Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

58 Hollywood High Lights She doesn't go unattended, either. Bernie Fineman, the producer, John Colton, the writer, and William Powell, were among her escorts. So she didn't have to be quite lonesome while her husband, Ralph Forbes, was busy playing in a stage production. However, she and Ralph are doubly devoted since they recently decided that their happiness lay along parallel paths. Appropriately, her new film is named "The Constant Wife." Ruth is so clever and intelligent that we do not wonder that she is widely admired. Riches for Tooters. The Midas touch of filmland is being extended to many new people since the advent of sound. What, for instance, do you suppose the musicians receive who play for the orchestras that furnish accompaniments? Just the neat little sum of thirty dollars an hour each. Fiddlers, 'cellists, bass drummers, and e'en the often despised saxophonist have emitted a cheer over the result. However, the cheer isn't one of unmitigated joy. The hours are terrifically hard, for one thing, and we know of a case where some harpists plucked strings so vigorously that the ends of their fingers were all but raw, because of their endeavor to furnish appropriately celestial music for some allegorical scene. Wedding Problems. Mrs. Nicholas Soussanin! Yes, that's Olga Baclanova's new name — in private life. The wedding was celebrated with no small amount of difficulty. Marriage licenses were obtained at the wrong place, proper dignitaries to perform the ceremony couldn't be found, and then on top of the other tribulations, the dynamic Olga was arrested for speeding, and had to appear in court. The main trouble was that Soussanin and Baclanova wanted to be wed by a Greek orthodox priest, and they took out their license in Riverside where no such churchman was to be found. So, after due deliberation, they had to be satisfied with a civil ceremony. But it was all very disturbing, to say the least, particularly when Miss Baclanova was handed a traffic tag by a hard-hearted officer for going "thirty-five" through a school zone. Who could expect a gifted actress not to become excited and forget speed rules, when her wedding day was all upset by a sequence of technical problems that were new to her? They Return to Speak. _ Yes — Raymond Griffith speaks ! We heard him. And his voice is really very good on the screen. Just about three times as natural as life. We looked at the short comedy, made by the Christies, in which he plays a burglar, appropriately named "Whispering" Smith, and we understand Ray is to follow this Even when she sheds her Billie Dove is with others. He has also been engaged for a Fox feature. The talkies are coming along very brightly now. "Alibi," one of the most recent, had a big preview and was received with great acclaim. This production is responsible for another come-back, namely, Pat O'Malley's. He plays the leading masculine role, and has received several engagements on the strength of his work in this feature. Still another return — Leatrice Joy has been placed under contract for four films with First National, in which she will speak and sing. Avoirdupois Inspection. It's scarcely believable, but Esther Ralston wins highest place for weight at the Paramount studio. A survey was recently taken of the present avoirdupois of the stars, and Miss Ralston registered 124 pounds. Weights of the more prominent leading women ranged from 102 pounds, for Ruth Taylor, up. Leona Lane, a newcomer, surpassed Miss Ralston by one pound, but she is not as yet known to the fans. Here is the deadly reckoning: Nancy Carroll, 118; Clara Bow, 110; Evelyn Brent, 112; Florence Vidor, 118; Ruth Chatterton, 112; Fay Wray, 110; Doris Hill, 108; Mary Brian, 105; Jean Arthur, 105. The height of these girls averages 5 feet, 3 inches. Miss Ralston's slightly greater weight is explained by the fact that she is the tallest — 5 feet 5. Perfection at Any Cost! A director was shooting a wild police chase in a comedy-crook picture. An automobile was going down a make-believe street, hurtling around a corner, while pedestrians madly scattered. It looked exciting and like a perfectly good "take," but after the scene was finished the director wanted it done spangles and ostrich plumes lovely to behold. over. "What seems to be the matter? Why isn't he satisfied ?" asked one workman of another. "Aw, he didn't like the hub caps on the automobile." Al Grows Wistful. Al Jolson is acquiring a good old-fashioned ambition that some time or other hits nearly every star. He says that when he is through with his present film contract with Warner Brothers, he may become an executive as well as a star. There's lots of glory in being a star, but no money, he said. Al also remarked that with all the film mergers, one was likely to go to bed working for Paramount, and wake up working for Pathe News. Sue Carol Free! Finis was written recently to another of those chapters of contention that occasionally crop up over contracts.