Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

52 Hollywood Higk LigKts Voice Fixers Now. Face lifters will now have to retire in favor of tonsil removers. And, as usual, this changed state of conditions will have to be attributed to the talkies. Somebody has projected the theory that tonsils interfere with a vocal career by causing a muffling of the voice, or too much vibration. Several stars, among them Estelle Taylor, have undergone the operation with a view to improving their enunciation. Here's hoping that this new fad, if it is that, doesn't become too epidemic. It will, though, don't worry. Equity Tempests. Equity contentions are bringing on strange, new disturbances for those working in the movies. Minor players are frequently besieged at the studio gates, and urged not to play in pictures, until the rights of the actor under Equity rule are recognized. In other cases, rumors have been heard of players dreading being hit by falling lights. In this connection, Douglas Gerrard was recently the victim of a practical joke. A rock was hurled through a window of his home, on which was paper bearing the word "Beware" and signed "Heck-quity." For two days afterward. Gerrard went around with a bodyguard, but he discovered that a friend was merely playing a trick on him. Paul Whiteman isn't troubled by the delay in starting "The King of Jazz," because he likes Hollywood. Charles Farrell cheerfully submits to the special stretching exercises of those two amateur osteopaths, Richard Keene, left, and Nick Stuart. Tom Again Under Fire. What next ? Tom Mix may well ask this question. Mix is touring with a circus, but word reaches us of both his success and his troubles. Tom has already had his griefs with the government over income tax, and now he has been sued for $400,000, because of alleged breach of contract with the proprietor of another circus than the one in which he is working. Tom also is reported to have lost a very beautiful diamond-studded watch that he valued highly. Tom's affection for jewelry is well known. The Mix house in Hollywood is to be sold, according to latest reports, and the wife and daughter of the star are living at the beach. They will probably remain in the vicinity of the film colony until Mix's return. Ingenious Betty. Income-tax troubles, in a new form, bothered Betty Blythe's otherwise quiet and peaceful life recently. Her tourney was with the British collectors, and to add insult to injury, the bill that was forwarded to her was dated the Fourth of July. Betty, so the foreign revenuers state, owes them $3,000. It is their share, they say, of the money that she earned on her vaudeville tour of Europe. Betty objected on the ground that she had not been in England for six months, and therefore was not liable to being taxed. "I was there just five months and twenty-nine days," she said, "and I'm not going to surrender my rights in those circumstances." Their Devoted Guide. Most people, who know of the careers of Dolores and Helene Costello, must have realized what a deep loss the death of their mother was. Mrs. Mae Costello passed away suddenly a few weeks ago. She was a victim of heart disease, and her age was forty-seven. Unquestionably she was responsible for the very entry of her daughters into the films, and guided their progress with indefatigable interest. She literally devoted her life to their welfare, and was happy to behold their success. Before their respective marriages, she accompanied them everywhere, and undertook virtually all the responsibilities of their lives. Mrs. Costello was. at one time, the wife of Maurice Costello, and she herself appeared on the screen under the name of Georgia Maurice. Nancy Drexel Resumes. Nancy Drexel, who always struck us as a most promising youngster, will have her chance again. She is at Fox's, in "New Orleans Minstrels," playing the only important feminine role in this picture, which features William Collier and Walter Catlett. Now, Nancy, try to steal a few scenes, if you can, from those two old stage players ! Bathing Girl's Successor. It used to be that specifications were formally issued for the bathing girl, telling her height, weight, age, et cet