Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1931)

c /hey Hitch Their Sue Carol and her devoted secretary, Alice Scannell. It was Alice who advised Sue to announce her marriage to Nick Stuart and end the snooping by newspapermen M EVERYONE has a balance-wheel. If you'll hand me your watch a second I'll show you. You won't? But I can't show you on mine because it's in hock. Go ahead and hand me your watch. I'll stand right here. Now, if you look closely, you'll see two tiny wheels. One is a driving wheel. The other acts as a balance or check upon it. If the drive-wheel races ahead too fast or becomes too slow, the balance-wheel slows or speeds it to the correct tempo. Which is enough natural history for one day. Just remember (and I promise this is all) that the balancewheel acts as a governor or corrective. It regulates. These Hollywood people, whom we keep telling you are no different from anyone else, also have their balancewheels. Alice White, for instance, has her grandmother, a Mrs. Alexander. Now Alice, who most often portrays the flighty, quick-tempered American girl, is more or less that way in real life. She's thoroughly alive and kicking. She has thousands of what she considers swell ideas which, placed in the Frigidaire a while, turn out to be not so hot after all. Her grandmother is, so to speak, her Frigidaire. It works like this. Not so long ago someone printed a string of girls' pictures over the caption: "The Six Most Beautiful Girls in Hollywood." Alice's was among them and she thought it was just dandy. The world, she reflected, had at last got wise to itself. So thinking, she rushed over to grandma with the magazine to give her a treat. She found Grandma Alexander at her knitting. " Look ! " burst our Alice, holding up the sheet. " Now maybe you'll believe I'm good! " The old lady put down an unfinished sock and adjusted her spectacles. "Right pretty girls," she finally said, "but who's that one in the corner?" "That," said Alice, "is a Miss Alice White. Maybe you've heard of her." Chuckling, grandma picked up the sock. "These modern reporters," she cackled, "don't care what they print, do they?" She then told Alice a few things, among which was that she should leave this beautiful stuff to girls like Billie Dove and Corinne Griffith, who are good looking without benefit of Max Factor, and that she, Alice, should concentrate on the qualities God gave her. "You're cute, Alice," she said, "and vivacious and lovable. 64 George Jenner, George Arliss' "gentleman's gentleman." Jenner it is who looks out for the frail star. He's particularly careful in the matter of drafts £ ^> But beautiful? " She sighed. " And the doctor," she concluded, "said I shouldn't laugh, too. Hurts my side." The same thing happened when she took her new car around to grandma, with the hope of getting a batch of Ohs! and Ahs! Instead, she got a verbal whipping. Grasping her firmly by the hand, Mrs. Alexander took her around back and showed her an old battered Dodge that her grandfather, who has so much dough it gets in his hair, is glad to drive. "You'll ride in one like this some day and like it," she chirped, "if you don't learn to save your money." It took. Today Alice has gone four per cent. SUE CAROL has a balance-wheel in the person of one Alice Scannell, whom she engaged as secretary, but who turned out to be the whole works. This Miss Scannell seems to know a few things. She picks out Sue's clothes and buys the tricky furnishings for her house that are so easy to go wrong on. She also chooses the pictures of Sue that are sent to her fans and stands ready at all times with high-powered advice. One trick alone of hers would make her worth the money. To this effect: the secret marriage of Sue and Nick began playing tricks on them. One reporter found Nick's pajamas in Sue's closet. Another was present when a lusty-lunged laundryman announced for all to hear: "Mr. Stuart's laundry!"' You know reporters (if you'll admit it) and what these jewels meant to them. Things began to be whispered. It looked bad for Nick and Sue until Alice, with that old level head, came to the rescue. "Announce