Picture-Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

Over the Teacups 95 Continued from page 27 lovelier every day. I think I shall open a beauty shop where women can come and make faces under Kleig lights for hours every day. If there is anything in my theory — and there probably isn't — they will emerge as raving beauties. "The other night, I was down at Colleen Moore's house, and we got out some old photographs. There was one of the original thirteen Wampas Baby Stars, and you should have' seen it. They all looked years older than they do now. And so dowdy ! Colleen looked at least five years older than she does now — the picture was taken four years ago — Helen Ferguson looked like a middle-aged matron, and Bessie Love looked like a world-weary and hardened sinner. Every one in the picture looked tacky and old-fashioned except Patsy Ruth Miller, who really looked quite modern." Fanny rambled on about this person and that until suddenly we found ourselves in Albuquerque, where we got out to send some telegrams. A boy rushed up with a crazy wire of greetings from Virginia Valli and Julanne Johnston, all full of such sentiments as, "Having a swell time. Wish you were with us. X marks the room where we are stopping. Here come the girls now." Before we could compose a suitable answer to it, a crowd of fans rushed up and wanted to take kodak pictures of Carmelita. Of course, she looked gorgeous. She never gets careless about her appearance, even on a train. Being a motion-picture fan in Albuquerque is an organized business. The enthusiastic ones meet every train with kodaks and autograph albums, and grab all the important stars as they pass through on their way to New York from Hollywood. "Oh, I wish I were in a hydroplane," Fanny mused, disconsolately. "Just a week ago to-day, I was having the most marvelous time. I went over to visit the James Cruze fleet at Catalina Island, where 'Old Ironsides' was being made. And I was so interested in watching Wallace Beery and Johnnie Walker and all the rest working, and in watching the twenty ships being directed by radio, that I stayed until it looked as though I would be late for a dinner engagement back in town. So some one sent for a hydroplane to take me home. "I met Charles Farrell for the first time over there. I don't recall ever having seen him on the screen, but I am willing to bet anything that he will make a tremendous hit in 'Old Ironsides.' He has the juvenile lead, you know. It must have been a thrilling week for him when he got the part. He had such a long period of playing extra parts, that he at one time got terribly discouraged about ever getting ahead. And then, the Fox company started giving him good parts, and just a day or two before he landed the leading role in 'Old Ironsides,' he signed a five-year contract with Fox. He is perfectly charming-looking, and has the most attractive manner." Of course, Fanny is quite biased on the subject of Wallace Beery. She thinks he is perfect for any part. I dare say that if any one asked her who would be the perfect Romeo, she would nominate him even for that. "Oh, why am I leaving Hollywood !" Fanny wailed. "When I love it so !" She had been staying at Colleen Moore's house, and been having a grand time. "I don't see why the continent should have to be between me and Colleen. I asked her not to have any guests in for dinner and not to entertain for me while I was there, and I enjoyed it hugely. We just played around together. I watched her at the studio all day — she is always at work — and at night, we ran pictures in her living room after dinner. We saw Richard Barthelmess in 'Ranson's Folly' — that wasn't so good, but the next night, we ran 'Miss Nobody,' starring Anna O. Nilsson, and that was great. Arthur Stone is screamingly funny in it. I think some day he will be a second Harry Langdon. His pantomime is so marvelous. He is supporting Colleen in 'Delicatessen,' but then, she always does have wonderful supporting casts. There is a sensible star for you. She doesn't want to grab all the glory, but insists on having the very greatest actors with her. She says it is an inspiration to work with Jean Hersholt. Isn't she lucky to have him in the very last picture he will make before being starred out at the Universal lot ?" Fanny chattered on, her words fairly tripping over one another in her enthusiasm. "Did you see Norma Shearer in her make-up for 'The Waning Sex?'" she asked. "She looks cunning in mannish, tailored things. She plays a woman lawyer, and she is scared stiff for fear she will offend some of them. The picture is a bit farcical, and she is afraid they will think they are being treated lightly. You see, she wins her case in court ill the story, but by legs rather than by learning. "And did you hear about Marie Prevost taking up bicycling? She had the most awful experience. Between pictures she decided that a little strenuous exercise would do her and Kenneth Harlan both good, and they thought that, by putting on old clothes and going bicycling through the back roads of Beverly Hills, they could remain quite inconspicuous. They reckoned without their fans. First they passed a school, just as it was letting out, and a lot of children ran after them screaming, 'Where are the cameras ?' No matter how frantically they pedaled, they couldn't escape them. Motorists passing by thought there was some excitement, so they joined the chase, and finally pedestrians ran from all directions. In the end, there was such a noisy crowd pursuing them that Corinne Griffith came rushing out of her house to see what was the matter just as the riders dropped their wheels and rushed into her house. There will be no more bicycling for those two ! "Well, here we are out on the great open spaces." Fanny was staring out Of the window, and seemed to be talking entirely for her own amusement. "Picture Vilma Banky galloping through this kind of country, as a typical American girl in 'The Winning of Barbara Worth.' She will be lovely, but somehow her delicate beauty is a rather extreme idealiza-— tion of the type the desert produces. I always think of her as she looked at the opening of 'Chariot's Revue' — so ethereal and flowerlike and dainty. People go to see shows in Los Angeles, but they find themselves staring at her, if she is in the audience. She is so unobtrusive and shy, and yet has so many good reasons for bursting into the limelight, that she is wholly delightful. "S'ome day I'll be raving like that about Olive Borden. You just wait. That girl has a great future, and out at the Fox studio they figure that, by giving her every advantage of careful study and good vehicles, she will be one of the most popular stars in the business in two years. She is awfully young. She can easily afford to wait two years for her days of glory. "It's a nice business. Where but in Hollywood can you see so many girls winning business success and great public adulation by the time they are twenty? It's nice to see the endless procession of Rolls-Royces in Hollywood, not carrying pompous old men and women as they do in New York, but pretty girls young enough to get a thrill out of earning them and ridine in them themselves." The closer we got to New York, the more mournful Fanny became. "But," we chorused, "there will always be trains going to Hollywood." "Yes," Fanny admitted, "and I will probably take one very soon."