Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

28 Photo by Pliyfe Ina Claire is renewing old friendships in Hollywood preparatory to her debut in the talkies. \ T last, after all these years, the film colr-\ ony has another restaurant ! Now, instead of fighting your way through the crowds at the Montmartre, it is quite possible to have luncheon among friends and still not hit the dishes on the next table with your elbows. Of course, there have been dozens of new restaurants that tried to challenge the supremacy of Montmartre, but most of them died unsung. They never quite outlived the discouragement of being patronized by a single buzzing fly, or a few people who didn't want to be seen lunching together. But when The Brown Derby opened under the management of Wilson Mizner, the first wit of his time, every one flocked to it. Maybe they came, hoping to pirate a few of his priceless remarks, but it was the food that brought them back. The Brown Derby hasn't the party air of Montmartre. There are no flower-decked tables, where twenty-five or thirty women bring presents and celebrate the birthday of some director's wife. There is no orchestra, no fashion parade. No photographer dashes in to grab a flash light of the exhibitor from Tonawanda surrounded by Wampas baby stars. There is just a big room, with booths around the sides, and a big table near the entrance where hors d'oenvres are displayed. <siander risers ! It is just across the street from the Vine Street Theater, so Franklin Pangborn and his gang rush over between rehearsals. Sue Carol, Nick Stuart, and Lola Lane and most of the other youngsters from the Fox lot lunch there. It is a place where you can go dressed for the tennis court, or made up for work, and not be shamed by the swish of silk, or a blaze of jewels from near-by tables. Of course, it was difficult to convert Fanny to quiet and corned-beef hash, after her years of devotion to the fripperies of Montmartre, but now — like almost every one else in town — her tastes have changed. She came rushing in, laden with bundles, just in time to wheedle the head waiter into letting us have the coveted first booth, where you can see every one coming and going. "Well, at last I got into the theater to see 'Coquette,' " she announced with an air of triumph. "The only way to do it is to get up at the crack of dawn " "At eight o'clock or so," I interpolated. "And be there when the doors open at nine o'clock. And what a thrill it is to see how many other people are early It certainly seems silly to go to a theater at that hour, but you recover from being light-minded once the show begins. "Mary gives a beautiful, touching performance. You love her from the minute she appears, not with that amused, slightly patronizing love you had for her when she was the little Cinderella with long curls, but a deep, respectful admiration. "And her voice ! I've forgiven a lot of other players for blaming their deficiencies on mechanical imperfections, but Mary makes you feel that it is her own voice and not a machine that you hear. And it is so nice to see her playing a grown-up role with real intelligence." As for me, I will never quite forgive Miss Pickford for changing the play and whitewashing the heroine, but I saw that Fanny had gone off on one of her enthusiastic spells, and it was no time to venture a criticism, if I didn't want to get into a lengthy argument. However, I did force Fanny to admit that a Southern heroine needn't have worn such dowdy clothes. "Mary is as enthusiastic as a child over her triumph. Whenever she has time she goes downtown and drives past the theater to see if it is really true that there is a long line at the box office waiting to get in. Making a picture like 'Coquette' was Loretta Young is to play opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in "Fast Life."