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Picture Show Annual 17 THE GIRL WHO KICKED CHARLIE MERNA KENNEDY will always have one claim to fame—as the girl who kicked Charlie Chaplin when he lost his temper on the set one day. This was when she was making her first screen appearance as his leading lady in " The Circus," and it so surprised him thai it kicked him back into a good humour. Merna Kennedy was then seventeen, and it was not until she was nineteen that she played in another film. For two years the Chaplin domestic troubles kept her off the screen, and then she made a triumphant second appearance as Billie, the chorus girl in thf talkie, " Broadway." Despite the hit she made in this picture, which was intensely dramatic, Merna has no wish to become a dramatic star, because she says it usually means that one has to drop a lot of one's free-and-easy friendship with old pals. So Merna is keener on light comedy than drama, and has played in " Embarrassing Moments," " Barnum was Right," and others. Merna Kennedy's glorious colouring has been lost in black and white photography, but now that colour is being more and more freely used, her green eyes and Titian hair offer marvellous opportunities to the colour film. COMEDIAN DIRECTOR TO have appeared as a successful pianist at the age of twelve, to have been a juggler's assistant, to have acted as comic relief to a troupe of acrobats, and all before he was fifteen years old, might have tempted Walter Forde to have clung to the stage as a career. He was well on the road to making a big success as a stage comedian when a film director saw his act, with the result that he made his film debut as a knockabout comedian. This clever Englishman's career has been eventful. He was born in the atmosphere ot greasepaint and limelight, his parents being stage players who toured their own " fit-up " company. Walter knew no school days such as other boys of his age enjoyed, but from the older members of the company he learned how to play the piano, produce rabbits from top hats, fall on his ear without damage, and get a laugh when the show was falling flat. -. Although he met with a great deal of success with his comedies made over here, it was not until he went to the United States and established himself as a comedian there that British companies realised his value. Homesickness brought him back to London. Then he found a friend who financed a series of comedies for him. He directed and starred in them, wrote the stories, prtcared the scenarios designed the settings—almost the only thing he didn t do was turn the camera on himself. Then came a series of first-class comedies, " What Next ? ", " Wait and See," and " Would You Believe It ? " directed by Forde, who starred in all three. He :s also a success- ful director of drama. Walter Forde is still a wonderful pianist—in You d be Surprised," he plays and sings a song of his own composition. He is an enthusiastic gardener and admits he hates city night life. He never loses his temper, and in the studio, when nerves are getting a bit jagged, he sits down at the piano which is always on his set and plays everybody back to good humour.