Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

89 Sistersllnder tke In common with the rest of womankind, the stars regale each other with details of their operations. As each experience is different, an endless chain of conversation goes on, with some of it reported in this story B)? Ann Silvester NEXT to clothes and beauty secrets, women would rather talk about their operations than anything else. You know' how it goes — "My dear, I was under the anesthetic for two hours, and the doctor said he never saw such remarkable fortitude," and so on. No home is complete without one good, major operation ; the more dangerous the better. Now, the stars are no exception as to operations. Neither are they averse to talking about them. It's more fun when a bunch of the girls get together. How the tonsils and appendix and bonesettings hold the floor, is nobody's business but the doctor's, and he's not there. "When I went to the hospital I absolutely swore to myself that I wasn't going to bore people with the de tails of my operation," Lina Basquette confessed. "But I guess that is an impossible promise for a woman — like taking an oath not to tell her best friend about that new dress she bought at a bargain. "After all, there is something exciting about going to a hospital. Not exciting in a pleasurable way — I don't mean that. There is too much danger connected with even the most casual operation, to make it a picnic. But when you are ill enough to be taken to ahospital, it's an important event. And find the woman who can hold her tongue about the important events of her life ! "When I was carried into the Hollywood Hospital one morning, knowing that I was to undergo a serious operation the same after' noon, I was frightened for the first time in my life," Lina continued, getting warmed up to her subject. "I love life dearly. There are so many things I want to live for— my work, and my baby. No matter how much I tried to bolster up my courage, I couldn't help thinking that the worst was likely to happen. "I tried to be brave when I felt myself going under ether, and I think I succeeded outwardly. But inwardly I kept thinking of all the things in life I didn't want to lose, and how much more I would appreciate life after being close to losing it. "That's all I remember. But they told me later that I was on the table for two hours. Afterward, the good and bad features of being in the hospital balanced. There was still pain and the monotony of being confined to bed. But my friends were wonderful about coming to see me, and sending flowers and candy and books. I know it gave me a chance to sit back and think how kind people had been to me, and to wonder if I would find time to be so thoughtful of an ill person myself. "Oh, going to a hospital makes you stop and think, all right. For instance, there I was luxuriously ill in one of the best rooms, surrounded night and day by nurses and doctors. And yet right down the corridor from me, women were fighting for their lives in a crowded ward, with only the privacy of a screen between their beds. That's life. There isn't anything much to be done about it. But it made me grateful for the breaks I had had, and the opportunities. I tried to express it in a tangible form by sending my flowers and books to the ward." If her operation gave Lina a chance to think, the hospital has more than once given Bebe Daniels a chance to rest. . Bebe just about holds the doctor's gold thermometer for being in the hospital. She's had more ribs cracked than almost any other star, and she's had everything removed, from her tonsils to an infected wisdom tooth. She knows almost all the nurses in the Lina Basquette was on the operating table two hours, but came away stronger than ever. Photo by Eussell BalT1