Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Jun 1929)

v^ ^-^ ,\^ Always Delightful — Restful — Different — Enchanting! "The Ambassador is one of the most beautiful places I know of MADAME GALLI CURCI — declares in one of a large number of UNSOLICITED COMMENTS by world famous celebrities. "Certainly no hotel located in any large city has such extensive and beautiful grounds." For keenest enjoyment of your visit to California, make reservations at — Los Angeles NO HOTEL IN THE WORLD OFFERS MORE VARIED ATTRACTIONS—Superb 27-acre park, with miniature golf course, open-air plunge and tennis courts. Riding, hunting and all sports, including 18-hole Rancho Golf Club. Motion picture theater and 35 smart shops within the hotel. Famous Cocoanut Grove for dancing nightly. Write for Chef's Cook-book of California Recif)es ATTRACTIVK SUMMER RATES BEN L. FRANK. Manager 29 bx The Blah Must Go On {Continued from page 2q) A day came when everything that had made him what he was, everything he held sacred in life, seemed to blow up in a cloud of purple smoke. An emissary, scouting the less elegant quarter of the town as was his wont, discovered a haberdasher displaying for sale in the window what was advertised as "The Menjou Tie." The tie was a ready-made, snap-on creation with large and vulgar designs on it. Adolphe, hearing the news, came out of his swoon in the surprisingly short time of three minutes and thirty-nine seconds, and staggered back on to the set to continue his day's work of nonchalantly seducing his old school chum's wife for the benefit of the cameras. Only the almost imperceptible wilting of his imported Bond Street polkadot neckpiece betrayed the disintegrating calamity that had wrecked his faith in life and humanity. And then they say the film star does not suffer for his Art. Too often it happens that the pla> must go on while the actors are smarting under the grudging statements of interviewers. Take, for example, the pair of amorous exquisites, (Jreta (iarbo and John (".ilbert. I challenge anyone to find the love scene performed when each of these two was halfdead with indignation at some low writer's statements. They wore the masks without a quiver of an eyelash to show the turmoil of their minds. One writer had insulted Gilbert with remarks that all knew were untrue. Of (iarbo, an interviewer had said with peculiarly nauseating whimsicality how fond she was of little birds. "Of interviewers 1 will see no more," was all she said before donning the mask for the cameras. "Garbo, she hate little birds!" Courageous Corinne FOR the beautiful Corinne (Jrififith, art has been no bed of roses, either. Her private life, lived on the mere pittance she receives from her employers, is full of thorns that dig into her soul even as art calls for her to don the mask. Only recently it was necessary for her to play the minx with Admiral Nelson in "The Divine Lady," hiding as best she could the turmoil of emotion within her. How much? The question kept throbbing and pounding through her brain as the cruel cameras ground on. How much gold-leaf should she use on the walls of her new bathroom? " Enough ! " I hear you cry as your senses reel with the shame, the pity of it all. Rut I tell you this is not all. Pri\ate cares are not the only ones that conspire against the brave artists of the cinema. Conditions of actual work in the studios are almost equally devastating to the peace of mind, in many cases. Do you realize that whistling on the set became so prevalent while F. W. Murnau was making "The Four Devils" that a special proclamation had to be issued against it and dire punishments threatened for breaches of it? Do you know that, while for some peculiar reason Conrad \'eidt, an actor from (iermany, managed to do his scenes for "Erik the Great" in spite of the people looking on, poor Mary I'hilbin practically melted under their gaze and had to have screens put up around the set? Do you know that the House of Lords scene in "The Man Who Laughs" was filmed during the Rears-Trojans football game, and the Lords, football fans to a man, had to act their parts with souls a-bursting without e\en getting news of the game's progress more than everv ten minutes or so? Does Success Change Them? {Conlinued from page 68) sphere. Not, as the unkind — and unarrived — would have you believe, that their heads are turned by praise and fame. They are simply trying to li\'e up to what is said about them, and to give the public what it expects. A baby star makes a personal appearance, and — tremblirtg and abashed — hears the theater manager introduce her as "the famous .Miss Soandso, whose talent, whose beauty bla, bla, bla." After ten minutes of superlatives the newcomer sweeps out onto the stage acting the part of a famous movie star to the best of her ability. .•\nd some of these picture pla\ers are real actors, remember, ."^.nd her disgruntled acquaintances in the audience murmur, "Just lookit her putting on airs! Thinks she's Gloria Swanson or somepin. Say, I knew that girl when she wore cotton underclothes!" Interviewers are often the ones who raise the cry, "high-hat," when they talk to newly fledgecT stars. They do not realize that it is probably not swollen ego that makes them seem constrained and stiff, but fear. Whether he has anything to hide or not (and oddly enough there are some who haven't), the new -movie celebrity is suddenly conscious that words may be dangerous. In one fell swoop he has been thrust into a position where total strangers. stoutish lady reporters and wise cracking cynics from the press, may ask with impunity questions which their best friends wouldn't put to them. Even murderers are warned that anything they may say can be used against them, but there is no one to protect the embryo star. In his fear of saying the wrong things and jeopardizing his bewildering good fortune he adopts a protective wall of silence, and the word goes forth, "upstage." -Again it is the old friend who makes the assertion that the star has changed. The truth is the old pal has probably come around to borrow ten dollars. Richard Dix once told me that he had twenty-two requests for a loan so far that day. And it was still four or five hours before bedtime. Then too, perhaps the acquaintances of their seedier days are not quite the ones they would choose in their refined reincarnation. A baby star who is trying to make a name for herself is more to be pitied than censored if she is a trifle cool to the former girl-friend who insists on reminiscing about the "swell time we had when we went to the Laundry Workers' Picnic (or the Boilermakers' Ball) and you and Joe Willis got drunk on beer." Does their success change the screen stars? Fortunately it does! Become a Classic Reader. Once You Get the Habit of Reading Its Bright Articles and i^ooking at Its Striking Art You'll Never Be Without It. The Classic Appears the 12th of Every Month. It's the Magazine With the Personality