Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1925)

48 Pictures and Pic l\i re We" FEBRUARY 1925 trade. Pola Negri spent twenty-five hundred dollars on books there not long ago. It was there that Corinne Griffith bought a tiny manuscript copy of one of Alfred Noyes' earlier poems as a present for Walter Morosco. George O'Hara, noted for literary tastes, often drops in to pore over newly arrived treasures, and to buy a bit of Americana or an autographed Poe for his library of first editions. I know th\s sounds press-agenty — but I've seen them. " They all come in here," the manager says, " and they don't think Ibanez is the name of a brand of cigars either!" It is a thankless task to rob people of cherished illusions, yet, Above : Mrs. Buck Jones with Pedigreed police dogs. two of his Tom Mix. %-u—^l^- Cecil De Mille's schooner-yacht " The Seaward," cost many hundreds of dollars. contrary to our best spinster novelists the screen stars spend very little on expensive vices, drinking, drugs and colourful orgies. Once, perhaps, but Hollywood has learned its lesson. The wisest of the film stars realise that success isn't going to last forever. The popular idol who is sitting pretty to-day may be sitting on a park bench to-morrow. The beautiful star whose fan mail has to be brought in an asbestos sack to the studio now may find nothing but envelopes with little isinglass windows in her next mail. Knowing this, the movie colony has become thrifty. Not that Charlie Chaplin's mantel is decorated with a tin bank to put his pennies in, not that Mary darns Doug's socks of an evening, but the conversation in screen circles nowadays sounds like a realtor's convention. HThe first thing that most stars buy is a home. Every foothill in Hollywood sprouts Itahan villas, Spanish haciendas and French chalets owned by some cinema celebrity. Here is Sessue Hayakawa's medieval castle, there is Theodore Roberts' English country house. The ink was scarcely dry on Warner Baxter's new Ince contract before he dashed out and bought a colonial knocker, and then he found a house to go with it. Jackie Logan has just moved into a charming bungalow for which she has been saving ever since she got her first studio cheque. " But the prices always went up as soon as they knew I was in the pictures," she laughs. " I had to read the ' For Sale ' columns for nearly a year before I found a place I could afford." Huntley Gordon frankly admits that he bought a house on the instalment plan in order to force himself to save. Anna Q. Nilsson is eking out the meagre earnings of a star with the proceeds of her chicken ranch. Some of the picture players are even landlords. Noah Beery has built several bungalows whose rents go into his young sqn " Pidge's " college bank account. Norma Talmadge owns an apartment house, and doubtless receives complaints from irate tenants concerning leaky plumbing. One of the most confirmed real estate addicts is Monte Blue, who salts away every cent he can lay his hands on in portions of California scenery known to the initiated as " view lots." If Los Angeles ever grows to be the size that its enthusiastic boosters claim it is already, Monte is going to be very wealthy. William Farnum owns a house a trifle smaller than Buckingham Palace and seventeen acres of climate which he is planning to turn into a sub division. George Hackathorne has just acquired title to two offices in a new Hollywood Boulevard skyscraper to rent to a derrtist, a doctor or a scenario writing school. Down on Washington Boulevard a huge electric sign, " Roland Square," revolves night and day, marking one of Ruth's real estate ventures. Another is the co-operative apartment house, The Roland, which the serial star is building to sell at thirty thousand for a four room apartment ! Of course they are calling Ruth Roland the