Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

104 Continued from page 47 on her way abroad, returning, when the picture was completed, to make still another Fox film. Of course, it was glorious in Europe, and just the place to forget unfortunate contracts, for Nick — Miss Carol's particular Nick — was a member of the same troupe, and the whole company in the course of their travels went to Venice. It needs no effort of the imagination to picture two young people in love in Venice. "Every night," says Miss Carol, who is not inhibited, "Nick and I used to practice our love scenes for the picture in a gondola in the Grand Canal." In the new era it seems that one may still live, but does not have to suffer for one's art. At any rate, there is no record that Director David Butler had any complaint about the realism which found its way into the film. The Younger Set. For Alice Dayr the comely sister of Marceline, life in New York was mostly work and little play, for she was obliged, while in the East, to spend most of her time in Waterbury, Connecticut, for the talking sequences of "Times Square." Barbara Kent, too, was obliged to indulge in the exacting" process of clock punching. While "Lonesome" was playing at the Colony Theater, she made daily appearances on the stage, and after the first week she Continued from page 31 Mary has done nothing but act as a sight-seeing guide. Sir Austen Chamberlain and his family had no more than left, when Lord and Lady Allenby arrived. Mary must be quite an accomplished spieler by now." "Well, for that matter, is Chaplin ever going to get around to make his picture?" "It looks promising," Fanny said thoughtfully. "Almost every night, now, he paces up and down the Boulevard and goes into Henry's for a late sandwich, and when he takes up night prowling you can be sure a story has begun to bother him. "Bebe Daniels is to play a newspaper reporter in her next picture," Fanny rattled on. "She is having more fun kidding her newspaper friends. She goes around interviewing people, giving most adroit imitations of the worst interviewers who have made her suffer. "Right next door to Bebe's house, Townsend Netcher is building a home. He has hopes of being Constance Talmadge's next husband, if Constance doesn't change her mind. He is a nice chap, tremendously pop Manhattan Medley was whisked off to Washington, to open a bazaar for the benefit of widows and orphans of soldiers and sailors. Miss Kent left New York joyfully for Hollywood, having found little pleasure in the personal-appearance racket. However, en route home it was decided that she must grace the boards at Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Chicago before she was permitted to proceed to the land of sunshine, which she so admires. Betty Bronson likewise improved the autumn days by a trip to New York, object — strictly play. During her ten-day visit she went to the theaters, saw friends and, of course, went to the Winter Garden to see Al Jolson and herself in "The Singing Fool." Incidentally, Miss Bronson is quite a rarity in the younger set. Apart from her piquant charm, she has the added distinction of being one of the few younger players, to whom it is a pleasure to listen in the much-discussed talkies. Her voice has none of the nasal twang, or the self-conscious assurance of many of the brash young things who seem to think that to be born pretty is to be born cultivated, and who inform you that if the voice is natural, that is all which is necessary for successful reproduction. When she returns to California, Miss Bronson may take a stage role in "The Constant Nymph," or again she may be per suaded, though somewhat against her will, to appear, in the stage version of "Peter Pan." A Campus Favorite. Irene Rich has joined the great army of cross-continent commuters. Two or three times a season, at least, she can be counted on to visit New York, her purpose being either to put a daughter in college, to spend the holidays with her, or to take her home. Miss Rich's womanly charm is setting a new fashion in the college set, where she is adored ; for, of course, she always makes a point of meeting her daughters' school friends. Miss Rich has always stood for the good, old-fashioned qualities on the screen. Her virtues are those of the woman of the older generation, who always had dinner ready when the children came home, prepared by her own loving hands, whose day was long in the service of her family, and whose sufferings were borne almost with the same sweet smile. Naturally Miss Rich carries this aura about with her, and when the younger generation is presented to the pretty, talented mother of the Rich girls, they whisper to each other, "Oh, isn't she wonderful! Wouldn't it be grand to be just like her !" And then quietly begin to let their hair grow, and determine to use a little bit less lipstick. Over trie Teacups ular with the film colony, and every one hopes that Constance will marry him, and that the marriage will prove a little more lasting than her others. "Anna Q. Nilsson has recovered at last, and gone to work in an F. B. O. picture. Her old friend Claire du Brey, who was constantly at her side during her illness, is so worried about her that she insists on staying at the studio, standing in for Anna while they arrange lights, and even doubling for her. That's friendship ! All the hard work and none of the glory. "I wonder how Anna will sound in dialogue pictures. I think her accent should be fascinating. But it is such a willful accent. She drops it for days at a stretch, and then suddenly she loses her temper, or gets all thrilled over something, and her words come tripping out over one another with a heavy Swedish tinge. It is delightful in real life. "Anna's thrilled because her chum of many years, Alice Joyce, is making her stage debut out here. And Anna is not alone in pleased anticipation of it. The list of reservations for first-night tickets reads like the Blue Book of the picture world. Owen Moore is playing opposite her. "It just seems as though a week never passes, nowadays, without some occasion that demands telegrams of congratulation. Mrs. Lewis Stone is returning to the stage, in 'The Royal Family.' Barbara Bedford is to make her stage debut with the Henry Duffy players. And Warner Baxter's and Alan Hale's wives are both returning to pictures. Oh, well, there always seems to be room for one more." But don't let any ambitious young folks out in the hinterlands hear that remark of hers. There really isn't room for any more. Not even for the man in Salt Lake City, who so eloquently wrote to Doris Dawson boosting his qualifications for sound pictures. He had it all figured out that he could save producers a lot of money, because he could double for the sounds in a barnyard scene, being particularly proficient in imitating the folk songs of cows, pigs, chickens, and horses !