Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

Advertising Section 107 Norma Talmadge's New Leading Man Continued from page 73 "All right, all right," I acknowledged. "But I wish you would hang those darts back on the wall." And I heaved a sigh of relief when, with the greatest veneration, he at last did. This Gilbert Roland is a very sensitive, high-strung fellow. Born in Mexico of Spanish parentage, he has the Latin's love for color and beauty. He speaks with a slight accent, but it is not very evident. Occasionally, he goes about with that secret-sorrow look affected by so man)' cinema youths. At other times, he is very exultant. While talking of Spain, for instance, he walked eagerly about. "This" — he pointed to a Sierra landscape — "is Spain. This"— he stopped by some clusters of multicolored flowers — "is Spain. And this, too." He tenderly regarded the painting of a young girl dressed in what I took to be a foreign costume. Who was she, I asked. ."Clara — Clara Bow," came the surprised answer, "when she was about twelve." And Clara, so I recognized, it was. When Gilbert Roland first came to Hollywood, he went through the usual hardships. I was pleased he did not mention them until I asked to hear about them. It is probable that many of you saw this young player in "The Plastic Age," the story of wild college life made by Schulberg before he entered the Lasky fortress. Reviewers spoke well of Roland's work in that pkture. Clara Bow and Donald Keith were the two other wild collegians. When Schulberg joined Paramount this youthful trio went with him. Clara immediately rose. The boys, somehow, stayed on earth. "My dear boy," Schulberg explained to the aggrieved Mr.. Roland, "there just isn't any part suitable for you right now — but don't get discouraged." So Gilbert, who would do anything Schulberg told him to do, for it was Schulberg who gave him his first chance in pictures, waited. And waited. But outside of giving him a not-very-palatable part with Bebe Daniels in "The Campus Flirt," Paramount continued to do nothing with him. So, after a year, Gilbert left the company and struck out on his own. He appeared in "The Blonde Saint" for First National. Then came another spell of waiting. And just when he had reached a state of the very blackest despair, he was chosen to play opposite Norma Talmadge in "Camille." The fact that he did not break out in rhapsodical outbursts about having been given the part may have been a blind to cover an inner excitement. "You surely feel great, though, don't you, to know you are having such a splendid break?" I asked as I left him, hoping to get at least one comment on "Camille." "Listen," he replied, "I can't say just what I think about it all. I i only know it is my greatest chance so far." "Then you really do prefer pictures to bullfighting?" I urged. "What !" Mr. Roland looked smitten. "I say, my boy, you don't know what it means. You haven't got the Spanish temperament. If they'd let me, I'd go into the arena to-morrow ! The combat, the excitement, the bellowing, snorting beast charging down on you •" Staggering out into the fresh air I wondered about this young anomaly. When he should have been raving about "Camille," he was going crazy over bulls ! It doesn't seem right, does it? WRITERS! Marceline Keeps Cool Continued from page 43 Her calmness toward all things pertaining to the movies remained unshaken even when she was engaged to play opposite Barrymore in "The Beloved Rogue." While others thrilled, Marceline merely said, "He is a very wonderful actor — and the prestige will help me — but there won't be much me in the picture, will there?" Success, to this cool young lady — who becomes an impulsive girl of eighteen only when really exciting things, like parties, are mentioned — has no glamour. It simply means work more interesting than any other, financial independence, lovely clothes, furniture, cars, and other luxuries. Marceline has climbed the stairs only to the first landing. Another flight is before her, and still others, winding, twisting, leading on and up. Pausing not to glance over her shoulder into the pinched but not unhappy days of her childhood, she climbs — and she will continue to climb, up and up, this springtime Day on whom the sunlight glows. 'The students of Palmer Institute certainly receive big value." "The Palmer courses are the best I know anything about, and the students certainly receive big value for what they pay," says Carl Clausen, writer for The Saturday Evening Post and fifty other magazines. "The fact that not only beginners, but many professional writers, are numbered among the students speaks well for the Institute." / / r Palmer training is psycho1 o gi c a 1 , t h o r o u gh ! It strengthens, enriches your present talent. 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