Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1928)

Clara Bow Qxposed.^ The '^If Girl Is Discovered Flagrantly Living Like A . "^^^^ Normal Human Being By CEDRIC BELFRAGE 'AL volatile! Quick, the smelling salts! I Light, air! Assistance! A great movie V ^ ^^^ star discovered living for all the world like any normal person! She has no butler or footman, jclo Rolls-Royce, no swimming pool, and only a five-room bungalow, the furniture in which she bought because she wanted it and not because an interior decorator said it was the thing. PniJtiii me a moment while I swoon once more at rhc recollection of It. 1 have already swooned a few times— in fiCt, it must have be<;un to seem to Glara Bow as if I bad only visited her with the idea of leaving myself lying about all over the place. It was hours before I was in a condition to pick myself up and go home. Clara, 1 inay say, did all she could to help me collect mAJself, on the principle that it was her home, and she snould help to keep it clean. And here I am, back in my own back yard, with a rousing tale of discovery to tell the world that can give points to the prattlings of Mich men as Chris Columbus when they trjt back from across the b >unding main. * The moment I drew up outside Clara's place in m\ imported Chevrolet I knew tbert. was soniefhing queer about it. What.' This the abode of rlie most famous female of the celluloid .' "Come now,"] said tomyself.chidinglike, "come now. this ain't it." A mere four or tiveisb-roomed bungalow, 'twere, twenty or thirty \ ards back across a lawn from the public sidewalk of one (4 the palm-bordered Beverly Hills drives. Not a borzoi was to be seert lolling about to give the place that tony bored air. Instead, a couple of scraggy animals combining the worst points of the bull-terrier and the St. Hubert hound were^onjjaged in a wrestlingmatch on the lawn, lenilmg a decided air of homeliness to the scene. ; When a plump, comfortaJj^^gty^fWU? (j<^ini an maid with bare legs. andBUPIrncased in old tennis-shoes, opened the Tfoor. I started to wirlulraw, muttering apologies for coming to the wrong house. Then over her shoulder appeared the flaming bead of Clara herself. 1 clutched at a nearby rose-bush for support 22 \ /^*' and could feel my eyes coming dangerously near to popping out of my head. Restraining them with a supreme effort, I put a limp hand in Clara's and was led within. The shock was dreadful. No liveried foot t 1" s^ w It! Dyar little hallway a dining-room and on tting-room, neither of any size t i(v Through the dining-room l^fi'eh, where another comfort ^>^id from the Rhineland region n old Europe as she washed up more servants, but a visitor or >s relations, in for a chat with h-washing songstress and to be s<^ sprinkled about the kitchen, making themselves thoroughly at home. Clara herself — the "lady of the house," if you can think of Clara in such a role — dressed in a simple, unpretentious yellow sports dress, with bare legs. Tottering slightly from the shock of it all, I permitted myself to be led into the darkened sittirjg-room. Incredible rliat a movie star earning thousands of dollars a week should have the good sense to be so completely herself in her home! I wondered if it were all a dream. The little room was Clara Bow. The weirde^st medley of styles arid decoration I evcC saw, but it was comfortable, interesting, restful and sincere. "This," said Clara, sitting in a black carved-wood chair inlaid with mother-of-pearl, "is sort of oriental. 7 Iktapestries" — she pointed to some extraordinary multi-colored specimens of the weaver's art — "are Spanish. The green silk chaise-lonftie is boudoir, and the big sofa you're sittingrcm is just comfortable." She laughed. " Do y^ >u like the decorative scheme .' THE l'tCOR.\TORS DEFIED " TV /l"V' speci;il pride are the lampshades, iVi which I had specially made exactly as I wanted them. By the fireplace I put that funny papier-mche mask of Lindbergh, which some fan sent ru. I sort of liked it and didn't kn nv where else to put it. "A lot of Interior decorators in the furniture stores wanted to show me how to furnish this place, but I just went ahead and got things I \s anted. " {Continued on page jj)