The Photo-Play Journal (Jul 1919-Feb 1921)

24 m PHOTO-PLAY JOURNAL July, igig = ffl nrsj L? PHOT lAPHE i::i!;:;in::i!!i: :' :; : :il:iii!:;i J. STEWART WOODHOUSE a HAT dress shall I lay out for your next scene?" interrupted the maid as I was talking to Dorothy Dalton, she so widely famed among movie lovers for her dimple and her wonderful clothes. "Oh, I don't know," she replied, "ask the photographer." "You know," said Miss Dalton, resuming her friendly little chat, "the camera-man is the greatest autocrat in the movie picture business. Just yesterday I saw a perfect dream of a dress down town and I was raving about it on the set his morning. He overheard me and interrupted with the admonition that I better save my money as it would photograph 'rotten.' Every time I start to work in a new scene I have to ask this man what dress I may wear, and he is such an inconsiderate fellow, he doesn't think about style, pretty flounces, nifty bows and the like — his only interest is how the color will photograph against the color background of the scene. "My heart was nearly broken once before, I learned I had to consider this man at the camera crank. I bought a beautiful new dress at a startling price; it was changeable silk and I fairly reveled in the way it caught the light and threw back various colors. I just knew I would make the feminine world gasp with admiration when they beheld me in this ; I walked upon the stage as proud as a peacock and lights were ordered on for the scene ; the camera-man squinted through his finding glass, moved his camera one way, then the other, shifted lights, scratched his head and then called the director to his side. He, too, took a look through the camera. Then he approached me in an apologetic way and said, 'I'm sorry, Miss Dalton, you'll have to change your dress. It has too many high lights.' I think I staged a real sob scene right there. Several hundred dollars I handed over for that gown and my many feminine screen admirers never had a chance to get a peep at it. "Most women like to buy fine clothes. I really would enjoy it myself if I didn't have to continually think of what the camera-man might say. At best, it takes a great deal of time, and this photographic color question adds greatly to it. A picture actress must have so many clothes I think she spends a fourth of her time in a fit. Once they are decided upon, however, there is a great pleasure in wearing them. "Every man should supply his wife and daughters liberally with money for clothes. It is the best investment he can make. A well dressed woman will radiate sunshine and happiness and will.be a perpetual apostle of cheerfulness." "He says," quoted the maid, as she entered the dressing room, "to wear that green one that looks like cheese cloth with rope on the bottom." "Now isn't that just like a man?" rejoined the actress, and I bowed mvself out. A Matinee Idol Who Hates to Dress Up The public, like Little Rollo, wants to know if the matinee idol "dresses up" at home or whether — and how the matinee girls hang on the answer ! — he reserves these glories, like his romance, for the eager and enrapt audiences that greet him on the stage or screen? Here is one hero who, as soon as he leaves the cinema studio, divests himself of boiled shirt and silk waistcoat and calls for the "ol' clo's man." And dons — er — well, overalls ! Or maybe not — it's some kind of a cross between a nightshirt and an automobile duster that Thurston Hall wears in his domestic life — something he takes to like an indolent bit of femininity takes to lingerie. It's not stylish, except in the garage or in his rabbit hutches — and that's why Universale leading man likes it. He reads over his screen roles clad in this dishabille. And this is the man who was Oliver Morosco's sartorial piece de resistance on the stage and who is one of the best dressed men on the screen today ! When he plays the Broadwayite in support of Mary MacLaren or Priscilla Dean, Hall is a modern Brummel. But at home Boy, call the ol' clo's man !