Motion Picture Classic (May 1921 - Dec 1927)

As Related to MAUDE CHEATHAM Editor’s Note. — This is the fourth of an intimate series Classic is running on the unhappiest period in the lives of well-known stars, and how they overcame it. We hope these stories will be an inspiration to all who read them . Gloria Swanson has had more than her share of darkest hours, but she is still an optimist ,<r I 'HREE very unhappy experiences stand out in my life,” said Gloria Swanson. “These came when three different people in whom I had the utmost confidence and in whose loyalty I never for a minute doubted — failed me and proved false. This brought the greatest suffering, and each time the cut went so deep that the scar still burns. “To lose faith, to see our illusions broken, is a terrible thing. It changes our whole thought and viewpoint and these disappointments have shaken me as nothing else could and — brought lVie my darkest hours. Sometimes I even wondered why we try to go on, for one can never find happiness without faith, and the greatest joy of living is the loyalty and confidence that comes from those we love. “We are put to a severe test in the face of such experiences, for much depends on how we meet our troubles. When I am tempted to protect myself and try to grow indifferent, suspicious or skeptical, I see this means getting hard, and a hard woman loses all the sweetness that belongs to her womanhood. Now I do not want to lose any of that quality that I may happen to possess. “So, each time I have determined to go right on believing. It simply resolves itself into a matter of intense feeling, if not actual conviction. Just feel strongly enough about a thing and that’s one way of bringing it about. Something deep in my heart argues that even tho three have failed me there is still faith, trust, loyalty — somewhere! You know: ‘God’s in his heaven — All’s right with the world !’ ” Photograph hy Donald Biddle Keyes Even that favorite child of fortune, Rodolph Valentino, has had his unhappy times “AY/^THOUT a moment’s hesitation I can say my \\/ darkest hours came several years ago when I learned that my mother had passed away,” said Rodolph Valentino. “My sister, not having the courage to write me the truth, had sent word that mother was ill and every day when I returned to my little room on Sunset Boulevard I would run the last block, so anxious was I to see if a letter awaited me. One day I found a small blackbordered envelope with my sister’s* writing -under my door. Tremblingly, I tore it open to read that my mother had been gone four weeks. There was also a farewell note she had written to me on her death-bed. “Tho my sister hacl tried to break the news gently, it hit me squarely in the face ; and I dropped on the bed in a spasm of grief, and in the hours that followed I touched the deepest sorrow I can ever know. “Things had not been going very well with me and, oddly enough, that very day I had an appointment with George Fitzmaurice to talk over a part and I had to meet him with face swollen and a broken heart. “After the first terrible grief I realized I must go on. The chief reason Ihad wanted to succeed was for my mother’s sake; she had believed in me, encouraged and urged me on. There is no doubt that suffering deepens our nature ; it is bound to develop character, and in the weeks that followed I seemed to grow out of my careless boyhood and gain a new comprehension of our responsibility to the world. My greatest comfort came in rereading my mother’s letters written during our four years separation. in which she wrote so confidently of (Continued on page 87) ( Fiftytwo)