Picture-Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

86 It's hard to believe that this matronly person is the same as the slim and girlish figure on the opposite page. IN five weeks Priscilla Dean misplaced twenty-one pounds, reducing her hip measurement from forty-three to thirty-six inches, and each arm circumference. by. two inches! As a result, she has embarked upon a new phase of her career. Priscilla was a riot in those wild melodramas until her popularity slumped, partly because of repetition of type, but chiefly because she had let herself get too fat. But the Priscilla you will now see is a slim girl, prettier and more youthful than she has ever looked. The tempestuous Wildcat is to be reformed into a discreetly racy lady farceuse, who A whirlwinds her way into and out of hilari J| ous scrapes. In "The Danger Girl," and later films with which the Metropolitan Company plan to follow her new debut, she is presented as a sort of feminine Reginald Denny. The Priscilla of one hundred and forty-four pounds would have had a heavy time of it, dashing — pardon, lumbering — through these frivolous sketches. But to the Priscilla of one hundred and twenty-three pounds they will be a lark. And to Alice Browning, wife of Director Tod, and life-saver of half the careers of Hollywood, should go a From Matron to It was Priscilla Dean who effected this surprising the system of dieting that she used, as well as her pro By Myrtle medal for the transformation. Instead of getting a reward, however, Alice had to shell out cold cash, for in reawakening Priscilla's ambition, she lost a wager. Canny, wise Alice ! It costs her a little money at times, but the good she does with her taunting bets is well worth it. She and Priscilla and I chanced to be lunching together one day shortly before Priscilla was scheduled to start a personal-appearance tour, at the prospect of which she was considerably bored. "I rather like the public-appearance part of it," she said, "but what a lot of grief, chasing from one town to another." "Will you stop complaining?" Alice's voice, always decisive, had a particularly cutting edge, and her disapproving eyes surveyed Priscilla in deliberate scorn. There was a very lot of Priscilla to look at. She bulged out all around and had a promising terrace of chins. "You've let yourself stagnate. You're a victim of fat. You used to be so energetic, but lately you've become the laziest creature I know. "And you're even developing a bad disposition. Your friends have always liked your frankness. You're so typically Priscilla, and we're sure of getting the truth A vigorous game of tennis whenever she had time was part of Pris \ cilia's program. jar from vou along with no petty flattery. But now you are alienating your best chums by being unnecessarily disagreeable. It's all because you've become so plump. When fat piles up in layers, the brain goes off duty." "Is this by any chance a lecture?" Priscilla yawned. "I'm talking what the men call cold turkey. Take my advice or leave it. But if you don't do some strenuous thinking, and follow it with action, you're done for. Your looks will go, and then your career. You worked hard and you made good." Alice's hand gently pressed Priscilla's. "Are you going to throw it all away? You have a lot of money saved, of course, but what will you do with the rest of your life? "Tod said he heard an executive of your company say that if you took off some \ weight they might put you into com edv drama." "I've always wanted to do those speedy, light things, instead of the