Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1930)

The Girl on the Cover FOR years, no one has taken Mary Brian seriously. A good leading lady, no more, no less. Whenever any of the male stars at Paramount needed a leading lady in a hurry, Mary was given the role. She offered no.complaint, and played to the best of her ability. Critics never got downright nasty about her performances, but neither did they tear pages from Mr. Webster's best seller looking for new words of praise. But because she was pretty and sweet, Mary's fans became legion. Now these years of varied experiences are beginning to show in Mary's work. The studio is preparing her for stardom and she is developing into a really splendid actress. She came near stealing the picture in "River of Romance." Her performances in "The Virginian" and "Only the Brave" were excellent. After years of being just another leading lady, she is changing into a clever comedienne. A leading lady of several years' standing always develops a sense of humor or a grouch. Mary was smart enough to select the first. During all her time in Hollywood, Mary has lived her own life in her own way — just as if she hadn't migrated from Corsicana, Texas. She hasn't been married or divorced. She hasn't even been gossiped about unpleasantly. SHE lives with her mother and brother in a small apartment in a not too impressive apartment house. They do not keep a maid. Mrs. Brian does the cooking, and they do say there is no better cook anywhere. Her brother works at a bank under his own name, Taurrence Dantzler. Taurrence is a likeable, rather bashful chap, who does not bask in the reflected glory of his sister. Unfortunately, not all Hollywood brothers feel just that way about it. Mary's mother seldom goes to the studio. When she does, everyone is glad to see her. She never goes into the "front office" and battles for more money and bigger and better roles for her daughter. IT all harks back to the fact that Mary Brian is a small town girl at heart. Not that she is prejudiced or hidebound with old-fashioned theories. But she is quiet and mannerly, and her tastes are extremely simple. She dresses inconspicuously in private life. She has never smoked a cigarette in her life, not even for a screen role. She doesn't object in the least if other girls smoke like Pittsburgh factories. Last summer, after many misgivings, she had her hair bobbed. That js the nearest Mary ever came to U What Would She Do With a Real Romance 1 Last Minute News Doug Fairbanks' first solo talkie will be a story of the gold rush days of '49, written by himself, Lotta Woods and Porter Emerson Browne. Adolphe Menjou and his wife, Kathryn Carver, are in America again, after seven months in France. He will do some film work in this country before returning to Paris next September. Constance Bennett will play the lead in "Common Clay" for Fox, doing a role first intended for Janet Gaynor. Ann Harding and not Ina Claire will have the leading role in "Holiday," a New York stage hit last season. Greta Garbo's new leading man for "Romance" will be Gavin Gordon, a young Englishman who has been playing on the stage in Los Angeles. Lenore Ulric will not make her two more contracted pictures for Fox. She and the studio settled for cash. The famous melodrama, "The Unholy Three," is going to be made a talkie, with Lon Chaney, of course, in his original role. Al Jolson's first for United Artists will be "Sons O' Guns," current Broadway musical hit starring Jack Donahue and Lily Damita. Edwina Booth must fatten up to finish "Trader Horn." African ills pulled her below filming weight. "going Hollywood." She even cried a bit over the lost tresses. Everyone knows that she was one of the three great "discoveries" in "Peter Pan." Mary was Wendy, Betty Bronson was Peter, and Esther Ralston was Wendy's young mother. Before her great chance in "Peter Pan" Mary found the studios of Hollywood as unassailable as any medieval fortress. Her change in fortune came when she won a "Miss Personality" contest at the beach. Two of her last five dollars went for a bathing suit. Two more dollars went for chiffon to alter an evening gown. With one lone dollar between success and starvation she won the one hundred dollar prize. That led to work in a theater prologue, and to an interview with Herbert Brenon, director of "Peter Pan." MARY, never a star, has been at Paramount longer than any other contract player. She has outlasted on her own lot the more scintillant Pola Negri, Bebe Daniels, Adolphe Menjou and Richard Dix. "I was the ingenue so long," she said, "it's like getting out of a rut to have fine roles. It's a tonic. Some day I hope to be a star." Not long ago she had a vacation of several weeks — a deserved rest, for she appears in more pictures than almost anyone on the lot. She didn't go to New York (it has been three years since she was there) and she didn't go to Europe (she has never crossed the Atlantic). She went instead to Yosemite Valley, California's vacation land, and the mecca of thousands of other home-towners. MARY is always being reported engaged to college boys or young actors. For awhile it looked as if Mary and Buddy Rogers were becoming serious. Buddy is a hometown boy, too. But Buddy is escorting June Collyer now and Mary is having luncheon dates with Phillips Holmes. Hollywood got all excited when Rudy Vallee was in town. Mary lunched with him twice. All the writers wrote engagement stories. Now Rudy is crooning his love songs in New York and Mary is perfectly content to lunch with the boys in Hollywood. In "The Virginian," she was Gary Cooper's leading lady. Richard Arlen was also in the cast. Mary and Dick have been screen lovers in numerous Paramount romances. "When Gary made love to me in the picture I was a little embarrassed," she laughed, "to see Dick watching me. I almost felt as if I were 'chiseling.'" If a girl takes her screen romances that seriously, what would she do with a real one?