The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

EYOU A ATED SKIN' THE WRONG SHADE OF FACE POWDER WILL GIVE YOUR AGE AWAY EVERY TIME! A woman's age is a woman's secret. Even the election laws acknowledge this when they require only that a woman state that she is over 21. Every woman is entitled to look young — as young, frankly, as she can make herself look. That is a woman's prerogative and no one can deny it her. But many a woman betrays her age in the very shade of face powder she uses. The wrong shade of face powder makes her look her age. It "dates" her skin — stamps on it her birthdate. She may feel 21, act 21, dress 21, but she doesn't fool the world a bit. To calculating eyes she is 31 and no foolin'. Why Advertise Your Age? Color creates the effect of either age or youth. Any artist, any make-up expert, will tell you this. Even a slight difference in shade will make a big difference in years so far as appearance is concerned. The wrong shade of face powder will not only make you look your age, but crueller still, years older than you really are! If you want to find out whether your shade of face powder is playing you fair or false, make this unfailing test: Send for all 5 shades of Lady Esther Face Powder which I offer free, and try each on your face before your mirror. Don't try to select your shade in advance, as flesh, natural or rachel, etc. Try each of all the 5 shades. In other words, don't try to match your skin, but, rather, to flatter it. Merely matching your skin won't help. What you want to do is enhance it in appearance! The Shade for You Is One of These 5 The 5 shades of Lady Esther Face Powder will answer all tones of. skin. (I could just as well have made 25 shades, but I know from scientific tests that only 5 are necessary for all colorings of skin.) One of these 5 shades, probably the one you least suspect, will instantly assert itself as the one for you. It will prove your most becoming, your most flattering. It will "youthify" rather than age you in appearance. When you get the supply of Lady Esther Face Powder which I send you free, test it also for smoothness. Make my famous "bite test". Place a pinch between your teeth and bite on it. Note how grit-free it is. Mark also what a delicate beauty it gives your skin and how long it clings and stays fresh. In every wayyou will find this the most flattering powder you ever tried. Copyright by Lady Esther, 1935 FREE (You can paste this on a penny postcard} (11) Lady Esther, 2020 Ridge Ave., Evanston, 111. Please send me by return mail a liberal supply of all five shades of Lady Esther Face Powder. Name State City (If you live in Canada, write Lady Esther, Toronto, Ont.) They're the Tops {Continued jrom page 4) the way she says 'em." The lines in her pictures, whether they're routine wise-cracks turned out by Hollywood gag men or her famous catch-phrases, are really no funnier than the jokes in any other picture. It's what Mae herself puts into them. And what she puts into them is — vitality. There were Mae Wests in ancient Greece. There were Mae Wests living in sod huts on the Kansas prairies a hundred years ago. There were Mae Wests in the days when men lived like wild animals in caves. Hearty wenches, broad in the waist and deep in the chest, who fought beside their men in war, were excellent mothers to incredible batches of kids; who lived, loved and died passionately. They had just what our Mae has today — sheer animal strength. The irresistibility of Tiealthy, pagan, dynamic human fleshliness. Wiser than Janet Gaynor in the ways of the world, Mae knows what she has and turns it loose to run wild. She doesn't fight herself, she lets herself go. To the nth degree, she is herself. That this self happens to be one that is attractive and interesting is just plain good luck. JOAN CRAWFORD, on the other *■* hand, is caught in much the same trap that grips Janet in such a vicious pressure. No one who knows her, questions Joan's sincerity. She longs passionately to be a great actress, to take whatever roles may come her way and lose herself utterly in them. It is her staggering value as a star name, in terms of sheer dollars and cents, which keeps her from doing it. The business office and her fans, together, force her cruelly to go on playing parts which, after the manner of Horatio Alger heroes, let her rise from rags to riches. When she tries another pattern boxoffice receipts and fan letters fall off. It isn't the money. Joan, despite her new contract, is rich enough now to do whatever she pleases. It is her loyalty that stops her. Loyalty to the studio that took her out of the ranks. Loyalty to her fans. But others have loyalty. The thing which Joan alone does, which makes her one of the Big Five, is symbolize Youth. In the jazz age she was a dancing daughter. Today, the jazz age gone, she still typifies the modern girl's hopes and dreams. She is the little nobody who becomes a grand lady. Granted that she has verve, beauty, chic, all the rest of it. Others have them, too. But Joan, and only Joan stands for the' spirit of our ever-changing younger generation. It is a symbol which will never lose its glamour. Yet — and what bitterness!— she is chained to it! EXPLANATIONS of Norma Shearer's prominence have been crueller than those suffered by any other star. People react to Norma in no uncertain terms. Either they adore her or they loathe her. There seems to be no middle ground. Proof, in itself, of an exceptionally powerful personality! But — "She's a success because she's Irving Thalberg's wife." "She gets people to go see her pictures by playing in polite bedroom comedies flirting with the theme of adultery." An ugly word, adultery. And ugly accusations. Irving Thalberg is a powerful man in Hollywood. True. If he so wishes, he can give his wife the best stories, the best technicians, an elaborate and costly production. But nothing that Thalberg can do in this world — nothing — can make people pay their good money at the box office unless they want to see Shearer. As for the other accusation, if all Norma has to offer are bedroom farces, then why were "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" and "Smiling Through" so successful? No, Norma's appeal lies within herself. It is not the fact that she is beautiful in face and figure. But she is beautiful inside. You sense it. An ordinary Canadian girl, she has lifted herself to social position, financial security, joy in her husband and her child. Given only her own bravery and she has won out in life's battle. The words "ordinary girl" crept into this paragraph, you'll notice. They tell the whole story. Norma — wise, serene, lovely, mature — is Everywoman. Everywoman, that is, plus Everywoman's hopes, aspirations and ideals. Janet Gaynor cannot change her parts. Mae West is too shrewd to think of it. But Norma Shearer could play a Janet Gaynor part one day, and a Mae West part the next, and not lose any of her popularity. She can be any woman because she is — every woman! \X/"HERE the fifth actress on the list * * is concerned, prophecies are dangerous. Katharine Hepburn's personality is not yet completely formed. In comparison to the others she is still a newcomer. The others have lasted. Whether Katharine will last it is still too soon to say. But our concern is to analyze her vogue. Why has she shot up to stardom like the proverbial skyrocket? First of all, because she is completely unique — an actress who looks different, behaves differently, talks differently. The clue is in her appearance. Any observant person has seen that same taut, twitching nervous skin in nervous little girls. Little girls, usually, with high foreheads, spectacles, freckles and skinned-back hair. School teachers often call them "problem children." Their brains are years and years ahead of their immature bodies. They are too sensitive. They shrink from rough games, from the antics of their schoolmaster. Quite often they are hysterical, so highly strung are their nerves. Katharine, both on the screen and off, is the problem child grown up. Erratic, unconventional, rude, egotistical, living so thoroughly in an unreal world of her own that she can tell reporters "I have never been married" and really believe it, though everybody knows it isn't true. No wonder she's called wild. Whoever cast her for the part of a half savage, mountain girl, as "Trigger," knew what he was doing! Katharine Hepburn is one of the Big Five because she is a bad case of nerves. Thousands of others fail. These five have risen to glory. Notice this — Each of the five is completely and absolutely different from the others. Janet Gaynor is sweet . . . Mae West has terrific physical vitality and stark appeal to the senses . . . Joan Crawford typifies youth and romance . . . Norma Shearer is the mature woman of the world . . . Katharine Hepburn, sometimes boyish, sometimes hoydenish, is a steel spring so tightly wound up you think she'll break at any second. There is their secret. They are the Big Five because, unlike mediocre, unsuccessful people who are "afraid of what the neighbors wll think" if they're the least bit different, they stress, accentuate and even exaggerate their differences! They are individuals. If you want to take a leaf from their book — find your true personality, dare fo be different, and give it all you've got ! 44 The New Movie Magazine, April, 1935