Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1931)

DECEMBER, 1931 Close-Ups and Long-Shots By James R. Quirk THIS is the sort of thing that keeps the army of half-starving extras in Hollywood. It gives them "the hope that springs eternal." Paramount executives were testing a new type of movie film. An extra named Kent Taylor was on the lot, waiting to go to work. He was asked to pose while several hundred feet of the new film were run off as different lighting effects were concentrated upon him. Then executives looked at the rushes to see how well the new film worked, photographically. But when they saw Taylor, they forgot all about the film and got excited over the lad. And the result was that he's been signed to a contract, and given his first important role in "Husband's Holiday." IN a sociological research, which is being conducted for the government, a group of college professors is studying the reactions of the audience of many millions to motion pictures. Included in its activities is the reading of thousands of letters that come to my desk from readers of Photoplay. The reading of those letters, which come from every corner of the globe, is not a task. To me, they furnish more fascinating reading than any current literature. And they are vastly more human and significant than ninety per cent of the professional writings of today. They come from all walks of life; from congressmen and doctors, school teachers and club women, stenographers and housewives, motion picture exhibitors and actors. They, with the voting on the Photoplay Gold Medal for the best picture of the year, are a scientific barometer of the constantly changing likes and dislikes of millions of "fans," folks whose motion picture habit constitutes the greatest asset of this billiondollar business. THE letters that interest me most are those that tell how pictures affect their intimate lives, change their mental and emotional processes, create new desires and ambitions. Every month Photoplay reprints a score or more of them and they are worth reading. Here are a few that have come to my desk in the past few days : "As a beauty culturist and hairdresser, I have noticed that, our movie stars are to a very great extent the dictators of current hair styles. So whenever I go to a movie or receive my copy of Photoplay, I particularly notice the hairdress of the actresses, because I know that countless feminine eyes are watching to see how their favorite star is now wearing her hair." "I carry a mental image in my mind of an ideal girl, coined from motion pictures and from your articles about stars, and I try to live up to that ideal, and still be myself. Once a shy, gauche girl. I am now well-groomed and have plenty of subjects to talk about. I read in Photoplay that Lilyan Tashman has the same creed as I have — 'If others can be confident and poised, so can I.' " "I have been out of work for a period of time and have very little money, but I was anxious to see a show, so I took my last half-dollar and went to see 'Merely Mary Ann.' Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell are wonderful together. Their love in pictures seems so real that I believe it is.'" "When I began to plan the building of my home I could not convey to architects what I wanted. I attended a movie one night and there, staring at me, begging me, was my home. I knew it immediately. I have succeeded in drawing up my plans, and a home that is more charming, more cosy, more perfect, nobody could desire." AND here is a very remarkable one which came in on stationery of the Ziegfeld Theater, the headquarters of the glorification of the American girl: 25