Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1919 - Feb 1920)

Picture-Play Magazine — Advertising Section 103 The Hardships of a Hero ■ Continued from page 45 evenings at home more diverting by torturing or beating his better half. Yet if an exacting and misled director insists that an actor's hair curl over his ears and puts him into a Lord Fauntleroy collar everybody who witnesses his misery on the screen thinks that's the way he likes to look. My, but I'm hungry ! Where's that waiter? "It's the interviewer who often places a fellow at a disadvantage," he went on when another order of buckwheat cakes was on its way. "It seems to me that they fairly delight in helping along the public's hallucinations about the private life of the chap who plays hero roles. Take me, for example ; I was a helpless victim once, thanks to a young woman who wrote for the magazines and a friend of mine who's an interior decorator. You see, when I came to New York I got him to decorate a little apartment for me ; I told him just to make it comfortable and as practical as possible, and when it was done it seemed all right— looked serviceable and as if everything in it would stand hard wear. "But, unluckily for me, he'd bought a blue couch cover. 'It's a good shade and won't show cigarette ashes,' he told me, and I never gave it another thought. And then along came the interviewer, who had an eye for details, and when that couch cover went through the mill of her typewriter it came out a delicate azure ! "Well, when her story appeared in print I was simply deluged with mail from people who thought I must be the same sort of goody-goody, conceited thing she'd pictured me. The azure couch cover had given them their cue. She'd also endowed me with an English accent, and, Pleaven knows, though being on the stage so long has taught me to try to speak correctly, I certainly never intended to make it an affectation, and couldn't have anything but a touch of Irish brogue if I did have an accent, anyway." As we went from the restaurant again I summoned up my courage and dragged forth that long-concealed question of mine, which I'd been wanting to ask ever since the days when I used to sit beside the camera and watch him playing leads with Norma Talmadge. "Why haven't you ever married ?" I asked hesitatingly. "Here you've got four leading women in your first starring venture — Mary Boland and Marguerite Cortot and Lucille Lee Stewart and Martha Mansfield, and Mr. Selznick has dashed out and had you insured for a million dollars, and yet you walk around unmarried and apparently with no intention of asking somebody to be your best man. Why is it?" "No woman would ever have me," he promptly declared, thereby proving his Irish ancestry. And right then and there was precipitated what you couldn't exactly call a quarrel, though it certainly was a most vehement discussion. "I certainly am no such target for feminine admiration as you seem to think," he declared at last almost wrathfully. "Your thinking so just proves what I've been saying about audiences believing a leading man is a hero twenty-five hours out of the twenty-four. Why, my most ardent admirer is a man, and here he comes now." And I was introduced to George Washington Plenry Brown, aged four, who made his debut in pictures in "Come Out of the Kitchen," and who acquired his admiration for Gene at the same time. He was hustling along the street at a frightful rate for him, trying his best to keep up with the stalwart O'Brien. "What's the matter, George? Income tax leave you strapped?" asked Gene, pausing a moment. George looked unutterable things, while the Southern mammy with him burst into voluble and detailed explanations of George's financial difficulties. It seems that he was walking Broadway in search of a job. "Well, here " and a bill changed hands. "Buy him something zippy in the way of shoe leather. So long, George!" Now, I've been watching his work since the days when he was on the stage with Elsie Janis, Ethel Barrymore, Margaret Iilington, and other well-known actresses, and I know that that little incident is perfectly characteristic of him. His generosity was quite as sincere as his desire to be known as "just a regular fellow." So if you want to make it friendship, Gene O'Brien will give you his hand on it gladly. |AMOND$ . YYATCHE5 SEND FOR FREE CATALOG There are over 2000 illustrations^ Diamonds, Watches, Jewelry, etc. Whatever you select will be sent, all shipping charges prepaid. You see and examine the article right in your own hands. If satisfied, pay one-fifth of purchase price and keep it; balance divided into eight equal amounts, payable monthly. LIBERTY BONDS ACCEPTED Watches Our Catalog illustrates and describes all standard w or Id -renowned Watches — solid gold and gold filled cases. Splendid bargains in 25year guaranteed Watches on credit terms as low as $2.50 a Month Special Bargains Diamond La Val lieres $10 up Loftis7-Diamond Solitaire ClusterScarfPins$75up Diamond-Set Birth Month Rings 8 up Diamond Brooches 7 up Diamond Ear Screws 25 up Diamond Studs 10 up Diamond Cuff Links 5 up Wrist Watches 20 up Watches, Gold Filled 15 up WE HAVE BEEN IN BUSINESS OVER 60 YEARS The National Credit Jewelers Dept. 0927 108 N. State St. i bros&co. frS8 Beautiful Genuine Diamond Rings, any style 14-K solid gold mounting, wonderful values at $25, $50, $75, $100 and up. EASY CREDIT TERMS CHICAGO, ILL. STORES IN LEADING CITIES GET WELL-BE YOUNG— GROW TALL This University discovery is the most important health invention of the century. It remakes and rejuvenates the Human Body. It produces normal spines. It frees impinged and irritated nerves, corrects contracted muscles, shortened ligaments, eliminates congestion, improves circulation and drainage of the body. It will increase the body's length. THE PANDICULATOR CO., 312 Advance Bldg., Cleveland, O. are as a cloud before the sun" hidine, your brightness, your beauty. Why not remove them i Don't delay. Use STILLMAN'S cK Made especially to remove freckles. It1, leaves the skin clear, smooth and without a blemish. It is prepared by specialists wi years of experience. Money refunded if __ satisfactory. Price 50c per jar. Write today for full particulars. Also our free booklet, Would'st Thou be Fair? This booklet contains many beauty hints, and describes a number of elegant preparations indispensable to the toilet. STILLMAN CREAM CO. Dept. 11 Aurora, 111. Sold by all druggists. When writing to advertisers please mention Picture-Play Magazine. LaGoutte-a-Goutte Restores Color to Faded or Gray Hair No matter how gray, faded, streakedor life'ess it may be, only one application of LaGoutte-aGoutte will restore the color to any shade of black, brown, drab or red. LaGoutte-a-Goutte is harmless, does not discolor the scalp, makes a lovely, ricb, lasting eolor that does not fade or rub off on the pillow. Makes the hair soft and glossy, with a natural, full-of-life appearance, and the hair can be washed as usual. IT REQUIRES ONLY ONE APPLICATION and NO AFTER SHAMPOO IS NECESSARY; takes only a few minutes, and can be applied by yourself in the privacy at your home. Any one of 32 shades you wish is given from the ONE package. Price, $1.25, postpaid. Order direct, or, if you'd first like to see how well it will appear on your hair Send me a Little Lock of Your Hair— I'll Color It Without Charge Cut it dose to hp.ad and say what color you wish. I have helped thousands of ladies with dandruff, oily or dry scalps, falling hair, gettinq bald, etc. Write fully. No charge for frank opinion. "SECRETS of BEAUTY," my new booklet, mailed free on request. L. PIERRE VALLIGNY Room 41, No. 34 W. 58th St., N, Y.