Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

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Gregory Taylor NOW YOU CAN AFFORD THEM! Quality * Many Uses STILLWATER TISSUE MILLS STILLWATER, H. Y. Who's Hollywood's Smartest Hostess? TOR many years now, the Magic City has been without someone upon whom to hitch its star wagon. Doug and Mary used to occupy that unique post in the early twenties and Clara Ray ran them close second. For a while, hostesses thought that Carole Lombard showed signs of such talent, but her parties have become more of the feminine-bachelor type. At one time, Ouida Bergere Rathbone blossomed forth as the town's most potent party queen. Gladys Robinson used to throw some bang-up affairs, but Eddie Robinson is a sensitive musician, whether you know it or not, and he objected so strenuously to this social life that she took to putting her energies into writing instead. Thus, a great change has come upon an otherwise hail-fellow-well-met lady. CARMEN CONSIDINE I would rank as Hollywood's 1938 hostess No. 2. Her Beverly Hills town house is the pride of the city. When she and Johnny were building it, I remember a delightfully simple party Carmen got together on the spur of the moment. Friends had dropped by on their way home from work to see how the mortar, the chicken wire and the cement were getting together. This was just a bit too much for Carmen. In less time than it takes to dash off these lines, she had the makings of a swell get-together. Once, when J. F. T. O'Connor, the former U. S. Controller of the Currency, was in town on a hurried, harried visit, Carmen was able to disentangle him from his dull, heavy work on complex figures and inject into his naive bachelor soul other kind of figures, which changed his point of view for life. Now he is running as one of the candidates for Governor of California. Carmen is Hollywood's sprightliest hostess, and she has quite taken the place held so long and ably by Marion Davies. Rating her as per our chart I would give her: A— 19%; B— 17% C— 17 % D— 19%; E— 19%. Total: 91%. MRS. HARRY LACHMAN probably runs Mrs. Johnny Considine a close third. The famed director's wife is Chinese and very beautiful. Her make-up is so effective that many Chinese people are spellbound by her. For years she lived in Europe and she knows "everybody." No matter who the visiting fireman in the Hollywood sector, he will eventually find himself Tai Lachman's guest at some new and amazingly conceived party. Her dinners are Chinese and American and she usually invites more than two hundred. Once her guests come, they stay until dawn, and she sees to it that their every want is fulfilled. She is one of the few Hollywood hostesses who is fully equipped with her own service — silver, napery, plates and so on. Some years ago, after I had motored across country for the'umtieth time, my Beverly Hills hosts insisted on taking me "as I was" to a garden party Mrs. Lachman was giving for I've forgotten whom. I came as I would go to a Newport, R. I., garden party, in turtle-neck sweater and old tweeds. Arriving, I was amazed to find almost everyone clad in togs of the nineties. Gentlemen wore cutaways and ascot foulards and their ladies had on trailing lace party gowns and big Gibson girl picture hats. I afterwards was told that this party corresponded to anything that Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish (or her equal) might give back East. And, believe me, I don't (Continued from page 25) think my hosts exaggerated one iota. Nevertheless, Tai Lachman is a very charming person, and I think I make no error in giving her A— 15%; B— 20%; C— 18%; D— 18%; E— 18%. Total: 89%. Ellen mackay Berlin takes my fourth place, for here is a quiet sweet soul who will do anything within reason to help her talented husband, Irving, achieve the success he has made of his life. To Ellen, who is always the fair, understanding woman, I would give: A 16%; B— 15%; C— 16%; D— 18%.; E— 20%. Total: 85%. Lucile Gleason (with Jimmy as host, of course) , gives the biggest and the best of all the outdoor Hollywood gatherings. These two entertain principally for the character actors and sometimes a friend who happens to be a star. They're not so particular about their guests as some hostesses are, yet you never seem to have undesirables trying to crash in. Sometimes, in the most carefully guarded Palm Beach parties I've run into one-eyed Connolly, but I've never seen him at the Gleasons, though I feel sure if he wanted to come they'd welcome him gladly. Furthermore, Jimmy would make him feel a lot more at home than a certain group of American sportsmen did when he crashed a big affair during the Kentucky Derby in Louisville last spring. To Mrs. Gleason I would give: A — 18%; B— 14%; C— 16%; D— 17%; E— 19%. Total: 84%. The Gleasons' is an evenly balanced household, with guests who appreciate each invitation. There is nothing swank or corney about their way of entertainment. It might take place in Keokuk, Iowa, just as well as in Pacific Padisades, California, for all they seem to care. It is the American party supreme, the unaffected way our forefathers would have entertained the successful people all about them. The Fred Astaires are climbing rapidly up the party-giver ladder. She is the niece of an Eastern stock-jobber, who has long been identified with horseracing circles there. And Fred needs no introduction to anybody. As they become more and more accustomed to the odd hours of Hollywood, both the Astaires seem to feel the need of Hollywood people for additional relaxation. For, while Hollywoodians are funny when you see them in pictures, many of them spend weeks thinking up the cracks which you watch them pull off in that many seconds on the screen. They have no place to go, except the restaurants and night clubs, where they can try those cracks out. In public places they are constantly on parade. It isn't fun being watched and mimicked everywhere you go. So, in their large and roomy house, veritably sprawling over one of Beverly's seven hills, the Astaires give relaxation — and entertainment — to their guests. Give Mrs. Astaire then: A— 14%; B— 20%; C— 16%; D— 15%; E— 18%. Total: 83%r. If I were writing these lines five years hence, I think Mrs. Astaire might head this list. From time to time, the Countess di Frasso used to have a bang-up blowout party for some friend from the East. To it, she hand-picked her own movie preferences, and her invitation, usually by telephone, was like another kind of command performance for a certain Hollywood group. But time marched on and, with Gary Cooper's marriage to Sandra Shaw, the Countess' popularity gradually began to dim. 86 Sandra Cooper, Gary's wife, though she doesn't look it, is somewhat temperamental and her man is her man. In that, she had something in common with Fanny Brice. Sandra's social tastes ran more to the Cedric Gibbons and she didn't give a Continental damn who knew it. Thus Dolores Del Rio and her handsome husband (who, incidentally, is related to Sandra) soon popped upon the party horizon, where they still remain. To be invited to the Coopers' house is an honor indeed, for few of the movie colony get beyond the great Dane at the gates. Let's give Mrs. Cooper: A— 15% B— 15%; C-16%; D-17%; E— 18%. Total 81%. Mrs. Jesse Lasky is one of the few wives of producers who does any entertaining. Mrs. Lasky paints and Jesse, ' Jr. is a poet. Jesse, Sr. is a sensitive person. Occasionally, all three of them get together and invite their friends in. Most of their guests come from the Los Angeles social cliques in the West Adams section of the city. At their house you meet all sorts of people who seem to have been rolled out of moth balls just for the occasion. For Mrs. Lasky let's say: A— 12%; B— 20%; C— ■ 14%; D— 157c; E— 16%. Total: 77%. Admittedly, this next item is beside the point since I am dealing with the social ratings of the fair ladies of Hollywood (and their husbands, incidentally); nevertheless, no article on partygiving in Hollywood can possibly be complete without mention of Charlie Chaplin, for he still gives the most exclusive parties for the really bigwigs in the visiting contingents. Six or eight is the limit of his guests, and he handpicks them all. It is considered a great honor to be invited to Charlie's Italian hilltop manor in Beverly. All of the important scientists, bankers, raconteurs and painters pay him homage. There is no showing off, no ostentation, no formal entertaining, no big brawls. His Japanese servants, who have been in his employ more than a decade, know by instinct, it seems, just whom to receive and whom to pass over. If Freud comes to California you can bet your last cartwheel it will be Charlie who will entertain him. H. G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, Masefield, Emil Ludwig, Mrs. Pat Campbell, Chief Justice Hughes, Frank Shields, or even Franklin D. Roosevelt would be Chaplin guests; but never, never, never would you find him putting himself out for the glamour boys and girls who congest cafe society and make it the sappy society it is in America today. Paste Charlie with A— 20%; B— 20%; C— 16%; D— 16%-; E— 20%. Total: 92%r. I regret to say that I do not know Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone well enough to report here upon their party inclinations, though I have it on good authority that they enjoy entertaining people as much as Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, the Hal Roaches and a half-dozen other couples do. I hope their parties are half as good as they are supposed to be; and I trust that Jimmie Fidler and a lot of other fellows who I hear it said give good jamborees get away with them as they ought. Life for the Hollywoodian is short at best. May their party lives be a lot longer! That is the wish of an old cynic who himself enjoys very much seeing people having a good time, especially in that famous city of Hollywood. PHOTOPLAY