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40 Picture Show Annual BORN TO ENTERTAIN ABORN comedienne is a trite phrase, but it rises naturally to one s lips when speaking of Betty Balfour. She belongs so unquestionably to those who cannot help being enter- taining. At the age of three she was amusing neighbours with imita- tions of various people who called frequently at their house, and she ranged from the cat's-meat man to family friends, and was really funny. Her propensities in this direction increased as she grew older, and at one Band of Hope meeting she sang ten songs, gave four dances and made a speech. This display of talent so impressed the vicar that he wrote a special part for her in his children's pantomime, " All Baba and the Forty Thieves."' Betty added an imitation of Vesta Tilley to it, and her performance won her an engagement at the Wood Green Empire. TViis began her music-hall career. She was only twelve at the time. Since she began her screen career she has played in both drama and comedy, but it is her comedy that we know and like best. We have no other screen star with her sense of mischievous fun and whimsical humour. There is certainly no other screen star who can approach her in the portrayal of Cockney humour and romance, and she was wise to choose this type of role for her first independent pro- duction. It was as " Squibs " that she made her greatest silent screen success, and " The Brat " may be the first of a series of talkies as successful as the " Squibs ' series. Betty Balfour was already giving realistic mimicries of friends and foes at this age — a portrait taken when she was three.