Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

Explosives, High And Low H By CEDRIC BELFRAGE 'ERE is an etiquette problem taken direct from our feathered friends of movieland. What should A do if, some weeks after divorcing his wife, B, he should receive from her a wire as follows: " HAVE WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO BUY ROLLS-ROYCE STOP PLEASE WIRE THOUSAND POUNDS"? A modest sum for a modest car! This is just what happened recently: A, being Alexander Korda, the director, and B being the flamingly temperamental Maria, his exwife, who is sojourning in England. The Words He Found ALEXANDER, a mild soul, had J^\_ not heard from Maria for quite a time since she divorced him on grounds of extreme cruelty. He was, as you can imagine, temporarily nonplussed by this odd telegram. Finally, he pulled himself together and sent the following reply: we hope it was collect. "YOU ARE EVIDENTLY MAD BUT IT'S NOT MY BUSINESS." An early Edwardian whatnot is offered as a prize to any reader thinking up a better answer than Alexander's. Clara Confesses All I SPENT an evening at Clara Bow's not long ago and Clara poured out her soul to me about the Harry Richman business. I like Clara more every time I meet her. She is the only genuinely modest movie star in skirts, excepting Garbo. She has no illusions about herself. She told me the whole story of Vaffaire Richman, and took all the blame for the bust-up. It was an unfortunate episode, to say the least. To start with, Clara was accused of vulgarity because she frankly answered all the reporters' questions. Then they said she was high-hat when she refused interviews. It was acaseof headsyou-win, tailsI-lose as far as Clara was concerned. Nothing she could have done would have been right in the eyes of reporters and public. She Isn't the Type THE plain fact is, of course, that Clara simply isn 't the type of person who was intended to run a thirty-fivehundred-doliar-a-week life. She is almost entirely lacking in the subtle social arts, in prudence and in general 10 savoir-faire. She obeys her impulses, which are one hundred per cent, good-hearted impulses, whatever else they may be. Certainly she would never do anything to hurt anybody, if she could help it; and the result is that she spends most of her time hurting herself. The Richman business has hurt her prestige with the public plenty. But I think it has left Clara an ever so slightly sadder and wiser girl. In appearance she has improved several hundred per cent, following her mysterious sojourn in the hospital, where she left twelve pounds of herself behind. Her new close haircut makes her look more youthful, and her figure is ne plus ultra. I don't care if Clara gets herself photographed with Madame Glyn; I shall still think she is quite the grandest person in Hollywood without exception. They Who Seek Peace CLARA, Greta Garbo and Ronald Colman are three of a kind. Their one desire above all othets is to be let alone — to be treated as ordinary human beings and not as if they were monkeys on view at the Zoo. And because scores of their fellow-stars, who really love to be constantly in the limelight, spend their time groaning about it with obvious insincerity, nobody will believe that the plaints of Clara, Greta and Ronald are on the level. Ronald, I note, has slipped back from England without telling a soul, in an effort to get a peaceful vacation. But they ran him to earth on the boat and there were at least fifteen thousand women armed with umbrellas, waiting on the dock to seize a piece of him as a souvenir. He had to lie low in his stateroom for hours before it was safe to land. Whom did I hear saying they envied the life of a movie star.? Put your hand up. Don't be bashful. It seems as if everybody's hand is up. I don't know what you 're all thinking about, unless perhaps it's the idea of getting four thousand dollars a week. Funny how we get to thinking that dollars will heal up the worst wounds. But money, as the girl said to the soldier, isn't everything. One Way to Get Along ARTHUR CAESAR'S salary goes steadily up and up as he makes ruder and ruder remarks about the film producers who employ him. It must be a gift. {Continued on page 86)