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Why Is Ronald Colman So Aloof?
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And now to come back to the present.
Certain Hollywood film circles regard Colman as a recluse, because he is never seen at any of the "latest-craze" cabarets. But while these cliques are expressing sweet nothings over tea at the Montmartre, Colman may be seen taking a sail with Dick Barthelmess, who is one of his most intimate friends. The only lady permitted to accompany them is Dick's small child, Mary Hay. This three-year-old siren can make both stars jump to her every whim ; she does it with more guile than a vamp ten times her age could employ.
Last summer you might have seen Mary Hav with her two cavaliers on a secluded part of the beach. You might alsos have heard her joyous shrieks as Colman swooped down on her from behind and swung her high above his head. He is — need I say it ? — extremely fond of children.
Though still possessing faint traces of that Byronic gloom, Colman sees the comical side of nearly everything; but only his friends see this humorous streak that is in him. He once told me that he thought he rather preferred to play in comedies, such as he has made with the Talmadge girls, than in the romantic things that he usually makes.
At times, Colman seems quite boyish in his talk. He abbreviates many of his words. With him it is, "I won't be a sec" or "Wait half a mo."
I can possibly explain one reason why Colman thoroughly despises insincerity. Those who have been through the same thing can understand the heartrending,
Slow to make friends, he's the stanchest fellow in the world to those he does make. He and Vilma Banky are frequent companions.
Though Ronald would rather read than go to cabarets, he's far from being the formidable person that some would brand him, and has quite a cheery sense of humor.
discouraging time he had in New York a few years ago when he was looking for work and no one would pay any attention to him. Then suddenly he shot to the top. When he had won fame, men who had seen nothing in him worth five dollars a day when he had asked for it fell over each other to get to him first. People who had perhaps looked the other way when he had come to them before now were ready to lick his boots. Only such bitter struggles with adversity can show one the difference between genuineness and insincerity. Colman has learned this difference, and that is why he can so easily discern it.
Ronald Colman is admired by all. "We can often like some one not good for us to like ; but we can admire only a person really worth while," a cynical young actress once remarked to me. Colman is a man whom one can admire, for he possesses all those qualities that attract admirationeven from those who profess not to like him.
Charles Lane, who has been Colman's friend for several years, shares a house with him, just outside the picture colony. "Away here," Ronald once told me, "you are just out of reach."
So when not out with any of his few intimates, Continued on page 111