Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

Over the Teacups 53 "He's making two pictures at once out at Goldwyn while he scouts around for a suitable story to launch himself and his wife — ZaSu Pitts — in as costars. Isn't that Betty Blythe over there?" She didn't even wait for an answer, but scuttled away in the direction of the black hat. She didn't return for ages, and I felt just catty enough to suspect that she was trying to attract the attention of Monte Blue, who was sitting at the next table. "Perhaps he was waiting for some one," Fanny defended herself when she came back. "But what makes you think it was you?" I protested. She waved my question aside with a mysterious and meaningful glance that would have been a credit to Nazimova, to whom it was a tribute of imitation. "I always have the funniest experiences meeting people," she announced airily. "Last week I went up to meet Betty Blythe at the theater where 'The Queen of Sheba' was showing, and I was late, so 1 asked the doorman if he had seen her waiting there. PL looked so crusty that I tried to put him in his place by saying that I had an appointment with her. 'Aw, get a new story !' he bellowed at me. 'You're about the two hundred and eightieth one who has sprung that this afternoon since she was seen coming in here.' "And the Ballins had an awful time finding me up at the Plaza the night 1 met them. We were all supposed to dine with a mutual friend and at the last minute the friend phoned them that she couldn't get there, so they said they'd come anyway and trust to luck that they vvrould find me. Every time a woman came in and looked around hopefully one of them would ask her if she was Fanny. Mabel took the young-looking ones and Hugo tool the ones on the shady side of thirty, tmtil the doorman began to look at them suspiciously. Imagine the conservative Ballins in such a position ! "They're engaged in the popular sport now of trying to find a suitable story for their next production. No one knows what a terrible time some players Photo by Donald Biddle Keyes Agnes Ayres says that living in a desert holds no terrors for her now that she has worked in the midst of a studio sandstorm. have finding stories to suit them. Rubye de Remer says she's done nothing since she finished 'Pilgrims of the Night' but flit from author to author and from book to book, looking for a story for her next picture." "She exaggerated," I broke in. "At least half the time she's spent in trying on the gorgeous new creations that her modiste sent her from Paris and New York. She's the despair of the players who do their shopping in Hollywood, she has such beautiful clothes." "Speaking of clothes," Fanny chirped excitedly, "have you heard about Hope Hampton?" I half expected to hear that she had acquired a gown made entirely of diamonds, but apparently she hasn't thought of that yet. "The Pathe news took some pictures of her at Atlantic City when she officially introduced the rolling bath houses at the Ritz-Carlton. She wore a sealskin bathing suit which was ingenious to say the least. But the New York censors didn't seem to appreciate it. They said 'thumbs down' on Hope, and now all of her friends who didn't see her in the suit are terribly disappointed that they can't see it on the screen. "She's finished 'Star Dust,' and is considering doing 'Irene' next. The tragic part of her doing 'Irene' in pictures, though, is that the musical comedy included lots of musical numbers that she sings beautifully. They'll have to perfect a phonograph attachment to the projection machine so that Hope can sing for the motion-picture audiences, too. "Priscilla Dean's next picture is going to be Cynthia Stockley's 'Wild Honey.' Excepting Rupert Hughes, that makes Cynthia Stockley my favorite screen author. She wrote 'Poppy,' you know, Peggy Shaw took the easy road to fame — the Ziegfeld Follies route.