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

November, 1920 W CHEZ TEARLE Y By BURTON ADAMS Photographs by Charles Duprez OU won't have any trouble finding it — it's the big white house as you turn up the road," — that's the advice you get when you inquire of the inhabitants of Chappequa, New York, where Conway Tearle's home is located. All the people in that vicinity know the place — it is one of the oldest and most interesting places in Westchester county. They know its rambling, inviting looking house with the old-fashioned, informal looking gardens and the series of stone banked terraces that lead to the road. As you follow the winding road that leads up to the driveway you are apt to catch a • glimpse of the aristocratic looking Conway puttering about the yard, or having tea in the garden with Mrs. Tearle, or Adele Rowland, as she is billed on Broadway. Those who have seen Mr. Tearle only on the stage or the screen, usually as a suave, slightly bored gentleman, would get quite a different impression of him if they could see him hoeing in his own vegetable garden, or leveling off the tennis court, or making repairs on his own machine. And the vivacious little Adele Rowland, who can make any song livelier by lending to it her voice, looks surprisingly domestic as Mrs. Tearle as she sits on her veranda and does the family mending, or spreads before you a charming lunch — of her own manufacture. "I love the country," said Mr. Tearle. "I would stay here all the time if it were possible." "We do spend most of our time here," chimed in Mrs. Tearle. "We come ever so early in the spring and leave very late in the fall and we never go into the city when we don't have to." "And all winter we spend nearly all our week-ends here and we usually have guests," Mr. Tearle added. The hospitality of the Tearles is a matter of comment and commendation not only among their friends, but the entire village of Chappequa. And week after week finds all the lovely guest rooms filled. "We've made ever so many changes in the place since we bought it," Mr. Tearle explained. "We've really got things about the way we want them now." "My dear," corrected Mrs. Tearle, "we aren't nearly through — I haven't cornered nearly all the old mahogany I need yet — and I'm going to have new chintzes all over the house next spring. And next year we're going to have the gardens different — you see Mr. Tearle likes flowers and I like trees and shrubbery. So one season we plan the garden to suit him and the next year to please me. Thus the scenery is shifted Mr. and Mrs. Conway Tearle frum year to year, and each of us is satisfied" at least every other year." "But we agree about most things," Mr. Tearle insisted. "And we both love motoring and tennis, though I can't get my wife to share my enthusiasm for fishing." The tennis court at Edencroft is shaded on all sides with trees and the garage has several cars, including a town limousine and a rakish looking racer that has raced up every road in that section of New York. And there's very good fishing, practically in their yard, but Mr. Tearle insists he gets larger fish at another small lake, further up the road. Inside the old-fashioned house one finds things looking exactly as if they belonged there. There's a fine old grand piano in the living-room, and chintz covered furniture, and an adorable old desk flanked with tall candlesticks where Mrs. Tearle says she conducts the business of the home. Her handsome husband, she says, would cut a sorry figure as a business man without her fine Italian hand. Everything has an air of comfort and conservative taste and stability, even to the cook who has been in the family for years and shows no signs of giving notice. Until recently, Mr. Tearle lived the leisurely country life he so much enjoys all summer, but he has recently been signed as a motion picture star, and he now spends his days at a motion picture studio. "Marooned Hearts" is his first release. And although his wife is not playing with him in pictures, she is his inveterate companion. They are two of the most faithful first-nighters at New York theaters. In fact, when you see Conway looming up in the distance, you don't have to look twice to recognize Adele at his side — at home or abroad.