Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

46 Photoplay Magazine the enormous caps, and the felt hats resting on the ears; the full brogued ancl perforated tan shoes, the white low canvas oxfords with red leather lattice-work decoration, the patent leather buttoned shoes with pearl gray cloth tops; and other novelties of ilress too numerous to be described here. Mention, however, should be made of the copious perfumes, toilet waters, sachets, unguents, powders, cosmetics and scented salves used in connection with these various innovations, as well as of the bear-grease or butter with which the hair is plastered down. This latter device makes the hair look as if it were painted on the scalp, and at the same time confers on it a gloss which, in an emergency, can be used as a mirror. Once ready for the public gaze, his marvellous garments donned and adjusted, his eye-brows cold-creamed, his hair slicked and larded, and the fumes of Djer-Kiss encircling him like a miasmatic aura, this baroque and lovely creature — this rare and fantastic fauna — steps forth. But tl.e very manner of his stepping forth constitutes a novel and individual type of locomotion. Imprimis, his general bearing is at divergence with that of the rest of evolutionary humanity. He possesses what has colloquially and superficially been termed the "movie hump." His body is shapcci like the letter S. The head and chin are projected far forward, the neck bent to an angle of sixty degrees. The shoulders are acutely rounded, the arc of curvature extending far down the spine. Then the line swings forward at the coccyx and retreats again at the knees, which are slightly crooked. I When movement is introduced into this physical attitude, the feet, held exactly parallel, are moved forward alternately in steps ranging from one-third to one-half the length of the normal man's step. The head, shoulders and arms are kept rigid, the effect of the gait being that of skating. This new and sybaritical product of the moving-picture industry possesses a strong instinct for ball-room dancing — always in public, and preferably in cafes. And his manner of dancing is but a modification of his manner of walking. No matter how crowded the floor, one may infallibly locate him by his frozen shoulders, his rigid, protruding head, his curved spine, his short straight-footed steps, his empty, contemptuous stare, his sideward grinding. on one spot, his stiff, slow gliding movement, as if he were a wooden figure being drawn about on rollers, — the Gondola complex! Another characterizing instinct in this new genics histrionictis is for automobiling; and accompanying this desire is a lurid taste for garish and fantastic machines. In the construction and decoration of his car he reveals the same diabolical ingenuity and dehrious imagination he does in the designing of his clothes, with the result that his specially-built auto body is a thing to rattle one's aesthetic slats, uperld the hair, inflame the hormones, and send one to the pavement with Cheyne-Stokes breathing. It is one of the few authentic manifestations of modern heliogabolisme — a symptom of tertiary esthesiomania. These special bodies are, as a rule, painted in pure pastel shades, such as pink, turquoise, mauve, magenta, and canary yellow. They are of all imaginable shapes, suggesting now a sardella, now a submarine, now a lizard, now a vermiform appendix. Some of them are underslung to such an extent that they all but scrape the ground. And they are equipped with all manner of trappings and fixtures — carved leather streamers, silver and aluminum scroll-work, brass newel posts, white satin upholstery, cut-glass orchid holders, tiger-skin rugs, stained glass windows, embroidered lambrequins, ivory manicure sets, brocaded satin curtains, and Tiffany-glass cuspidors. Again, this new strain of cinema actor has evolved an individual and unique system of phonetic intercourse. His language, however, bears a certain resemblance to the current English tongue, its chief points of departure being the pronunciation and the intonation. It has a rising inflection corresponding to the "slur" in music, and its placement is quite high —an "upper register" tone — with a sort of stifled and oleaginous delivery. Moreover, it is full of elisions and open vowel sounds. Thus, "library" is delivered: "lah-bry." And "really" becomes "rully." The final English "r" is persistently omitted or misplaced. "Never" is rendered "neveh"; and "idea" is changed to "ideer." This new language can be understood in the main, with close attention, by the English-speaking peoples, although it is constantly drifting further away from its original source — so much so, in fact, that even now it at times more closely resembles Volapiik, Universak, Esperanto and Ido than it does the common English tongue. There are numerous other traits distinguishing this new and elegant type of fatitoccini, but lack of space forbids further consideration of the subject. I am not an anthropologist, and mv observations are not intended to be final or inclusive. i'i>r.^l.t Lilc I'ubllklllDlc Company The Indignation Meeting