Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

I Shh! Shh! There Are Some Things You Mustn't Mention jiscopalians, Scientists, Baptists, Seventh-Day Advenits, Lutherans, Methodists. Devout, apparently, a odly share of them, with Sunday mornings well spent, iding chaste and Christian lives. Still, there is a strange ence when the question of determinate creed is brought j). Whether this is due to bashfulness remains in doubt. ' Movieland Mysteries 'TILL other mysteries arise to confound the explorer. ) One is the shudder of horror with which they greet the ention of the word "liquor" in the daily prints, if it is iked with their names; and another is the sacredness ith which they treat their bootleggers' telephone numi;rs. This, in itself, is not altogether compatible, but probl)ly has some mystic significance. It is strange and incomehensible, to the observer, to note the lavish manner in hich bottled goods are consumed and the utter public sregard that accompanies it. For instance, it is never noted in the papers that a :rtain lady entertained with a cocktail party. When it ;aches print, the lady has given a tea. This is probably in iference to a law effective in the surrounding country lat prohibits the sale and consumption of intoxicants. In seping it from the public prints, except on unsolicited :casions, the inhabitants, we presume, are thoughtfully .'fraining from causing their civic neighbors undue lalousy. Among certain of the members of the community, there a decided aversion to discussing any lurid or amorous flfairs that may have caused considerable comment at an arlier time. This is especially true of women who, since le explosive publicity, have married and are luxuriating 1 the pleasant surety of that state. Any references to ectic events now passed are marked with evident retisnce. However, this is not axiomatic, because any number f females glory, conversationally, in the memories of their abloid indiscretions and aver that Art is in Living Fully. A Quaint Native Custom PROFESSOR SMIGGENS is more or less at a loss to account for these taboos, but is rather inclined to elieve them to be of Polynesian extraction. In Polynesia, ertain things are set aside as holy by native tapu. After n extensive study of newspapers and magazines during If you know your taboos, you will never mention what leading men have behind them in the way of women and wine. They must be ignorant of life his sojourn in this quaint hamlet, he finds the natives hemmed in by taboos. He finds personal prejudices that are inexplicable to the scientific mind. Hollywood, for that is the name of the hamlet, has a set of taboos that apparently are unlike any other in the world. Even the town's discovery was unusual. The site was chosen by a gentleman named DeMille as a likely spot to put a barn that had been selected as the cradle of the motion picture business. It may be the extremely modest origin of the industry, symbolized by a barn, that makes for this native purity. On occasion, its taboos are all but confusing. No religion, no political parties, no age, unless it is very young or very, very old. Sometimes even the given name is taboo. It was Janet Gaynor who objected to telling the vast and waiting world that she had been christened Laura. Just what was behind this naive tapu, no one but she and perhaps Lydell Peck, her husband, shall know. Laura is derived from the Latin "laurus" and certainly the bearer is entitled to such a wreath for her cinema performances. The Unpardonable Error THE uncrowned queen of this land has her special taboos, too. It is none other than Mary Pickford, who doesn't want to be called a business woman. Anything but that. Artist, actress, woman, yes — but never does she want to be described as a lady of commerce. Her pressagent takes time off to tell you, too — sometimes pointing out in articles already ofF the press that the unpardonable error of calling Miss Mary a business woman has been made. All this makes life exceedingly difficult in taboo town. Frequently, in the marts of the motion picture — in the publicity departments, to be specific — you will find neat little sets of taboos all framed and ready for quick reference. Mention of marriage is one; presumably because chastity is more to be worshipped by the public than conjugal bliss. This is a taboo that has descended from the Francis X. Bushman days when gelatin heroes were not supposed to have private lives — or wives. There was the taboo concerning Nancy Carroll, whose bright screen ways were not to be dimmed by association witn husband and child. Quiet requests were made to softiContinued on page 8g) ■"Me 57