The Photo-Play Journal (Jul 1919-Feb 1921)

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' ■' T 22 THE person who sat in the audience of "Come On, Charlie," and saw lovely Estelle Taylor on the stage for the first time, only to be convinced that the stage was not her immediate metier, but that she would be a very real acquisition to the silver sheet, did the motion-picture public a big favor, indeed. For he made it his business to extol Miss Taylor as an ideal picture type in quarters, where it counted for something, and before the little lady herself knew what she was about she had passed the necessary camera tests with flying colors and was installed in a studio as a picture-play actress. It was not Estelle Taylor's beauty alone, however, that made her an immediate success in films. True, she has features of a classic mold ; eyes that are big and wonderfully expressive, and soft, curly, brown hair that frames a face which is dainty and charming. But the life of that face lies in its tricks of expression, in its eager flashes of emotion, and in its quick shiftings from the light to the serious and from the grave to the gay. It is the temperament of the girl herself, the soul of her that flames in her face, that produces the effects which have made Estelle Taylor, in the space of one short year, a screen promise already fulfilled, though still revealing future possibilities. I went to interview Miss Taylor in her dressing-room at the Fox Studio, where at present she is being featured in Edward Knoblauch's sensational drama, "My Lady's Dress," which is being transplanted to the screen. "Tell me something about yourself," I asked her. Whereupon she laughed her wholesome, spontaneous laugh and replied with a humor almost demure : "I don't know a thing." That statement was almost literally true. Miss Taylor's life has been singularly free from the unusual or the exciting. Born and educated in Wilmington, Del., she came Photo-Play Journal ESTELLE OF THE LOLLYPOPS By BURTON ADAMS of a family that was content to do things in the ordinary and conventional way, and for the mother and grandmother whose whole interests in life centered in the pretty, graceful little girl, it was enough that she should be protected from the rougb winds of life and developed along the conventional lines of average womanhood. But even they, in their deep devotion to her, were aware of the undercurrents of emotion that now and again were manifested by her. She had a secret ambition ; she took a childish, daring fling at life; and her triumph was finally won when the family consented to a course at the Sargent School of Dramatic Art. Today Estelle Taylor stands for achievement, not easily, but earnestly and deservedly won. She served an apprenticeship in pictures without the traditional extra girl's trials that have tested the mental and moral strength of more than one successful screen artist. Her school training stood her in good stead ; she came to the screen with the theories of acting, at least. at her command, and to this she added her native intelligence, her indubitable personal charm, and her ready adaptability to circumstances and desire to seize upon the nearest opportunity, for which she was fully armed for an early and complete conquest. It is, perhaps, difficult to believe that the Estelle Taylor of real life is so contrastingly opposite to the Estelle Taylor of reel life. She accepts her art with a seriousness and determination of purpose that allows no room for foreign subjects. To her, art is spelled with a capital A. It is the purpose and object supreme in her life — but that is the Estelle Taylor one meets at the studio — away from it she is the rollicking, jolly tomboy — she loves to indulge in "kid'" sports. Her idea of a "big" time is Steeplechase Park and a bag of lollypops — frequently she is accompanied on these trips by a string of kiddies picked off the streets of the studio neighborhood. She was telling us — "Do you remember that terrifically hot day that was visited upon us last week? It was simply too hot to work, and Director Brabin made a motion, seconded by all those present, that we take things coolly and easily for the day. To me. a day off suggested Steeplechase Park — heat or no heat. Two little boys sneaked past the studio watchman onto the set and were staring in dumb amazement at what was going on — I remembered the thing I liked when I was a kid, and bribed them with candy to come along with me to Coney Island. I promised them a ride on the carousel, the scenic railway, the ferris wheel, and a lot of good;es to eat. One kid said, 'Huh, lady, what wuz that you sed ?' T laughingly repeated — he scratched his head and said, 'Gee. sounds good to me ; on the level d'ye mean it, lady ?' I did — he took his staring pal bv the hand without question, and the two followed me out of the studio. 'Hev, Mac. whe^e're y' going with the skoit?' yelled some kids in the street. 'T' Coney,' came from Mac. I invited the other two to join us, and the five of us started on our merry way. J