Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1926 - Feb 1927)

Behind the Silver Screen 49 famous for making actors use their own minds while enacting scenes, instead of letting them depend alone on direction, and he frequently says, "Now, think — think a little." But Bert says, with his eyes twinkling, that Lubitsch's foreign tongue has difficulty with our "th," and that what he says sounds like, "Now, stink — stink a little." Gene Tunney, the famous heavyweight prize fighter, who is scheduled to tangle with Jack Dempsey in New York during the month of September, has been in Hollywood, playing the lead in' a serial. Gene is very bashful with the ladies. One of our local lady interviewers, who is considered gushy by members of her own sex, pounced on him at a party and said, "Oh, Mr. Tunney, I just adore prize fighters ! You know, during my experience as a newspaper woman, I have interviewed so many famous fighters, and now it is just wonderful to have the pleasure of meeting you!" Gene blushed furiously and, in an effort to change the subject, he said, "Why, th-thank you. Did you ever interview John L. Sullivan when he was champion ?" The lady bristled and walked away, while Gene blushed the more when he remembered that Sullivan was champion fortv vears ago. We frequently mention some of the young actresses who are climbing the gilded ladder of fame in Hollywood, but we have shamefully neglected the young actors. There are two young men in particular whom we are watching. One is William Boyd, Cecil De Mille's featured actor and protege; the other is Carroll Nye. Boyd has been in pictures for six years, but had played only bits and small parts until about a year ago. He was offered leading roles by other producers years ago, but De Mille promised him his chance later if he would remain under his tutelege. We saw him in "The Road to Yesterday." and more recently, in "The Volga Boatman." In both pictures, he did the most significant acting we have seen in a long time. Two years ago, Carroll Nye was playing leads in the plays staged at the University of California. After he graduated from there, he appeared for a short time in stock companies in Los Angeles, and then hied him to Hollywood. He got extra parts and bits in the movies. Now he has been playing opposite Pauline Frederick in her new picture. He has gone a long wav in a short time. Another young man to achieve recent success in pictures — as a director, however, not as an actor — is Lewis Milestone. For three years he worked as a cutter, starting at twenty-five a week. He got a chance to direct for Warner Brothers, and made "The Cave Man," starring Matt Moore. When Thomas Meighan saw that picture, he prevailed upon Famous Players-Lasky to borrow Milestone to direct "The New Klondike," which turned out to be one of the best pictures Meighan has made in years. Elinor Fair will know it the next time her mother cleans her bungalow for her. Now Milestone is back at Warners' and is over the top as a director. Seen on Romance Lane : Raymond Griffith and Dolores Costello. Seen on Honeymoon Lane — and as happy as clams : William Boyd and Elinor Fair. Elinor Fair's mother told a good one on Elinor the other day. It seems that Elinor has a terrible time with housework when "between maids," for she is kept very busy playing at De Mille's studio. So Mamma Fair decided to take pity on her daughter one day, went over to her bungalow, and cleaned it from top to bottom. About five, Husband Bill arrived, breathless, with an armload of flowers, and proceeded to fill all the vases in the house. Elinor came while he was arranging the last lot and, glancing around the spotless house, she said dreamily, "What a difference flowers make in a home." Producers do slip up occasionally and let an actor "be himself" instead of having to act all over the place. George Walsh, I hear, is really playing the lead in a football picture, and it will be among the few that have ever been filmed in which a veteran football player has had a chance to chase a pigskin all over the screen. You know, George was a football star when he was in college. Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton and wives (one apiece, I mean) decided to go on a trip to the Yosemite Valley. The only road open at the time was closed, and Continued on page 106 Buster Keaton and Roscoe Arbuckle entered in a Rolls-Royce, but returned on a Yosemite Valley flat car.