Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1928-Jan 1929)

Paris: Cherbourg, 10:46 A Boat-Train Interview with Lili Damita, Samuel Goldwyn's Newest Gift to American Fans By Lars Moen M Paris ONDAY: Read to day in L'Intran that Samuel Goldwyn has signed Lili Damita to go to America as Ronald Colman's new partner. What luck for Samuel Goldwyn! And what luck for the American public, even though it isn't yet aware of it ! Must see her at once and get an interview off to Motion Picture Magazine. TUESDAY: Went to United Artists today. She is in Paris. What luck for me! But the manager was out, and I couldn't learn her address. What to do? What to do? WEDNESDAY: Went to United Artists again. Learned that she is sailin Saturday on the Bcrcngai Will have to work fast. ]\ ager out again. And here Wednesday ! THURSDAY: At last! I have an appointment for tomorrow with her! FRIDAY: 3:15: Arrived for the appointment. She has not yet arrived. And she sails tomorrow ! 3 :30 : Gloom hangs thick over the camp. She just telephoned that she can't come. Something about gowns. Again what to do? 3 :45 : We telephoned again, begging for an appointment later in the day. Not a chance ! She'll be busy every minute until time to leave. Perhaps I can see her at the boat train tomorrow morning. Four O'Clock and All's Wet Later : 4 :00 : Not much chance at the train tomorrow. There will be friends down to see her off, and the usual crowd and bustle at the station. We'll have to find a better idea — but what? 4:10: At last the old bean is working ! Perhaps we can ride to Cherbourg in the boat train tomorrow. That would give us more than six hours to interview her, write the story ; and post it by the same boat. 4:20: Mile. Damita is out. And now what are we going to do? The boat train will be in two sections; which will she be in? 4:35: Just telephoned again. Slill out. The gloom thickens by the minute. Manuel Freres Beauty and a proven ability to act brought Lili Damita her Goldwyn opportunity to accede to the throne of Vilma Banky 5 :02 : Success ! She'll be in Car C. compartment 4. Xow to race oil and try to get a ticket for that train, in the same car if possible. Luckily, we know a man who has a friend whose cousin lives in the same house with a man who has some pull with the railroad. Xow to see him. 5:47: What luck ! The celluloid gods of fortune are with us. In our pocket is a slip of paper reading : "Monsieur Moen is authorized to take the Train Transatlantique connecting with the R. M. S. Berengaria." And our ticket reads Car C, compartment 4 ! SATURDAY: And here we are, riding across Normandy toward Cherbourg. Just a few cars back is Will Hays, returning to America, now that some of the difficulties in the French situation are adjusted. Across from us sits Europe's loveliest screen star, soon to be American by adoption. She is avidly reading an Arscne Lupin novel which we brought to read on the trip back to Paris, while we sit, our portable on lap, tapping this out. At 10:45; one minute before the train pulled out, we were the sole occupant of the compartment. No sign of Mile. Damita. Had we misunderstood over the telephone the number of her compartment? Perhaps she was in the other train ! Horrors ! We surged out of the car and onto the quay, to take a last desperate look around — and nearly collided with Mile. Damita, rushing into the car. No mistaking her . . . for once in a weary, disillusioning, interviewing life, a star as beautiful as she is on the screen. As she sped past us, we gathered a vision of symphony in blue and gray that Whistler would have loved to paint — slim tailleur of gray shot with blue; gray felt hat with band of blue and gray ribbon ; pale blue blouse ; blue and gray tie ; gray hose — not a note to mar the perfect harmony. We dodged back into the car — and again nearly collided with Mile. Damita, coming out. We flattened ourselves against the side of the narrow corridor and let her pass. {Continued on page 101) 72