Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1920)

ancf Real news and interesting comment about motion pictures and motion picture people. / CAL. YORK PUBLIC sentiment is a chameleon. And never more so than in that romance which culminated in Mary Pickford's marriage to Douglas Fairbanks. At the rumor? of its budding public sympathy seemed to be with Mrs. Beth Sully Fairbanks — until, as soon as she had obtained a divorce from Doug, with a reported monetary compensation of something like a half million dollar.^, she married James Evans. Mary Pickford"; followers, particularly those of the Catholic faith, received a real shock when she divorced Owen Moore, whom she had married at seventeen. Her marriage to Fairbanks capped the climax of public disfavor. But now, with the Nevada court instituting proceedings to investigate the Pickford-Moore divorce, the pendulum has swung again, in favor of the famous newlyweds. Says Old Public Opinion : '"They're married now — let 'em alone I"' And we hope the matter will rest there and that Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks may be permitted to have a real-life honeymoon that will last a long, long time. PRESIDENT WILSON has become a most ardent movie fan. During the long days of his illness, nothing entertained him so much as a reel or two of film. Hardly one day passes now that he does not call for his projection machine and operator to reel him off the latest comedy — for comedy is his preference, and one good one is always shown at every performance. But if Woodrow Wilson likes one form of screen drama better than another, it's a detective film full of thrills. CHARLES ABBE, a character actor, who is playins a pauper in a forthcoming production with Corinne Griffith, came down one morning in the elevator of hi.hotel in Charleston where he was on location with the Griffith Company, with his make-up on and dressed in the nondescript dilapidated attire of "Old Hank Dawe." Several prosperous looking Southerners were in the car. One of them studied Abbiclosely, trying to reconcile his refined, cleancut features, framed by his Baconesque white hair, with his poverty-stricken attire. As Abbe stepped from the elevator the Southerner remarked to his companion: "Say, Jim, this old clothes scheme is a great thing to beat the high cost of dressing. I think I'll put on overalls, too." The answer to Mary Pickford's advertisement for an equine wreck: Lavender, who appears in "Suds."' So fat did he become from good fare that toward the end of the picture he had to be made up to look as if he were really on his last legs. It s a new Mary in^this adaptation of ""Op o' Me Thumb. " AFTER the war was over, Roi)crt Warwick walked into a film office in hiuniform, his overseas cap. and his Sam Browne belt, and smilingly signed an advantageous stellar contract with Famous Players-Lasky for S_?,ooo a week. Now he is suing that company for ^525,644. 23, for alleged violation of contract. The story goes that Warwicks pictures failed to get over in proportion to the salary he re ceived. The powers of Paramount offered him an alternative: would he take a salar\reduction and play supporting roles? Warwick would not. Famous decided it couldn"t lose any more inoni-y in a legal suit than on Warwick"? pictures, so they simpK let him go ahead and litigate to his hearl'.< content. MRS. MAY PRESTON DEAN has discovered a unique way of adding to her fund for the Los .\ngeles Orphans. Her daughter Priscilla was married a few months ago to Wheeler Oakman. Both arc professionals and therefore temperamental. So Mother Dean made a rule. It was, ■'Ever\ time Priscilla and Wheeler have words, the part) who started things must place one dollar in the bank on the mantel.'" And although the Oakmans are happier than most married couples, you"d be surprised to know how much that little old bank is holding ! JUNE WALKER, the brune baby vamp of Clifton Crawford's stage comedy, "My Lady Friends," has been signed for film service, as Photopl.w predicted sometime ago. She will be Bobby Harron's leading woman in that young man's first stellar vehicle. Miss W^alker is not new to pictures: she was an extra at Essanay in the good old days. OF the many film folk booked for foreieii trips, only a few really sailed. The whole Talmadgc family, including ^lother Peg, Constance. Natalie and Norma Talmadge Schenck announced their intention to depart for Europe early in May but only Mrs. Talmadge and Natalie got across. The rest of the family, swamped with work right now, may follow later. John and Anita Loos Emerson have postponed their scheduled sailing. While Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks, who had made all plans for an early voyage, were forced to cancel their bookings and stay at home. Their manager says it's because they must oblige United Artists with new releases. Gossip says it's because Mrs. Charlotte Pickford didn't like to be left at home. She has been ill. but accompanied the honey mooners to Manhattan. Mary's mother, comrade and guardian until Fairbanks came on the scene, naturally finds it hard to play only an atmospheric role in one of the world's greatest romances. PRISCILLA DEAN has utlered against the overall craze. She doesn't think it will last; what's more, she doesn't approve of blue denim for girls. "Personally," saifl Miss Dean. "I should just as soon see a woman walk down the street in a bathing-suit as in a pair of overalls." "I'd sooner," remarked Hoot Gibson, who overheard. WILL ROGERS is one of the few motion picture stars whose mail is not cluttered with requests for autographed photosiraphs, scented notes and other flatteries usually received by film celebrities. For one thing, he boasts of his love for his wife and their four children. .\nd besides, ho isn't the matinee idol type ot hero. Not long aso, however, a large square envelope came to him by special delivery. He opened it and read: "Dear Mr. Rogers: "All my life I've been the butt of my family because I'm the homeliest man in town. They are all pretty good looking folks, but I'm a sort of throwback that don't seem to belong. Now. they tell me you've got a reputation along that line, so I'm writing you to send me a large photocraph of yourself to hang next to my shavinc mirror for consolation. "Sincerely yours, " (Name deleted to spare writer's feelings.) 97