Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

55 Fanny the Fan unburdens herself of a few remarks about the new Wampas stars, new contracts, and the spring wanderlust. Twelvetrees. She was delightful on the stage, and every one who has seen her first Fox picture says she is a great 'find.' " I could tell that it was a great disappointment to Fanny to admit that the Wampas had chosen well. Usually they can be counted on to elect, for reasons of policy, one baby star who more rightfully belongs with the neversay-die comebacks. "The Wampas are to award medals to every one connected with making Tn Old iVrizona.' No one could quarrel with that. It really is a great picture, and it was a great idea to take sound pictures outdoors. I thought we would have to suffer for years from dialogue films made in small, indoor sets. Now Til never be happy until some one makes a Kentucky feud picture in sound. I want to see an old barn dance, with a fiddling contest and a lot of songs, sung with a nasal twang. And plenty of shooting ■" From now on directors can have shooting in sound pictures to their hearts' content. For a long time it was difficult, because a pistol shot wouldn't register on sound film. It happened too fast. Closing a door might register like a hurricane, and striking a match might sound like a windstorm. But pistol shots resisted all efforts to capture their sound, until some master-mind invented a sort of slow-motion pistol that prolonged the sound of explosion. But Fanny was not to be swerved from her interest in elections. "Clara Bow has been selected by exhibitors as ' the best box-office bet for the past year. Colleen § Moore held the title for two successive years. And 1 Lon Chaney has wrested ;| the title of most popular m'AU male star away from Tom Mix. I am probably the only person in the United States who doesn't claim to have discovered Clara Bow. At least, it I admit it. I was entirely blind to her charms until the last year or so, but I'm not stubborn about Joan Crawford's success in "Our Dancing Daught e r s ' ' has patterned her pictures for some time to come. Photo by Autrey Dorothy Dwan is still another player who is making talking sequences. those things Photo 'by Louise I stand in line to see her pictures, now, just like every one else. The girl is so amazingly vital. I think she is marvelous. "You know, Clara is making a picture called 'The Wild Party.' It all came about because of the tremendous success of 'Our Dancing Daughters/ Some one at Paramount decided that Clara should have a picture similar to that. So, they framed up a story about three girls, and selected Ruth Taylor as one of them. Then, when they were about ready to start, some one else decided that it was all wrong to use Clara in a story that had three big girls' parts. It wasn't Clara who objected, I can assure you of that. She would like a chance to make a picture in which she didn't have to shoulder the whole burden herself. Oh, well, anyway, they changed the story around, dropped Ruth Taylor out, and hired Shirley O'Hara and Marceline Day to play the other two girls. But it is mostly Clara's picture. "Little did any one know what they were starting, when they made 'Our Dancing Daughters.' Practically every company has a similar picture on the market now, and it looks as though MetroGoldwyn would keep Joan Crawford making ggpgj^ pictures like that the rest of her natural career. I'm glad Joan had a chance to make 'Dream of Love' before the box-office returns on 'Dancing