Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

Hollywood High Lights 73 sonally, and she also is very cute. Mary Astor and Vera Reynolds are already known quite well to picturegoers, but have never been included before in a Wampas choice. The majority of the girls have an unusually good chance to prove what they can do during the new year to make themselves famous. Their coming-out party will be held about the time this magazine is published. Dolores the Glad. Dolores del Rio, who is also one of the Wampas stars, has made such a hit with the producers in her first screen performance, in Dorothy Mackaill's "Joanna," that she is to be featured in another production for First National directed by Edwin. Carewe. The way in which this girl is walking right into big parts is the amazement of all Hollywood. For an absolute newcomer, she also figures prominently in the colony's social affairs. Her execution of the Charleston with fandango variations has been a delight, though she herself does not care especially about the dance, even while doing it in her own individual and highly colorful manner. As you may have heard, Miss del Rio is a very beautiful, olive-skinned Mexican girl of high caste, and looks and acts it. She prides herself on the purity of her [Mexican blood and does not wish it confused with Spanish. Watch Mary Now. Lois Weber, Hollywood's one and only directress, has several discoveries of talent to her credit, such as Claire Windsor and Mary MacLaren, and is recognizedly quite clever in her method of dealing with younger players in particular. On that account, everybody is quite curious to know what effect she will have on Mary Philbin's destiny, for following a long absence, she has been selected to make 'Mary's next production. "Merry Go Round" was Miss Philbin's one good "break" on the screen, and she has been languishing for want of a proper vehicle ever since. "Stella Maris" was a big opportunity for her, but that is gruesome and grotesque to the last degree, and resembles too closely the efforts of a little girl playing with putty, ugly false teeth and a hunched back, trying to emulate Lon Chaney. For which, of course, Mary herself was in no way to blame. Another Chaney Impersonation! The title of Lon Chaney's new starring picture, a crook story, will probably be changed. It seems the company was rather afraid that the significance of "The Mocking Bird" might be misunderstood. "Probably they're right about it," said Marshall Neilan. "Sounds too much as though Chaney were doing an impersonation of a bird, and wearing feathers." Raymond Hatton and Wallace Beery are featured as a comedy team in Paramount' s "Behind the Front," a war comedy. Castles That Crumble. At a recent auction sale, the dwelling formerly occupied by Mary Miles Minter was stripped of its furnishings, and souvenir hunters had their heyday of bidding. Mary herself was not present, but her mother, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, attended, and referred to the abode as a "dream house" and said that the adornments were to have been used one day to furnish a castle on the Riviera. She and Mary, of course, have had endless court encounters over money matters and the sale of the residence furnishings was a result of this family break-up. The house is to be rented. It is not beyond range of probability that with the legal complications and all, the Minter money, gained on one of the most lucrative contracts ever signed in the films, will be depleted to quite an extent. Another Promising Hero. We have caught one glimpse of Robert Ames recently in that very excellent secret-service picture, "Three Faces East," and he registers a different and interesting personality — extremely natural. Ames is a stage player of considerable experience whom Cecil De Mille has under contract, and who will soon be given a big part in one of De Mille's special features. De Mille's other find, William Boyd, is winning a lot of fan letters on the strength of "The Road to Yesterday." Butter and Egg Man Note. A famous star only the other day actually told us that her make-up in a character sequence of a late film was so remarkable that even the studio gateman didn't recognize her ! After which, we will all now rise and sing "Glory, Hallelujah." [Continued on page 91]