Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

(Hollywood High Lights 65 who played the terrific role of the Eurasian girl in "The Shanghai Gesture." Fox had her under contract for nearly a year before she was given anything of consequence to do, and now they have her slated for featured roles in a series of new pictures, the first of which will be "The River," with Charles Farrell. May Be Pola's Successor. These new dramatic actresses the studios are discovering prove more than interesting. For instance, the lethal and sinister Olga Baclanova. Have you seen her in "The Man Who Laughs," "The Street' of Sin,"' or any of her other appearances? Paramount has evoked decided attention by letting it be noised about that they expect Olga to fill the place vacated on their program by Pola. We can't see any resemblance between their work, though they are both great actresses. Lois Gets the Applause. Lois Wilson has been working sixteen hours a day lately. She has been playing the role of a princess in "The Queen's Husband" at the Vine Street Theater; and at one of the studios she lias been portraying a sedate village miss, in a picture. Lois' friends have all been congratulating her on her success as a stage actress, and Edward Everett Horton, who is starred, had this impressed on him not long ago. He drove Lois to the theater one evening, I and for fun thought he would ask the. garage man, where he parked his car, what = others who left their cars there thought of the performance. t* "What do you hear about our show?" he asked the man. "Oh, everybody likes it," was the answer. "Do they talk about it much?" queried Eddie. "Oh yes," was the reply, "they certainly do." "I don't suppose they say very much about Miss Wilson," ventured Eddie. "Oh, don't they?" sniffed the garage man. "Huh, they talk about her more than they do about you." Whereupon Eddie stepped right out of the picture, and Lois vowed that never would she park her car any place else, when she came to the theater, except at this particular station. fortable, particularly when in her dressing room, by resurrecting some old dress of inconspicuous aspect. But the other day she dropped in, wearing a brandnew outfit of very modish design. "The effect was most dismaying," Norma told us. "Everybody stopped me, and said : 'What's the matter? Who died? You must be funeral.' " Who's getting married ? ing to a wedding or a Lina and June Chums. First prize for being the most devoted friends in Hollywood goes this month to Lina Basquette and June Collyer. They seem to go everywhere together. Lina and June didn't know each other before they became Wampas stars a few months ago, but their liking for each other developed almost immediately. They have a common interest in that they both spent much time in New York. June, of course, was born there, and Lina lived there for several years, following her marriage to the late Sam Wrarner. Wherever June goes she seems to win admirers. Not long ago, she was introduced at a circus benefit, and everybody chanted her praises. She is a tall, willowy type, with just a slight resemblance to Julanne Johnston. Norma Disturbs Studio. Norma Talmadge simply can't dress up around the studio. It is her habit, you know, to make herself com A Hermitage De Luxe. William S. Hart may live in solitude and isolation, but it is a solitude and isolation of grandeur. We hear more about Bill's place in the country than about any other, and we are going up to visit him very soon, on his express invitation, and will tell you about it when we manage to make the hegira. . Meanwhile, we hear that Bill has a gorgeous Spanish-Aztec living room, fifty-five by thirty feet, :and a swimming pool encircled by Roman columns. The house is built with wooden pegs instead of nails, in true primitive style, and is filled with huge bear-rugs, choice Navajos, and other inspiring suggestions of the old wild and woolly, rather than the new, effete West. A Fashionable Equipage. We haven't, seen it yet. But it must be a sight. Jack Gilbert and Greta Garbo ensconced in the extra rear seat of a new Ford coupe, while a chauffeur drives them ! This is occasionally their means of locomotion about the Metro-Goldwyn lot, when they are in a particularly larkish mood. The Ford, by the way, belongs to Jack. Casting "The Bridge." The literary plum of the season has been captured by Metro-Goldwyn. Naturally, it is "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," by Thornton Wilder. Who'll play Uncle Pio? Who'll be the Abbess? Who the two brothers? Who the old Peruvian solitary — the mother, unloved of the girl who goes to Spain to be married ? Who the actress ? It may be strange, but we can hardly visualize anybody now on the screen, in these . various roles. Dolores del Rio or Lupe Velez — perhaps the latter — might be able to impersonate the actress. Possibly Alice Joyce could be the Abbess. The two brothers are less easy to visualize, although there are a number of actors who might qualify, by virtue of their LatinAmerican antecedents. It will take a skillful actor to portray Uncle Pio. The book contains one item of striking pictorial interest— the falling of the bridge. It would seem to be a film for a Victor Seastrom to direct — although again, Fred Niblo might do it with just the right touch. Joan Herself Again. After experimenting with various extravagances in the matter of coiffure, Joan Crawford finally decided to go back to her own hair. She seized the occasion of an illness to allow it to grow out naturally. Most of her friends expressed: satisfaction over the fact that she finally eliminated the rather feverish blond-red that she Alberta Vaughn is up to her old tricks again, for F. 0. B., after naughtily playing hooky in a yearn for great, big serious roles.