Talking Screen (Jan-Aug 1930)

Personality pointers fronts picture personalities H AVE you a temper which, when unleashed, runs riot and causes you to act in a manner of which you are thoroughly ashamed when the tempest subsides? Do you often find yourself chagrined and remorseful after a scene which you stirred up by your lack of control over your temper? One of the best ways of avoiding a repetition of such embarrassing situations is to follow the path of Lupe Velez, and to harness that splendid abundance of vital emotion and direct it into fields that yield pleasure and reward rather than pain and discomfort. Violent emotions and tensity of feeling, when permitted to run amuck, cause disturbance and suffering such as the lava, relentlessly spewed forth from the crater of a volcano, casts in its wake. Yet this same dynamic energy, when properly guided, can give to the individual the same beneficent and utilitarian results that lightning, when harnessed in the form of elearic current, produces. Lupe Velez, the firecracker from Mexico, did not permit the warm suns of her tropical homeland to sputter to no avail. Instead, she garnered this remarkable energy and put it to work, while she, general manager and chief director of this gift dynamic power, reaped the results. Early in life Lupe decided to become a movie actress. She turned on the current of her power, and swayed all her energies in that direction. Through the devious trails of obscurity in musical comedy roles, with the added impediments of the necessity of helping to support her family when her father was killed in a revolution, Lupe's vital current led her until she finally achieved her goal. And after that was attained Lupe did not rest content. More of her driving energy led her on and on to better efforts. Success and reward are Lupe's, and both may be attributed to the fact that instead of squandering her emotions, she used them wisely. There is much that may be gain ed from an analysis of this study of Lupe Veltz. In the first place, pause a moment and consider whether much of your valuable energy is being hopelessly dashed on the rocks and disappearing, leaving no traces behind it but memories of which you are ashamed. Conserve it! Then set yourself a definite goal, crystal clear in your mind, and apply an ample dose of your wisely controlled energy. The results will startle you, just as Lupe Velez' amazing personality never fails to startle movie audiences. H Lupe Velez TIPS from TYPES By CROSBY FRANK W! Jack Oakie HEN it comes to personality, who could there be more fitting as an example than Jack Oakie? Here is a boy who, through personality — and personality alone — has made a success which is sweeping the country like a forest fire on a windy day. And for those people who think that personality is born and not made, let them take heed from Jack. Here is a chap who certainly isn't good-looking; could never be called the handsome leading man type; and yet, in Hit the Deck, he played the leading role and not only played it well but actually won far more laurels than the average leading man could possibly have gained. How? The. answer is the same old word: personality. The ability to be likeable at all times and still be natural — not overfriendly. And how well he manages to do just that. Oakie started life in a bond house. It was soon apparent that business was not for him. Everybody liked him, but still he knew that being liked isn't enough for business success. And, yet, although he could sing and dance a bit, he wasn't funny enough, or handsome enough, for real success on the stage or in the movies as either a leading man or a straight comedian. He had one talent: a certain ability to wise-crack. On the strength of it he managed to get a job in small time vaudeville. And once there he determined to train his personality to such an extent that it would take the place of the good-looks or the funny faces big movie success depends upon. It wasn't done in a day. He sharpened up his wisecracks, developed his sense of humor and became quick to say the right word at the right moment and also — most important — to listen to the words of others at the right time. In due course he went to Hollywood and — -with the aid of his grin — made name for himself as a new type of actor. A splendid combination for leading man, Oakie's entirely different personality has won him his friends and success. You too can have the success (both social and business) you deserve if you train your personality, as he has his, to stand out from the ordinary run and demand attention. Such a course leaves failure well-nigh impossible. 61