Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

She Wasn't Allowed to Be Herself 21 what I am to-day," she hummed lightly. "I hope you're satisfied. I'm not!" Chin cupped in palm, she looked out upon a drizzly, gray day, and pondered upon the past. Fred Niblo had called her once for a good-girl role. But Fox, to whom she was under contract, had wanted seventeen hundred a week for her, so she didn't get the part, but she was grateful to Niblo for having perceived in her a dormant sweetness. "Havoc" at last put her over. But her rosy dreams of subsequent good roles soon faded. Bids from other companies came for her services, but the salary asked for her by Fox was exorbitant, and the bidders refused to pay it. Then came "the most unkindest cut of all." F. W. Murnau, after seeing "Havoc," cabled from Germany asking to have Margaret for the lead in "Sunrise," which he was soon to direct for Fox. She swam in bliss. A lead ! A good girl ! Murnau arrived in Hollywood. He did not send for her. Then, one day, she read in the paper that the cast had been assembled for "Sunrise." Her name was not included. Ten minutes later a whirlwind swept into Murnau's office. She was plenty mad. The German, irritated at the intrusion, frowned. In crystalline tones, hard with anger, she lashed him. Since coming to America, he had seen some of the poorer pictures in which she had obligingly played, and had decided that her talent in "Havoc" must have been merely a flash in the pan. "Whom would I like for the role?" he said, in answer to her question. "Pola Negri or Lya de Putti." To only a few close friends has Margaret revealed her true inner self, and Myrtle Gebhart, with whom she is here shown, is one of those few. But at last she has rebelled, and is trying now to bring to the surface the sweet side of her nature that has been hidden away for so long. At left, Margaret in one of her typical ' 'alluring-lady ' ' roles. "Can you get either of them?" she flashed at him. "No-oo," he drawled. "Then, what are you going to do?" "I am taking tests," he said, in his slow, careful English. "Take one of me !" "You are not the type — not vulgar enough." Beside herself with rage, she flounced out. The paroxysm, bred of acute disappointment, passed. Disgusted, she refused to go when later he decided to call her for a test after all. She thought the cards were stacked against her and that she wouldn't get a fair deal, though she finally made the \ test and was given the role of — the — vamp, not the lead. *~ ^ Then she blew up, and ended by leaving Fox. After a spell of intensive thinking, she determined that she must effect some change in herself. She went to a friend of several years standing, a shrewd, clever woman. "You need organizing," said this friend. "Be yourself, Marguerite. Give the sweetness in you a chance." The old friend has taken Margaret firmly in hand. As a result, her life is becoming as tranquil as her volatile nature will allow, and her timorous real self is daring to show itself. "It took me five years to establish the I-don't-care girl. Tell me," she asked eagerly, "can I, in the next five years, make 'em see me, like me? The real me?" It is hard to break out of a rut, but I rather think Margaret will convince Hollywood that her explosive charge is not dynamite, but just a firecracker. I hope so. Because, as you may have guessed, I like, not Margaret, but Marguerite.