Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1926 - Feb 1927)

33 o f the Star us, and all have their pet averthings annoy them as annoy you. A. L. Wooldridge at some time, that they scintillate with personality, and they make an effort to live up to the hallucination. There is the "Guess-who-this-is-speaking" person, who calls you on the phone, and the one who replies, "All rightee !" And there are a lot of others. Norma Talmadge says, for instance, that she has a certain clique marked for capital punishment. "Any one who has sat next to a gum smacker in a theater or who has stepped on some of his cast-off cuds," she says, "will join me in recommending electrocution. He is about as irritating as anything in the world could be." Norma is not the only star who has spoken so frankly. A number of them reveal here the things that annoy them. Read what they say, and see which aversions tally with your own. PAT O'MALLEY.— Automobile drivers ! Yet I myself own three cars, know how and why they run, and how to fix them if they don't. But the man who signals for a left turn and then turns to the right, or the guy with four-wheel brakes who likes to show how quick he can stop in a traffic jam, or the man who tries to pass where there isn't room — all these cause a rise in my temperature. And the person who incites me to homicidal mania is the man who toots his horn in a traffic tie-up. JOSIE SEDGWICK.— I can and will ride the roughest, gallopingest horse that can be found. But I will run a mile from a cat. I have never been able to endure one. MARY PHILBIN.— Automobile salesmen ! I have never owned an automobile nor indicated any intention of getting one. I do not know how to drive, and don't particularly care to learn, yet I am constantly besieged by salesmen, who ambush me at home, at the studio, or whenever I go out in public. Their constant attempts to sell me an automobile are making me all the more firm in the conviction that I don't want one ! REGINALD DENNY.— People who laugh at the wrong time in theaters. I have seldom gone to a play that some consummate ass did not laugh during a dramatic scene. Whenever I hear these brazen idiots, I want to commit murder, for I always think of the actors who are playing the scenes before such an audience. JOHN GILBERT.— The actor who tells you all about the lovely part he would have had if the director hadn't thought he wasn't quite the type. ELINOR FAIR.— "Doggy" affairs. They bore me to tears. Formal functions are my pet aversion. The little informal Mary Philbin. john Gilbert. "come just as-you-are-f rom-thestudio" get-together parties, I enjoy. But ritzy formal dinners and receptions simply aren't in my repertoire. BEBE DANIELS.— A "yes man's yes man." I hope I make myself fairly clear. It is really sad enough to have to experience a "yes man," the chap who just never can say "No !" But when Bebe Daniels. he is teamed up with another, who yes-es him, and the two of them are anywhere in my vicinity, you can write it down in large black letters that they are my idea of something to be avoided. I do love the sound of "No !" once in a while. NOAH BEERY. — The man who stops his automobile right in front of yours on a busy street, causing a traffic jam just when you're trying to keep an appointment. He gets out and spends ten minutes arguing with another driver about an alleged scratch on his fender. It makes me favor capital punishment ! RAYMOND GRIFFITH.— Any one who takes life too seriously. Also any one who takes himself too seriously. Life is too serious to be taken seriously. There isn't time for that. The "gimme" and "lemme have" boys are beyond the pale. Likewise, the man who punctuates his conversation with his finger pointed at you or jabbing at your vest ; the person who deplores the attitude of the younger generation ; the man who originates the names for Pullman cars ; and the funeral director who sends me a memorandum book every year. NORMA SHEARER.— The man who asks a waiter at a restaurant just how the food is prepared and if the chicken is good to-night and whether the Brussels sprouts are cooked with cream or butter — and then selects something entirely different ! RENEE ADOREE. — The woman who keeps you waiting in a store while she has the clerk bring out every bolt of goods in the place and then thanks her sweetly and takes a tiny piece for a sample. BUSTER KEATON.— The wise-cracker who "knew him when!" You know the bird. He's the champion liar in every town from Bangor, Maine, to ban Diego, California, and from Seattle to Miami. Mention anybody— Ty Cobb, Eddie Foy, Doc Cook, Kip Rhinelander, "Red" Grange, the Cherry Sisters, or the Smith Brothers — and this master mind can give you the lowdown on his private life, past and present. Mr. Knewhim-when is at his best in Hollywood. "Director So-and-so a genius? Be yourself!" argues the know-it-all. "Why, I knew him when he was hustling props out at the old Balboa lot. He couldn't direct a picture if he didn't have a good assistant. He's got Continued on page 94 Raymond Griffith.