Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

18 Pictures and PicF\jre$ver APRIL' 1924 Tke Irrepressible Flapper 4y CAROLYN CARTER lhat piquant personage of Pictureland, known to playgoers as Pauline Garon, drew a silvertipped cigarette from a blue enamelled case. " I'm perfectly mad about flappers," she announced enthusiastically, and then, reverently, almost tearfully, " oh, if only I were one of them!" This bolt from the blue, as it were, from the flappicst flapper in filmdom, caused me to voice a protest at once. " Ah, no," lamented our hostess, " I'm far too old to be a flapper. You see, I'm almost twenty-two, and to be a regular 18-carat, bona fide flapper one must be between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. After eighteen one is, ahem, a young lady, and what, I ask you, can serve to dampen one's joy of living as effectually as the thought of being a lady? Ugh, it's really too horrible ! Heavens, it's positively— .gracious, there I go again — you know," confidentially, " I talk too much." " What," I ventured, " is the essential difference between the flapper and the young lady?" " Let me sec/' returned Pauline, " how I'll explain it. Did you ever have anything in your mind that you couldn't express exactly?" I might have helped the little lady out by saying it was seldom enough that I had anything on my mind, but, 1 figured, she's a new acquaintance, let her do her own detective work. " Well," Pauline continued eagerly. " the young lad}' is to the flapper what marriage is to an engagement. You know, an engagement is an engagement, full of love and excitement and expectancy, and marriage is just marriage — and the end of everything! Say, am I talking a blue streak? If I am, just stop me. Oh, here's the Crab Flake!" as the waiter set it before her. " Isn't it divine? I can see where I get the ten pounds back. Why is it that everything we like is jammed full of cream sauces and calorics? Isn't it disheartening, and one has just got to keep slender !" I could scarcely conceal my admiration for this petite Pauline, the little French-Canadian with the delightful accent, the frequent lapses into French, and the captivating trick of shrugging her slim shoulders. Just at first she reminds one of a Perhaps Pauline Garon, the perfect flapper, 1924 brand. beautiful doll with hair like spun gold, a pink and white complexion an naturcllc and wide grey eyes. But then, you figure, she lias much too much vivacity and spontaneity to be classed in the doll category. " Is it true," 1 ventured. " that flappers have gone out of style?" " Flappers." announced Miss Garon. *' will never go out of style. The fact is they were never in style. They've always been and always will be — like love and bills and eternity — you know, just keep going on for ever and ever. Of course, they may not continue to wear the outward signs of the flapper fraternity — goloshes, giddy ties and gay hats ; but the flapper heart will beat as steadfastly — I think I coined that one myself — as steadfastly under rags or royal raiment as it does under the baggy sports blouse. Bless them ! I'm talking too much, aren't I — am I not? How about a demi-tasse?" " Tell us something about Pauline now," I suggested. " There's really nothing to tell about me." she said, and then her face lighted as if by inspiration, "but there's the club ! It's out in Hollywood and some of us actresses — yes, shades of the immortal Bernhardt — just for fun we sometimes call ourselves actresses — belong to the club. We call ourselves The Regulars. Our object is to give one-act plays and benefits for different charities." " A work worthy of commendation," I ventured. " What, by the way, is your latest picture?" " The Turmoil/' returned Pauline. " adapted from Rex Beach's story. I think you'll like it. By the way did you see Colleen Moore in Flaming Youth? My dear, she's simply marvellous — wonderful doesn't begin to express it. I've just written and told her. so. too. Mercy, don't I talk?" And Pauline took a letter from her hag and opened it. Out tumbled a lot of newspaper clippings containing nice things the critics had said about Colleen. One hears so much about professional jealousy, and here was this little girl, not only sending congratulations in the form of a veritableliterary outburst to a girl who had been assigned the part she herself had longed to play, but was enclosing the effusions of those lofty men of genius (?) the critics. " I have heard that Colleen is an adorable flapper in Flaming Youth/' I said. " She must have had a perfectly glorious time doing all the wild and reckless things the scenario called for. Wouldn't you just love a part like that?" Pauline almost leaped out of her seat as she replied. " Would I? The happiest days of my lite were the days when I was living the part of the irrepressible, peppy flapper in Adam's Rib. You can bet I had a great old time. I adore flappers. T think they are the most interesting brand of the fair sex." " So the idea of being a perfect lady does not hand you a thrill?" Again the cute shrug of the shoulders as she said, " It's disgusting. I do not want to become a lady until I've passed my sixtieth birthday and even then I hope I'll have life enough left to register a kick. My goodness, look at the time. Did 1 talk so long?" As I rose to go, Pauline whispered, " Let's have tea next Tuesday. I really haven't had a chance to say anything to you." And then, off flapped filmdom's flappiest flapper.