Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1920)

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Over the Teacups Even at a beach tea Fanny the Fan finds time for gossip. By The Bystander IihIIIIUIII RESPLENDENT in a brandnew, red bathing suit, Fanny left the rest of the beach tea party and joined me on the rocks, brandishing a hot-dog sandwich in one hand and carefully balancing a cup of coffee in the other. "My dear," she began, establishing herself where she could dangle her feet in the ocean and be hit' by an occasional wave, "have you heard the news?" "I have," I replied without an instant's hesitation. "Lillian Gish isn't a Griffith player any more, or won't be after 'Way Down East,' but will be a Frohman Amusement Company star, with a two-year contract — and Mr. Griffith and she are on perfectly good terms, and his general manager made all the business arrangements for her." "Well, that wasn't what I meant," remarked Fanny dryly. "In fact, that's a scoop so far as I'm concerned. I meant Richard Barthelmess' engagement to little Mary Haye, that cunning youngster from the 'Follies.' " "Now Fanny, I hate to interfere with your news, but — well, last year every one said Dick Barthelmess was engaged to Constance Talmadge, and the year before it was some one else, so I wouldn't take this rumor too seriously. Then, too, with a big starring contract on hand I don't believe that he'd add matrimony to his other responsibilities; he's just barely twenty-five, you know — had a birthday in May — the sixteenth, I think it was — and there's plenty of time ahead of him to get married in. It is settled, though, that Mary Haye is to have Clarine Seymour's role in 'Way Down East' ; I know that, and that she's to be a member of Mr. Griffith's company from now on." "Well, you seem to be much more up on news than I am," commented Fanny, perking up the rubber flowers on her bathing cap. "But here's something that I'm perfectly positive you haven't heard, because I got it myself straight from the man in the case : Bill Hart's really going to retire — isn't going on the stage at all, even though the newspapers did say he would. He has a contract to make five more pictures for Famous Players-Lasky, and he's working on the first one now — at least, he was till his pinto pony threw him and broke some of his ribs — and he told me that just as Starred at last! Lillian won't have time for tennis now. soon as he finished those releases he was going to buy a ranch in New Mexico or some other favorite spot of his and settle down for life." "If this craze for retirement and going abroad keeps up we won't have a movie star left on our native heath pretty soon," I prophesied gloomily. "Have you noticed the sailing lists recently? It's simply appalling to see how many of the screen folk are leaving us. Elsie Ferguson no sooner announced that she would sail in June for the Orient, pausing on the way home some time in the dim future to make a picture in Hollywood, than Bessie Love told me that she was surely going to England to do 'The Old Curiosity Shop.' And then a New York letter told me that Mrs. Talmadge and Natalie had sailed for Europe, and that Norma would soon be over to do 'The Garden of Allah' — won't she be gorgeous in that ? And Constance plans to go with her, which is certainly a good thing, for she's been overworking all winter and spring and surely needs a rest ; my cousin saw her in New York not long ago, and she said that Constance looked very thin. Oh, and that same cousin of mine insists that Constance really is engaged — to a man who hasn't anything to do with the stage or the movies or anything like that. But I don't believe it; she's like Richard Barthelmess— people are always reporting her engagement, yet she seems to go right on, heart whole and fancy free." "Somebody told me Mabel Normand was going on the stage," volunteered Fanny. "Her contract with Goldwyn is almost up, they say, and the same man who put Theda Bara on the boards made her an offer, I was told. But, of course, it's just a rumor. And little Virginia Lee Corbin has followed the Lee children's example, and is to be seen in a theatrical production next September. Even the children get it, don't they?" "They do," I agreed. "Little Pat Moore is to have his own company, I heard the other day — and, of course, you know all about Wesley -Berry's starring contract I'm waiting anxiously till Bryant. Washburn's youngsters and Wallie Reid's young son are big enough to face the camera ; they're perfectly certain to go on the screen, you know. And, by the way, did you