Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1926 - Feb 1927)

30 The Sketchbook Photo by Clarence S. Bull Dorothy Devore wishes some producer would let her play comedy roles. to be great ! Irving Thalberg is personally supervising, and with the United States Marines helping us, we ought to come out with a big superspecial." We strode in sight of the Vidor set. The "Hello, Bills" flew thick and fast. We talked to Jack Gilbert and King Vidor, and also to some extra men Bill knew. Jack told us he was not going to make "The Back Slapper," after all, as it was thought it might "kill" him. Bill said he had heard that lie might do it, instead ! "Yow!" he laughed. "They think it might kill Jack, so they give it to me." When Jack stepped back before the cameras, Bill said, "He's the finest actor on the screen. And a great fellow." We dallied around a little after that, and then I went home. When I saw that he wasn't particularly crazy about answering questions, I didn't pry him any more about his personal affairs and his ambitions. After all, his personal affairs are quite uninvolved. He's single, white, very handsome, and over twenty-one. He's not wild about cafes or first-night premieres, because they cramp his style. As for his ambitions, I imagine they are quite simple. Just at present, the world is his little tame oyster. They are banking on him heavily, out at Metro, as a sort of Richard Dix, and good roles such as he had in "Memory Lane" and "Brown of Harvard" are pleasantly falling his way. Don't miss him in "Tell It to the Marines." The Yellow Hat. Dorothy Devore wore yellow into the Athletic Club — a yellow hat. You may or may not know about that club, but it's as staid and conservative as Times newspapers and national banks. So when Dorothy wore yellow into the dining room, which was filled with realtors and civic officials, it was really an index to the girl's character, setting her down as gay and courageous and a little impudent. She and I got a shaded table just off a shaft of sunlight, and the yellow hat gleamed defiantly in the midst of the conservatism. "What I want to do, other than come into an easy million," said Dorothy, "is to get some producer to see me in a comedy character, somewhere between a Mabel Normand ragamuffin and a lady Harold Lloyd. Sort of a wistful, funny little girl in perilous situations. I think that is the sort of thing I should be doing, instead of ingenues and neglected wives. Don't you?" I glanced at the yellow hat. I said I did. "But just because no one sees me in that type of role doesn't mean that I'm going to stay oft the screen until what I want comes my way," she continued, emphatically. "I think it is a big mistake for an} one to quit the screen to hold out for anything. You may come back, but never on the same footing. So if I can't get what I want, I'll take what 1 get." The amazing part about that is, that Dorothy is really in a position to hold out for just what she wants — I mean financially. Unlike most of the girls, she isn't dependent on the screen for a livelihood. She has a charming and wealth} husband, who quite good-naturedly is always interfering with her career, wanting to take her on vacations to places like Honolulu and Palm Beach. In fact, Dorothy was, at that very time, winding up a picture in a hurrv, in order to pack to sail for Honolulu in less than a week's time. She said she knew she shouldn't go — there were interesting contracts on hand, and contracts are contracts. But, also, Honolulu in the early summer is Honolulu in the early summer ! So she gave in, and appeased her conscience by calling it a halfbusiness trip. Her husband owns a chain of theaters on the Hawaiian Islands, and Dorothy will make personal appearances in the largest and most important of them. She has been in the islands before, and she says the people there are quite keen about the movies. I imagine the people are quite keen about seeing Dorothy, too. If they think all American girls are like her, what an "ad" she is for her native land ! Imagine having a national prototype as pretty and peppy and popular as Dorothy. "I'll be gone only a month," said the vivacious yellowhatted lady, "and when I come back " And when she comes back, I'll bet you anything that, in a little less than no time, she'll be playing — well, say a character somewhere between a ragamuffin and — you know the rest. Duane's Profile. Duane Thompson is the cutest little girl in Hollywood. She has always been cute, but she has never been so cute as she is now, with her new nose. No one else ever noticed anything wrong with her old nose, but for a lono time, Duane was dissatisfied. So she told all her