Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1927 - Feb 1928)

Photo by Alexander Eleanor Boardman lives in "a rambling, ranchy" house that commands a distant view of Hollywood and contributes much to her serene outlook. YOU'RE different, aren't you?" I suggested to Eleanor Boardman, after listening to her avoid stenciled patter. "Hope so," she replied. "You know, I'm not a Hollywood girl. People suspect me of having my own opinions. And reading books. And speaking my mind." The ladies of the cinema, bless them, fall into three distinct groups, however they may fight against it or flatly deny it. There is the beauty-contest group composed of girls blessed with symmetrical figures, pictorially pleasing faces, and a certain amount of screen personality, often negligible. Secondly, there are the quietly charming ladies possessed of intelligence as well as physical attributes. And, thirdly, the p3a-otechnical meteors, blazing their way across the screen like so many comets — Adoree, Pringle, Nazimova, Naldi, and their sisters of magnetism. Eleanor Boardman may be classified with the second group, with Florence Vidor and Virginia Valli rather than Jetta Goudal and Betty Blythe. She is a domestic stai^. But this is not to imply that she is of the Olive Borden, Jane Winton, youngAmerica school. She does not giggle, fuss, or fidget. She is neither dizzy nor dazzling. She is a composed young woman with eighteenthcentury calm, twentieth-century ideas, and a medallionlike beauty. When you meet Eleanor Boardman for tea you will not be startled by her radiance nor shocked by her Not a Hollywood Girl Eleanor Boardman is remarkable for her fine poise, alert mind and cold beauty. She is neither dizzy nor dazzling, but when she voices an opinion there is an eagle perched on her shoulder. By Malcolm H. Oettinger bizarrerie, if there is such a word. But if you are the person I think you are, you will mark her fine poise, her alert mind, her cold beauty. You will agree that this is no Hollywood girl, as Hollywood girls have come to be known. "I've never made any big pictures," she said frankly. " 'Souls for Sale' started me in regular parts, program pictures. There were two I enjoyed — 'Proud Flesh,' which retained only the title of the novel, and one we had to I'emake completely, finally christened 'The Way of a Maid.' It was made seriously, you see, and proved to be so poor that the office ordered it retaken. This was impractical, so a few added scenes were introduced, a set of kidding titles inserted, and lo! we had satire. 'Proud Flesh' was streaked with burlesque, too. It was interesting. Harrison Ford did a clever job in it. As for the other pictures I've been in?" She raised a rather scornful eyebrow, and smiled. "Pictures have a hard time being good!" The Boardman entry into picturedom was uneventful. She was an extra for man) months without exciting casting agents. Then her chance came. A\"hen Rupert Hughes was making pictures from his own novels, back in the Goldwyn days when authors were eminent, he decided to find an unknown girl to play the part of the innocent country maiden crashing the gates of Hollywood in his best seller, "Souls for Sale." The search was conscientiously begun and pursued. Extras were interviewed, stenographers tested,' cafeterias combed for the not impossible she. But for :all the care that M^as exercised, despite all the zeal, no suitable heroine was found. Mr. Goldwyn had almost convinced Mr. Hughes that a well-known ingenue should do the role, when Mr. Hughes chanced to spy Eleanor Boardman walking down Hollywood Boulevard, of all places. "There," he said complacently to whomever he was with, "is my unknown lead." And she was. This was what Hollywood calls a "break" — another way of sa3-ing "lucky break." It should be noted, however, that many people get breaks without realizing their worth. There was, for instance, the unknown girl Jimmy Cruze lifted from rural obscurity to pla}^ in "Holh'wood," another version— happier, too — of the gate-crashing ingenue. Today her name is not even a memory. The Boardman girl played "Souls for Sale," made an impression, played more leads, gained a foothold, and then signed a contract. The Boardman girl is a shrewd product of the independent '20s, should this particular decade require a tag. She is worldly but not wise cracking, sophisticated but not cynical, beautiful but not artificial. There is aboMt her an air of serenity that belies her active mind. Hers is a placid beauty. At times she resembles Lillian Gisb amazingly, although news of the fact aroused in her little enthusiasm. She is independence epitomized. When she vouchsafes an opinion there is an eagle perched upon her Continued on page 108