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Brave, Blundering and Honest
Reginald Denny, whose first name doesn't fit him at all, is found to be a bouncing young Britisher energetically catering to the family trade of movie fans.
By Helen Rockwell
YOU can't call it fair, this business of sending an inquisitive female around to interview a popular male film star. If the actor is glib and at ease and tosses off charming anecdotes, he is accused of being an Earl Carroll for publicity. If he is tonguetied and shy, he is suspected of posing or of being the world's dumbest man. If he mentions his wife, it is believed he is making an appeal to the family trade. If he doesn't mention her, it is because he is jealous of her or because he doesn't want his public to know he is married. The actor just gets the bad breaks no matter how hard he tries. We interviewers, as we quaintly call ourselves, know a thing or two.
"Which brings us to Reginald Denny.
He talked about his wife at every conceivable point of the interview which I, with other scribes, had with him. He was glib and tossed off charming anecdotes. He wore clothtopped shoes a la Chaplin, and I forgot to ask him why. He was just so much like a nice boy you'd like to have the family meet. It is perfectly easy to take him as you find him, and you can't suspect him of anything. He's very
hard on interviewers — in which he's unlike most actors.
He called our visit the "necessary publicity," which was tough on my permanent wave but went a long way toward increasing my respect for him. For I have known actors to seek interviews through their publicity agents and then say shyly, when the interviewer arrives, "What magazine? Really, I don't know why the public should be interested in reading about me."
His name is Reginald. But it should have been Tom or Dick, for he typifies on the screen the wholesome American boy — just anybody's brother. You know the type — brave, blundering, and honest. Also rugged and slightly obtuse. A diamond in the rough, as it were. And who ever heard of a chap like that being called Reginald ?
He looks so much like a Tom or a Dick that it is with something of a shock that you hear him saying, "Really — I say — wouldn't you like some tea?" Of course, then
F?cu°icbh Advised by Joseph Schenck not to try pictures, Universal's boy star has managed
to do pretty well with his several handicaps.
you know — for the Toms and Dicks of America don't go in for tea. It is only the true Britisher who does that. So you realize that Reginald Denny is really English and not the Kiwanis-Rotary-Elk young man he appears to be in the films.
I understand he was sent to earth to take the curse off the name Reginald. He can do it if any one can !
And although he takes his tea like an Englishman and his publicity like a gentleman, and although his remarks are sprinkled with "By Joves, 3-ou know," he has something in common with those 100% American boys he plays. You see, he's trusting. I'm not promising you that you can sell him a gold brick, but — well, this is a story he tells on himself.
It was some years ago, and he was stranded in India, having been requested to leave the opera troupe of which he had been the dashing baritone. He had been fired Continued on page 110