Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

What tke Fans Tkink 13 Reveries of a Toronto Fan. I think Picture Play is a great magazine. I am just settling down to enjoy the December number from beginning to end, and shall pause here and there to make comments on the different remarks contained therein. Have just had a kick out of reading some of the letters in "What the Fans Think." Some of them are immense. One of the writers saw Victor Varconi going into a hotel. _ Gee, how I would like to see him! He is one of my favorite actors. I am terribly sorry he is playing opposite Corinne Griffith in "The Divine Lady." That's always the way it goes, though. They put a good actor in the same picture with a flop. Corinne is the star, too. It's a deep mystery to me how she has ever kept on the screen. She is "homely as a hedge fence," and the only picture she ever acted in was "Mile. Modiste." Let's hope she does something in "The Divine Lady," so the agcny won't be too great. Edwin Schallert has the right idea about the heavy love scenes of Garbo and Gilbert being mirth-provoking. It is because most of the Garbo love scenes are sensual. Garbo slinks through pictures apparently half clad or less, and it is quite evident to the fans that that is the kind of love a man would accord a woman like that. Even Greta Nissen or Vikna Banky could dress and act in the same manner, and the result would be different. Why?" Because both these have a certain amount of intelligence and character, whether good or bad, in their faces, whereas the Garbo face is a blank. A screen kiss, no matter what length, must have tenderness and purity, or even pertness, in it, to register well with the fans ; but when a man rushes at a girl like a bear, or accompanies passionate kisses with running his hand across her back or arm, it ofttimes causes a burst of laughter from the fans, which, as Mr. Schallert points out, is bad business. I think "sexy" pictures have made Greta Garbo very unpopular, though why she should be popular is a mystery to me. I agree that Milton' Sills will be more in his place playing father to Doug, Jr., than lover to Molly O'Day and other young stars. However, I don't think Richard Dix is ready to be relegated to old-man roles yet. I don't think the talkies will ever be a real success. There will always be only certain players and certain parts that can be used ; but one I should like to hear in all the talkies that can be turned out is Bert Lytell. What a voice! At least, on the stage ! I remember Pauline Frederick had a lovely voice, too; also Elsie Ferguson and Glenn Hunter. I seem to remember that Francis X. had a pleasing voice, too. I notice that Greta Garbo has pernicious anaemia. I am very sorry to hear that. Greta should take good care of herself. I would suggest that she return to her home and have a good, long rest with good, blood-building foods. Toronto. Toronto, Canada. The Great Dream Lover. I live an empty, loveless existence with a cold, abusive husband, and, being dreamy and romantic, I suffer agony. I don't suppose there's a woman living who has not, at one time in her life, known or seen or read about at least one man who came up to her ideal. Once, just once in my life, has it been my good fortune to meet a man I did regard as ideal. His first great, dominating quajity was a deep' understanding of the eternal feminine. Rudolph Valentino, the man of my golden dreams, had something the other stars didn't have — a quality of romance, of beauty, love, sacrifice — and he was, by the magic of romance, raised above material desires to kinship with the Infinite. I often relived the tragedy — his> dear, red lips growing colder, pale, trying to form, between the laboring efforts for breath, the sweet word, "mother." I told him my life was a series of hard knocks, and I wept bitterly. He spoke softly, like a prayer. His eyes were full of beautiful compassion as. he bent over me and said, "But you must not weep so." He so inspired me with his own idealism that I left him with a glorious outlook on life. Tears came in my eyes as I read Lucille J. Schuch's resentful letter in a recent issue of Picture Play of the great star I loved so much. Dear Lucille, the following are the fans he inspired: the women who wash dishes day after day, for years ; the women who scrub floors and go around in soiled dresses ; the girls who type in dim, little offices, and go home at night to little rooms to wasK out their stockings and iron a fresh pair of collars and cuffs ; who go to sleep on a lumpy mattress and get up in time to make a breakfast of cocoa and crackers with the aid of the gas jet. The great Lincoln lost his early love, and with tears in his eyes he said he "could hardly endure it, when he knew the rain was falling on her grave." Robert Burns mourned all his life for the Mary he loved, and lost, and perhaps his most beautiful and touching sonnet is his "Mary in Heaven." Rudolph was the very essence of lost love. Beloved Father, may Rudy ever be a messenger of love between our human hearts and Thee ! Mrs. Norma Gene Hyder. General Delivery, Carthage, Missouri. The Valentino Guild's Views. The article in the November Picture Play regarding the resting place of our beloved Rudy makes it necessary for me to write again. No one is more distressed at the deplorable state of affairs than I, although I cannot but think that your writer is misinformed when he blames the public for the fact that no mausoleum has been erected, since I have in my possession a letter received from S. George Ullman, in which he definitely states that there is no connection whatever between the memorial fund and the mausoleum, which, he says, is "purely a family matter." I may add that if Mr. Ullman decides to build the mausoleum himself, he will have the wholehearted support of the Valentino Memorial Guild. However, my real reason for writing is the paragraph in the article concerning the roof garden which was dedicated to Mr. Valentino last May. Your writer says that it was "the first real action to perpetuate the memory of the Rudy the world loved." It may have been the first widely advertised action, but the guild was working in his memory more than a year before this was done, only we preferred to do our work as Rudy did his, without publicity and unknown, save to those who benefited. In the future we shall come into the limelight a little ! The writer of the article appears not to know that there is a bronze memorial plaque in the theater where Rudy made his one English appearance, or, rather, in the cafe belonging to the theater, since it was here that he held many receptions while in London; and, by the courtesy of the owners, members of the guild are permitted to keep a bowl on a shelf beneath the plaque, always filled with flowers, and also to place a wreath here every year on August 23rd. It may interest your readers to know that we also send a sum of money to Mr. Ullman, who is our honorary president, every year, so that he may place a wreath at Rudy's crypt for us, and the 1927 wreath is plainly shown in the photo of the crypt which appeared in the article, on the right and easily distinguishable by the large card attached to it. Our American members do what they can for the fund, but we in England have adopted the Home for Incurable Children, and we cannot neglect them now. We also work incessantly to keep the pictures made by Rudy showing all over the world, and what more beautiful and enduring memorial can we give him that that? The memorial does not worry me so much. There are so many erected, and the loved one forgotten within a couple of generations ; but the mausoleum, that is another matter, and it is for Rudy's family to see that it is erected without delay. That two years should have passed and nothing done is more than a scandal — it is the greatest example of ingratitude I have ever witnessed. I wish that he might be taken to rest under his own dear Italian skies, where we could ourselves visit his tomb and take our tributes ; but, wherever he lies, his real resting place will always be in the hearts of us who love and admire him. No, Rudy! you are not forgotten, whatever they may say, and so long as youth and beauty and romance live, so will you live, too. Mercia Stanhope, President Valentino Memorial Guild. "Highcroft," 3 Waltersville Road, London, N. 19, England. Boosting Old Favorites. Before I start, let it clearly known that I'm not precipitating any arguments or debates, because I have too much respect for the Hollywood entertainers. My topic is, though, on the stars in general, and their photographs. Now, there are two good actors of great ability who should be in the limelight today, but who are somewhat overlooked by most fans. These are Warner Richmond and Jason Robards. If the fans will recall their wonderful work together in "The Heart of Maryland," "White Flannels," and "Irish Hearts," and make an appeal for more of their appearances, I'm sure the public would be in for a treat, and it would also be a big help to the studios. Such actors as these deserve real, honest-to-goodness boosting. I have received nice photos from these stars, and Warner Richmond has been especially kind in sending me a personal note. Two other male stars, whom I would like to see get ahead, are Joseph Striker and Raymond Keane. They are of the type of Gilbert Roland and Don Alvarado, and if some wise studio would grab them, I'm sure they'd find them more than a gold mine, as far as ability, looks, and character are concerned. All they need is publicity to put them across. May I also add that I have a collection of over three hundred and fifty autographed photos of various stars. They have been very, very good to me, and I'm loyal to them all. Steve Masters. Schenectady, New York. Continued on page 101