Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

56 Manhattan Medley Though Jeanne Eagels was banished from the stage by decree of Actors' Equity Association, she will be heard on the screen in "The Letter." were convinced she played ducks and drakes, as it were, with the tour of "Her Cardboard Lover." Miss Eageis denies it. Be that as it may, the stage's loss has been the screen's gain, and Miss Eagels', too. To the tune of a nice, big salary, she removed her make-up kit and her slim, graceful person over to the studio, to be piloted gently by Jean de Limur through her first talkie, "The Letter," Somerset Maugham's play, in which Katharine Cornell once starred on the stage. Take it from those who work with her, Jeanne has been a model of good behavior on the set. The first to come, the last to leave, and the hardest working of them all. No one will believe that in her stage days not so long ago, she was a naughty, naughty girl, and had to have a metaphorical spanking. Dorothy Goes Over. The Gish girls are always having fun with each other. Dorothy took it upon herself to embark upon • a stage career while Lillian was in Germany, conferring with Max Reinhart about her new picture. Dorothy, left on her own, launched forth in "Young Love" with her husband, James Rennie. To the further amazement of every one, the younger Gish is to date the only recruit from the movies to the stage to go over with a loud, loud bang. Demure Lillian, who was still in Germany at the time, sent the erstwhile Little Disturber,, of "Hearts of the World," a wire on the opening night, preparing her for the worst. It read simply, "No matter what happens, remember your family still loves you." Telltale Silence. Being a business woman at heart, when Mary Pickford takes a trip, she has always a definite purpose for her journey. She doesn't believe in wasting time. She doesn't know how, as a matter of fact. Nothing is so fatiguing to little Mary as enforced idleness. When she came to New York on her last visit, plays and people were merely incidental. She came East to assume a woman's privilege — to argue with the government over the recurrent problem of the income tax. Her visit took her right into the White House, where she laid her woes before the chief executive, and thereafter she took a page out of the president's own book. She had nothing more to say about it. Merely, "I do not choose to talk." Dix Will Be Heard. Richard Dix came East with his chin thrust forward. In other words, he came prepared for a struggle, not fisticuffs, but a tussle with the boss. What husky hero would not prefer a thousand times to fight it out in brawn, rather than go to the mat politely on his employer's Persian carpet? But Dix's pleading won the day, and hereafter the Eastern studio of Paramount will record Mr. Dix's histrionic contributions to a palpitating world. No sooner had he won his cause, than the energetic young man returned to California to pack up , his belongings and ship them East. When he arrives in this part of the world again, he will start to work on a picture which will be another of those talkies, of course. Maurice Chevalier Arrives. Dix, however, was here to extend the glad hand, as it's now known, on behalf of his associates in California, to Maurice Chevalier, at the dinner given in honor of the idol of the Paris music halls on his arrival in America. All theatrical New York turned out to do honor to the remarkable young man whose naughty songs — not too naughty — and infectious humor have had all Paris laughing for years. At the midnight supper dance which followed the dinner, all the stars of Broadway were present, stealing only five minutes after the curtain went down to doff their make-up and don evening clothes. Photo Copyright by Dorothy Wilding Sophie Tucker, the vaudeville favorite, is to make a Vitaphone feature.