The New Movie Magazine (Dec 1929-May 1930)

Charles Rogers, Fay Wray and Richard Aden demand autographs from Jim Johnson, winner of the national amateur golf championship at Pebble Beach, Cal. Johnson is putting his signature to a golf balL Snappy Comebacks (Continued from page 28) starved at one time, they say, for the cafe, cabaret and small-time vaudeville jobs were widely scattered. Bessie could toy with a ukulele, and when the vogue for ukes swept the country, she managed to fill an engagement in a small-time theatre here and there. But not at any speakable salary. And you cannot expect to be remembered by "your public" when you've faded out of the picture for so many seasons. In fact, anyone will tell you that if you leave Broadway or Hollywood sectors for more than three months you are forgotten ! And Bessie Love certainly was forgotten by the business she served so faithfully for many years, and by the public which once adored her. Then Jimmy Gleason, one of the better players, directors, and authors went to work on "The Broadway Melody." He never forgets the capables, the reliables, and the others who "know how." He not only signed Bessie Love for that audible which became a sensational money-maker after it struck Broadway but he engaged Charles King and several other so-called "hasbeens," but that's another paragraph. If you were to ask us, Bessie ran off with the blue ribbons in "The Broadway Melody." The critics throughout the country hurled superlative comments for her remarkable performance, particularly that scene before her dressing-room mirror when she contributed a grand interpretation of a lass who realized that the one man she loved cared for another. There hasn't been a more compelling: episode on the screen and that goes for "Sonny Boy." "Singing Fools" or what have you? Few other Hollywood favorites could have played that role and Bessie made the most of it. How she toyed and juge-led with the tear-ducts! Today Bessie Love is set again. She is living once more. And she is toasted by the alleged master minds who once snubbed her at the studio gates. It must be grand to come back like that. And Bessie hasn't changed at all, success or failure, her head never inflated or wilted which is another reason the mob Go for Her in a Big Way. Then there's Charles King, of whom we were speaking a series of sentences ago. Charles starred in vaudeville with Elizabeth Brice for many seasons. He served the better musicals as juvenile lead and accounted creditably for himself in almost anything he attempted. Then something happened. Charles was aging. That is, the Broadway wisenheimers would have you believe that Charles lacked that wallop, or whatever managers call it when they aren't interested any longer. So Charles migrated to the Gold Coast to try his luck. He was among the pioneers to rush out there, and Jimmy Gleason turned a deaf ear to the scoffers and hired King — for the male lead in "The Broadway Melody." If you witnessed that immensely entertaining talkie and singie, and who hasn't?, then it is needless to toast King's performance here. Suffice to report that Charles King elevated himself from the lowly ranks of Broadway stardom to the movie heights, and at one of those typical movie salaries that stars get when they knock 'em dead. The movie fans who remember his sing the villainous Harry T. Morey in the good old fashioned days of 15 years ago will find something familiar in the criminal Moriarity who is baffling Sherlock Holmes in the Paramount picture "The Return of Sherlock Holmes." None of the Hollywood magnates could be "sold" on the Harry T. Morey idea until somebody discovered that Morey registered Al before the camera "that talked like a man," and when Morey learned that he was really "good" he evened matters by making the producers pay him a heavy fee for his services. But Morey will tell you that until he clicked again and won favor, the sledding was jerky and full of unhappy incidents. And Betty Compson. After making a tremendous success in "The Miracle Man" she married James Cruze and seemed content to retire. Then when the urge asserted itself again, Betty could do nothing better than get work along "Poverty Row" until Rebecca of Rebecca and Sultin, the agents, who practically control the destinies of many stars in the movies, urged Betty to new ambition. Under Rebecca's guidance, Betty went seriously to work — and Rebecca placed her in "The Barker" one of the first of the talkies. Betty Compson scored so well in that hit that she has been in demand ever since and frequently has worked in three pictures simultaneously. Similar tales concern Conrad Nagel, who was "just another leading man" until they discovered that he had a "splendid speaking voice." Warner Brothers exploited Nagel as the possessor of the "greatest of the movie speaking voices" and few will argue with them about it. Gladys Brockwell, one of the veteran stars came back successfully after shooting the chutes until she could get nothing better than character roles in playlets in Hollywood clubs. At one of the clubs one evening during a performance, a producer was favorably impressed and told Gladys to call at his office the next morning. Then after clicking in the big time manner she was besieged with offers from several talkie producers and accepted one of them to great advantage. But just as they planned greater roles for her, Gladys was killed in a motor crash. Mary Nolan redeemed herself after The Albertiha Rasch Ballet rehearses one of its numbers for Ramon Novarro's new film, "Devil May Care," on the beach at Santa Monica. Dimitry Tiomkin, Russian pianist and composer, is at the piano. 124