Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1931)

What These Stars Did You, Too, Can Do catch the eloquence of her hands in their marble, while poets never wearied of singing of their beauty. What Makes Us Self-conscious? It is, I think, very important to understand what prompts us — the ninety-nine out of every one hundred of us — to be selfconscious in the first place. Then we will be that much more efficient about correcting it. Psychologists tell us that we all are naturally eager to fit into an approved pattern. Therefore any departure from type worries us, causing us to become unduly conscious of ourselves. Perhaps we are a little too fat. Or a little too thin. Too tall. Too short. Perhaps we have a prominent nose. Crooked teeth. Or perhaps when we were very young our mother used to dress us differently from other children. It even might be that just once we had to wear a dress or a hat or a coat that we despised and in which we were unhappy about our appearance. In the deep and usually unexplored forests of our minds, psychologists find it often is what might seem a trifling experience to the lay mind that makes the deepest, most lasting impression. And naturally enough, the more sensitive we are the more any chance of adverse criticism or adverse opinions concerns us and, wretchedly enough, the more self-conscious we become. Taking all of this into consideration it ceases to be surprising that only about one person out of every hundred escapes self-consciousness. We are none of us perfect and we are none of us as serene and confident as everybody else appears to us when we're in the throes of selfconsciousness ourselves. BOILED down to their essentials you will find that all antidotes for selfconsciousness are something that will reassure us about ourselves, something that will give us some degree of superiority. Self-consciousness and Social Ambitions Gloria Swanson is an excellent case in point. Gloria used to be haughty. Oh, so haughty. Let's consider the predicament in which Gloria found herself. "If others can be confident and poised so can I," insists Lilyan Tashman, calling her sense of competition into play From a little bathing girl she had evolved a great and famous star. It is reasonable to suppose she felt everyone remembered her cutting capers on the Sennett sands. And Gloria had a bright new image of herself as a bnlliant, cultured cosmopolite and a finished dramatic actress, and this image she wanted everyone else to share. I don't doubt that Gloria had social ambitions, too. Most people do who get anywhere. However, nothing will make anyone more painfully self-conscious. The very fact that anyone is ambitious socially admits that they find some people more desirable than others. And immediately, of course, in making their comparisons, they become awareof the things these superior people possess and some of which they themselves lack. FACED with this situation, Gloria was one hundred per cent honest with herself. She didn't pretend that whatever it was she lacked wasn't important. She didn't go around boasting, by one means or another, that she was as grand as anybody else. Instead, she set out to acquire all the things she believed to be desirable and important. She began to study assiduously. Dancing. Singing. Voice culture. French. She read a great variety of things. She was "choosy" about her personal friends. Through years of intense application Gloria concentrated upon her studies until she acquired her share of all the things she believes to be worth while. With the result that today Gloria has an assurance, and the old self -consciousness which she sought to disguise by her haughty manner has been pretty well banished. At any rate, Gloria is haughty no longer but warm and gracious and friendly. She may have bad moments now and then but certainly this miserable emotion no longer menaces her beauty, her grace, or her poise. Poise Sometimes Is Only Camouflage Often enough the very person you believe to be particularly calm and confident is the most self-conscious person of all. Take Alice Joyce, long looked upon as the most poised lady in the film colony. Alice — having known her intimately for years I know whereof I [ please turn to page 106 ] Esteh> Taylor, panicky as she was about to address a group of writers one evening, had an inspiration. It has helped her very greatly ever since A teacher in high school taught Ricardo Cortez that self-consciousness is closely related to cowardice. That cured him of the habit Alice Joyce has a little trick which serves as a conversational spring-board when she is timid about beginning. It never fails to register for her