble.
As, for instance, in the case of Diana — the heroine of "Our Dancing Daughters." ^^^
Have you, by the way, seen "Our Dancing Daughters"? It you haven't I should suggest that you locate the theater at which it is playing. And that you go to see it, at once. And, if possible, take with you the young man that you love! Seeing the picture — and especially seeing it with you — won't do him any harm.
For "Our Dancing Daughters" is the story of a girl who, in e\-ery way, is like you. She, too, has always been the life of the party. And when she falls in love, the man that she cares for distrusts her. And, as a direct result of this distrust, he marries another girl who seerns sweet and gentle and innocent.
- Needless to say, the marriage is a miserable failure. It works out in a way brutally unfair to the man. The innocent, sweet girl has been hiding from him her real nature. But, after marriage, the real nature comes to light. It is only through blind luck that the stoiy comes, at last, to a happy ending!
"Our Dancing Daughters" is a vivid pic- ture. It teaches that one's eyes do not always
Appearances May Deceive
Is This Month's Problem
BY this I don't mean neatness and smartness and prettiness. When 1 say "appearances," I mean some- thing very different. I mean the sort of appearances that label one girl "sweet" — and another girl "wild." .Sometimes the person that you see — the outside person — is quite different from the inside person. Sometimes unbelievable goodness of soul is hid- ing under an extremely sophisticated exterior. And vice versa!
And — while we're talking of ap- pearances— remember that I'm ready to help with hair, complexion and clothes problems — as well as with matters of the heart! Beauty, health and happiness are all topics upon which I would like to advise you. Letters enclosing stamped, self-ad- dressed envelopes I will answer by return mail. Those without postage will be answered as soon as possible, in the magazine.
For information regarding the care of the skin, send a stamped envelope. And if you want to weigh less (who doesn't?) send ten cents for my booklet on sane reducing methods. Write to me in care of PHOTOPLAY
Magazine, 221 West 57th St., New York. CAROLYN VAN WYCK.
record the truth — that circumstantial evidence can not be always trusted. It mirrors life with a real fidelity. E.\cept in this: In real life the ending might not have been so satisfactory! In real life the man might ha.\e had to be faithful for fifty years — to a desperate mistake.
Wilma, I am going to gi\-e you the advice for which you ask. 'The ad\-ice isn't going to be that you curb your high spirits or give up your gayety, or that you cease being the life of the party. But I do ad\ise that you are a trifle more discreet in your actions — that you do not beha\-e, so completely, in a way that can be misunderstood. I might suggest that you try to be more modest and tactful — that you leave no opening by which you may be falsely judged. Folk, especially men, can not be blamed for putting their own interpretation upon too much license. They have only ap- pearances upon which to base their conclusions. How can they, without being psychic, know
[ CONTINUED ON PAGE 98 ]
Phoiuplay Magazine — Advertising Section
17
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1 8
Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section
H
ow many
other gifts it brings
lOUTH, CHARM, LOVE, SUCCESS — how
easily they come to the woman with a beautiful skin!
Have you one of those naturally smooth, faultless complexions that are the envy of the great majority of womankind? Then cherish your good fortune ! You can keep your skin lovely all your hfe long if you begin now to give itjustthe right kind'of regular care.
And even if you are not one of those fortunate women whose skin is flawless to start with— you can make it so!
Six common skin defects are all that keep most women's skin from being beautiful. They are:
Excessive Oiliness Blemishes
Dryness Conspicuous Nose Pores
Sallotvness Blackheads
Every one of these troubles can be overcome! A famous skin speciahst, after years of study, has not only worked out the proper care for normal
/ /< is an easy thing for any woman to have a beautiful complexion,
— now that scientists really know about tlie skin — what care it needs.
Thousands of women say they owe their lovely color, the softness,
smoothness, brilliance of their complexion to Woodbury's Facial Soap.
Every
skins, but has developed special treat- ments for correcting the six skin troubles named above, by means of ice, warm or hot water, and Wood- bury's Facial Soap — the soap espe- cially made for the skin.
Thousands of beautiful women tes- tify that they owe their lovely com- plexion to this care.
You will find the famous Woodbury treatments, including the treatment for normal skins, in the booklet wrap- ped around every cake of Woodbury's Facial Soap.
Get a cake of this wonderful soap today, and begin, tonight, to gain the
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charm of "a skin you love to touch!" A 25-cent cake of Woodbury's lasts a month or six weeks. Sold at all drug stores and toilet goods counters.
Send for the large-size trial set!
The Andrew Jergens Co., 2201 Alfred St., Cincinnati, O. For the enclosed 10 cents — send the large-size trial cake of Woodbury's Facial Soap, the Facial Cream and Powder, the Cold Cream, the treatment booklet, "A Skin You Love to Touch," and instructions for the new complete Woodbury "Facial." In Canada, address The Andrew Jergens Co,t Limitedt22ol Sherbrooke St., Penh, Ont.
Name Street_
^
LL roads lead to Hollywood. Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh and went to kindergarten at the old Vitagraph Studio in Brooklyn. In many of the melodramas of that day, Dolores was featured as the angel child with long golden curls.
Lansing Brown
C~7~\^^ ALVARADO comes from Albuquerque, New Mexico, that way station of Hollywood
/ ^ where Indians sell beads and blankets to Califomia-bound tourists. His mother was Spanish
and his father an American. One day Alvarado hopped a rattler and landed in the City of
Angels and camera angles at a time when Latin ancestry was in great demand. He's married and
has a young daughter, Joy Alvarado.
i„in>iiiy Brown
r w "^ROM Moscow to Hollywood — Olga Baclanova. If you want to be correct, pronounce t' it Bah-clahn-ova, with the accent on the "clahn." The Russian' actress received her train— «-^ ing at the Moscow Art Theater, at whose productions high brows fall flat on their faces. The lady is now playing in a Western — "Sunset Pass." With her foreign background and her experience on the stage as a singer, what could be more logical?
Lansing Brown
(T^^^^ARCELINE DAY — a native of Colorado Springs. Five years ago, with her mother
^__yj ^ ^^'^ fier sister, Alice, Marceline arrived in Hollywood. Her first work was as an extra
in Lois Wilson's picture, "Only 38." When there was no studio call, she attended
school. Marceline has been leading woman for everyone from John Barrymore to Buster Keaton,
from Ramon Novarro to Lon Chaney.
(J^^^^^ARION NIXON was born in Superior, Wisconsin, and educated in Minneapolis.
^^y (i 1^ Shs came to Hollywood via vaudeville and, like Marceline, served her apprenticeship
as an extra girl, ornamenting the background of Mary Pickford and Charles Ray films,
before she earned her first close-up. Her new address is the Pathe Studios, where she will be
starred in "Geraldine."
ii^m
y^HARLES MORTON is one of the Fox youngsters whose acting makes "Four Devils"
/ worth your attention. Born in Vallejo, California, Charles was educated at the University
^/ of Wisconsin where he played football. He also held the Detroit Athletic Club record for
the 220 yard swim. Morton played a season in vaudeville with William Faversham's company
before he went into the movies. You'll see him with Janet Gaynor in "Christine."
^ OSSARD "step-ins"
are ItTtO STAY— and they're stepping up in general favor with every season. Considered revolutionary and decidedly ex- treme when Gossard first brought them out, their popularity has in- creased by leaps and bounds be- cause modern women have welcomed the ease with which they could be donned— the end of old-fashioned buckling and what not. There is ease and comfort within the gentle con- fines of a Gossard "step-in." Yet so perfectly does it mould and retain that you have the feeling of being tailor-made right down to the flesh. You enjoy the supreme satisfaction of wearing a foundation garment designed for your individual need. The model pictured here and described below is fea- tured by Gossard dealers the world over. Ask for it.
A fourteen-inch step-in of rich brocade combined with elastic. Wide sections of elastic over hips and a five-inch gore in front en- hance the glove-like snugness of this garment. Boned front and back, and trimmed at lop with ribbon and flowers. Lacing adjustment at lop on one side. This is Model Number 738 .. . Retails at $7.50.
THE H W GOSSARD CO.. Chicago. New York, San Francisco, Dallas. Atlanta. London. Toronto. Sydney, Buenos Aires
Division ol As^ocialed Apparel Induslries. Inc.
LSiick OTEUr G1FT§
LcLck one emhrses the aood task of ike cjlvtr
A GIFT for a day? Far more than that! Truly a treasure .... for months . . . and years! The mingled qualities of beauty, useful- ness and duration in Meeker Made distinctive leather goods appeal alike to giver and recipient. Besides the momentary thrill, you may be sure that the day-in and day-out utility of any one of these articles will prove a long-time reminder of your thoughtfulness and judgment. A Meeker Made handbag, underarm or vanity, rich in itself, will complement any cos- tume. Neutral in tone — a harmonizing accessory. A billfold, key case or set of two or three in matched design for the man, well — you just can't give him anything that is more practical or any- thing he would rather have. The genuine imported steerhide from which Meeker Made goods are ^^^^^■■F^ 1 fashioned is the choicest of all the market affords.
Origiokl ihapcs And itvlci lOjtechcr with their excellent crafts- manthip give these haniJbafi» their char- acter and enviable re- putation.
Shapes arc smart. Designs, new :ind exclusive. Beautifully tooled, hand-colored and with hand-laccd edges, they repre- sent the leather craftsman's most distinguished effort. At the better dealers everywhere.
The "Meeker Made" imprint in (he leather is your guarantee of quuhty. Look for ic. It is the mark uf Tlic Mcckcr Company, Inc.,Juplin, Mis- souri, hirjjcst m.inufjctiir(.T> of ntctT- hide Icjthcr ^iiods in [he U.S.A.
finest imported fteerhlde
^feather (j^oods
Bags arc suede Icailicr lined. Have exclusive turn lock frames. .^ppropriatc fittings. In general effect and in detail, Meeker Made leather goods arc obvi- ously finer.
There arc so many sugges- tions—Meeker Made—for him, A billfold with hisown initial, for instance ... or his lodge orclubemblera. A key case. Cigarette case. An at- tractively boxed gift set. Also other items.
The National G
u i d e to
U'KADK MARK)
Motion Pictures
January, 1929
k
Close-Ups and Long-Shots
-S
"a
R. Quirk
FOR years we of the photoplay world have been told what we ought to see by the professional snoopers that roam the country. With the coming of talking pictures, it is probable that a lot of human ear-plugs will try to tell us what to hear.
Now, most astonishing of all, a group of people in Hollywood are trying to tell us what to write about Hollywood and its folks.
The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences is all hot and bothered about what it calls the "scurrilous, degrading and facetious articles published about personalities in fan magazines."
' I 'HIS august body proposes, with the •^ help of press agents and a few marines, to establish a "white list" of magazine writers whom it is safe to admit to the studios.
Once in, they can write a lot of pretty, backscratching pieces about the gods of filmland.
Unbelievable though it may seem, it is reported that one famous leading man has actually moved toward the deporta- tion of a British magazine writer who grinds out articles for periodicals in this country and his homeland.
©_
S"
Such astoundingly high- handed procedure against the freedom of the typewriter could only be born in the mad- der sections of the film colony.
TARS are no longer born in the shadow of the Sphinx, nor do they keep pet doodle- bugs, nor do little children run at the approach of vampires as they did in the golden days of fan rubbish.
Can it be that these actors and pro- ducers object to a little truth?
No one gets scurrilous at the expense of Hollywood any more. It is both wrong and out of fashion. But the self- anointed censors don't seem to know that. They appear to be living, in misty stupidity, in the days of 1920.
Photoplay, at least, tries to play the game of Truth with its two million readers and the picture people. And it does not like to see anyone in filmland deal from the bottom of the deck.
A S for the press agents, called in to ■*■ *-help the outraged mummers, it is really too bad. Ink is their life-blood, and white paper their world, and if they try to join hands and turn on the writ- ing people, it will be tantamount to neatly slitting their throats with their own
.^L.
Tr
paper cutters. If they are wise, they will cut and run for the deep woods until the fussing Academicians forget this silly peeve and begin fuming and sputtering about something else.
Oh dear! Some people never will learn when they're well off!
A LITTLE German girl is going back home from Hollywood.
In this fact is hidden one of the little heartbreaks of the gold coast.
Irving Thalberg, honeymooning in Ger- many, found Eva von Berne and imported her. They reduced her and redressed her and primped her, and put her across from Jack Gilbert in "Masks of the Devil." Now she is going home.
Metro-Goldwyn says the talkies have made her garbled English useless, but we can take that or leave it alone.
I am afraid the truth is that Eva just wouldn't do. She didn't photograph well, and her acting opposite the star didn't spell anything like hit.
And so a little German girl is going back to Deutschland, probably with a serious crack in her heart. Goodbye, Eva. It's a tough break. Just a little Cinderella on whom the prince couldn't fit the glittering slipper.
WHEN Prince George of England played hookey from his cruiser and made whoopee in Hollywood he did a better job of handshaking across the sea than a dozen notes by nervous, high-strung diplo- mats.
Young George struck the human note on the royal xylophone when he tea'd with Lily Damita, dined with Mary Pickford and danced the morning in at Fatty Ar- buckle's night club.
The whole country smiled at his carry- ings on. Only his captain seemed a little peevish.
And when his girl friends wirelessed the ship at sea, offering condolences on his punishment, the kid had a good-sport answer ready.
"The fun I had in Hollywood was worth it."
THE Soviet Government's newest blow for Art to reach this country is "Ten Days that Shook the World." It ought
28
to be retitled "Ten Reels that Ruined the Eyesight." And while it seems too bad to dampen the enthusiasm of those who rate the Russian film directors higher than our local talent, may we remind the public of a few facts?
All films made in Russia are produced un- der the direct supervision of the Soviet Government.
They are pure propaganda and should be plainly labeled as such.
THE Soviet Government is no more in- clined to give an unbiased picture of the events of the Revolution than is the Anti- Saloon League likely to give you the straight facts on Prohibition.
For example: in "Ten Days that Shook the World" Trotsky is completely elimi- nated from the picture, although he was an active factor in the Revolution. But Trotsky is out of favor and the present leaders don't want to give him any publicity.
SO when you go to see a Soviet picture, keep a few of these points in mind.
Remember that you are seeing Russian history as the Soviet leaders want you to see it — not as it happened.
Remember you are paying your admission fee, not for a commercial product, but for advertising.
And remember that there isn't a political party in this country that could produce such propaganda and have it presented in theaters where an admission fee is charged.
IS the heavy film lover dying with the immortal dodo?
With all precincts reported, Peoria, 111., votes "yes."
Lon Chaney is cock of the walk in the middle west now. The great Putty King, in "When the City Sleeps," outdrew John Barrymore, Ronald Colman and Rod La Rocque combined in the same length of time.
CHANEY is the best bet, with Emil Jannings not far behind and George Bancroft a hot third. The day of the hairy he-man is in, as far as Peoria goes.
You remember the old political saying, "As Peoria goes, so goes the nation." Take heart, male fans! Perhaps it's out of the boudoir into the logging camps!
A
onny
Ten years later another film hit comes to the Lee family, as little Davey follows Brother Frankie to fame
By Tad Hastings
THIS is a story about a little boy and his big brother. Credit for the little boy's discovery has been given to Al Jolson. It belongs, instead, to a woman and to an obscure casting director.
The woman knew long before anyone else that this little boy was a remarkable child. It is not strange that she knew, how- ever, for she is his mother. And mothers know a great many things long before other people know them, and often are not given credit for the knowledge.
The name of the lad is Davey Lee. He will be four years old exactly fourteen days after this story goes on all newsstands — on the twenty-ninth of December, to be specific.
So you see, he is a sort of combination Christmas present and New Year's greeting — one that people will cherish forever if he continues his present cinema pace.
Davey plays the part of Sonny Boy in Al Jolson's new picture, "The Sing- ing Fool." And he fairly tears the heart out of you, too, when, dying, he asks his daddy to sing him to sleep.
The story of how Davey became Sonny Boy is one of those strange tales for which Hollywood is famous. It is part and parcel of the bizarre fabric that makes the town unique. It is another case where truth is stranger than fiction, where fact is more potent than fabrication, where the press agent's conception falls far below par. The real story is saturated with shat- tered hopes, with doubts and disap- pointments; it brims with heartbreak. For it is the story of how an older brother was called, but a younger brother chosen.
Frankie Lee is the older brother. Frankie, the little crippled boy of "The Miracle Man" — not a real crip- ple, of course, just the youngster who acted the part. That was ten years ago. Yet it left an unforgettable im- pression, one that survives to this day.
And the tragedy of this story is that Frankie was called first for the part that made his baby brother famous.
But Frankie is now si.xteen. He has been going to Hollywood High for
You'll be touched by little four- year-old Davey Lee's sincere playing of Al Jolson's son when you see "The Singing Fool." As soon as Jolson saw Davey he ex- claimed: "Come to Uncle Al"
Of course you remember Frankie Lee as the crippled boy of the unforgettable "Miracle Man." Frankie is sixteen now and he goes to Hollywood High. The Warner Studio, forgetting that boys grow up, called him for the role in "The .Singing Fool" — but Davey walked right into the part
several years. He is tall and gangling, and he does not even
remotely resemble that whimsical Mttle fellow with the wistful
smile in "The Miracle Man."
Yet in the minds of producers and directors, Frankie Lee has
never grown up. He is still, to them, " that little Miracle Man kid." Thus we see how indelible was the imprint of his work. Its eflfect upon memory produced a picture that cannot be erased.
A SHORT time ago, Frankie was called to take a test with Lois Moran for "The River Pirate." William K. Howard remembered him. In fact, Howard proved himself the e.xception to the rule by actually daring to con- sider that possibly Frankie had grown up. He wanted Frankie, not for a child part, but for a full-fledged young man's role. Frankie, however, was a little too immature, so the part went to Nick Stuart.
But that test put the celluloid virus back into Frankie Lee's blood with a vengeance.
" Mother," he said, " I'm all steamed up and want to get back into the game."
So mother, in the role of manager once more, undertook to restore Trankie's career.
And here's where the heartbreak begins. Wherever Frankie went, he found himself surrounded by little children, kids often less than half his size — all called for the one part.
It was most embarrassing. [continued on page 101 ]
29
Wrong
A typical "star" luncheon, so fatal to health and happiness, demon- strated by Josephine Dunn. Crack- ers, 100 calories; cottage cheese, 50 calories; consomme, 13 calories; pineapple, 50 calories. Food fit for neither man nor beast!
Q)lET-
By
Rather ine Albert
Why the average woman risks her health when she attempts to achieve a movie figure
Unwittingly, the producers are modern Shylocks who, when they demand a pound of flesh, also demand a part of the life-span of the star; without realizing the grave responsibility they assume the producers point the way to the hospital and set an example that threatens to pro- duce a race of anaemic, tubercular weaklings.
H( 1.
Right
A satisfying meal for a girl who wants to lose two or three pounds a week — roast beef, baked potato, spinach, pickled beets, cucumbers, buttermilk and fruit cup. Remem- ber, you can't do good work on a starvation diet
DIET! It has put one world famous star in her grave, has caused the illness of many others, has wrecked careers and has become, largely through its practice in Hollywood, the Great American Menace! For as Hollywood does so does the rest of the world. It is a grim problem — this matter of diet — and it concerns not only every Hollywood studio but every home in the United States as well. High school girls of fifteen or si.xteen, who need wholesome, body-building food, are actually putting their lives in peril when they cut down their rations and refuse everything but a hard boiled egg and an ounce of spinach, or attempt to hve on nothing but lamb chops and pineapple.
The wife of the household prepares well cooked, savory meals for her husband and then nibbles on a few "health" crackers in order to have a sylph-like figure!
The fault may be laid at the doors of the studios!
30
OSPITAL reports show that there is more tubercu- losis among women than ever before and that this is the direct result of diet!
The foremost physicians declare that they treat thousands of cases of anaemia. Diet — a death's head wearing the mask of beauty — is again responsible! The stars have set the styles in slim figures. The correct weight for a girl five feet two inches tall is 119 pounds. The average screen player of this height weighs only 108 pounds. A survey of all the studios embracing the film plants of Culver City, Burbank, Westwood and Hollywood and in- cluding one hundred fifty of the most famous, most envied film celebrities, resulted in the compilation of a table of heights and weights showing that the players are from ten to fifteen pounds underweight, according to medical standards.
This means that they have starved themselves for pictures, for personal whims, or to be fashionable untU they have lowered their physical resistance to the danger point and are unfit to do the strenuous, nervous, emotional work required of them!
Barbara LaMarr died of tuberculosis brought on by weight reduction. Kathryn Grant ruined her career and was made an invalid from starvation. Lottie Pickford took her life in her hands when she resorted to quick reducing medicines and is today virtually an invalid. Eva von Berne collapsed on the set after trying to lose ten pounds; Flobelle Fairbanks, niece of Doug, caused her family much concern and endangered her health by indulging, secretly, in a lime juice diet. Lina Bas- quette has just come out of a gruelling, enervating reducing process. Molly O'Day, now one of the most famous of those waging the battle against avoirdupois, is convalescing from an operation for the removal of surplus flesh — an operation which has resulted disastrously for others. Excess weight ended the film careers of Clara Kimball Young, Mrs. Sidney Drew, Leah Baird and Katharine McDonald.
The Menace
of
Hollywood
A girl may be the reincarnation of Duse, she may have the histrionic ability of Bernhardt, she may be able to touch the heart of humanitx', but if she is five pounds overweight according to screen standards — that! for her career!
Why this mad search for slimness? Why must the stars starve themselves? There are two reasons.
According to Dr. H. B. K. Willis, one of Hollywood's best known physicians who daily turns down dozens of women who beg to be reduced quickly, it is a mistaken idea on the part of the producers. They think that the public demands stream-lines in stars and,
believing this, set the dangerous example to women of the entire world who blindly at- tempt to copy Holly- wood's prevailing figure.
The second reason concerns only the pic- ture girls and no other women.
If a practical stereo- scopic camera lens were perfected these all too rigid diets would be unnecessary.
When a woman steps in front of the camera she adds from live to twenty pounds to her figure. The camera photographs but two dimensions. This tends to flatten a round object. Look at a pipe. Then shut one eye. The pipe immediately widens and appears several inches broader than it really is.
Hollywood may slowly return to the natural figure. Anita Page, for instance, is five feet, two inches tall and weighs 118 pounds, which is a sane weight. .\nita prefers to follow health charts rather than camera lines
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CORRECT DIET |
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Compiled by Dr. Willis from works of the most famous authorities on diet |
|
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BREAKFAST |
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}^ large grapefruit Scalloped codfish Stewed tomatoes Saltine crackers 1 cup coffee 1 teaspoon butter 1 teaspoon sugar |
374 Calories |
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LUNCHEON |
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2 large slices lean roast beef Tomato or mushroom sauce 1 medium baked potato 2 heaping tablespoons spinach 2 heaping tablespoons pickled beets 8 slices cucumbers 1 glass buttermilk 1 teaspoon butter 1 fruit cup |
654 Calories |
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DINNER |
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1 slice cold roast lamb 2 heaping tablespoons squash Mint sauce 1 tablespoon green peas 3 heaping tablespoons mustard greens Mediiun sized tomato salad Mineral oil or vinegar 2 small biscuits ' 2 cantaloupe 1 glass skimmed milk |
524 Calories |
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1552 Calories |
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{This must be varied every day. It will reduce you from 2 to i pounds per week) |
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STAR DIET |
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This is what the stars eat — it's wrong! |
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BREAKFAST |
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Hot water |
000 calories |
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LUNCHEON |
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8 tablespoons consomme 2 saltines |
13 calories 100 calories 25 calories |
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3-4 pound tomatoes |
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DINNER |
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Cottage cheese 2 oimces pineapple 1 glass butterrnilk |
50 calories 50 calories 67 calories |
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305 calories |
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Sometimes |
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1 hard boiled egg 6 otmces spinach |
100 calories 100 calories |
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605 calories |
31
How the Camera Lies About Figures
Don't envy the unnaturally thin figure of your favorite star. Remember, that it is usually achieved by a dangerous diet. In trying to reduce her weight too quickly, Barbara La Marr con- tracted tuberculosis. She paid for her beauty with her life
A skillful cameraman may arrange his lights so that this condition is helped, but only the three dimensional lens will alleviate the necessity of the stars being underweight.
Dr. Willis declares that it is detrimental to reduce more than two or three pounds a week.
That's a nice idea. A physician can sit calmly by and make this truism, but — and this is large and vital — when a pro- ducer sits back in his leather chair, looking out across his mahogany desk and says to a girl, " You may have the leading role in my ne.xt super-epic if you will lose ten pounds in the ne.xt ten days," what is the girl going to do?
Before her lies fame and fortune, lu.xury and acclaim. Is she going to think of her health? Is she going to heed a doctor's advice? Not much! She has heard the ullimatum. "Lose ten pounds in ten days." A career against her health. The career always wins.
Twelve hundred calories is the minimum prescribed by Dr. Willis. And this is used only in extreme cases, for excessivelv fat women. The sensible, balanced diet has 1552 calories per day. The average picture girl receives no more than 500 calories a day! Impossible for her to do the kind of work required on that!
I have seen Joan Crawford make an entire luncheon on a few tablespoonfuls of cold consomme, a dish of rhubarb and a half dozen crackers thickly spread with mustard. And this is a day after day performance.
32
Is it any wonder that Joan is constantly under the care of a doctor? She knows that such a diet is none too good for her, but what is she to do? She has to keep thin.
Alice White reduced from 126 pounds to 96 in a few weeks. What a shock to the nervous system! She began by going on a lamb chop and pineapple diet for a few days and then had "just a sensible diet," consisting of salads and fruits amounting to all of 400 calories, no doubt!
POL.\ NEGRI took off ten pounds with an egg and spinach diet. Six ounces of spinach contain 100 calories, one hard boiled egg is another hundred. It was the critics who forced Pola to this extreme measure. The Negri just won't be told by pro- ducers. She had to be convinced and, when "The Woman of the World " was released, almost every newspaper commented upon her excessive weight.
Renee Adoree's work in "The Big Parade" stands out as one of the classic gestures of the screen. Never before or since has she reached greater heights. At that time she weighed more than she ever did, 125 pounds. The producers did not complain then because she characterized a French peasant girl, but immediately that the picture was finished they insisted that she lose. A few days ago the scales pointed to 97 pounds.
She has paid dearly for an intensive course in diet and steam baths and mas- sage. She has paid with illness and ragged nerves.
Kathryn Grant had a beautiful figure, but she was just a little too plump for the eye of the camera. Kathryn tried to reduce in a hurry. Trying to undo the mischief of a foolish diet, she spent months in a sanitarium. Today she is an invalid and studio work is out of the question
Don't Be Guided by Star Weights!
Without being given a chance to show what abihty she had, Dimples Lido was shipped back to Germany because she gained weight that she could not seem to take off. She was discovered by Carl Laeninile on the Riviera and brought to Hollywood. Naturally bu.xom, she added several more pounds to her figure and was given her conge. She might have been the world's greatest actress — who knows? She might have had the subtlety of a Mrs. Siddons but she was over- weight! Finis — enough — out!
Perhaps Dimples is one of the fortunates. Better for her, no doubt, to have been forced to give up her career than to put herself through the rigid demands of diet.
Eva von Berne's entire future rests upon just ten pounds. She is only eighteen years old and is built along generous, continental lines. At the time of life when she needs good, substantial food, she is dining upon lettuce salad and sliced pine- apple. She looks pale and haggard and her cry is the same as the others, "But what am I to DO? What am I to do?"
PITIFUL, lovely Barbara LaMarr— her search for slimness cost her her life. She resorted to the most drastic means of taking oft weight — methods too horrible even to recount. This struggle so depleted the energy of "the girl who was too beautiful " that she was an easy victim of tuberculosis.
And then there is Molly O'Day! What will be the fate of the O'Day? A part of the story was recounted in the August issue of Photoplay, but what of this recent development? Molly is over- weight even for a non-professional. At the begin- ning of "The Patent Leather Kid" she was twenty pounds heavier than she should have been for the screen. Her test showed acting ability and she was told that she could play the part if she would lose twenty pounds. She did at the rate of half-pound a day.
But Barthelmess hurt his foot soon after the picture was started and Molly, playing opposite him, was left at home while the company went north for war scenes. Thin and svelte she was when the company left, as the sequence at the ring-side showed her. But when the troupe re- turned she was fat and chunky.
In discussing her case, Al Santell, director of "The Patent Leather Kid," said, "The real reason for flesh is self-assurance. Molly O'Day was acclaimed the great find in years and she believed it. She was sent away to lose weight and finally a wire came saying she was thin and ready to start a picture. When she walked into my office, she was pathetically fleshy."
And then she resorted to a drastic method. Dr. Robert B.
|
Why it is |
dang( |
jrous to copy |
a movie star |
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in fi |
nding your correct |
weight |
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Height |
Health weight |
Star weight |
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5 ft. |
114 lbs. |
96 lbs. |
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5 ft., 1 in. |
116 lbs. |
104 lbs. |
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5 ft., 2 in. |
119 lbs. |
108 lbs. |
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5 ft., 3 in. |
122 lbs. |
Ill lbs. |
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5 ft., 4 in. |
125 lbs. |
115 lbs. |
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5 ft., 5 in. |
128 lbs. |
1 19 lbs. |
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5 ft., 6 in. |
132 lbs. |
122 lbs. |
Molly O'Day is recovering from a drastic surgical operation
that removed the flesh that threatened her career. But
will the fat return? And what will be the after-effects of
this strenuous and painful treatment?
GrifBth, who claims that quick reduction is harmless (a large part of Griffith's chentele is made up of women who want to " take it off" at any cost), performed an operation on MoUy.
THE knife made long incisions on either leg and across the stomach and the fat was removed. Electric needles to melt the fat away were used, also.
Molly remained under the ether for an hour and fifteen minutes while the operation was performed. She has suffered acutely, but the doctor assures her that there will be no scars left and that she wiU be from twelve to fifteen pounds lighter.
Will there be any ill etTect from this? WiU the fat return? That remains to be seen. Al Santell believes that the operation will do no good, for there is fat all over Molly's body. She is a splendid actress. Her director, her producer, her public know this. But un- less she is more than sylph-like her art will be completely wasted. This is the demand of the screen!
She has high hopes now. Wan and convalescent in the hospital, she smiled and expressed the wish that this drastic measure would allow her to continue her career.
Some of the stars are really sensible about diet. Mary Pickford, for instance, often takes the milk cure, pre- scribed by reliable physicians. Lillian Gish is prac- tically a vegetarian.
The "Miss Los Angeles" of a few years ago was Kathryn Grant. A film career was assured when she was given a long term [ continued on page 113 ]
33
Girl
Wanted
By Cal York
Charlie Chaplin went to a Los Angeles fight recently. He saw Virginia Cherrill, a blonde Chicago visitor to the coast. He signed her imme- diately for his forthcoming comedy, "City Lights"
JUST what does it take to be Charlie Chaplin's leading lady? If you can figure that out, you can be Mayor of Beverly Hills and dance the first seven dances with Clara Bow. For Charlie's leading women have been the sensation of Hollywood and, later, of the movie-mad world. Hollywood wakes up every morning, stretches, yawns and asks the clerk what the latest quotation is on Chariot's Lead, Pre- ferred.
There's no answer. Evidently, all a gal needs is a lot of luck, all good.
Recently Chaplin saw a Chicago girl named Virginia Cherrill at a bo.x fight. Before you could say Waladek Sbyszko she was made leading woman of "City Lights," his new film. She probably didn't know a Kleig light from an assistant property man, but, P. S., she got the job.
Of course, if you are a nut on hunches, believe in numerology and once played the Ouija board, you can go for the '"A" hunch. Look at the list.
Edn-A, Lit-A, Georgi-A, Mern-A, and now Virgini-A. But let that go. Chaplin, himself, carried it further.
HERE are the characteristics he wants in one of his leading women —
Appeal, adaptability, ambition, amiabil- ity, and attractiveness.
The ayes seem to have it.
Where other stars hem, haw and figure, ChapHn picks his girls out of thin air. If he knew of thinner air, he would go to it.
If you girls think you are all broken out with a rash of "IT," don't bother about a Chaplin job. He places physical appeal last in his list of qualifications.
Hear the Little Grey Clown himself on the subject.
"To be a leading lady for me," says Charlie, "a girl must have appeal, but not necessarily sex appeal. She must have youth, but not necessarily screen experience.
"In fact, I prefer that she have no picture e.xperience. Without it, she has fewer faults to correct. She must be adaptable, too, in order to take direction. She should have some appreciation of music in order to be
The very first scene of Charlie Chap- lin and his new discovery, Virginia Cherrill. Charlie says his leading women must have appeal, adapta- bility, ambition, amiability and at- tractiveness. All A's — and Virginia fills the bill. Charlie's leading women last one picture and then depart. But they're famous
isa
•iU
'No Kxperiena Required
I
"To be a leading woman for me," says Charlie Chaplin, "a girl must have appeal but not sex appeal''
susceptible to vibrations. When one becomes absorbed in a part one is only a sounding board reflecting the play of emotions.
"Also, a girl must be ambitious. Otherwise, she will not take her work seriously. And to succeed, one must be intensely serious, par- ticularly in pictures."
All the Chaplin leading women have possessed these qualifications.
Run down the list. Edna I'urviance, Lita Grey, Georgia Hale, Merna Kennedy and now Virginia Cherrill.
NOTE well that there has been something dramatic — something really romantic, about the bolt of lightning that has hit these unknowns, from first to latest.
In 1915 Chaplin went to a dance in San Francisco. He didn't crave it, but he went. There he met a blonde girl from Lovelock, Nevada, who was learning stenography in the Golden Gate town. He danced with the girl, and liked her. Her name was Edna Purviance.
Today that same blonde girl, who never had a written contract with Charles Chaplin in her life, who received other ofTers and could have left him flat on the lot, who never took advantage of her position as the great comedian's lead — is still on the Chaplin payroll at precisely the same salary she enjoyed during the height of her popularity.
Chaplin's intimates say that whether Edna Purviance makes a picture or never postures for the camera again she will still be on that salary list at full pay.
That's the Chaplin sense of loyalty.
Charlie first met Lita Grey when she was doing an e.xtra bit in "The Kid." She was just a spindly kid then, less than 12. She and her mother both worked in that one, and in "The Idle Class."
Then, when Charlie began "The Gold Rush" without a leading lady Mrs. Grey brought Lita over to show the comic what a big girl she was now.
She wore an organdie dress, and its simplicity caught Charlie's eye. He made a test of her, bundled in furs. After all, he might need a head girl before the film was through. The rest is in the book.
GEORGIA HALE was discovered along with Joe von Sternberg. She was the leading woman in "Salvation Hunters." George K. Arthur, then a cocky little Britisher doubling from the grocery business into films, wangled Charlie into taking a look at the picture.
That great story, too, is in the book. Arthur got a swell job w^ith Metro-Goldwyn, and Chaplin made Miss Hale leading woman in "The Gold Rush" after his marriage to Lita Grey. .\nd Georgia is "_Chaplin's staunch admirer and friend today.
Oddly enough, Merna Kennedy was introduced to Chaplin by Lita, who recommended her for the lead in "The Circus." That, of course, was pre-war, before suits and counter-suits had turned Chaplin's hair grey, and no pun meant.
The story of Virginia Cherrill remains to be told. Time will tell it. The beginning is dramatic and romantic. What the end will be is in the lap of the gods.
Since Purviance's day, no leading woman for Chaplin has made more than one picture. They come and go, like the seasons and the family bootlegger.
They are not too beautiful, these children of chance. They are with- out experience.
What to do, girls? Carry a rabbit's foot, probably.
And yet the rabbit .once had four of them, and what good did they do him?
6^dnm
bo
%e Studio Murder
Two conflict- ing confes- sions baffle the Holly- wood Police- Try your skill at solving the startling crime and win $3,000
What Has Gone Before
Dwight Hardell, one of the foremost players of the Superior Films Company, is found dead on Stage Six. Hardell, who has played heavies, has been something of a scoundrel in his private as well as his make-believe life. He has an un- savory reputation as a ruthless philan- derer.
Chief of Detectives Smith quickly takes over the investigation. The search for clues starts. It is revealed that Har- dell and Director Franz Seibert left the studio together at 12:17 a. m. after working together for three hours on close- ups in an otherwise deserted studio. It also develops thai Billy West, Seibert's ■ assistant, and Yvonne Beaumont, a French actress, were in the studios on the night of the murder — on mysterious errands outside their film work.
The corotier's examination of Hardell's body tends to show, strangely enough, that the actor must have died before or shortly after midnight. The death weapon was a rapier used in the film scene. This weapon is without finger prints of any kind, although other prints are found on the murder set.
The investigation continues. Now go on with the story.
FOR a moment the president sat looking back unblink- ingly into the detective's grey eyes. Then he said thought- fully, "Four people you say. Veil, there vould be Seibert, and Hardell . . . and maybe Billy Vest, but I do not think so. Seibert sometimes vorks absolutely alone. Veil, then there vould be Seibert and Hardell. That is two. You mean two more besides them, then?"
"I mean four besides Hardell, the murdered man . . ." "You mean four people vere mixed up in that murder? You mean you got four suspects?"
36
"That's more like it, when I identify the fourth . . . who at this point is just 'another woman'," returned Smith.
"Another voman. You haflf then von woman already?"
"Proof positive that Miss Beaumont came out here last night to see Hardell, and evidence tending to show that she . . ."
He was interrupted by Rosenthal, who made a low moan of protest.
"I could not to believe it! You do not know her! No, there iss something the matter vid your evidence!" he stuttered, and then, "And already ve are going to star her! Already ve haff bought a story, just for her, and Bonet is to direct it! Ve haff the news stories in all the papers, last week, and in all the fan magazines . . . ve haff our releases aU set ... I tell you, Mr. Smith, this is terrible! I do not believe it!"
"Sergeant Clancy has the case all cut and dried," said Smith, grinning reminiscently. "To his mind Miss Beaumont is the guilty person. But so far she is really just a possibility." Then he told Rosenthal of the note taken from BiUy West, and written to Yvonne.
Mystery
By The EDINGTONS
"Veil, and because she writes a silly letter, you make of her a murderess! That man Clancy is a dumb bell ... a fool! exclaimed Rosenthal angrily.
"Ah . . . but . . . there were finger prmts on the set . . . a woman's fingers marked in blood on the canvas door . . . plenty of other finger marks ... and when these are matched up with the ones on the letter, I am afraid . . . but, we will go to the third party, a man who wore rubber soled shoes, bull-dog grip. Does your night watchman wear such shoes.-"'
ROSENTHAL held out his fat hands protestingly. "Mr Smith, how should I know vat my night vatchman vears? I do not look at the feet of my people. It is their faces
I should look at!" ,. ,. r -j .t ■„„
"Forget the question. I was only thinking of identifying the man . . ." Smith looked up and smiled. "But, such shoes were certainly on that set!" He described the trai left by them, adding. "If the wearer of those shoes is the murderer we know that he was on the set for several minutes after he killert
Itluitriiled by C. A. BRYSON
"Billee! Why have you the hand- cuffs on?" Yvonne burst into the room, her grey, dusky-lashed eyes wide with terror, her sweet red mouth quivering. "Billee! Talk to me! 1 have heard when I come on the lot that Dwight is murdered! Tell me! You . . . didn't." She stopped and her great eyes, now tear filled, questioned him. "He said he did, Miss Beaumont," said Chief of Detectives Smith, quietly
Hardell, or, he left, and returned a few minutes later. If this is the man I think, and if the evidence of the gate- man shows him to have been here in the studio at that time, he will have to have a darn good alibi. . . . Now, as to the fourth person. We will call her the 'unknown woman.' I say fourth, but this person may turn out to be the same as the writer of the note . . . Miss Beaumont.
OUR unknown woman was also on the set at the time of the murder. She either committed it, or witnessed it. How do I know? I shall have to keep some of these tale-telling clues to my- self, but you shall know them all in time. She was frightened . . . forced to hide, at one time. Later she must have gone to the body of Hardell, and, in an attempt to find if he were dead or not, leaned down and touched him. She got blood on her hand, which evidently terrified her, for she fled the set. I know that she- was terrified, and that she fled, because she left her finger marks, in blood, on the canvas door. A per- son in a normal state of mind would not have done that. If the finger prints on the door, and the ones on the letter paper are identical . . . you see what we have? Beaumont. Also, other things carry out the theory. She was angry at him. Perhaps afraid of him. .\ny- way, 'furious because he persisted in his attentions. \ furious woman sometimes acts . . . and thinks afterwards. That the murder was unpremeditated, if committed by this woman, is probable . . . most likelv. She killed him. and then, became horrified, and hvsterical ... in short, rushed away.
"Now, as I said, we have four suspects: Seibert, who was undoubtedly the last man to be with Hardell the night he was murdcreci; the wearer of the rubber-soled shoes, who has left his bloodstained evidence for all to see; Miss Beaumont, who wrote Hardell that 'tonight she would end all between them." (Rather a significant remark, don't you agree?) And then, this third party ... a woman, from the small finger prints, who . . . dipped her hand in Hardell's life blood!"
Abraham Rosenthal sat in stunned silence. Accustomed to visualizing a scene presented to him . . . trained by his pro- fession to put life and movement into mere names of persons . . . he was now looking at this dim set, through which dark and
37
La "I
''T was a grand night for a murder, sor, as I said to MacDougal," Lanning, the night watchman, told Chief of Detectives Smith, made me rounds and near froze to death with the dirty fog creepin' down me back. Things began to happen. Whin I starts on me 11:30 round I sees a woman's figger runnin' down the women's dressin' rooms. I see it steahn' out of the bushes on the West side of Stage Six, and makin' for the stage door. That was just at mid- night."
19 Prizes, Totaling $3,000, Offered for the Best Murder Mystery Solutions
sinister figures flitted, and in which a man has been stabbed to death; it was all frightfully real to him.
" Gott of Abraham!" he finally groaned. "Iss it that all my people are murderers?"
"All men are murderers — yes — Mr. Rosenthal," said Smith soberly. "There is a time in every human's life when the veneer of custom is thrown aside . . . at least in the mind . . . and in such times the taking of another human's life becomes a possibility ... at least in thought! I believe that a great many people have felt an irresistible impulse towards murder! To some it may come through a desire to strangle . . . with the hands. To some it may be an over-powering impulse to pull the trigger. ... I fully believe that some men who have become murderers have only yielded to this momentary im- pulse . . . and then . . . the thing is done. They may never have had another such impulse in their lives. Might never again . . . and yet, for the brief lack of that control . . ."
THE president of Superior Films shuddered audibly. "No . . . no. That I do not think, I, myself, have never felt like murdering anybody. . . ."
"Think carefully. Back in those difficult days when you were climbing up from the gutter ... oh yes, I know your history . . . when life seemed a-hard and bitter struggle . . . when other humans with money and power seemed cold and selfish beasts . . ."
" Veil, mebbe a couple of times there was low-lifers I vished vould die," admitted Rosenthal naively.
Smith smiled, ".^ndif you had had those 'low-lifers' at your mercy, at a time when you resented their power, their e.xistence, most . . . what then? My theory is not improbable. Meiiand women, as they exist today, are but the sum total of the genies of their ancestors, plus the variations and inhibitions which civilization has instilled in them! Take away the inhibitions. Man killed in the beginning, and the only code he had was whether it was right or wrong to himself! Today we are living under mass determinations of right and wrong, which have laid down a code barring killings, except as safeguard for the masses. Yet, today as in the leopard skin days, man thinks . . . and acts . . . individually! Instinctively, he is a killer! He may go through life without being aware of it. He may not. He may be aware of it, and draw away in horror from the idea. That is because of his culture, up through the ages!
^^YUWOR F/tjv^^
DAILY ^'J* ""'S DAILY
TIME REPORT STUDIOS TIME REPORT
The tell-tale studio time sheet of the murder
night. This plays an important part in solving
the puzzling murder mystery
"I have studied human nature . . . especially that human nature which has yielded to the killing impulse . . . and I am convinced that all humanity contains in itself the impulse to take life, should occasion arise that makes it necessary. Wars prove that. Murders prove that humanity contains this im- pulse, also, when occasions arise that create the killing thought, even when it is not necessary."
Rosenthal shivered, and shrugged his shoulders as if to shake off the unpleasant philosophy.
" Veil, you haff had more experience in that line than my- self, certainly . . . but I am very glad, Mr. Smith, that I do not believe such things! It vould make me very miserable. I should look at efferbody like they vas already murderers!"
Smith smiled, and said,
" Well, maybe it's a good thing a lot of us who have decided ideas about things, don't go around preaching them ... or thinking of them all the time! I assure you I do not go around looking at people as though they were murderers! Only . . . when I'm on a case like this . . . and . . ."he pulled out his watch, "Clancy ought to be along pretty soon with your watchman."
Rosenthal did not answer. Smith reached over and took a cigar, and for a little while each man sat with his own thoughts.
There was a knock on the door, and Smith opened it to admit Clancy, propelling before him a [ continued on p.\ge 90 ]
Rules for Studio Murder Mystery Solutions
1. Nineteen prizes, totalling $3,000, are offered for They must be typewritten on one side of a sheet of paper the best solutions to the thrilling serial, "The Studio and contestant's name and address must be typed on Murder Mvsterv. " This story will appear in Photoplay the upper left hand corner.
in eight installments. Thefirsiinstallment appeared in the 4 ^he nineteen prizes wiU be awarded as follows:
October, 1928, issue and the concludmg mstallment will Fir-t Prize $1 000
appear in the May, 1929, issue. After the appearance Second Prize SOO
of the March, 1929, number, on February 15th, 1929, Third nrize 350
solutions to the mystery may be submitted but not Fourth nrize 150
before that date. All solutions must be received by Five orizes of $100 SOO
Photoplay before midnight of March 10th, 1929, to re- -p^j^ prizes of $50 500
ceive consideration. The final installments of "The Studio
Murder Mystery," printed in the April, 1929, and May, In the event that two or more contestants tie for
1929, issues, will solve the mystery. The full list of any award, duplicate prizes will go to each contestant.
winners will be announced as soon after the close of the 5 ^11 solutions must be addressed to The Studio
contest as possible. Murder Mystery Editor, Photoplay, 221 West 57th
2. .Awards will be made according to the accuracy of Street, New York, N. Y.
contestants in foretelling the real solution to "The Studio 5 ^^ solutions will be returned to contestants. No
Murder Mystery as worked out by the authors, the inquiries regarding this contest will be answered. Failure
Edingtons. Literary merit will not count. The awards j^ f^iflu g^g^v rule will invalidate your solution. The
will be made wholly upon the detective ability of con- contest is open to evervone except employees of Photo-
testants in working out the mystery, e.xplaimng how the p^^v and members of their families. It is not necessary
crime was committed, giving the reasons and naming j^ ^^ .^ subscriber or even a purchaser of a single copy
the real murderer. ^f Photoplay. You can consult copies in public
3. Solutions must be written in 200 words or less. libraries, if you wish.
JO
Here Are Winners
The Prize Winners
First Prize $1,500 — Ruby Album Margaret Myers
II718 Browning Ave., Cleveland, Ohio
Second Prize $1,000 — "Starlit" Wedding
Mrs. a. Lauritzen
1236 Churchill Ave., St. Paul, Minn.
Third Prize $500 — Gilded Fan Bernard Finkelstein
1491 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Fourth Prize $250 — Stage
Mrs. J. Howard Greene Cherrywood Apts., 2315 Alice St., Dallas, Texas
Fifth Prize $125 — Train Mrs. J. A. Reisser
633 Keel Ave., Memphis, Tenn. [additional prize \vinners on pace 78 ]
ALL the returns are in and the judges have made their decisions in Photoplay's Fifth Cut Picture Puzzle Contest. Simultaneously with the appearance of this issue of Photoplay on the newsstands, the five capital and the forty-five lesser awards are placed by Uncle Sam's mail carriers in the hands of the winners.
Previous to this published announcement, only the "Big Five" had any inkling that their solutions were being con- sidered. This advance information could not be kept from them, if their photographs and letters were to be received in Photoplay's editorial offices and printed in the same issue with this announcement. But in no instance did any one of the five have the slightest clue as to what rank his or her entry would take. So that they, too, have shared in the suspense as well as the prize money with the other lucky forty-five. When at midnight, September twentieth, the gong sounded, closing the entries, the work of the judges began. Every entry was carefully opened, examined and tabulated. The number of
Fifty cash prizes
awarded for cut
puzzle solutions
correct solutions ran into the hundreds, thus intensifying the labor of the judges. The manner in which the solutions were presented was so varied and so ingenious as to call for the most minute comparisons and the most careful consideration.
THE preliminary preparations required even more time, since, among the thousands of entries made, the incorrect ones had first to be sifted from the others. This task was particularly unwelcome to the judges, inasmuch as often a splendidly presented solution had regretfully to be set aside because of one or more errors.
Among the commoner errors was that of dropping the "e" in spelling Adolphe Menjou's first name. Another error, though perhaps not occurring as often as in some of the contests in previous years, was the placing of hair on the wrong head. The male were oftener guilty of this than the feminine en- trants, apparently indicating that hair has more significance to a woman than it has to a man.
That Photoplay's annual Cut Picture Puzzle Contest is regarded somewhat in the light of a classic by its readers is evidenced from the fact that many who fail to capture a prize one year come back the next with renewed enthusiasm and determination. And in a number of instances it is a matter of gratification to note that ultimate success has crowned this persistent effort and self-confidence.
Certainly the vast majority of contestants — whether new- comers or veterans — made a very sincere bid for success, if imagination and cleverness in working up a novel plan of pres- entation and painstaking care in executing it are criteria. The grouping of the solutions in the several special rooms that had to be set aside to house them was comparable to an exhibit or bazaar, international in scope, for not only was every section of
"•*iiiS
The solution of Margaret Myers, a hand made Ruby Album shown open, and closed, won for her the first prize of $1,500
iO
I
of $5,000 Contest
Mrs. A. Lauritzen, winner of second prize, $1,000, with her "Starlit" Wedding and the correct pictures on the lanterns around the garden
Ihis country represented, but Canada, Mexico and even far- away Australia were not back- ward in entering their cham- pion puzzle solvers. Indeed, with the exception of Asia, not a continent failed of representation.
Our own Pacific Coast, though relatively closer to Hollywood than the rest of the country, was not so well represented as one might think. The Mid-Westerners were heavy contenders, as were noticeably some of the Southern States, particularly Texas. But sweeping the country from north to south and from east to west, not a single state was found that was not without a really creditable quota. As one of Photoplay's readers wrote, in submitting her entry: "This is not just another one of those contests; it's a national institution."
EVERY possible type of presentation seems to have been entered. The world of the motion picture and the theater; of business and of invention; of adventure and of play; the new and the old; the prosaic and the romantic; the bizarre and the commonplace — jostled each other. Here a dance pavilion, with the faces of the stars in the Contest gazing upon the scene from the walls, there a Spanish galleon; Charlie Chaplin dances with a fair charmer; the stars gaze upon you from chess and checker boards, from packs of cards, from footballs, from baskets of flowers, from automobiles, trains, steamships, wind- mills, from books, fans, crazy quilts and cushions; they dangle
The beautiful Gilded Fan, the
work of Bernard Finkelstein, won
for him the third prize of $500
from the neck of a great toad made of green silk; they peer at you from chests of drawers; they ride in chariots. They represent characters and events as thrilling, as romantic, as lovable, as fascinating, as the world of the motion picture.
Here in tabloid we catch a glimpse of the vast realm of the screen. We begin to understand something of what it has done for the ideals, the emotions, the lives of us all. And all this packed away in the scanty quarters of three rooms!
The first prize — Si, 500 — is awarded to iSliss Margaret Myers of 11718 Browning Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, for her Ruby Album.
She writes: "My solution under consideration for a prize! What news could be better to 'pep' me up just now, while convalescing from an illness?
"It seems as if I have always been a movie fan — as long as I can remember. Following up all the news, pictures and chats about my favorites of the screen, I have come to depend on Photoplay to keep me well informed. The announcement of the Cut Picture Puzzle Contest in the June issue proved too tempting to resist.
"My time is rather limited because I work in an ofSce all
The Thirty-Two Correct Cut-Puzzle Answers
June
Sally Rand Alice White Alice Joyce Louise Brooks George O'Brien Neil Hamilton Ralph Forbes Harry Crocker
July
Charles Rogers Raoul Walsh James Murray Ramon Novarro Sue Carol Madge Bellamy Nancy Phillips Lois Moran
August
Marceline Day Laura La Plante Phyllis Haver Ruth Taylor Gary Cooper Adolphe Menjou William Powell Don Alvarado
September
Dolores Costello Greta Garbo Aileen Pringle Estelle Taylor Rod La Rocque Harold Lloyd Ben Lyon Antonio Moreno
41
Photoplay's Fifth Cut Picture Awards
.^oc^isEUKoo^^ %^«-^^ K^^o ^vv'-'- 'JOVc, ^,^vV'iro(,t,^^
HARR\ CROCItK GEORGE OBRIIIN \IICI w ti I T t NHL HAHILTOUt
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OAHY COOPER PHVLLfSHftVEfi WtLl lAM POWElt DON AtVAR^OO
This elaborate thirty- two compartment stage, one for each star in the contest, is the work of Mrs. J. Howard Greene, and was awarded the fourth prize, $250
day, besides managing our home for dad, brothers and sister. So I decided to use my vacation in making an old gold volume of French design taken from the Fifteenth Century."
In reply to a telegram from Photoplay, in which she was asked what she would do in case she won one of the principal prizes, ]\Iiss Mj'ers said: "I would like to send my sister through college.
"To be able to travel, visit places I've read about and want so much to see. To continue studying music.
"To be able to do, oh, a thousand and one things in a future as golden as my book, with days as shining as its pages — if I should be one of the fortunate ones!"
THE second prize — .§1,000 — goes to Mrs. A. Lauritzen, 1236 Churchill, St. Paul, Minnesota, for her solution pre- sented as "A Wedding in a Starlit Garden."
She says: " Various contests conducted by Photoplay have aroused my interest, but not until this latest one did I decide to submit an entry.
" I was thinking of the various possibilities for settings for these screen faces when suddenly the idea of my 'Starlit Garden' flashed through my mind. Ever since I can remember I have loved to sew, dressing dolls being my specialty, andsince my husband is a florist, it was only natural that I should make
a setting which would involve both a knowledge of gardening and the knowledge of making and dressing dolls.
" If I should be one of the prize winners, I know exactly for what I shall use the prize money. My lifelong ambition has been to have a children's ready to wear shop combined with a doll shop."
And this from Mr. Bernard Finkelstein, 1491 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, New York, winner of the third prize — S500 — for his Gilded Fan:
" On picking up the July issue of Photoplay I noticed the prizes offered for the solution of the Cut Picture Puzzle and decided to enter the Con- test and when I did, I certainly acquired a great deal of knowledge regarding the personalities of the screen stars, and I spent many hours at this task after a hard day's work during the sizzling hot days of last summer, cutting, matching and assembling the different faces.
"My son, who is now attending high school, will soon have to enter college, and the prize money would be a great help in that direction. Also, I have a daughter, who is five and wants to take dancing lessons, because she wants to play in the movies. The prize money might go a long way toward helping achieve this goal."
THE winner of the fourth prize — S2S0 — is Mrs. J. Howard Greene of the Cherrywood Apts., 2315 Alice Street, Dal- las, Te.xas. She presented her solution in the form of a set of theatrical stages. She writes: "I have eagerly watched Photoplay's Contest every year with longing and it was only this year that I could muster the courage to try an entry.
"If I happen to be one of the fortunate 'Big Five' group, I shall use the prize money to advance my study of art, which I began in schoo' but have never continued although I have always wished to. If I am real fortunate I will study interior decorating and later open up a little art shop all my own."
Mrs. J. A. Reisser of 633 Keel Ave., Memphis, Tenn., takes the fifth prize— $125— for the "Starland Limited."
Here is her letter: "Being a movie fan, I naturally buy Photoplay each month and knowing quite a few of the stars I became interested in the contest.
"To say what I would do with the money is impossible, not knowing which prize I might be [ continued on page 78 ]
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Here are the stars in the Cut-Puzzle Contest riding in a train. This novel solution was submitted by Mrs.
J. A. Reisser, and was awarded fifth prize, $125
45
Ruth Hairiet Louise
(TT^^HY girls want to go into the movies — just to wear gowns like yy this. Carmel Myers swishes around in this creation of taffeta and tulle in "Dream of Love," a picture originally called "Adrienne Lecouvreur." Miss Myers plays a French countess who gets all mixed up in one of those glamorous Balkan romances. And, in "Dream of Love," Joan Crawford and Nils Asther will again share the same close-ups.
h3
r
The picture ended in a ques- tion mark. But those in the studio knew what happened behind that closed door
Th
e
TARS that Never
You remember him, don't you? A rare member of that curious, exhilarating, pathetic group — the stars that never were! You remember him surely— the old China- man who sat so silently in the doorway of the joss house — in the very last episode of "Other Gods"? That episode in which the Oriental star, discredited, slinks down the silent, slum street and enters the joss house — and vanishes.
You remember how the old Chinaman raises his head — and stares, inscrutably, into the passing star's face? And then at the very last, with only a few feet more to run — how he rises suddenly and stiffly. And whips out a narrow knife, from in- side of his ragged garments. And follows the star into the joss house?
And how — at that moment — the film breaks?
The critics called the unanswered question of that ending a
bit of sheer art. They applauded the strange fatalitv of the old Chinaman's last gesture. "A daring finale," they said-— and asked, loudly, to see the shabby, bowed figure in other pictures. But they never saw him again. Never.
Neither, for that matter, did they ever see again the man who was the star of "Other Gods."
For the daring finale — // was not writlen into tlic script! It just happened. . . .
THE star had come up out of the darkness of Chinatown. He admitted that, affably, when the special writers ques- tioned him. Furthermore — he admitted this, also, in his care- ful, slightly lisping English — he had not bought a home in Beverly Hills, nor a house in Los Angeles. He still lived in Chinatown. And —
Were
"My life upon the screen?" he said, very charmingly. "It belongs, wholly, to the public. But my life, among my people, is my own. . . ." And, saying this, the dark curtain of his race's inscrutability shut down over his eyes. And the special writers were forced to be content. For that matter the special writers rather liked his reticence — although it defeated their purpose, it was a rare motion picture quality! And even the public did not object, too vehemently, to the mystery that shrouded one of the Orient. In fact, they rather enjoyed it.
FOR the public had, forgetting race prejudice and religious intolerance, taken the star, who was yellow, to their hearts. , They had accepted him, and given him the boon of their favor. And the public, than this, can go no farther!
And so, in "Other Gods," the producers had planned a
lllustratea by
Everett Shinn
"You talk," said the director, "as if you're in love with him. Well, it's not healthy for a girl like you to get crazy about a fellow like him. Even if he wasn't Chinese, there is nobody in Holly- wood that knows a thing about him." "If I am crazy about him," answered the blonde star slowly, "it's my own busi- ness"
super spectacle. Which — because in fiction stories inter-racial alliances are de trap — must end on a note of wistfulness.
You remember the pic- ture? But of course you do. How the young Chinese boy, rising from the gutter, brings his great talent as an artist into society. And is ac- cepted. And is revered. And how, involved in a tong war, and a world war, and a romance, he allows himself to be, at last, beaten. Rather than to make the golden haired heroine of the screen un- happy. Rather than in- volve her in an unpleasant chain of circumstance. He is the one — not she — who breaks their engagement. Do you remember his stark, lonely face, in the final love scene? He is the one who goes stum- bling down a Chinese street, past shuffling, in- curious, black sateen coated figures. He is the one who reverts to type, even in his own shuffling walk, as he enters the joss house — passing so close to an aged, stupid-eyed
Chinaman that their garments touch!
He it is that the aged Chinaman suddenly follows — with a
knife in his hand!
WHEN they were casting for the street crowd — for the joss house set was a built one, in the studio — the old Chinaman
presented himself. With a mumbled word, in pidgeon English,
at the director's window.
"Me — " he said, "I good — actor!"
The casting director recognized a type. And —
"Sure you are, big boy!" he agreed, affably, and gave the old
man a magic slip of paper — the magic slip which, to the stars
that never were, spells open sesame.
And so the old Chinaman entered the studio — and stumbled
past the wardrobe room, and blinked [continued on page 121 ]
45
By Margaret E. Sangster
Eleanor Boardman used to wear her hair long and straight. It was different and conservative — but not becoming. Now Eleanor has one of those new shoulder-length bobs, curled off the face and ears. This picture proves that a good coiffure makes a pretty girl prettier
The HoUywoodcn Santa Clans Distributes presents without pause. A gallon here, a gallon there, His Klaxon snorting on the air. And kiddies hear, as midnight tolls, The busy humming of his Rolls.
JOAN CRAWFORD'S new home in Brentwood Park has been christened "El Jodo," a contraction of Joan and Dodo, the pet name of Doug Fairbanks Jr.
Joan has changed considerably since her engagement, or some say marriage, to Doug. The gay, dancing feet are still and Joan is cooking and sewing — yes, actually — and managing her home in an economical manner. The other day a linen salesman called at the house with his wares.
"This," he said, "is a beautiful tablecloth, exactly like one I sold to Mrs. So and So. The price is $175."
"Out of my class," said Joan, "absolutely out of my class. Show me one for $40 and sell the others to Mrs. So and So."
A year and a half ago Joan would have bought six of the ex- pensive linens without the faintest notion of how she could pay for them.
TAT'HILE Ramon Novarro was abroad, he visited two of his sisters in the Canary Islands who are now nuns. One of them was caring for an insane woman. Ramon and his sister sat on a bench in the arbor. The patient came and peeped through, callmg to the nun :
"Sister, you gave up this brother and all your family to come here, didn't you?"
"Yes," Sister replied.
"Then it is you who are crazy and not I."
IT is rumored that two hearts have been caught on the re- bound. The return of Eddie Sutherland to the Paramount fold to wield the megaphone in the next Bebe Daniels picture
A6
By Cal York
I-ita Grey Chap- lin and her stage-door Johnny, Mr. Roy D'Arcy. In spite of a heavy settlement from Charlie, Lita has gone on a vaudeville tour. It costs money to build a big house in Bever- ly Hills. Roy is waiting for one of those leisure- ly California divorce decrees, to ask Lita to become the second Mrs. D'Arcy
International Nt;wsrt;cl
is not entirely a business arrangement. Bebe, whose engage- ment to Jack Pickford seems at an end, and Eddie, who recently received his divorce from Louise Brooks, have been seen frequently together and the wise ones say that Eddie may assume more definite directorial duties in a matrimonial way.
NILS ASTHER wins the Swedish herring for being Holly- wood's most perfect host.
The other evening he entertained a group of friends in his new hillside home. A merry fire crackled on the hearth, the friendly smell of cigarettes filled the room and good talk flowed freely along with the coffee.
Finally, one of us remarked:
"Now if one could only hear the sound of rain against the windows everything would be perfect."
Nils excused himself and returned a moment later. Suddenly the windows shook with the sound of water.
He had instructed his house boy to stand in the garden and turn the hose against the side of the house!
of All
J the
tudios
Oh her toes for a back flip. Esther Ralston's swimming pool is more than a mere ornament in the yard of her home. When Esther puts on a bath- ing suit, she really swims. Incidentally, while more temperamental stars flash in — and out. Miss Ralston has just signed a nice, new contract to star in Para- mount pictures
.j^m?
TOM MIX will not allow his wife to get a Paris divorce. Not that he objects to a divorce, so far as we can learn, but merely that he thinks American courts are able to handle any of his atfairs that need legal adjustment. He politely returned unanswered the questionnaire sent him from the French city. Incidentally, maybe Tom is wiser than he appears. The Paris divorce would permit him to marry at once. Likely he is insuring protection against himself in a weak moment, for under a California divorce he cannot possibly be married under twelve months.
I cannot talk, I cannot sing, Nor screech, nor moan, nor anything. Possessing all these fatal strictures. What chance have I in motion pictures?
GRETA GARBO to sail for Sweden, willioul signing a new contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. And she lets it be well understood that she doesn't know whether she is coming
|
• i- |
Cinderella and her lucky slippers. These bat- tered pumps were worn by Janet Gaynor in "7th Heaven." And they are Janet's most treasured possession. She makes a point of wearing them, if only for a few minutes, in every one of her pictures — just for luck
back or not, and that she doesn't care whether she ever makes another movie.
From some of the stars, this would be written off as plain bluflf.
But Greta is such a strange soul that there is an awful chance that she might mean it.
Greta cares nothing for money; the lady lives in Spar- tan simplicity.
Fame hasn't made her particularly happy.
AS for John Gilbert, he has signed with United Artists. Just how things stand between John and Greta, nobody knows. When John was in New York, he met Dorothy Parker, one of the wittiest and most attractive of lit'ry gals.
And shortly after John departed from the coast, Mrs. Parker signed up to write dialogue for M.-G.-M. Just a lot of gossip, but there you are!
T OU SEILER, who is directing "The Ghost Talks," "^a Fox talkie, was talking to a "culud gent" who had been called for a test.
(By the way, if you've heard this one, stop me. Lou swears, however, it's the gospel truth.)
"How are you on lines?" Lou asked.
The colored boy looked at him with widening eyes before answering.
"Boss," said he, "I ain't a-goin' to be in this picture if there's lions in it."
WE are beginning to understand why Jack Gilbert could nonchalantly decline an offer of half a million dollars a year, now that we know about the money he has made on the side.
Heretofore Jack's business adviser has never permitted him to invest in stocks or bonds, but recently the rule was broken and Jack was permitted to buy a nice slice of Montgomery
Horrible effect of the talkies on a dog's life. John Loder's pup, Tangy, had a way of follow- ing his master on the set. When Loder went into the talkies, Tangy broke up several scenes with his barks. This invention silences all growls. It doesn't work on supervisors
Ward stock with the result that he cleaned up several hundred thousand dollars.
WHAT are the movie stars to do, now that producers are engaging the girls and boys from the stage to play in the talkies? Well, the movie stars are getting right back at them by going on the stage. Some of the stars are trying vaude- ville, where the salaries are large but there isn't much glory. Others are venturing into the little theater companies in Los Angeles, where there isn't much money but lots of chance for artistic reclame.
BROADW.W— that's a street in New York— is hard on movie stars. The dramatic critics on the local newspapers polish up the axe and lay in wait for them. The only movie star to get kind words from the old grouches is Dorothy Gish. Dorothy is playing with her husband, James Rennie, in a piece called "Young Love." It isn't so much of a play but it has established Dorothy as a stage comedienne. The girl is really good.
"'W'OUNG LOVE" is not the lily-white play you might expect i from a Gish. In fact, Dorothy has some lines that are a little "What Price Glory." This disquieting news must have reached Lillian in Austria, because on opening night she sent Dorothy the following cablegram: "No matter what you do, remember your family still loves you."
However, Dorothy is sitting pretty. She has been studying voice culture for two years and has developed a splendid speaking voice. And so she is all set for the talkies. "Either that," says Dorothy, "or announcing trains."
'T^HE other day the Jap gardener was weeding the flower beds next to the offices of the writers in the movietone section of the Fox Studio. Eugene Walters, the play- wright, who has gone movie, watched him for a time and then remarked laconically, "Better watch out, Hashamaru, you'll weed out a couple of writers if you aren't careful."
EVA VON BERNE has returned to Vienna. There was no blaze of glory to mark her departure. She was sent back beca"use she would not be a success in the talkies! She couldn't learn perfect English in two months.
This mechanical age hands another wallop to art. It takes no long hours of practice to learn to play the Rolmica. You simply insert a roll, turn the crank and blow — as demonstrated by Blanche Le Clair
She will, no doubt, have a chance to work at UFA abroad but that does not alleviate the hurt she feels at going back. The episode was as tragic as it was avoidable. Irving Thalberg and his bride. Norma Shearer, have received thousands of dollars' worth of publicity from the Viennese "discovery."
This is in sharp contrast with a discovery that Harry Rapf brought over, one Mona Martenson, who was given no pub- licity at all and who, therefore, went back without a heart- break.
CLOTHES that make a noise with their beads and bangles are barred from talkie stages.
A ringing bell sounds like a fire alarm. All bells must be muffled in the talkies.
Special heavy cardboard is put in the panel of the doors on the set when a knock is supposed to sound.
One of the few noises that records perfectly is the scratching of a pen.
In "Sal of Singapore" one of the most interesting sounds is the beating of a baby's heart.
How doth the little clarabow Improve each shining hour? By turning Brooklyn's buttercup Into a passion flower.
THE difficulty about Tui Lorraine's passport has been cleared up. Tui's only claim to fame is that she is Clara Bow's stepmother, having but recently married Clara's father. When the marriage was announced immigration officials found that the gal had entered the country illegally from New Zealand.
But the difficulty is solved when she goes to Mexicalli and returns under her status as an American citizen, which she acquired by marriage.
Clara Bow's birthday present from her boss, the Paramount Studio. Clara couldn't get the picture in her dressing room, so she gave it to her dad. And Papa Bow is now looking for a house with rooms as big as those sets in a society drama to accommodate it
With just ten minutes between appoint- ments, Billie Dove eats a taxi luncheon. It's a good trick but only recommended to those who live in communities with bump- less, skidless roads. Driver, go slow!
MAYBE the reason that all the gals in Hollywood are mad over Gary Cooper is because he is so very mysterious. Everybody wonders who is the little blonde nonprofessional seen with Gary at all those quiet little restaurants and tea places.
JIMMY MURRAY stole a march— a wedding march at that — on the film colony and married a little extra girl named Lucille McName. For five weeks the marriage was kept secret. It occurred, strangely enough, just after Jimmy found himself without a contract at M.-G.-M. Are they just an old-fashioned couple who believe that two can live as cheaply as one?
I met her on the palace set.
Her eyes with glycerine were wet.
I seized her hands, John Gilbert-fashion,
And Vitaphoned my deathless passion —
And when she whispered "Yes!" (the sweet!)
I kissed her for 5,000 feet.
ME, oh my! It fairly puts one all out of breath keeping up with the affairs of some of these HoUyvvooders. Now there's Merna Kennedy and James Hall who, according to the newspapers, are supposed to be disengaged. But somebody who knows them told me all this paper talk is camouflage. They are scheduled to be married in about three months, so my informant says, and it will be very, very secret.
We understand also that Merna and Mamma Kennedy are not getting on and that Jimmy is the bone of contention, but the funniest one of all is this:
MERNA and Mrs. Kennedy, and Lita Grey Chaplin and Mrs. Grey all live in the same apartment house but neither couple knows that the other is there! What a problem the landlady must have keeping this tragic information from the various mothers and daughters. You remember it was Lita who introduced Merna to Charlie.
It is interesting to note, too, that Roy D'Arcy also has an apartment in the same house. At present Lita is on a vaude- viDe tour and there are rumors of strife in the Grey household. It seems that mother and daughter have had words concerning one Mr. D'Arcy.
By the way, the two little Chaplin kids are too cute for words — growing into right sturdy youngsters.
"D OLAND DREW may be called upon to sing French folk songs when he plays opposite Dolores Del Rio in "Evangeline."
The other day he asked a friend, who was anxious for a role in the new picture, "Do you speak French?"
Said the friend, "Just in the long shots, my boy, just in the long shots."
MARION DAVIES is back in Hollywood, after seeing all Europe had to offer. She received the decoration of Academic Palms in France and Pour Le Merite in Spain, but Hollywood would not be outdone in its welcome.
The first night after Marion's arrival, she was given a surprise party at the Ambassador hotel that is rarely surpassed. The joint hosts and hostesses were Charlie Chaplin, Bebe Daniels, Joe Schenck, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Goldwyn, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Leonard, Harry Crocker, Louella Parsons, George K. Arthur, Harry d'.\rrast, and Matt Moore. About two hundred guests were present.
ROD L.\ ROCQUE has announced his intention of retiring from the screen. Some folks tell me this may be a case of "sour grapes," but Rod's tale is much to the contrary. He announces that pictures bore him because of inartistic stories and needless excitement over small details.
Producers seem to feel, however, that Rod has put too high a value on his services. M.-G.-M. once asked him to bring his make-up kit to their lot, but the officials thought SI, 500 a week was about enough in the way of stipend. Rod, having been paid $3,500 a week as a star by Pathe, naturally didn't cheer over the M.-G.-M. offer.
With other producers feeling much the same way about the La Rocque popularity, it is not astonishing to hear that Rod plans to retire. He will not need to stand in the bread line, however, as the stock market has [ continued on page 80 |
49
Jonesy's dream comes true
and Diane of "7th Heaven"
becomes a film immortal
Janet Gaynor at the age of twelve. The World War was then in progress. About this time Janet gained local fame as an elocutionist, acquired reciting to sailorsat the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, near Chicago
Harry Jones, Janet 's step- father. "Jonesy" saw Janet always as a potential screen star. He lived to watch the glory of the open- ing night of "7th Heaven," when his Janet stepped to fame from among the screen's un- knowns
Simply and directly, Janet Gaynor told last month of her early life. She was horn in Gcrmantown, Philadelphia, October 6, 1906. At eight her father and mother separated. There was a divorce. This was the first tragedy of her life. With her mother and sister, Helen, Janet moved to Chicago. Janet spent her winters in Florida with her aunt. These were war days. Janet and her sister gave recitations to sailors at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, north of Chicago. Janet began to gain a little local fame as an embryonic actress.
Then "Jonesy" entered the life of the Gaynors. He was Harry Jones, a mining promoter from the West. Jones was married to Mrs. Gaynor.
Janet's step-father was destined to play an important role in the future star's career.
m
Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien in "The Johns- town Flood." This was Janet's first dramatic role. She gave up a regular S50-a-week salary at Universal to take it. It was a venture. "I shall never forget how hard I tried," she says. "I was giving all I could to succeed"
THOSE days under Jonesy's protecting heart are very sweet and fresh in my mind. Here, at last, were three lone women gathered into the warmth of a good man's embrace. Jonesy with his maps, with his dreams of wealth when this mine or that yielded its treasure. And they never seemed to. His room was stacked high with prospector's tools, with gauges, with blue-prints, with books on ore. His dreams of a generous earth sharing her riches with him never materialized. He lived in a tomorrow bright with promise.
I should not say they never materialized. One dream did. His blessed persistent dream that some day I should be an actress. "Oh, Jonesy, you silly! Don't be absurd. I'll never be an actress. One must be very beautiful to be an actress. Now look at Helen, she is beautiful. She should be an actress. Anyway, I'd rather be a teacher — or a lawj'er."
And so I entered Poli-Technic in San Francisco to finish my high school training.
The first summer I was there I decided it would be well for me to work. I might as well be self-supporting. Poor little me, bashful, shy, I went out one morning with a chum to get em- ployment. She had a list of three places to which she was to apply. The first place was the one she took, without looking at the other two vacancies. I was to see if I couldn't land one of the other jobs. "You do this, Lolly, and do that," she in-
So Far
as told to
Dorothy Spensley
by
Janet Gaynor
structed. "Don't be shy. They won't bite you."
My first call was at Frank Mores' Shoe Shop on Geary Street. I was offered eighteen dollars a week, to start, for ofTice work. It was three dollars more than my friend had accepted, so I took it imme- diately. For three months I worked at Mores'. I thought I was terribly clever. And perhaps I was. I checked salary lists and finally made up the payroll. I de- posited company money in the bank. It's a wonder someone didn't knock me down and step off with the money. It would not have been difficult.
Sometimes, during a rush period or at lunch, I would enter the cashier's cage and take charge of things. I felt very im-
m
Most of Janet Gaynor's first screen work was done at the Hal Roach comedy studio. This was due to the kindly interest of Molly Thompson of the Roach staff. Janet says the superiority of the other girls simply floored her. felt so immature — they were most superior"
Janet Gaynor and her mother. Mrs. Gaynor's marriage to Harry Jones shaped little Janet's career, for it was "Jonesy's" faith in his step-daughter that led her to stardom. Jones lived just long enough to see his hopes realized
portant. They raised my salary to twenty dollars a week. I felt even more important. I\Iy self-confidence increased in pro- portion to my success. Soon I was answering the telephone in the adjustment department, telling irate customers that their shoes would be delivered immediatel>'; telling theatrical stars that the satin sandals would surely reach them for the evening performance.
No one ever told me I had nice eyes. That I should be in pictures. Only Jonesy, at home, said that.
SEPTEMBER came and with it school and soon I returned to Florida for the winter. It was that year — the family had lived in San Francisco for four years — that they decided to move to Los Angeles. They took a house in Hollywood where I came on my arrival from ifelbourne.
Of course, Hollywood was a thrill to me. At every turn I embraced make-believe land. The stimulating fairy stories of my youth were alive in Hollywood. One never knew at what corner one might see the glamorous siren of last night's motion picture. A gleaming limousine might bear the hero of today's romantic drama.
My life was uneventful, save for those chance contacts. I entered the Hollywood Secretarial School, bent on becoming a stenographer. Helen was already a tremendously capable one, commanding a nice salary. After a week or two of study I gave it up. It was too humdrum. But Helen had discovered a new occupation. She had discovered that the casting oflices of the studios were open to her. It was before the Hays organization had formed the Central casting office. Casting was done by the individual studios.
One day I went along with her when she had a call from the Hal Roach Studio. She put my greasepaint on, covered the tan freckles, rouged my lips, darkened my brows. I was tremen- dously thrilled, and eciually as embarrassed.
After that I went the rounds of the casting offices myself, bashful, timid. I worked most of the time at the Hal Roach Studio. I felt the friendly interest [ continued on p.-\ge 94 ]
51
THE NATIONAL GUIDE TO MOTION PICTURES
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The
OUTCAST— First National
THIS picture is not a million-dollar production, such as "The Divine Lady," but is vastly more interesting and far better acted.
This is the third time "Outcast" has been filmed. Ann Murdock did it first, to be followed by Elsie Ferguson, who had played it behind the footlights. This time the locale has been switched from London to San Francisco (possibly to save expensive studio-built exteriors), and Director William Seiter has kidded virtue quite considerably during its length.
"Outcast" is the story of a rich young bachelor who picks up a girl of the boulevards in order to forget a lost love. Then the girl falls in love with him.
Corinne Griffith makes a lovely Miriam, her best role in a Ion? time, and Edmund Lowe is excellent as the wealthy bachelor, Geojfrey.
ROMANCE OF THE UNDERWORLD—Fox
ADAPTED from the late Paul Armstrong's passably popular stage play, this develops into one of the best of the underworld avalanche of films. We credit this to Irving Cummings' taut direction.
Briefly, " Romance of the Underworld" is the story of a little entertainer in a speakeasy who raises herself to become an expert stenographer — and then the bride of her rich young employer. She never tells him of her early days, and her past comes up to smash her happiness, via an unscru- pulous gangster. The girl is saved by a shrewd detective who helped her in the old cabaret days.
Mary Astor is good as the ex-speakeasy charmer, but the honors go to Robert Elliott, as the smiling, gum-chewing, cool Irish detective. Even in the face of scores of under- world pictures, this stands out above par.
Shadow Stage
(ri:g. u, s. pat. off.) M ^
A Review of the New Pictures
SINS OF THE FATHERS— Paramount
NOT a "Patriot" or a "Last Command" and, of course, not a "Last Laugh" — but an eminently distinguished parade of prohibition and its evils. And it provides the superb Jannings with great opportunities for the complete characterization of another of those mellow German- Americans.
The story is simple, if a little slow of movement. Wilkdm Spengler is a waiter, happy in his home life and his Saenger- bund. He becomes the owner of one of those old-fashioned restaurants with its gilded bar. Prohibition wipes aside his small success and, step by step, Spengler is drawn into the army of bootleggers. He knows no other way to maintain his existence and that of his son.
Then the son, just back from college, drinks poisoned liquor and goes blind. Thus the title. That crushes Spengler and sends him to prison, a broken old fellow.
"Sins of the Fathers" savors just a bit of "The Way of All Flesh." There is the same home life, although Spengler is not quite the social partner of the bank worker, August Schiller. "Sins of the Fathers" hasn't the sharp emotional tug of several Jannings characterizations, but it is a care- fully conceived and beautifully acted portrayal.
Ruth Chatterton makes a vivid screen appearance in an unsympathetic part and her work is intelligent and forceful. She is excellent. Barry Norton gives a fine performance as the spoiled son who loses his sieht.
Be sure to see this film. It is a worthy Jannings eftort, which means it would be an extraordinary picture for almost anyone else.
SAVES YOUR PICTURE TIME AND MONEY
The Best Pictures of the Month
SINS OF THE FATHERS OUTCAST
A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS SCARLET SEAS
RED WINE ON TRIAL
ROMANCE OF THE UNDERWORLD
The Best Performances of the Month
Emil Jannings in "Sins of the Fathers"
Greta Garbo in "A Woman of Affairs"
Ruth Chatterton in "Sins of the Fathers"
Richard Barthelmess in "Scarlet Seas"
Betty Compson in "Scarlet Seas"
Conrad Nagel in "Red Wine"
Robert Elliott in "Romance of the Underworld"
Casts of all photoplays reviewed will he found on page 124
A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS— M.-G.-M.
DESPITE the change of title, despite the Hays ban, despite new names for old characters, it is still Michael Arlen's "The Green Hat." And it is corking. Clarence Brown atones here for his directorial sins in "The Trail of '98."
The story is a study in emotions. A girl sets out to uphold the wild reputation of her family because the father of the man she loves won't let him marry her. Her life becomes a whirl of escapades. Also one tragic marriage. Through it all, however, she clings fast to her first love. And the beauty of this love story lifts the picture to exalted heights and purges it of any possible tang of sordidness.
As Diana, the self-sacrificing heroine, Greta Garbo gives her greatest performance. Jack Gilbert, in spite of an eternal dress suit, plays the difficult role of lover with dramatic repression. Lewis Stone lends fine British dignity as the family friend and Hobart Bosworth makes a splen- didly austere English father whose stupid stubbornness wrecks Diana's life. Dorothy Sebastian, the hero's wife, presents an interpretation brief but classic. John Mack Brown as Diana's crooked husband blights his characteriza- tion with one over-acted scene. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is almost too wayward as the wayward son. Miss Garbo's interpretation is all the greater because she puts it over without a single clinging dress or a single Garbo slink. Those who read the story will remember the heroine's big motor car. Also a certain green hat she wore. Both are con- spicuous in the picture, though without reference to the color of the lady's hat.
SCARLET SEAS— First National
THIS is a picture of blood, brutality, cave-man love- making and drama that reeks with the thing called "guts." The story is typical deep water trader stuff — hard- boiled skipper in love with hard-boiled maid, mutiny, booze and murder, and in the end regeneration for the rough, tough skipper and his gal. Betty Compson and Barthelmess give excellent performances. Photography is splendid, with a kick for those who like full-rigged ships. The picture grows De MiUe-like and "gets religion" in the middle, but the Bible scenes are handled with a delicacy and humanness that should hold any audience hushed. It's patent, however, that the director never spent three agonizing days becalmed on a tropic sea in an open boat, suffering the hell-torture of heat and thirst. On the whole, however, it's good strong stuff, with plot variations that give quality.
RED WINE— Fox
HERE'S a charmingly whimsical little comedy that will inspire intellectual laughter. The slight story concerns a perfect husband who is led to a wild parly, becomes gloriously bunned and thinks that he has kept dates with any number of girls, when, in reality, it has been a frame-up.
The delight of this simple yarn lies in the sophisticated direction of Raymond Cannon and in the faultless perform- ance of Conrad Nagel. Nagel, himself an abstemious man, does one of the most perfect drunk scenes we have ever witnessed.
June CoUyer is attractive as the stay-at-home wife who is almost "wronged." This is rare entertainment worthy of comparison with Lubitsch at his best. Dialogue is to be inserted later and this should help, too. You mustn't miss it.
5S
Watch Photoplay's New Sound Reviews
SOMEONE TO LOVE^ Paramount
NAUGHTY BABY—
First National
BUDDY ROGERS' second starring vehicle is a clean, delight- ful comedy drama that any audience will enjoy. He is sup- ported by Mary Brian, whose feminine charm becomes more apparent in each picture. A young man with honest intentions becomes the victim of a fortune-hunting scheme of his associ- ates, and as a result very nearly loses his sweetheart. The picture is a story of young and innocent love.
NAUGHTY, naughty! Li'l Alice White and Jack MulhaU make bad picture. Li'l Alice White doesn't wear any clothes, just like Clara Bow, but that isn't the naughty part. It's naughty for producers to bore you and make you waste the nicest evening. Oh, there's a cloak room girl and a rich boy. And maybe he isn't rich, but just a badie. Yes, he's rich. No, he isn't. Well, yes, he is. And what of it?
ADORATION
—First
National
AVALANCHE — Paramount
THIS is the love song of a Romanoff prince and princess, written by Lajos Biro, author of "The Last Command." It rises above the chaos- of revolution and is drowned for a while in the clatter of post-war Paris. It is unique in that both prin- cipals are of the same social cast. . A perfectly constructed picture, in which Billie Dove's acting is second only to her exquisite beauty. Stimulating entertainrfient.
THE combination of Zane Grey and Jack Holt means good he-man opera — and this picture is no exception. Holt is a "square" gambler who goes crooked in order to send his younger brother to college. Baclanova all but takes the picture with her splendid work as a dance hall girl in love with Holt. John Darrow, as the younger brother, and Doris Hill as the girl sweet- heart, are both good. A high-class Western.
GERALDINE —Pathe
THE RED
MARK—
Pathe
THIS is about a gal who needs to know the ways of men. It's by Booth Tarkington, and light and funny. Marion Nixon is the gal, and Eddie Quillan the industrious youth who under- takes her education. Gaston Glass is the man she needs to know about. The plot doesn't matter. A cafe, liquor, laugh- ter, a raid, jail, then the girl and the right young man find their love. It's good — and watch Eddie Quillan.
EL
ONE of those depressing affairs of abused prisoners in a tropical penal institution. The cruel governor wants to marry the daughter of one of the prisoners. She, however, has a weakness for a handsome young prisoner who is about to be paroled. When the horrid villain discovers this, he cancels the parole and has her lover led to the guillotine — only then to dis- cover it is his long lost son! Can you bear it?
for the Latest Talkie Developments
RILEY THE COP
Fox
THE VIKING
Techni- color- M.-G.-M.
JFARRELL MacDONALD'S first starring vehicle is an .episodic account of the adventures of a Quixotic policeman sent to Europe to bring back a young embezzler.
Riley and the boy are dear friends and the lad manages the trip for both.
MacDonald gives a real, honest characterization, which is all that can be said for the picture.
The obvious gags are lacking — thank heaven — but in spite of this the picture is a bore.
THIS is the first all-color sound picture. It brings to the screen a historical romance dealing with the discovery of America by Lief the Lucky, son of Eric the Red, ruler of Green- land's hardy Norsemen. It is vital drama against a back- ground of tapestry-like beauty made possible through recent improvements in color photography. Pauline Starke, in the role of heroine, is a provoking armful. This is the first full- length color film since Fairbanks' "The Black Pirate," so tlon't miss it.
[ AdJiiional reviews of latest pictures on page 92
Sound Pictures
ON TRIAL-
Warners-
Vitaphone
PHOTOPLAY GOLD MEDAL A WARD — Fox-Movietone
"/^N TRIAL" was one of the dramatic successes V-'sta
of the 'stage, and the cinema version is one of the best talking pictures made to date. Elmer Rice, the author, did a daring thing with the play when he conceived the idea of portraying an entire murder trial and using for his stage technique the movie flashback. By this, all the related incidents — childhood, court- ship, every action leading to the crime — were introduced. The result was a sensation. By the same means the all-talking picture becomes tremendously effective as we see the past and present and are moved by the voices of the characters.
The story opens in a court room on the first day of a murder trial. The accused was the friend and debtor of the murdered man, and has confessed to the crime. Nevertheless, the testi- mony goes on and unfolds a great dramatic story.
Pauline Frederick is the featured player and it marks her introduction to the talking pictures. She is supported by an unusually fine cast, including Bert Lytell, Lois Wilson, Holmes Herbert, Jason Robards, Richard Tucker and others. Also Vondell Darr, a little girl, gives a beautiful performance.
.'\rchie Mayo is not a new director, but this definitely places him in the class of those who know how to direct.
See this at your earliest opportunity.
HERE'S a picture of real interest to Photoplay's readers because, for the first time, you may see and hear the results of your voting for the best picture of the year. And this 3'ear, the Gold Medal Presentation was a transcontinental affair.
James R. Quirk, editor and publisher of Photoplay, tele- phones from his office in New York, to Winfield Sheehan, production head of the William Fox Company, at the Fo.x Studios in Hollywood.
Mr. Quirk notifies Mr. Sheehan that "7th Heaven" was voted the best picture of 1927 by Photoplay's readers. That's the scenario.
And to furnish the happy ending, an airplane pilot delivers the Gold Medal to Mr. Sheehan at the conclusion of the conversation.
This is the first time that the Gold Medal Award has been recorded in a newsreel. And so readers, whose careful and con- scientious voting has made this award such a high honor in the film world, will be interested to see and hear the actual cere- mony.
Out of modesty, both Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Quirk declined to accept "best performances."
' Additional reviews of sound pictures on page 93 .
55
r^UPPOSE you made mental whoopee by playing a game of ^^ A dominoes with a celebrated author. Suppose you woke up the (_^ next morning to find yourself famous. Suppose you thus be- came the living Hollywood symbol of a Great Mind. What would you do? Yes, that's what Aileen Pringle does. But what do protests get her?
56
What Do You Mean-
Aileen Pringle has been tagged "the darhng of the inteUigentsia" but, gosh, how she hates it!
By Katherine Albert
WHEN Aileen Pringle hears the word "intel- lectual" something curls up inside her like a permanent wave. You'd writhe, too, if you were tagged "the darling of the intellectuals." Suppose you were twenty- four-sheeted as the wittiest woman in Hollywood? Put yourself in Aileen's place, if you can. Think how you'd feel. So does Aileen — the victim of a phrase.
Suppose you made mental whoopee by playing an innocent game of dominoes with a gentleman who happened to be, in addition to a bum domino player, one of the finest writers of fiction in America. Then suppose you woke up one morning to find yourself all over one of the country's biggest periodicals as having been the domino partner of a literary bonfire? You'd feel badly about it, too, just as you would if you had been caught playing stud poker for matches with your pastor.
Suppose, on a sweltering day, you remarked, "Well, is it hotenoughforyou?" What would happen? Practically nothing. Yet if Aileen Pringle were to crack this chestnut, all Hollywood would be whisper- ing, in a half hour, that the First Wit had slipped.
You can add "like olives," when anyone mentions an acquired taste, without blush- ing. Can Aileen? Not by a jugful of split infinitives! She has a reputation to sustain. She can never indulge in a [continued on page 105]
Aileen Pringle isn't a social lion chaser. She makes no effort to be known as the pet of the typewriter pounders. She just likes 'em. "I like the people I like," she says. "One doesn't have to be clever with clever people"
51
Conrad
in
Quest
of a
Voice
Wherein Mr. Nagel proves that a "phonetic voice" may be just as important as a photo- graphic face
By Mark Larkin
SEATED at a luncheon table on the screened porch at "The Masquers," which is to Hollywood what "The Lambs" is to New York, Conrad Nagel told me that talk- ing pictures have brought out a new kind of personality — the personality of voice.
"Not that we haven't had voice personality before," he ad- mitted, "but we have never been so acutely conscious of it. "Did you ever stop to consider how great a bearing upon personality the voice has? Think of the various persons you have met, consider how their voices intluenced you. A stranger, for instance, in a group of people: You have never heard him speak, you know nothing of the sound of his voice. In out- ward appearance and general characteristics he is inconspicuous. Perhaps he is under-sized, plainly garbed, or otherwise un- impressive. But suddenly he speaks. You are startled. Your whole impression of his character changes. He may rise in your estimation, he may submerge. At any rate, his voice has affected you — its vibrant pilch, its magnetism, or possibly the lack of these qualities — has crystallized your opinion. Had he remained silent, had he gone out of the room without speaking, you would have retained your original impression — good or bad, as it happened to be. His voice personality, however, is what fixed your idea of the man.
58
"And so it is with the screen player appearing in talking pictures today. His voice personality will be largely responsible for his success."
There is probably no one in Hollywood better qualified than Conrad Nagel to discuss the influence of voice upon personality. It so happens that the quality of his own voice — its "phonetic value" as the director of talkies woiddsay — has brought about a phenomenal increase in the Nagel popularity. In fact, since the advent of cinema conversation, Conrad Nagei's daily fan mail has increased twelvefold. Whereas, in the past he could carry it in his two hands, he now finds it impossible to carry the daily grist of letters in his two arms.
"But do not get the impression," he hastened to explain, "that all you need to achieve talking picture success is a good voice or voice personality. Far from it! The talkies levy the most e.vacting tax upon ability that has yet been placed. And for that reason, players from the legitimate stage, with their wider e.x'perience, are signally successful in the speakies."
For this, it seems there is one outstanding reason.
"Actors and actresses who have had screen experience only," Nagel explained, "are not schooled in maintaining audience tempo. A screen scene that runs one hundred feet is a long scene. Yet it passes [continued on page 113]
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^^N the opposite page you will find a story on "voice personality." The speaker is fy Conrad Nagel. He tells you that many people are afraid to speak correct English, ^"^ because they might be accused of putting on airs. And he predicts that, just as the screen has given us a new standard of personal appearance, so will it improve the quality
of our speech.
Don't try to wear a helmet hat with a strap, unless you have a well-shaped chin — and only one. This Lewis hat is of gray felt. With it, Marion Davies wears a gray cloth coat, from Jenny, with a wide collar of white fox flecked with black tips
The trousers of this Lelong lounging cos- tume are almost as wide as a skirt. The pajamas are of white satin, made all in one piece. And the coat is black velvet with large white dots and edged with white satin
Clothes
Some Paris cos- tumes that show the excellent taste of Marion Davies' personal wardrobe
This Jenny evening coat is of thin, shim- mering gold cloth, with an interwoven design of blue and gold. Around the un- even hem is a narrow fringe of gold .beads. It has a collar of silver fox. With it, Miss Davies carries a flat gold bag from Milgrim
that Speaf
Fren ch
Marion is most charming in this Lelong eveping gown of white lace. Like all good evening dresses, it has a decided dip, with a tight waist-line and a bit of fullness at the hips. The waist is bolero effect, plain in front but full and dipping at the back
Another youthful evening gown — this one from Lanvin. It is oyster white satin, and here and there on the full skirt are medallions of pearls and brilliants. A jewelled band falls from the high neckline to the edge of the ankle-length skirt
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There's a dash about this Callot creation that suggests a Russian military coat. It is three- quarters length, with a tight-fitting back and flaring skirt. The color is ash rose, embroid- ered in gold, and luxuriantly trimmed in sable
%
'^!K
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Aulrey
(^"T^ARKY NORTON'S parents wanted him to enter the diplomatic service
/^ of his native country, the Argentine. Barry wanted to see the world before
continuing his studies. In the course of his travels he arrived in Hollywood. In
the story on the opposite page, you will find Barry's own account of how he broke
into the movies.
Uougs Office Boy
Makes Good
Who says that the modern boy has no spirit of adven- ture? Read the lively story of Barry Norton's career
By Cal Yo7-k
Casting directors told him he "wasn't the type."
They advised him to go home. But when the
public saw him in "What Price Glory," it voted
him very much the type. So he's staying
Alfredo Biraben — at the age of four. This photograph was taken in Buenos Aires, where Alfredo was born. You know him now, of course, as Barry Norton
THREE years ago he was Douglas Fairbanks' office boy. Today he is one of Hollywood's best actors. Tomorrow — do we dare predict about tomorrow? In Barry Norton's case, yes, for tomorrow is rich with promise, the promise of stardom for this lad, despite the fact that three years ago it was a big day's work when he opened the Fairbanks mail.
Alfredo Biraben rebelled at the idea of being a diplomat, and, because of that, Barry Norton became an actor. You see, Alfredo Biraben and Barry Norton are one and the same. At the age of nineteen, Alfredo, living in Buenos Aires, the city of his birth, found Fate and Firpo in a conspiracy tc shape his destiny.
That was five years ago.
Firpo, if you remember, came from the tall grass of his native country to the city of New York to battle Jack Dempsey, then world's leading leather-pusher. And accompanying Mr. Firpo — or at least hovering close enough to reflect his glory — were twelve snappy young Argentine lads, all about twenty, constitut- ing themselves his rooting section. They were eager to see the Wild Bull of the Pampas knock the Dempsey block loose from its moorings, and it was no fault of theirs that he failed.
In South America — particularly in the Argentine — education is dispensed quite differently from methods emplo\ed in our good old U. S. A. Many educators claim the South American systems are more thorough, which is a point we will not argue. At any rate, these twelve young men had reached that period in their education where they were to decide upon various and sundry life callings, and to pursue, thereafter, specific training for their careers.
But Barry Norton had not been allowed to choose his career. His parents had done it for him and, unfortunately, their selection had not pleased the lad.
His father was a government geologist who had dreamed of diplomatic service, and he was an.xious, therefore, to see the dream fulfilled in the chosen work of his son. And, too, it was the earnest wish of his mother.
But the boy's leaning was toward architecture.
So he looked with gloom upon the prospect of returning to the Argentine.
" I had my passage home," he said, "in fact, it is still rotting in the oflice of the Argentine consul of New York. In addition [ continued on p.^ge 96 ]
65
John Gilbert was given four best per- formances during 1928, in "Four Walls," "The Cossacks," "Man, Woman and Sin" and "Masks of the Devil"
N
fashion.
INETEEN TWENTY-EIGHT will go down in iilm history as the year of the talkie.
The advent of the synchronized sound picture has dented the Hollywood histrionic ego in no mean Instead of newi personalities, we have new methods
of reproducing sound.
Photoplay
By
Frederick James Smith
Summary of 1928— Fif- teen stars and players scored more than one best performance
Right now Hollywood is looking for young women with the IT of Greta Garbo and the voice of Julia Marlowe. Young actors with the appeal of Rudy Valentino and the enunciation of Walter Hampden can get a job any time in the celluloid capital. Since none of these combinations have been found yet, the sound pioneers may be said still to own their complete set of worries.
Out of all the hysteria of synchronization just one personality has emerged — Al Jolson. There are no other big dialogue-and- song hits yet.
One new silent star climbed into the firmament — Joan Crawford.
It has not been a very successful year for the old line lumi- naries, such as Mary Pickford, Doug Fairbanks, Norma Tal- madgeandLon Chancy. Pola Negri has withdrawn from view.
Baclanova and Camilla Horn top the new and glamorous per- sonalities. K little further back we have Lupe Velez, waiting a real opportunity to flash.
George Bancroft
"Docks of New York"
"The Draft Net"
Richard Barthelmess
"The Noose" "Wheel of Chance"
Betty Compson
"Docks of New York" "The Barker"
Gary Cooper
"Legion of the Condemned" "Beau Sabreur"
Joan Crawford
"Four Walls" "Our Dancinft Daughters"
|
Marion Davies |
Louise Dresser |
Greta Garbo |
Janet Gaynor |
Jean Hersholt |
|
'The Cardboard Lover" "The Patsy" |
"Mother Knows Best" "His Country" |
"Mysterious Lady" "The Divine Woman" |
"Street Angel" "Four Devils" |
"Jazz Mad" "Abie's Irish Rose' |
64
Reviews Film Year
The big five in popularity are still John Gilbert, Emil Jannings, Greta Garbo, Clara Bow and Harold Lloyd.
Janet Gaynor climbed a little closer. Pretty soon she may be one of the big si.\.
The comedians have had a tough year. Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd maintain their preeminence, but such comic figures as Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon and Doug MacLean have passed into eclipse. In Langdon's case it has been a total eclipse, observed in all parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
The year ran chiefly to one style of story — underworld.
The screen was surfeited with Russian stories, chiefly phony, and there was an avalanche of sea films. War pictures, mostly of aviation, continued. But 1928 was principally a year of gunmen.
DOLORES DEL RIO climbed into the best sellers with "Ramona" and now, due to varying performances and ill- judged publicity, seems to be climbing right out again. 1929 will tell whether or not Miss Del Rio was a flash in the pan.
Look at the case of Gloria Swanson. Months have passed and she has not started on her ne.xt, to be directed by Erich Von Stroheim. Her 1928 record rests upon "Sadie Thompson," a good effort and a much talked about one. But Miss Swanson can not afford to let the months roll around without pictures.
Consider Lillian Gish. No picture at all, save an old one, "Wind," just released by Metro-Goldwyn. Her next, to be handled by United .Artists, is still far away. Yet Miss Gish is considered by many to be the screen's most distinguished actress.
Such consistent stars as Adolphe Menjou, Richard Barthel- mess, Richard Dix, Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky held their own during 1928. ^
The directors? Clarence Brown crashed up against his first big disappointment, "The Trail of '98." D. W. Griffith added nothing to his glorious record with "Drums of Love" and "The Battle of the Sexes." Cecil De Mille contributed a second rate sermon, "The Godless Girl." Erich \'on Stroheim's "The Wedding March" died on the cutting room floor.
The big megaphone laurels go to Ernst Lubitsch, for his
Emil Jannings registered three best performances in Photoplay's Shadow Stage, in "Street of Sin," "The Patriot" and "The Last Command"
"The Patriot"; F. W. Murnau, for his "Four Devils"; Josef von Sternberg, for his "The Last Command"; Paul Leni, for his "The Man Who Laughs"; and Lewis Milestone, for his "The Racket." King \'idor followed his noble experiment of last year, "The Crowd," with a neat comedy, "The Patsy." Harry b'Arrast continued to show improvement in the field of high comedy.
The best of the year's bumper crop of crook dramas was "The Racket." This did a lot to help Thomas Meighan.
Marion Davies did the best work of lier career in "The Patsy," already noted.
The popular success of "Our Dancing Daughters," which made a star of Joan Crawford, is likely to start 1929 off with a deluge of lively pictures of youth and jazz.
1928 completely washed up on Western melodrama. This means that such high paid stars as [ coxtinued on page 111 ]
Thomas Meighan
"The Racket" "The MaUng Call"
William Powell "The Drag Net" "In terf erence' '
Fay Wray
"The Weddinft March" "Legion of the Condemned"
PHOTOPLAY'S Honor Roll for 1928
Players and Number of Best Performances
John Gilbert, 4
Emil Jannings, 3
George Bancroft, 2
Richard Bartheltness, 2
Betty Compson, 2
Gary Cooper, 2
Joan Crawford, 2
Marion Davies, 2
Louise Dresser, 2
Greta Garbo, 2
Janet Gaynor, 2
Jean Hersholt, 2
Thomas Meighan, 2
William Powell, 2
Fay Wray, 2
65
By
Alice L. Tildesley
OOD IRL
Ken Laurel had seen her picture, "The Home Girl," which had earned her a long term contract. In real life Ellen was just the girl she had played. Once she had even taken a prize for making chicken pie
LLEN saw Ken Laurel's shadow before she met him. Afterwards, she used to wonder if that didn't somehow symboHze their rehitionship, — his shadow darkening the bright pattern of her life, yet not affecting him at all. She was a sentimental little thing. The shadow incident occurred in the big living-room wherein Hollywood's favorite hostess was serving Sunday afternoon tea. Ellen's backless antique chair was set close to a great studio win- dow that opened on a patio; sunshine pouring in made her modest slipper buckles gleam. She drew her prim little hat down on one side because of the dazzle in her e.ves. . . . And then she saw the shadow on the pol- ished floor, a grotesque thing sprawl- ing across the bright blotch from the radiant window.
"Ellen, darling, I don't believe you've met Ken Laurel. Ken, this is Hollywood's shining example, — a girl who doesn't drink or smoke or pet."
The hostess' svelte figure blotted out the shadow; she bent over Ellen, a long scarlet cigarette holder almost touching the prim little hat.
Color rose in a painful flood from Ellen's pretty throat to her bright brown hair. She put her fingers into those outstretched to re- ceive them and veiled her eyes with her lashes. But she saw him distinctly — big and broad and self-confident, with sea-blue eyes and the ruddy tan of a sailor. . . . He had a private yacht.
" Have you no vices?" he asked, whimsically, and though it was an old line, she laughed. "Don't tell any- one — / cat onions!" she retorted, drop- ping her voice as though imparting a tremendous secret. He sat down by her and the rest of the afternoon became a rosy blur. It was. the only time so far as she could remember later that their conversation turned on her. He had seen her picture, "The Home Girl," which had earned her a long term
66
^EN LAUREL
^ thought only of his career and his close-ups and her heart stood still
for years until —
Illustrated by
O. F. Howard
contract, and he listened to what she said about Big Brother and their rose- colored bungalow and how she had once taken a prize for making chicken pie.
Big Brother himself inter- rupted the letc-a-lcle by putting his head into the room and calling: "Paging Miss Ellen Field!" in stentorian tones. Brother always took Ellen to and from parties; she couldn't drive ; besides he thought of her as some- one inexpressibly precious.
Ken walked to the car with her, handing her in with an air of deferential adoration familiar to his fans, and stood for several min- utes looking into her eyes.
He called up just as she stepped into the bungalow to know if he might come over that evening. She asked him to supper and made
some featherweight biscuits before he got there. Later they took a walk down the palm and pepper lined street and he asked if she minded his calling her Ellen.
She decided, as she lay blissfully sleepless in her white bed that night, that she would be married in church; the bridesmaids should wear orchid and carry yellow roses. . . . Pale blue with apple-blossoms would be lovely, but it would be so long before there were any apple-blossoms. . . .
The company that starred Ken Laurel borrowed Ellen to play opposite him in his next picture which was made on location in a mountain wilderness. The principals lived in a lodge by a silver-shining lake that rippled almost to the edge of the rustic veranda. Ellen could hear the waves lap-lap- lapping below her window as she lay in the dark telling over the rosarv of hours of the too-brief davs.
SHE was happy — rather determinedly happy. Ken saved a place for her beside him at the table and made a great to-do over whether or not her coffee was hot.
He called her "Our N'ell," caressingly, and put' great fervor into their love-scenes.
He even organized a band to serenade her, his own passable
When Ellen came back from Italy she was wholly changed. Ken liked women of the world, did he? She bobbed her hair. The carmine line of her lips became a flame in the dead white of her make- up. "Ellen's gone flap- per," Hollywood said, as it watched her trans- formation
!| / baritone ringing out above the ukulele and
// portable organ borrowed from studio musicians.
* /■ "Give me all your love, dear,
^.,y/ Or else give me none!
Give me every kiss, dear, I Or not our!"
he would sing, standing silhouetted in manly beauty against the rising moon.
She listened from her window, a darkened win- dow, of course, so that no one might see her modest negligee. The trouble was, she decided, that they were never alone — an assistant director, a camera man or a character woman was always within earshot. But the last day of the eight weeks brought opportunity. . . .
The script called for a "long shot" of Ken and Ellen in a canoe far out on the lake. She sat facing him, the breeze ruffling her pretty hair, her shy brown eyes pleading: "Oh, tell me you love me!" But he, leaning on the oars, developed an interest in fish and insisted on explaining the difference between fresh and salt water sport.
"It's the first time we've been alone together since we came," she managed to observe when he had finished a tale about a swordfish. [ continued on page 100 ]
oounding a o
ong
L
OOK over these pictures reveal- ing the inside of a sound film 'studio in action. They're the last you will see for some time. The pro- ducers have banned disclosures of the talkies.
Here }ou see "The Desert Song" in the making at the Warner Broth- ers Coast Studios, with the same scene from above and from behind the camera booth lines. The cam- eras are within glass windowed sound proof booths. They bear the nu- meral 2 in both pictures. Look close for the microphones hanging in lines and on stands just above and out of reach of the camera lens. Also be- hind the camera booths and fronting the orchestra. Thus you get the dialogue, the songs and the back- ground music. A sound film set still is a pretty cramped place — but the talkies are in their infancy.
Incandescent lights are used for the talkies. Sound film photography still is handicapped by the fact that the cameras have to be out of sound range, so that the microphones do not pick up their whir.
CB
5^
EELiNG Around
W
ith
Leonard Hall
The Gag of the Month Club
By Walter O'Keefe via Mark Hellinger.
Rin-Tin-Tin, the dog star, was given a talking picture test recently.
He failed to pass, as he was found to bark like a Pekinese.
Laughing It Off
Gilda Gray has a birthday . . . Shake, Gilda! . . . Frank Keenan, at 70, marries a third wife . . . and they called his first movie "The Coward"! . . . Tex Guinan, back from Holly- wood, says that if her night club racket fails she can always get a job as bridesmaid for Peggy Joyce . . . Uncle Carl Laemmle tells his directors, "Sure, I want sex . . . but I want CLEAN sex!" . . . Favorite greeting of movie managers in New York . . . "How's business, you liar?" . . . Lya de Putti, in New York, shopped SI, 900 worth in one day . . . Just reviving the old game of Putti and Take. . . . Sixty four hundred people attended '"La Tosca" in Los Angeles ordinary people and Norma Shearer. . .
a parrot is just a canary that has taken up Vitaphone. . . .Fox Hnes up 103 theaters in New York . . . Originating the old saw about "Dumb like a William Fox."
That is, 6,399 Eddie Nugent says
The Star
At parlor games I admit I'm rank, At Ritzy gabble a total blank, At parties I never cause a stir — But goodness me, how I register!
Hearts and Flowers
James Hall and Mema Kennedy have ceased bleating . . . Jack Gilbert, on his New York visit, is said to have gone overboard for Dorothy Parker, wit and poet . . . Don't tell Greta. . . . Marceline Day announces that she has never been really in love . . . which cinches it that it Can't Be Long Now. . . . The Evelyn Brent-Gary Cooper crooning seems to have suspended. . . . Bessie Love and Eddie Foy, Jr., are Being Seen Places. . . . Joan Crawford's anklet, gift from Doug the Younger, says "To darling wife from Dodo" . . . Dodo I ... If he writes like that it certainly is love and no fooling!
Gettuig Personal
Doug and Mary lunch with the President . . . Mr. Coolidge, it is reported, said "Yep!" three times, and "Nope" eight . . . Doug stunned Washington with a trick beret. . . . Sue Carol is now 21. . . . Japanese film kisses are limited to 30 seconds ... In that time Jack Gilbert could barely
MOVIE STUNT MAN— "Darn it! There goes my fountain pen ! "
take a breath and pucker up. . . . Betty Bronson weighs 98 pounds. . . . With the Sunday papers under her arm, prob- ably. . . . Vilma Banky is to make a talkie . . . Like "Darlink, I loaf you." . . . Since the Strand, New York, went all-talkie, the orchestra of 18 men plays exacth' 16 minutes a day ... at full salary . . . and I sassed my mother when she wanted me to take up the oboe! . . . Don't call a failure a "flop" any more. . . . When a show or a romance blows up, it is now said to have "laid an egg." ... In South Africa is the "Bio-Tearoom" . . . Admission, the price of one cup of tea, and you can watch moom pitchers as long as you like. . . . Reliably reported that Fairbanks will quit as an actor after present picture . . . That act is called "Pulling a Patti" . . . Juanita Hansen, former serial star, was scalded in a hotel shower bath and sues for sS2S0,000 . . . Hot mamma! . . . Nils .Esther is in training to be Metro's Heavy Lover Ace when Gilbert goes United Artist. . . . Bill Reid, son of the late Wally, plays the saxophone. . . . Who is the male star who has been losing all his money at the old army game of black- jack? . . . Dustin Farnum is living in retirement on Long Island with bis wife, Winifred Kingston. . . . Pearl White . . . Remember Pearl? . . . is running a swell gambling casino at Biarritz. . . . .'\ girl named Mary Pickford standing for Parliament in England . . . Probably on a Modified Bob Platform.
The Little Star's Letter
Dear Santy Clans, I do not ask A mess of things from you.
I'm practically perfect now — There's little you need do.
Give me a dash of Swanson's nose.
The leaping legs nf Bow, A touch or two of Ralston' s hair,
And Lupc's fiery glow.
Give me the charm that Pickford had, The pep that Moore has noiv,
Give me the oo-la-la of Dove — And I'll get by somehow.
69
Amateur Movies
By Frederick James Smith
Interest Grows in $2,000 Prize Contest — Many Clubs Preparing Entries — News of Amateurs
Filming a scene of "Freshman Days," with the Flower City Amateur Movie Club, of Rochester, N. Y., on location
INTEREST in Pho- toplay's S2, 000 Am- ateur Movie Contest is increasing steadily. Judging from the notes of information and in- quiry, the number of contest iilms submitted will far exceed the prints presented for the consideration of the judges in the first con- test.
Not only is there in- terest throughout America in the con- test, but there will be contesting films from abroad, as well.
Photoplay wishes to repeat its advice of the past: Be sure to read all the rules with ex- treme care. Every film, to be considered by the judges for any of the prizes, must conform to every rule.
Send in your contest films early, if you wish, but remember that they cannot be returned until after the contest closes. Photoplay suggests that you hold your film as long as possible. Repeated examination will find many ways of improving it.
PHOTOPLAY has received a number of inquiries from organizations regarding the sort of equipment necessary to do successful 35 millimeter (standard film) work.
Photoplay suggests that such clubs will find either the De Vry or the Eyemo cameras ideal for 35 millimeter work. Both of these cameras are used continually in the leading Holly- wood studios for special and unusual shots.
Both of these machines are equipped with a good all-round lens for general photography, but organizations will need a speedy lens for close-ups and for interior shots. .\t least three lights will be essential and