Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

59 Teacups latives develops when Fanny cent triumphs in the film world. Bystander "But if you're interested in budding romances, Pauline Garon and Lowell Sherman go everywhere together. She will probably murder me for mentioning it. And Anna Q. Nilsson is here, having divorced her last husband. No, I don't mean her last — I mean her most recent. "Corinne Griffith and Anna Q. Nilsson and I went to the opening of Ina Claire's show together ■ and Corinne vows that people nearly trampled on her trying to get a look at Anna. "Corinne is a true sport. She nearly froze in a thin evening wrap just because the only other one she had with her was ermine and she knew that Anna would be wearing her ermine. Alice Joyce sat two rows behind us at the theater and we were all so delighted to see her — Corinne and Anna are her best friends, you know — that we chatted back and forth, quite oblivious of the people between. "Alice came back to New York to make 'Dancing Mothers.' I love to have her here because she acts as a model of what the well-dressed woman should wear at first nights. Whenever you see a gorgeous chinchilla wrap floating down the aisle, you may depend upon it, it's either she or Hope Hampton. No one else could afford one. "Corinne's arrival in New York was one of those ironic tricks that Providence plays sometimes. You know, she hates being conspicuous or having a fuss made over her, so she never notifies the officials of her company what train she is coming on. This time she had her way. Not one person but myself was there to meet her, and I met the wrong section of the Century. She couldn't even get a porter to carry her luggage. She not only missed the brass bands and flowers and photographers — she was completely ignored ! "She rushed around while she was here and bought some beautiful clothes to wear in 'Mademoiselle Modiste' to say nothing of a string of real pearls. But even Corinne has her trials. Her company insisted on changing the title of 'Caesar's Wife,' which she had just finished. That title has some real significance, but she couldn't convince them of it. They submitted to her pages and pages of new titles for it and she finally chose the least offensive one, which was 'Infatuation.' But she'll always regret that it wasn't put out under the original title. I suppose the company thought some foolish exhibitor would think it a play of the time of Caesar !" "Oh, well," I philosophized, seizing a moment when Fanny paused to catch her breath, "it just seems inevitable that stars and their companies should disagree." "Yes," Fanny agreed. "Consider Gloria Swanson." "Just what about Gloria Swanson?" "Oh, haven't you heard?" She's always surprised when some one hasn't heard everything she has. "Well, perhaps this isn't true, but the chances are that it is. It seems that Gloria was so unhappy over 'Stage Struck,' her new picture, when she saw it cut and titled, that she wanted to pay the cost of production and put it on the shelf. But Paramount insisted on re Photo by Eugene Robert Richee Alice Joyce returned to New York to film "Dancing Mothers," and just . incidentally to lend a smart note of fashion to first nights. leasing it, and I think they were entirely right. It's a crude, slapstick comedy with humor which, though not low, is at least descendant. But it makes audiences simply roar, and I think it will make a lot of people like Gloria. "You know how funny the public is," she went on, but I couldn't resist interrupting. "No one knows that but the box-office people." "Well, anyway," she continued resolutely, "when a rumor gets started, no matter how false it is, the public seems to swallow it. And lately, a lot of people have got the idea that Gloria is getting stiff and aloof and high hat. Her work in this picture will certainly kill that rumor. No one who felt the least self-important could have done the foolish things Gloria did in 'S'tage Struck.' "Corinne Griffith wants awfully much to play pictures with a farcical twist. That isn't slapstick by any means, but it shows an effort on her part to come down and entertain audiences and not be stiff and dignified in the way some directors want her to be." Fannv glanced idly around the Ritz, which had all the quiet and peace of a bargain sale, and gasped, "Oh,