Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1928)

Wilder and Wilder Women {Continued from page 6j) Clara Bow, Betty Compson, Phyllis Haver, 1 lelen Lynch, Una Hasquette, Evelyn Brent, and all the rest of them, you've taken in the ijreat majority of our really successful screen lieroines. What's the idea of the sudden popularity of the rough stuff, anyway? I asked some of its leading exjxjnents and got some rather illuminating answers. Phyllis Haver blames the vogue of wild women largely upon the masculine members of theater aduiences. "No doubt a man wants a sweet, peaceloving woman for his wife," Phyllis claims, "but when he wants to be entertained, he seeks a woman whose disixjsition and .ictions are of the high voltage type — censor rulings notwithstanding. Take the t haracter of Koxie Hart in 'Chicago,' for <xample. She had not one redeeming trait. \'et, although audiences may have despised her, there's no denying the fact that they liund her interesting. .\nd being interesti'lg is the acid test of any screen character. The little ga-ga heroine of yesterday was pure, but she was about as fascinating as The Congressional Record. Consequently, lier day is now definitely over." Jacciueline l.ogan also believes that a screen heroine cannot be both pure and interesting. "If Cleopatra had been the aitlr Eva of her day, we'd never have even heard of her," Jacqueline as.serts. "Likewise, if all screen heroines were as pure as I he driven snow, theater owners would have to hire Sherlock Holmes to find their patrons. No, you can't Ix; both gooti and successful — on the screen.'' Betty Compson, who has long been the <[ueen of them all when it comes to fxjrtraying on the screen roles of the underworld, blames the ix)|)ularity of those roles upon the weakness of human nature itself. "We know that we're far from perfect ourselves," Betty says, "and we get a big kick out of seeing tho.se same imperfections in someone else. That is the reason for the popularitNof the semi-bad, but \'ery human, ^irl roles on the screen." Paprika is always an easy winner ovci--ugar, according to l.ina Basquetle, whose I ole in "The (lodless Cirl" is distinctly of 1 he wiltlait ty^x?. "We don't want our heroines really vicious," Lina explains, "but we do like 'em wild. A wild girl isn't necessarily wicked. Merely because she has a streak of wildcat in her make-up doesn't mean I hat she would cheerfully put arsenic in her hubby's biscuits. .\t that, I believe the average hubby would rather take a chance on the arsenic biscuits than have for his wife one of those ultra-sweet, dumb young tilings with a si)ine of putty." ("lara Bow, with whom rough-house roles have been a specialty during most of her meteoric screen career, believes that the rougher the heroine gets treated, the bigger success the picture will be. "The more a girl is thrown about during the seven reels, the bigger the lx)x-oftice receipts," Clara claims. "In 'Ladies of the Mob,' for instance, 1 got hit with about everything from stray bullets to a table leg. ".An audience, wants its heroines rougli and reatly, and the rougher and readier, the better," Clara continues. "It's come to the place now where I can count the number of l)lack and blue marks on me at the end of a picture, and then prophesy exactly how big a success that picture will be at the Ixjx orfi(c." ^pHm 1 It is always safe lo gi\e a Bayer tablet; there is not the sliglucst harm in genuine Aspirin. ^ ou have the doctor's assurance that it doesn't affect the heart. .And you probably know from experience that Bayer Aspirin does banish all sorts of pain in short order. Instant relief for headaches; neuralgia, neuritis. Rheumatism, too. Nothing like it for breaking up a cold. At all druegi-^'-^, with proven direclions enclosed. SPIRIN in.irk of Ma\iT M.inafacturc I'f \[oiioaccliiMci<.li'siLT of S;;!ic\ liciciJ New Pliotographs of AH Motion Picture Stars ^H^P^Hl \rliial phologruphs of all motion piclure stars, ^D^^^^B size 8x10 inches. Carefully selected poses and ^^Bv,^^^ new ones constantly being added to our stock. ^^'^ . We have supplied over seventy-live thousand of ^^^^^ these fine pictures lo the readers of .Morio.x I'lcTi RK -Magazink during the last year. Order ihe photograph of yo;ir favorite today. Send for a set of iheni. Fin** as gifts, for your collection or den. They are geiuiine and attractive. Just send ine your list and the price, and I will rush the pictures to you by first class mail special delivery, carefully wrapped. \ny picture, your choice, twenty-live cents each. Five for one dollar. Twelve for two dollars. Write to me today. I will (ill your order promptly. 77//': ANSWER MAN Motion Pr( rriu; I'ihmcxtions. Inc. GRETA GARBO l.'JOl RnoAn\VK\ New York City 77