Movie Classic (Mar-Aug 1936)

me around, and I still had to use canes. But I wanted to do it, to force myself to get well. In my first scene, I had to walk up some steps, smiling, on the arms of two men. I held their arms so tightly that my fingernails must have dug into them ; by the time I reached the top, I was crying my heart out. I was beaten. The pain was too great. Everybody told me I couldn't continue . . . But if anybody tells me I can't do something, that's the one thing I'm going to do. It was torture, but I stood it until I finished the picture!" SINCE then, she has made two pictures, both with Herbert Marshall — Till We Meet Again and Forgotten Faces, in the latter of which, in an unsympathetic role, she gives one of the most remarkable performances of the year. In The Return of Sophie Lang, with Ray Milland and Sir Guy Standing, she is repeating an earlier characterization that she made famous. ("But she's not the same Sophie. She's reformed, I'm afraid," Gertrude told me.) Keep your eyes on this dramatic Miss Michael, of the light brown hair, frank blue eyes, and soft Southern accent. She will do surprising things. Things as dramatic as coming back from the dead to reclaim her career. She was born in Talladega, Alabama, on a June first about twenty-five years ago. At fifteen she had graduated from school, valedictorian of her class, and was embarked on the study of law. ("It was the actress in me, wanting to be the modern Portia") Music crowded law out of her thoughts, and she went to the Cincinnati Conservatory, there winning a five-year scholarship in Italy. She never went to Europe. The stage crowded music into the background. First with the Stuart Walker Stock Company, then on Broadway, she made a reputation for herself. A film company offered to pay all of her expenses to and from Hollywood for a screen test. She never used the return ticket. Despite her nearly-tragic accident, she still drives — and drives fast. She has given up flying, however, to please her mother, who lives with her. Her father is dead. She dots her conversation with "Honey" and other Southernisms, but refuses to give them up, or "to exchange soft r's for hard r's." She has two older brothers. Arnold and Alan, who once told her she wouldn't be knock-kneed if she learned how to swim. Swimming today is her favorite sport ; after that, bicycling. She dabbles in water colors and thinks she is pretty hopeless, "though it took Van Gogh eight vears to paint a picture that would sell." She also harbors ambitions to write short stories. She can't bear long, stodgy books. Her clref ambition now? "To be happy. Perhaps that sounds naive. But I'm not saying, 'I want to be a great motion picture star, or nothing at all' or 'I want to go back to the stage' or T want to be rich.' I have been broke, very broke, and I have had happier times, much finer times, than I have ever had since. I haven't the slightest idea where I'll find happiness. Whether on the screen, on the stage, in marriage, in the face of a baby. It is the most elusive thing in the world. To me, it is a combination of peace of mind . . . fresh air . . . sunshine . . . music . . . books . . . people who have something I want, and to whom I can give something. "I'm thinking right now of a new house. Maybe I'll build. Everything's maybe. Maybe I'll be in another accident — who knows? Anyway, I'll have a lot of fun planning." The Girl Bob Taylor Can't Forget [Continued from page 29] stances. He could see the other chap's possible attractions. And a small inner voice told him that the prize was not yet won — even though another small and argumentative voice tried to tell him that his love . for her far outmeasured any emotion that the other chap could feel, and that his love must inspire equal love in her. "About that time," Bob revealed, "I decided that life just wouldn't be worth the living, without her. And I didn't hide that belief from her. I couldn't. . . . We became practically engaged. For a while, we were even talking secret marriage." (A fine chance he would have, today, of marrying secretly — with columnists hovering over him like hawks!) Then what happened — ? "I went crazy about acting, received the bid from M-G-M, and was rushing back and forth between Pomona and Hollywood. And, somewhere en route, I lost her. . . . She married the other fellow." He isn't saying whether he considers himself lucky to be single, or whether he wishes that he were married. He just states, as a simple fact, that when the movies found him, he lost a girl whom he cannot forget. . . . He hasn't been engaged since his college days (three years ago). And he isn't sure that he has been in love since then. Perhaps he wasn't in love then. He wouldn't know. He is just a young fellow, learning a business. The business of acting. That doesn't make him an authority on love. Perhaps he would have lost the girl, even if the movies hadn't changed his whole plan of life. There is always that possibility to consider — even though, on the screen, he always seems to be a winner. Also, there is the possibility that he would have found someone else before he was twenty-four. Bob wasn't kidding when he told me that if he were in any other profession, he would "probably be married now." "T3EATRICE, Nebraska, is one of the AJ smallest towns in America, I imagine," he told me — and then had to take time out to convince his pal and stand-in, Don Miloe, that his home-town (Shawnee, Oklahoma) couldn't be any smaller than Beatrice. "But that's where I'd be today, if my original plans had worked out," Bob continued. "My father, S. A. Brugh, was a doctor there, and we both decided that I should be a doctor, toe* — follow in his footsteps. I went to college with that idea in mind. If I had followed through — let's see, I would be in the third year of medical school now. I'd be out in another year ; then I'd have a year as an interne. Two years from now, I'd start practising. And it's a cinch that I would be married — long before I was ready to hang out my shingle as Arlington Brugh, M.D. "A medical education demands a sacrifice of nine years of a man's life. He isn't ready even to attempt to make a living until he is nearly thirty. If he stays single all of that time, the chances are that he'll [Continued on page 82] by Safe Food Method i NO Ldrugs just \ *She Like yi Lost Eating uk 48 Candy '!&* LbsJ • MANY FAT PEOPLE endure all sorts of heartbreaking experiences, when (if they only knew it) their type of FAT can be reduced. Perhaps you are one of these people! If so, why go on day after day, when others are finding it so easy to lose this fat? These happy people have discovered the new, SAFE Food Method, SLENDRETS! No dangerous dinitrophenol, no thyroid ... in fact, NO DRUGS whatsoever! SLENDRETS are not laxative. Best of all, they look and taste just li<£| delicious candy! Why not try this SAFE and pleasant Food Method? It costs so little. , READ HOW OTHERS LOST FAT: *"I reduced 48 lbs., look 10 years younger," writes Mrs. Sims, Iowa. "Can now wear stylish clothes," writes Mrs. Sanda, of Pennsylvania. "36 lbs. of fat gone. Never felt better," writes L A , New York. Miss Goodrow of Connecticut writes: "I reduced 17 lbs. in 4 weeks! No discomfort, and they left my flesh firm and solid.' REDUCE QUICKLY. . . OR AT NO COST! If you are not entirely satisfied with the wonderful results from the very first package, you get your money back in full. You can't lose one cent. ACT ON THIS OFFER TODAY! Don't give FAT another day's start . . . but be sure you reduce the safe SLENDRETS Food Method Way. Don't use drugs! At drug or dep't stores, or send $1 for generous-supply package containing 84 SLENDRETS. Or, $5 for 6 packages, Currency, Money Order or Stamps. (Enclose payment. Or send 10c fee on C.O.D. orders. ) Sent in plain wrapper. Scientific Medicinal Products Co. Dept. F836 Russ Bldg., San Francisco, Calif. Please send me on your Money-Back Offer ] The $1 package containing 84 SLENDRETS ] 6 packages of SLENDRETS for $5 (Be sure payment is enclosed) Name _ Address City State Help Kidneys Don't Take Drastic Drugs Tour Kidneys contain 9 million tiny tubes or filters which may be endangered by neglect or drastic, irritating drugs. Be careful. If functional Kidney or Bladder disorders make you suffer from Getting Up Nights, Nervousness, Loss of Pep, Leg Pains, Rheumatic Pains, Dizziness, Circles Under Eyes. Neuralgia. Acidity. Burning, Smarting or Itching, you don't need to take chances. All druggists now have the most modem advanced treatment for these troubles — a Doctor's prescription called Cystex (Siss-Tex). Works fast— safe and sure. In 4S hours it must bring new vitality and is guaranteed to make you feel years younger in one week or money back on return of empty package. Cystex costs only 3c a dose at druggists and the guarantee protects you. Movie Classic for August, 1936 81