Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1939)

"Put J and carry o uu n one "Three of them — count them ! Joey and Sue and Don . . . not to mention the lord and master himself, who is as much trouble as all three put together. That's a family to keep a lady stepping !" "Up in the morning, to deposit Dick at the station, and carry the three off to school. A change of costume, at the end of a hectic day, against Dick's habit of bringing home unexpected guests. No wonder my stockings have to be as strong as they are pretty !" "Luckily, I solved that problem when I discovered Berkshires ! These stockings are sheer and flattering as they can be; their colors are grand . . .and they last! Berkshire Stockings are my stockings . . . for keeps !" (Continued jrom page 80) or more good fur skin. In this way you will gain variety. Also, since you can wear your coat with or without fur, it will serve for a longer season And on warmer days the furs will serve with your basic dress. (Orry-Kelly) 11. Have your clothes expertly fitted and altered even though the cost this entails means you have to limit your purchases. It's far better to have two costumes smartly fitted than to have three costumes which do curiously unbecoming things at the most unexpected places. (Stevenson) 12. Buy nothing simply because it catches your fancy. Every purchase you make should fit in advantageously with the clothes you already possess. Observe this rule especially when you are shopping for accessories. The right accessories are not cheap, but they're worth every penny they cost, if they're ' chosen to lend attractive variety to one I or more costumes. (Irene) To give your best performance as an '•■ individual you must feel fit. Hangovers, eye-strain, backaches, headaches . . . these are some of the things that are not allowed. You'll have them now and then, of course, unless you're a goddess. But you'll get rid of them, unless you're a goof. Next month the Hollywood health ex ■. perts tell how they get the stars in shape ■ — 07i only a few minutes' notice too. . And you'll agree that miracle men is the . name jor them! Photoplay — November. Photoplay's Cavalcade of Hollywood (Continued jrom page 48) Copyright 1939 by BERKSHIRE KNITTING MILLS, Reading, "bathtub" era with his silken sirens and divorce dramas in such pictures as "Forbidden Fruit," "Male and Female" and "Why Change Your Wife?" Gorgeously gowned stars and palatial sets made Hollywood the fashion — and fad — center of the world. Bobbed hair, introduced by Irene Castle during the war. swept the country when Nazimova, Viola Dana and the Talmadge sisters, Norma and Constance, followed suit during 1919. As Hollywood and its doings were given more space in press and magazines, certain groups began to protest against the "immorality" of both films and film stars. It all began when Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart," divorced Owen Moore and married Doug Fairbanks, because it was noised around that she had married again before her divorce was legal. Then came a series of unfortunate events which gave Hollywood the reputation of being the "modern Babylon." The suicide of Olive Thomas, the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, the William Desmond Taylor murder and the death of Wallace Reid occurred in quick succession in the early Twenties. The resultant headlines had women's clubs, ministers and morality groups up in arms. Fearful that the industry would collapse under this combined onslaught, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America was organized in 1922, with former Postmaster-General Will Hays appointed as arbiter of movie morals. A moral code was adopted, Central Casting was established to control the hiring of movie extras and investigate their character. Thus began that system of self-criticism which was to give the whole industry higher artistic standards and pave the way to a more realistic interpretation of life. Thus, too, was public confidence restored in its stars, so that they became the best-known and bestloved personalities in the world. With "The Four Horsemen" and "The Sheik," Rudolph Valentino emerged as the screen's topmost matinee hero. In 1920, Jackie Coogan won the country's heart as the first child idol in "The Kid," and Lon Chaney became the king of makeup with "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Social life of these early Twenties centered around the Cocoanut Grove (where cups were awarded by the stars for dancing and an unknown actress — Lucille LeSueur, now famous as Joan Crawford — won a Charleston contest) . Montmartre Cafe, Victor Hugo's, and the American Legion Fights. The An tonio Morenos were the social leaders, the Basil Rathbones of their day, with their lavish parties in their baronial mansion overlooking Hollywood. Then, in 1925, Gloria Swanson married the Marquis de la Falaise (now the husband of Constance Bennett) and brought her titled husband to Hollywood, and the film colony felt it had really "arrived." When Rod LaRocque and Vilma Banky were married in extravaganza style, all Hollywood felt it had no social heights left to climb. Nor was the artistic side neglected. The "boy wonder," Irving Thalberg, had already begun to raise the standards of pictures, demanding a greater attention , to the artistic and factual details of screen stories and bringing the indefinable, long-missing quality of "taste" to the screen. Garbo's unheralded arrival in Hollywood in 1925 proved to be the signal for the creation of a new and quieter type of film glamour. Technical standards were rising, too, as witnessed by the establishing of the first Academy Awards for the season of 1927-28 (the acting awards were given to Janet Gaynor and Emil Jannings) — a simple act that laid the groundwork for future perfection— and interminable controversy! An entire era faded with the release of "The Jazz Singer" in 1927. The tremendous ovations which greeted Al Jolson's songs (which are again a part of the current "Hollywood Cavalcade") foreshadowed the doom of silent pictures. Effects were far-reaching. Companies failed, without sufficient resources to install entirely new equipment. Stars faded, unable to project their personalities and untrained voices through the new medium. A new group came into power, and by 1930 not only the death knell of a decade had been sounded but that of a fabulous period. But nothing could kill the industry itself. Its history runs on through time. Occasional events seem to echo early happenings — censorship drives spring up and bring about new codes, Hollywood headlines still make the juiciest . scandal in the world on rare occasions. Yet the outward Hollywood has changed completely. Today, movie-making is one of the biggest businesses in the world and the stars, in their new-found respectability, mirror many a tinier community all over America. Underneath all, old and new, is the pulse of Hollywood— a great artery whose flow can never be staunched, whose stirring beat can never be stilled — as long as Hollywood itself, with its laughter and its tears, its sublimity and • folly, echoes the heartbeats of the world. 82 PHOTOPLAY