Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

Tashman's Interview! HOLLYWOOD Magazine offers exclusively the last interview granted by Lilyan Tashman before her untimely death! by HARRY N. LAI R — Anthony Burke Edmund Lowe and Lilyan Tas/tman were one of Hollywood's truly happy married couples. They were married in 1925 and were intensely devoted to each other. This picture was made at Palm Springs shortly before Lilyan went to ISew York where she passed away JUNE, 1934 When I Talked to Lilyan Tashman in her dressing room at the old Biograph studios in New York, little did I realize that only a few days later she would answer the Final Call at the untimely age of thirtyfour. In the first place, Lilyan was always so eager, so alive. She fairly brimmed over with the joy of living. Wherever she was, there you would find laughter. With her there was never a dull moment. Her last talk with me was filled with excited plans. She was considering an offer to broadcast a series of radio talks from a Chicago station. There was a personal appearance tour to be mapped out. There was a complete new wardrobe to buy. All this she told me between "takes" on her latest picture, Frankie and Johnny in which she played the role of Nellie Bly who steals Johnny away from Frankie, played by Helen Morgan. She had never looked better in her life. Both Chester Morris and Helen later told me what a fine performance she was giving and what a joy it was to work with her. The day before her death her first starring picture, Wine, Women and Song was premiered on Broadway. • When I expressed sympathy over the fact that she had to be working in New York during the coldest weather in years, she laughed. "It's my job," she told me. "I'll go wherever my work takes me. Besides, I like cold weather!" As she reclined on the wicker chaise longue in the glare of the strong mid-day sun, I noticed that she seemed a little tired. Behind her hovering in the background were her secretary, a rather severely dressed young woman, and her colored maid. Beside her was a luncheon tray, practically untouched, "Don't let me interfere with your eating," I suggested. She pushed the tray aside. "I'm all through," she answered. Perhaps in that one incident can be found a contributing cause for her death at an age when most women are just beginning to enjoy life. Lilyan Tashman, jealous of her title as "the best dressed woman on the screen," has been accused of literally starving herself to keep her figure slim and youthful. It is highly possible that this continued abstinence from food seriously undermined her health so that when her last illness overtook her, all the fight had gone out of her system. An emergency operation had failed to save her from the advanced tumorous condition which brought about her death. When the dreadful news reached me I was sitting in a theatrical office with Colleen Moore and Nita Naldi. Nita, who had known Lilyan since childhood was completely stunned. They had been chums for years. When Lil first broke into the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 it was Nita who helped her to make-up and helped develop her undoubted style sense. Lil had been a teacher at Hunter College until Florenz Ziegfeld saw her in a restaurant and offered her work in the Follies. She and Nita had lived together in New York for years, sharing the alternate disappointments Pleuse turn to l«ise ueventv-two 19