Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

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He Dares to Be Himself William Boyd Does Things That Just Aren't Done In Hollywood By GLADYS HALL THERE is one man in Hollywood who dares to be himself. And is. He leads his own life, in the way he likes to lead it, and lets the rest of the world go bye-bye. He doesn't care what people say, or think, or do, or do not He never does anything because it is "being done." He is himself in his personal — very personal — life, and he is himself in the studio and on the screen. He doesn't give a rap for publicity of any kind, and has to be bound and gagged before he'll give an hour to it now and then. He's completely un-self-conscious about it all. He doesn't give his life or his habits of living any label or handle, and he doesn't thank anyone else for doing it for him. There are other actors in Hollywood who profess to eschew publicity and who do eschew it, literally. Yet, as in the cases of Lon Chaney and Greta Garbo, the very shunning is the cleverest publicity of all. "There IS no Lon Chaney." Garbo, the Mystery Woman, the Enigma, the Crossword Puzzle — what genius of exploitation could do more or better.? He says, "I am a man, not an actor." And he persists in being a man and not an actor, no matter how out of date being a man in Hollywood may be. C. B.'s Choice E once said just that to the great C. B., when the great was riding him rough-shod and with bloody spurs. He told the Great One then and there that he could take his choice — a man or some other actor. As one of many proofs that the Great One is great, indeed, he chose — the man. The name of this man who dares to be himself is — lest the suspense kill you — Bill Boyd. Familiarly known as Big Bill Boyd. Bill never goes to movie parties. He occasionally gives a party of his own and has a swell time doing it. But he has to be Ruaaell Ball the host. He never goes to previews or openings, not even to his own. When he goes back to the old home-town, and the boys he used to "can the cat with" sit and gape at him, open mouthed, across a chasm, he is desperate. He wriggles and cusses and finally says — well, what he says serves to bridge the chasm and make them all boys together again. He lived in Beverly Hills for some years, when he was married {Continued on page go) Above, William Boyd laughing at the Hollywood game of politics; left, in his Malibu Beach home, where he lives restfully alone 63