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JANUARY 1925
Picture s and P/chjreQoer
77
Worth Their Weight \w Gold
A few film folk to whom Antipon and rubber corsets mean less than nothing.
To the thin the fat arc always a source of laughter. 1 have still to discover why several stones of superfluous flesh should have such a hilarious effect upon the onlooker, but there it is, a fact proven and indisputable. The vision of an ordinarysized individual running to catch a train evokes neither interest nor amusement, but a fat person in the same predicament— how excruciatingly funny !
Hollywood is a little Mecca for fat people with histrionic talent, for there is always a demand for them, and unlike the sylphlike beauties and romantic heroes that invade the casting director's office in their hundreds, they have not become so numerous as to overcrowd the market. Plump people, of course, abound, but real honest-to-goodness fat is worth much to its possessor.
Willard Louis would never have been given the chance that started him on the highroad to success if his plumpness had not first caught the director's eye. It was on this account that he was given the role of " George, Prince of Wales "
Right: Joe Cobb of "Our Gang" is
nearly as broad as he's long. Beloiv.
Babe London and Walter Hiers who add
weight to Christie Comedies.
Above : Nellie Lane, the world's fattest woman. Left : Lloyd Hamilton (Ham).
in Beau Brummel, and he played this so well that he was afterwards given the starring role in Babbit.
Walter Hiers is another who makes capital out of his rotundity, and Babe London, the Christie Comedy girl, would probably never have embarked on a screen career had she been built on slimmer lines. As it was, she was more or less pitchforked into the movies bv a force of circumstances, altogether too strong for .her to resist.
Che lived on her uncle's farm in Iowa, and her one ambition was to study art. Then she moved with her family to San Diego, California, where she attended high school and the art academy. The other girls with whom she played and studied were nearly all set on screen careers, but Babe used to laugh goodnaturedly at the idea, until one day she came^upon a small moving picture company " shooting " scenes for a film.
They needed a fat girl and before she knew what was happening she found herself engaged for the part. After that she went to Los Angeles, where she found work plentiful, and she decided to take the opportunities that came to her, save money, and take up her art studies again later on.
Then there is Joe Frank Cobb, the large square boy, who is a member of Hal Roach's " Our Gang," and Lincoln Stedman, whose beaming youthful countenance is well-known to picturegoers.
All have a very definite place in the regard of those who watch their films, and all may well be grateful to the adiposity that has proved, not a handicap, as might at first appear, but a valuable asset. E. E. B.