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At the left, three of the chorus of "Dixiana" who lend a military flavor to a song number. Above, an ensemble of Fox Movietone girls who appeared in "The
Golden Calf"
A MONG the things in American hfe which are get/\ ting bigger and better, in this rapid-moving era, are chorus-girls. ^JL We all know, of course, that they are getting
bigger. Has not the Great Flo himself handed down from Olympus the edict that Miss 193 1 shall display "womanly curves".?
But the trend toward the better is as pronounced as that toward the bigger. Chorus-girls are getting refined; half of them use broad "a's" and practically all can understand the long words in Will Hays's speeches. A totally different class of girl is drifting into the work. And the result is that chorus masters are having to use an entirely new technique in dealing with their high-steppers.
Hollywood, as ever, leads in the new movement for more refined language from chorus masters. With the craze for backstage pictures and musical comedy talkies, the chorus became one of the big items of a picture studio. And you could trust Hollywood not to put up with any rough talk in front of young and (often) innocent girls.
The order went forth for a Kindness to Chorus-Girls Week; and so instantly and surely did the idea catch on, that after it was over you found all the chorus directors in the business vying with one another as to which of them could coo the softest. Soon the house of Paramount was proudly announcing to humanity that within its doors was to be found "Hollywood's softestspoken chorus master." His name, which should be emblazoned on the scroll of history, is David Bennett.
Praiseworthy Girls
AND what results Bennett is getting through his policy of giving his girls "a rest and a cheering word of praise when they are tired"! It's a pleasure to work with such a fine, good-hu
Among Other Things
Names
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BY C E D R I C
mored gang, he cries delightedly. And personally, we can well believe it.
Well, in our restless and inquisitive way, we went ahead and made a survey of conditions in other Hollywood pastures where ladies of the ensemble do their gamboling. What we found will prove a veritable sock in the kisser for those gullible movie fans (their name is legion) who believe chorus masters behind the cameras talk to their girls as do the ones which the cameras show us on the screen.
We found, to be notably brief, a consistently lofty tone in the relations of chorus directors and their minions. We found that the average chorus director in the talkie studios neither chews, spits nor swears at his work; that eight times out of ten he takes his hat off when riding in the elevator with girls of his troupe; that he addresses them by their first names, not as "you with the fat thighs" or collectively as "a rheumaticky bunch of grandmothers." And the bouquets he hands nut to his girls, when an interviewer comes sailing by! It almost makes you blush to hear them. But it is a blush of pride for the ennobling and purifying influence of the talking pictures.
At the left is Betty Recklaw, a charmer in the " Dixiana" chorus
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