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26
An Innocent Abroad
Mary Philbin, who for five years has been sheltered from all contacts outside of her home and her work, is at last beginning to enter a wider social life.
AN innocent is abroad in Hollyr\ wood.
For Mary Philbin has made her social debut.
The shyest wallflower of Hollywood is on the verge of becoming a vogue. If she wanted to very much, and if her mother would let her, she might lead the popularity lists.
On the rare occasions when she used to appear at parties, she would shrink timidly into a corner. The boys were polite about asking her to dance, some even hinting that they would like to take her out. But two's company and three's a crowd. Besides, Mary had little appeal.
So she sat and watched other girls flattered with attentions without an atom of envy, grateful for being invited.
Now it is like a football rush, the way the boys crowd around her. She may unintentionally start a reform movement. One sheik has even given up smoking cigarettes in the hope of being thought nice enough to call on her ! I expect the Charleston to be superseded by checkers airyday now.
To take her, unchaperoned. to the theater is an honor which merits a boast. It is like a medal, this official stamp that one's character is impeccable.
The truth is that many of our men are getting bored with the flapper play girls who try so hard to be zippy and cynical. A wave of reaction has brought back appreciation of modesty and reserve.
"When I dance with Mary I feel I have something sacred in my arms," I heard a young actor, half abashed, say one evening. "She's spiritual. Not ethereal, because she's a real girl. But like girls used to be and aren't any more. She hasn't cheapened
By Myrtle Gebhart
herself. And it's not the feeling of 'little sister' protection, for she has such a quaint dignity that you can't kid with her. She simply appeals to the best ideals in a man."
Mary's contact with Hollywood is restricted to its better elements. She attends the theater and concerts and the opera; she is present at the gala movie premieres ; she dines occasionally at the Montmartre. Unobtrusive still, she holds back, but how interest does radiate from and about her corner !
At a formal dinner party, she says little, but her every quick, eager gesture betrays a birdlike inquisitiveness, and her eyes, darting from one face to another, fearful of missing something, are so alive that they kindle enthusiasm. People smile tolerantly, and find themselves responding. Her naivete is both amusing and refreshing. To what has become boresome to most of us, she brings a freshness, a curiosity, that stimulate.
She is like a child at her first party, prim, watchful of her manners, proud of her new frock, anxious to have a good time without quite knowing how.
Her first appearance in a cafe caused such a ripple of astonishment that the chatter ceased, a medley of voices clipped by the startled, breathless hush. It seemed uncanny, that sudden silence.
The writer used to catch herself wondering how long Mary Philbin could be held back from the life surging about her in Hollywood.