Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1929)

Hollywoods By Cal York Catherine Dale Owen KENTUCKY prides itself on its fine horses and beautiful women. For the moment let's forget all about horses and consider the women. Catherine Dale Owen, a Kentucky beauty, plays the haughty princess to John Gilbert's dashing soldier in '" His Glorious Night." As a result of her work in that picture M-G-M has placed her under a five }'ear contract. Even John should forget the blonde Greta in the charms of the blonde Catherine. PERHAPS Catherine's stage career is a greater surprise to her than anybody else. Her elder sister was originally expected to attend Sargent's dramatic school in New York. When she decided not to go, Catherine took her place. No sense in wasting the tuition. Her first professional experience was in the ingenue role with O. P. Haggle in "Happy-Go-Lucky." Dennis King also made his American debut in this play. She was in "The Mountain Man," "The Love City," with Sessue Hayakawa; "The Whole Town's Talking," in New York and London; in the Belasco production of "Canary Dutch," and with Holbrook Blinn in "The Play's the Thing." Her work as the tlirtatious prima donna in this Molnar play made her name famous in New York. Catherine is slender and beautiful, with the soft, lovely voice of the Southern girl, although her accent is pleasantly British. No less a personage than David Belasco paid a tribute to her charm. In a telegram to a film columnist he wrote, in part: " When she was working with me she showed a genius for hard work, which was full of promise. In addition to that she is one of the most beautiful girls in the American theater and her voice is cultured, sweet and clear. If cast properly this girl is destined to go far." Having been a successful, haughty princess in " His Glorious Night," she will be a slightly less haughty noblewoman in the Lawrence Tibbett picture, "The Rogue's Song," with a background of the Ural Mountains. Catherine's one worr>' is that she wiU go on and on being a haughty princess. Morgan Farley THE American Tragedy" and Morgan Farley are names synonymous. Morgan played the role of the tragic Clyde in the Dreiser drama for more than an entire season in New York. It is an intense, terribly exacting psychological study of a young man's bitter life, and it ends with his death. It "does things" to the boys who play the role. Leslie Fenton, who played the role in Los Angeles, has "chucked" his career and gone to South America on a cattle boat, as is told on another page of this issue. "I've never quite recovered from that role," said Morgan. "Likely I never shall. You had to give too much to the role. It took too much from you." The reaction from Clyde set in while he was playing "The Trial of Mary Dugan," in London. His health broke and he left the cast. He recuperated by taking a bicycle trip through Europe. MORGAN is now in Hollywood, under contract to Paramount. He has already appeared in "Half Marriage," "The Greene Murder Case," and "The Mighty." It is not likely that "The American Tragedy" will ever be screened, although Patrick Kearney, the original adapter, says he has written a censor-proof version. Morgan sees no reason for filming the play. He is one of the most interesting personalities that Broadway has sent to the screen. Slight of build, with light hair and grayish-blue eyes. The Farley manse in Hollywood is more like a monk's habitat than the home of a famous personality. There are bare floors and a few pieces of unpainted furniture. Rude monk's cloth is at the windows. Candle light is the illumination. His car is a humble flivver. Perhaps he will remain in pictures, but it is problematical. "It all depends on what I can accomplish," is the way he puts it. "There has always been a force within which has driven me onward — the desire to accomplish something worth while — something that would satisfy me." 69