The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

The/re the Tops. WHY? It may surprise you, but box-office figures never lie. These are the five leading women stars. Each one shares the mysterious secret of success. WHAT IS THAT SECRET? By JACK JAMISON i.:i: X K ': :■■ ■:■-:. ' IF someone asked you, "which are the five greatest women stars?" — which five would you name? Box-office figures never lie, even though they sometimes shock you. The five big women stars today are: First, Janet Gaynor. Second, Mae West. Third, Joan Crawford. Fourth, Norma Shearer. Fifth, Katharine Hepburn. Why? What is the mysterious quality, possessed by these five women, which places forty million fans at their feet? What do they have, what power, what ability, that lifts them out of the ranks even in Hollywood itself, and sets them over other women stars, as ruling empresses? What is it? If you had that secret, wouldn't you have a prize infinitely more valuable to you than the fabled philosopher's stone, which turned everything into pure gold? Yes; for you would have not only gold, but fame, national homage, success in any profession you undertook. Why, you'd have the very secret of success. You may not be a scientist or psychologist, you may not have a laboratory, but you have seen these five stars on the screen, you have read their lives. You really know them better, in a way, than you know your closest friends. Why shouldn't you, by carefully comparing them, be able to discover a clue to their secret? JANET GAYNOR was discovered entirely by accident some years ago when a picture called "The Johnstown Flood" needed a girl who looked boyish and could ride a horse. It wasn't until she made "Seventh Heaven," still her best-remembered film, that her box-office personality came through. It jibed with an image that was in the public mind; that of a helpless little waif, half woman and half child, at anybody's mercy. No one has ever pointed out that the character Janet gives us on the screen is identical with the pathetic little tramp played by Charlie Chaplin, psychologically. Both are wistful, frustrated creatures; bewildered, utterly unable to cope with life. Perhaps because all of us are at heart defeated and bewildered and wistful, this is a character with universal appeal. Oddly enough Janet fights, bitterly and continually, against the very thing which keeps her one of the Big Five! She's a mature woman, who has been married and divorced. She wants to play mature roles, glamorous roles, sophisticated roles — anything but the wistful waif! Again and again she tries to break free, only to have her pictures fail the moment she steps out of the characterization in which people are used to seeing her. Sheer pressure of public demand forces her back, again and again. The ironic spectacle of a woman struggling against the one thing which explains her success! For — don't doubt it — if Janet ever says good-bye to that waif, once and for all, she may be dashed down into obscurity overnight! IT would be a hard job to imagine any greater contrast than Janet and Mae West. On Broadway Mae's name used to stand for risque plays. No one admitted it with more alacrity than Mae herself. She wrote her own little dramas, and the critics joined in* jeering at them, dubbing them Hokum for Hicks and Bait for Boobs. Yet even with the rural visitors Mae wasn't a success. She never got rich off her New York stage productions. Compare this with her unparalleled rise on the screen. Wherein lies the difference? Censorship! For there was censorship long before the Decency Drive was heard of, remember. On the screen, from the start, Mae played risque plays without actually being risque. It revealed her true appeal, a compelling, dynamic, sweeping feminine vitality that literally knocked us out of our seats. "It isn't the things she says, it's {Please turn to page 44) The New Movie Magazine, April, 1935