Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

49 Ga-Ga" Bodil Bodil Rosing's granddaughter gave her a nickname that made Hollywood love the brilliant actress all the more. By Myrtle GeMiart THE most popular woman in Hollywood is our "Ga-ga Grandmother." Invitations to Bodil Rosing's pancake parties are more eagerly received than to the swell Mayfair events. Hers is the gayety of the perpetual child, bubbling from a merry, friendly heart — a lighted silhouette against the tranquil seriousness of her beautiful, auburn-haired daughter, Tove, who is Mrs. Monte Blue. Grandmother though she proudly is, Bodil is an Ariel spirit among the character actresses. Barbara Ann, the Blues' three-year-old, named her, having lisped "Grandmother" into "Ga-ga." Barbara Ann's acquaintance with Hollywood ingenues was limited. The title, therefore, was original. Trailing her bubbling laughter, I always think, though she is Danish, there must be Erin's strain somewhere in her ancestry. For Bodil, I just know, has seen the "little people." You who see her as characters of the Indian summer and the twilight years, would not recognize the Bodil Rosing of the screen in this woman so youthful that her grandmotherhood seems incredible. There is something impish in her quick, birdlike gestures, in her alertness and inquisitiveness, in her personality so unique as to escape all categories. Upon meeting her, people are startled, and then suggest, "Why don't the Wampas adopt her as a baby star ? She needs looking after." For Bodil is Hollywood's baby. Of a character actress and a grandmother, one naturally expects sedateness, the acceptance of that convention which decrees that to-day belongs to youth. Bodil's bonnet, however, is no lacy cap, except in the movies. The mind beneath her chic chapeau is no dusky lane of memory. She is too busy having a good time to learn to knit — or, pardon, modern grandmothers — to play bridge. "I have kept young," she tells you, "because I have had to grow up twice. It is very nice, indeed, to grow up again. I had to in order to keep my children company. And now," she adds, with a laugh that has little snickers in it, "I suppose I shall have to start all over again with Barbara Ann." Her relation to Monte in her perfect naturalness makes their family truly harmonious. Monte makes no secret of his orphanage years, of the menial prelude to his career ; and Bodil delights in relating her experiences in keeping her three kidlets clothed and fed. Tove, serene and shrewd, advises on business matters. Photo by RayliufT Studio Mrs. Rosing refuses to be the conventional grandmother except on the screen. When Monte came in one evening and remarked that her name was in electrics before a Hollywood theater, Bodil ran all the way to the theater, standing there in the dusk, looking up at the brilliant proclamation with streaming eyes, and murmuring, "Look, see what they have done for Bodil! Isn't it marvelous?" Tiny and rather roly-poly, always saying she is going to diet and then ordering heaps of sugary things, blond, with round, blue eyes that abruptly become pinpoints of laughing twinkles — she reminds me of a bright toy balloon. So overlaid with gayety is her manner, that it is only after one has left her that one realizes the sagacity of much that she has said. Toward her work she is inherently serious and irresponsible. She insists upon reading the script before signing. To be able to do that, girls and boys who may not know Hollywood, is the final stamp of success. Days are spent with each new character, not only in selecting costumes and hairdress, but in analyzing her actions. "I play her from away back, more than is in the picture. What sort is she? What has happened to her before the story? I sit around and eat chocolates and think about her. The directors do not always know what you can do. But never will I take a test until I know my character. Then I show how I would play her." Continued on page 116 She uses only the least make-up, yet she changes her appearance in every scene.