Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1924-Jan 1925)

The A nswer M an This department is for information of general interest only. Those who desire answers by mail, a list of film manufacturers, etc., must enclose a stamped, addressed envelope. All letters should contain the name and address of the writer, but a fictitious name will be used in answering inquiries if it is written in the upper left-hand corner of the letter. Address: The Answer Man, 175 Duffield St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Ethel C. — Yours was mighty interesting. Questions are never indiscreet ; answers sometimes are. Right now, Jack Holt is playing opposite Lois Wilson in North of 36. Ernest Torrence and Noah Beery in the cast also. Malcolm McGregor is with Ince, and Hoot Gibson with Universal. A. M. — Yes, I really am an old man over eighty. We hope to grow old and we dread old age ; that is to say, we love life and flee from death. I wont run; tho. J. Warren Kerrigan is with Vitagraph, you know. That was Johnny Fox playing the banjo in The Covered Wagon. Robert Ellis and Elinor Fair in The Law Forbids. Dorothy. — Righto ! Richard Barthelmess is married to Mary Hay. He is five feet seven, weighs 135, and has black hair and brown eyes ; twenty-nine years old and playing in Classmates. Gloria Swanson is going to Paris to do Mine. Sans Gene. Kurious Kat. — You want to know whether men have a larger vocabulary than women? As the flapper says, dont be sil — but I'll say the women use their vocabulary more than the men. Creigh■ ton Hale is playing in The Mine With the Iron Door now. You know he is married and has two ■ sons. Blue eyes of course. No, Mabel Normand didn't leave the Sennett field— she is going to play in Mary Ann soon. Carol C. — The salary of the VicePresident of the United States is $12,000 a year. Mine is $12.00 a week, minus the three balls, that's the only difference. Alice Calhoun is with Vitagraph, playing in The Clean Heart. She is about twenty-two and unmarried. Yes, Niles Welch is playing. He and Sheldon Lewis, with Dorothy Revier, have the leads in Dangerous Pastime. You bet, write to me any time you feel like it. I'm always here in my little hall room. Elsie C. — Thank you, my child, but old age makes the head white, but not always wise. Yes, Huntley Gordon is married. Norma Talmadge in The Sacrifice. Viola Dana is twenty-six. Bernice. — Oh, yes, I have been up the Hudson River on a boat many a time. It is a delightful sail from New York to Poughkeepsie. Robert Fulton began a successful trip up the Hudson River from New York to Albany in his steamboat, the Clermont, on August 11, 1807. Well, at this writing Betty Compson is not married. Cant tell what might happen by the time this appears in the magazine. Lloyd Hughes married to Gloria Hope. Harrison Ford in Janice Meredith and in The Price of a Party. He is married to Beatrice Prentice. Now playing with Marion Davies in Zander the Great. Monte Blue and Marie Prevost in The Love of Camille. You're welcome. Fairy Tails. — Well, well, so you have hesitated all these years to ask me whether Mae Murray's hair is her own or someone else's. Well, you see, without any pain or excitement the deed is done. Her hair is her own, but she (T\ sometimes wears a wig. Yes, an ex Here's the Answer! To 1001 Questions Betty Bronson Will Play Peter Pan SIX years ago Betty Bronson read Barrie's Little White Bird. Last spring, when she heard that Peter Pan was to be filmed, she moved her family to Hollywood, and presented herself without any. test pictures before the studio gateman of the Lasky lot. "I've come for a screen test," she told him calmly. There is nothing more hard-boiled than a movie gatekeeper. Beside him the Warden of Sing Sing is as simple as a child. When I say that this individual opened the gate without hesitation to let Miss Betty Bronson inside, anyone who knows the movie game will believe in fairies, too! Once in the casting director's office, Betty calmly applied for the job of Peter Pan! Gloria Swanson would have given her kingdom for the role! Mary Pickford once wanted it. Lillian Gish was mentioned as the likeliest Peter, and Betty Bronson, seventeen, whose only movie experience had been two small "bits," in long-ago pictures, asked confidently for Peter Pan, without realizing the enormity of her daring. Oddly enough, instead of laughing at her, the casting director looked at her tiny figure ("I have the dickens of a time to weigh ninety!" says Betty), at her pointed little chin, big round eyes and elfin features, and said: "Well, we'll see!" Her test pictures for the role were made late one night on the Cecil B. De Mille Heaven-and-Hell set — a trying place in which to act like Peter Pan, surely! And then, for weary weeks she waited. Anyone hearing of her -hopes would have smiled at the absurdity of them, yet somehow Betty knew — yes, she just knew she would be Peter! Then a cablegram: Betty Bronson chosen to play the role of Peter Pan. Regards — Barrie. It's easy to see why this little unknown was chosen — she wont have to act Peter Pan. From shaggy dark head to tiny hoppitty feet Betty Bronson is Peter Pan! She feels, she laughs, as tho it were Christmas, the Fourth of July and her birthday all rolled into one. She received the telephone message with the Big News, by the way, while she was reading Coolidge's Collected Speeches — tho I dont expect you to believe that! She was given a flapper role once in His Children's Children, and told to light a cigaret. "But the smoke wouldn't come out," she explains, "so the director saw I wasn't really a flapper and I didn't get the part." Lubitsch wanted her to play in Pola's new picture, but when he saw her beside Rod La Rocque he shook his head. "Oh, I can look much smaller," she pleaded, "or much taller!" But the director shook his head. And now she has the part of Peter, for which she is exactly right. pensive one. How can you. call me a woman. Do I act like a woman? . R J— Well, under some circumstances it may not be disagreeable to a man to have a jealous wife; for she will always be talking of what pleases him. It's an awful disease. Mary Pickford is on the Coast now, and so is Richard Dix He is six feet, brown eyes and hair. How did you like him on last month's cover ? Elsa T.— History, all right. The Battle of Ticonderoga occurred May 10, 1775, and the U. S. were victors. Ethan Allen was responsible for . the victory. Claire Windsor and Pola Negri are both twenty-seven years old. Richard Dix is thirty and weighs 185. M. A. R. — No, I am not married, never have been. Just a happy old bachelor. Love affairs are all alike; it is only the lovers who are different. Richard Dix in Manhattan. No, he is not married and was born in St. Paul, Minn. Constance Talmadge in Heart Trouble with Ronald Col man opposite her. Marty D. C— No, there is no comparison between wine and women ; wine improves with age. Richard Barthelmess was born May 9, 1895. He is with Inspiration Pictures, but he lives at Mamaroneck, New York. You were a little late for October— sorry. Virginia M. — I suppose his right name is Albert Lytell, but his mother probably called him Bert for short. May McAvoy in Jazz Parents. Lionel Barrymore has started work in Germany on Decameron Nights. Alma Rubens has been signed up to star in Gerald Cranston's Ladx, for Fox. No, I'm not so interested in football. Robert P.—De bonne grace means willingly and kindly. Yes, William Farnum is still playing. Pauline Starke and Hobart Bosworth in Hearts of Oak. Grace S. — Three strikes— you're out. You only want the addresses of twentyfive players. If you know the company they are with, consult the list of studio"s J" the. ,back> g>ving all the addresses. The title of Eleanor Boardman's Free Love has been changed, at her suggestion, to Sinners in Silk. Smiles. — About one-half of a man's life is devoted to rectifying the mistakes of the other half. Yes, we all have our troubles, some in small doses and others in large. I like Rod La Rocque and Ben Lyon. You bet you can be my pal. He's me pal ! ! Lillian Natal. — And how are things in South Africa, where the diamonds grow? Rubye de Remer in A Fool and His Money. Ruth Dwyer in Clay Dollars. That was Mabel Ballin in East Lynne and Claire Anderson in Who Am If Give Brook, the English actor, is now in Hollywood playing with Florence Vidor in Christine of the Hungry Heart. M. K. R. — No, I am not that old, just over eighty. To live long is almost everyone's wish, but to live well is the ambition of a few. My eightieth year warns me to pack up my baggage before I leave off. Harrison Ford is married to {Continued on page 76)