Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1928)

Cinderella Eva Von Beme*s Hejira to Hollywood Argues that Fine Parts Are More than Coronets By Mary Willis IF you can sing Ach Du Liebe Augustine, speak a few words of high school French, make Indian sign language, do nib-ups and ISO's, you will gather that : Eva Von Berne prefers the company of men to that of women. She was eighteen July ninth. She was born in Serbia, but has lived most of her life in Austria. She does not like New York, but understands that Hollywood is "ach, so beau-teeful." She hopes they will give her sad roles like Greta Garbo's. But if you have none of the accomplishments mentioned in paragrajih one, you will notice only a bewildered little girl with a strain of sophistication in her face and a coronet modestly embossed on her luggage. The sophistication and the coronet will put her across in Hollywood. She should have arrived in a pumj^kin carriage instead of on the George Washington. You've guessed it. She's another one of those CindercHa gals. The story goes like this : Norma Shearer and Irving G. Thallierg were honeymooning in Europe. Miss Shearer saw the picture of a beautiful girl in a society magazine in Vienna. She called her husband's attention to the picture. Thalberg looked her up, gave her a screen test and a long-term contract. Eva (she was Von Plentzner then, her name being changed to Von Berne the day she arrived in New York) had never been on the stage or screen. I rather imagine that her |)eople have more family background than money. Anyhow, Eva signed the contract and came 10 America all alone to beard the Hollywood lion in his mahogany-paneled office. Her Spinal Gowns I SAW her in her suite at her New York hotel. She was dressed like a child, in a little green jersey dress and a Buster Brown tie. She explained with the use of both hands and couple of feet that it was her mother's idea to make her look like a baby, but when she got to Hollywood she would wear dresses like this (the gesture being done with the right hand placed about at the base of the spine). This attitude will help. You scream at her, of course, and then you dig down into your subconsciousness for the remains of the fourth lesson in the French grammar which has something to Apeda do with your mother's pen on the table, and there is no necessity for talking about Eva's mother's pen. She looks bewildered at your screams and your very bad French, and her amazing eyebrows (she has the brows of an actress) pucker into a bewildered frown and she says, Nein or Je ne comprends pas, for although German is her native tongue, she does speak French. Trying as her arrival was (surrounded by dozens of strange faces, being rushed from ship to ferry to taxicab to hotel), she took it all with an amazing display of poise. I had brushed off my best shoulder expecting the child to weep, but Eva isn't the weeping sort. For all her youth, she has enough sophistication to carry her over the situation and she finally makes you understand that it is all like a dream, and that even if they send hcv back in six months it will have been worth while. She has a beautiful face (they'll take off five pounds of her buxom Continental figure in Hollywood) and reminds you of Greta Garbo, who is, by the way, her favorite .feminine star. John Gilbert is her choice among the men, and that keeps it all in the family. The one question that was in the minds of everyone who met her was, "Will she be a bet on the screen?" Other questions followed, "Will she become temperamental ?" "Can she act ?" And they looked at her from every angle, scrutinizing her hair, her face, her figure and her clothes. She met the scrutiny calmly and seemed to have no fear of her future in Hollywood. {Continued on page 89) 63