Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

Mfpoo^ ^li* R LP° s* ' ^ A JAV ,n\^e ^ As0' \|**eV< wOs..rO \°>° Wr/te for free boofc/ef, Studio Department No. 1 HOUYWOOD-Maxwell Co., 6773 Hollywood Boulevard, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA Darling: I have already written a book called No More Alibis. It shows you how to make yourself over physically. Now you have another job ahead of you. You can take off fifteen pounds of fat with comparative ease. Can you get rid of fifteen pounds of oversensitiveness, or a bump of self-consciousness? Can you build up charm as you'd build up a thin body? Sure you can, if you'll but read what Mama has to tell you. That Magic Touch My new book Pull Yourself Together, Baby! contains hundreds of simple ways to n Macfadden Book Company, Dept. P-7, 205 East 42nd St., New York, N. Y. Send me, postage prepaid, Madame Sylvia's new book, Pull Yourself Together, Baby! I enclose $1.00. Name . Address City State n Check here if you are also enclosing $1.00 for a copy of No More Alibis by Sylvia of Hollywood. L_ j develop glamour — that magic touch which makes an ugly person charming ... a pretty woman fascinating ... a beautiful girl simply irresistible. Glamour is a combination of brains, character, charm, physical attractiveness, manner and manners. It's the answer to the question, " How can I be popular?" It gets jobs, it wins friends, it draws beaux like a magnet, it keeps husbands in love with you. You Can Develop Glamour And, darling, make no mistake about glamour . . . you can acquire it . . . you can develop it. But for heaven's sake don't think you can radiate personality by acting giddy, or by acquiring any foolish frills or mannerisms. And if you are laboring under the false notion that you must be as beautiful as the Hollywood stars or you can't catch the admiration of others — forget it ! If you are one of those gals who in a blundering, self-conscious manner shrivel up into knots when in the company of strangers, Mama's got plenty of tips for you. Your trouble is that you never give yourself a chance to express your true personality. Yes, it's there, baby — you've got all the makings for a magnetic personality if you will only use them. If you wish to acquire self-assurance, poise and charm, get my new book — read it from cover to cover and you'll have all the secrets I've gleaned from studying the most dynamic personalities of the stage and screen. Madame Sylvia The price of Pull Yourself Together, Baby! is only $1.00 postpaid. At all booksellers or mail coupon below TODAY. P C If you haven't read No More Alibis r . vj. jjy Madame Sylvia, get a copy of this national best-seller at once. This book contains all the beauty treatments which have made Sylvia a power in Hollywood. Price $1.00 postpaid. Why We Roosevelts Are Movie Fans (Continued jrom -page 17) the public demand. I think, however, that movies themselves are doing an educational job along these lines better than most of us realize and that we are gradually going to see a change in the taste of the people, brought about by higher standards lived up to by the producers themselves. IN the classroom the possibilities for the educational use of films are, I think, very great and have not as yet been used to the fullest extent. In fact, it is only the wealthier, better equipped schools that are able to use the movies at all. It seems a great pity not to use a form of teaching which, for both children and adults, is so easy to understand and remember afterwards. Adult education is carried on all over the country today and should be greatly aided by the use of the right kind of movie. I remember hearing a learned gentleman who was much interested in education advance the theory that with the development of television, the small country school would be able to bring great teachers and famous foreign visitors into their classrooms as easily as if they were actually there in person. If properly used, it seems to me that the movies may accomplish much the same thing as this gentleman had in mind. A course given by some brilliant professor might be given through the medium of the movies in every little school throughout the country. Any great foreign teacher or speaker coming to this country might, through this medium, become a familiar figure to children everywhere. There is great opportunity also to teach our children English and voice culture through the movies, for they can have the best teachers in the country teaching diction, recitation and expression through the medium of the talking film. This can be done in the smaller rural schools as well as in the bigger schools of the cities, for, once the school is equipped with the proper apparatus, the cost is small. The individual teachers who are qualified for this work are few, and they command high salaries. Adult education classes, in which foreign men and women are learning our language and its correct pronunciation, would find this method very helpful. The reading of good books will be increased greatly by having the masterpieces of literature dramatized and given in the movies. It is never possible to film an entire book, but if you awaken a real interest it often happens that young and old will read the book to know the whole story, whereas, in all probability, many people would never have known that the story was interesting had they not seen it on a movie screen. "Tom Sawyer," which is one of our favorites, is an excellent example of this. Of course, if you know a book very well and are very fond of it, you may not agree with the way it has been dramatized, and it may give you an unhappy evening. I have carefully avoided seeing "Peter Ibbetson" because I happen to be very fond of it as a novel and I was told that in the movie it is essentially changed in a way that I feel sure would spoil it for me. Perhaps it is necessary to do this to bring it up to date as a play, but I really question if this amount of latitude should be permitted to the dramatist. If you are writing an original play, you PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE HURREU have every right to make your characters do what you wish or what you feel they must do, but, if certain characters have been created by an author I doubt if you have a right to change them into different people. r IN ALLY, we come to the possibility of using the motion picture as a characterbuilding instrument. We must make information about films which are being shown in every theater available to parents so that they may know what is suitable and what is unsuitable for their children. While this information is at present available to anyone interested enough to obtain it, through the Women's Clubs' services, it may require a statement on the part of the producers and the theater managers in the local newspapers as well. This is just a step towards making pictures a help in building character, but it does not mean that children will not often be taken to see pictures which are not suitable for them. It puts the burden of responsibility on the parents, however, for all that the producers can do will have been done to protect the children from seeing films not suited to their age. Plays could be written for very little children with the object of teaching ethics and morals. I remember well the type of book which was given to my generation to improve our understanding of the proper "guiding principles," but I doubt very much if the children of today would read these books and take them seriously. It is possible, however, without actually preaching a sermon, to glorify some of the fundamental good traits of human nature. Kindness, gentleness, honesty, generosity and love may be shown in plays about animals so that little children can understand these vir 84