Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1926)

55 ^r-t^z' ^ra sUt The wedding march is a jazz tune in Filmland. Every little marriage has a triangle all it own King He shrugged, oh, so Latinish and un Cicero ish. " I do DOt know. 1 do know thai I Mull not marry again. " So he returned from New York to the Coast, after ;•gay vacation on Continental .soils. And he was nearly met in Albuquerque by the tempestuous Pola. We say nearly. La Negri was enticed back to Los Angeles in time to avert too many newspaper headlines. Hollywood promptly fell into a state bordering on hysteria. Could it bo true? Sh-h-h, hark. Pola and Valentino go a visiting the Gouverneur .Mortises in Coronado Beach. As suddenly, they disappear. " Hear they've hastened to Mexicali, Mexico, married, and are honeymooning in Palm Springs, Calif.," exclaimed a news-maddened city editor of a L. A. paper. Oh, dear, how perfectly luscious. Precisely Rudy's i M> ssey when he eloped with Natacha Rambova. Foiled again. Truth is not stranger than fiction; only more expensive. So it is, Yilma Banky again heroines for Valentino in his new picture, "Son of the Sheik." Rumors are rife. Poor Boy Cupid . . . Sharlee is now a married man with a Junior in the family and a second offspring due to arrive. Rudy and Pola continue jazzily on their syncopated heart string route, with junctions up and down the lines but tracks barring the perfect understanding. We fade-out and -in to Constance Talmadge, reckless daughter of a cautious family. La Negri stoked her way into men's hearts. Connie danced, chided, and entranced her reign there. Connie's fluttering life is one heart milestone after another. She chucked Irving Berlin to run away and marry John Pialoglou five years ago via the double wedding, yes with Dorothy Gish and James Rennie on the successful receiving end. Berlin was floored for the count. He chirped up when Connie lost interest in her husband and a separation, followed by a divorce, occurred p. d. q. John resumed his Beau Brummel activities on the street called Broadway. Connie betook herself West, where she annexed William Collier, Jr., better known as Buster. Buster was a laugh a second. They had hilarious times together for almost four years. Marriage was around the next week. Buster was younger than Connie, but that was a trivial detail. After one of her cyclonic visits East, Irving Berlin, with hopes burning high again, saw Connie off. Farewells made him melancholy. "What'll I do, Dutch, when you are gone?" Dutch is Connie's nickname, originating because of her blue eyes and blonde hair. " By jove, that's a great title for a song, " Berlin caught himself saying. So he wrote "What'll I Do," dedicat Cupicfs big four. Florence Vidor, King Vidor, Eleanor Board man, George Fitzmaurice. Di' vorce, King and Florence. Engagement, George and Florence. Now George is free, King engaged, maybe, to Eleanor. Wow! George IF John Brown, the Millville, Pa., street cleaner, is divorced by Mrs. Brown, 50 people hear of it; if a local celebrity of Chicago is involved in an escapade, 100,000 people are interested. If a film star is divorced the whole world wants every detail. Picture folks live under a giant spotlight of publicity. Their hearts, broken or blissful, become the hearts of humanity Ing it, it has been rap to ( lonnie. ( iraduall] . In fori ed him Bl ll t" I' Mt.it nation for the i hai ming, though ti d, Connie, lie pro (tided to fall headlong in love with Ellin M.u I daughter ol the liig I'" ( lii k and collet t man 1 1. bombshelled a slumbn world by eloping with M : A month and a hall later, Connie sprang a ditto surprise by taking on a Second " •half" in Captain Alastair Mackintosh, " unoi cupied profession ally " member of a wealth) Scotch family. Connie hallway confesses to having met her latest about three years ago through William Rhinelander Stewart, an exsociety swain of hers. That, however didn't minimize Buster Collier's forlornness at being left a romantii orphan, as badly floored by Connie's unexpected d tion as Irving Berlin had been, so many years before. Was Connie's sudden marriage inspired by Berlin's ditto? Boy Cupid, check up your files. We iris-out and -in to Florence and King Vidor. Florence, years ago, was just a little girl in Texas, where men are men and women — well, ladies. King Vidor, a youth with tortoise glasses and genial manner, arrived in the home town to shoot a picture. Would the Texas 400 extra for a thrill? They would and did. King espied Florence, slim, girlish, beautiful. Florence espied King, good-looking, self-possessed, capable. Palp>. Love at first sight. Marriage. The girl with a comfortable roof over her head left it to gamble with her husband; career and thousands versus flop and pennies. Florence was a lovely flower devoid of tropical warmth. King missed this yet lived in happy domestic isolation until one day — Well they just separated. Who can tell just why? After all there are just two people in the world who know the inside of any marriage — the man and the woman. The real trouble rarely ever gets to the judge. Everybody likes Florence. King is hard to know, but when you do know him he's a regular citizen in addition to being one of the few directors with brains and balance. He met another girl, tall, slender, moody. This girl came from Philadelphia, which also boasts the Liberty Bell and W'anamaker's. She strived for a career in picture.-.. King appreciated her ambition and her talent. Sympathy. Friendship. King had moved to new quarter^. Florence, with their little daughter, remained In the house that had once been home. Months stumbled by. All [ CONTINUED OX PAGE II9 ] 29