Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

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12 Continued from page 10 brilliance and fascination seem to be degenerating into a forceful ugliness>. This is a pity, too, for when Gilbert is at his best he is quite irresistible. As to the sudden mania for noisy films, I can only say that I hope it is a fad. Otherwise, I'm afraid the movies' will have to stagger along without my patronage, for they seem to me little short of an atrocity. Maydee Cooper. San Francisco, California. Inviting a Fight. That the fans do think, and how! is evident in each new issue of Picture Play, but they usually think about each other, and what this one said about Ramon and that one about John. It seems to be an endless debate. A few years ago it was Wally and Rudy, and a few years more and it will be about some new stars. So what does it matter? But it's lots of fun, and I'm crazy about the department. May I please start a fight? Well, I always said Louise Brooks could act. Since seeing "Beggars of Life," I wish to admit we all make mistakes. Isn't Neil Hamilton great? Does everybody agree? I'm glad we can at least agree on one star. Now, don't Bebe Daniels and Richard Dix and Anna Q. Nilsson do the consistently best work on the screen? Isn't Jetta Goudal the most fascinating, mysterious, exotic, gorgeous personality on the screen? Greta Garbo looks stupid beside her. Sue Carol is very much overrated. Norma Shearer is beautiful, a good actress, and does best in comedy portrayals. She has been sadly miscast of late. They say her husband is responsible for her dramatic roles in "The Student Prince," "The Actress," and now I could cry over it, "The Trial of Mary Dugan." Wake up, Norma. I do so hate to see you go dramatic. Let Joan Crawford play Mary Dugan, and, remember, I like you, so don't get angry. Lee Bailey. 16 Rossonian Apartments, Houston, Texas. Do Fan Letters Help? I hardly dare mail this, as I received so many indignant letters following my last venture into print. One young lady in particular slighted me, when she insisted that if I failed to retract a certain statement published concerning her particular idol, she would never, never speak to me again ! Though I couldn't possibly see how she could manage this, anyhow, I wasn't overly alarmed ; but the doubtful fact remained, and my conscience pricked me for several subsequent hours. However, all this hashing and rehashing of stars and pictures is tremendously fascinating, as evidently others have decided, who have left the realm of cross-word puzzles for this newer and smarter pastime. "What the Fans Think" grows more interesting and more significant each month. I might even suggest that in all probability our foremost and more translucent stars are modeling their careers upon it. But I am worming along, even as "The StroMer," and, as I am not he, I must come to the point. Why all the fuss and stew about this flood of new talent, some latent, and some on the up and up? This fan wants the older and more established stars back, that one insists that there was never a star quite like her Jerry, who, though comparatively unknown, is destined to gleam brightest of all stars. Lucille Schuch can't abide even the memory What the Fans Think of Valentino, she announces, and recommends for your approval a list of mixed players who are just so much catnip to another fan on the opposite page. Juliette Brown is all wrought up over her successful and thrilling correspondences with the great ones of the screen, while only two months ago, I find, upon adjusting my specs and thumbing innumerable pages, that a certain young lady in the Middle West is discouraged, because she's written and written to her favorite stars, but the mean things are blind to her pleas. She never got so much as a photo. Most of the smoke rises, evidently, from battles fought over the question of new stellar material. And once in a while — in fact, quite often — we get a sensible, balanced letter from fans such as Grace Laura Shaver of Hollywood, who_ not only lives in that "Holy of Holies," but also happens to be endowed with a generous slice of common sense and acute observation. Well, after we've run around the tree three times, snapped our fingers, and said "Booh !" in a loud voice, just like that, where are we? Just how much difference does it make zvhat each fan, individually, may think? Not but what it's the thing, and quite proper, and very relieving, to the person himself ; but, after all, just how much ice does it cut? Opinions should be divided on this subject, and I welcome suggestions. There are those, probably, who think that the stars read this column. Harry Langdon probably does. But, except for the satisfaction of seeing ourselves burst forth in print, what good does it do? I see right away that I'm liable to start a terrific landslide of fan comment, hut I must keep on ! And just to prove how narrow-minded I am, I'm going to give my opinion. Do I hear cheering? It doesn't make one whit of difference what Sadie Glut of Milwaukee thinks of Ramon Novarro. It doesn't cut a -bit of ice if Georgie Whitcomb of Denver thinks Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is the world's worst actor. It's what the majority think that counts ! Now I hear you all -raving, "Just as though we didn't know that all the time." Well, if you did, you certainly kept it well concealed. Clara _ Bow may appeal to Lily Dugan, who is vacationing in China with her mamma and her papa, and up here in the States she may be "canned" by a young man who peels oranges in a cannery for a living. His girl probably has it all over her, yards by inches. But what of it? When Clara comes sailing up to the neighborhood theater, and the local piano player .gets out all -his copies of "Ragtime Charlie" in preparation, does Mr. Canner go? No, he stays home and eats chocolates on the living-room sofa with the girl who looks just like Clara, only more so. But the rest of the town, even the mayOr and his wife — who has to sit in a specially constructed seat because of her avoirdupois — are there, looking at their watches ten minutes before the pianist begins to get enthusiastic. And home go the younger generation, to sit down with pen and paper, and, with the lovely face of the one and only Bow still fresh in their minds, use the only outlet for their feelings they know of — "What the Fans Think" — and how ! Then, when their letters "come out," they just know that Gloria is reading them, and Clara, too, and maybe they'll get letters from them ! And even as Mr. Canner is just saying good-hy to his chosen one, with Clara the farthest from his thoughts, down at the nickelodeon they're counting the boxoffice receipts, and it's an all-night job when Clara comes to town 1 So just what good did it do for this person and that person to vow that here, at last, was the perfect actress? Is it what we think, individually, and write? Our thoughts have influence, it is true, but as long as the crowds flock into the box office to see the star whom we privately and publicly condemn, isn't it a lot of apple sauce, to quote Dixie Dugan? A star can be made by any one of three things : Unusual directorial effort, extensive publicity, or interested comment from the fans. The first one made Janet Gaynor; the second, Gwen Lee ; and the third, the most potential of all, has lifted to supremacy hundreds of unknowns. The latest is Alice White. Has she talent? No; but she means to get there, just the same. And she will. She has excited public curiosity by her hoyden qualities, her peculiar frankness regarding herself and others, and her fresh slang. Publicity might be thrown in, too, along with Miss White. But she's only an example; there are 'hundreds of others, even now waiting their turn to ascend to the golden chair, where they will sit serenely until it suddenly breaks under them, and the world laughs — that same world which only yesterday lauded their efforts as stellar material ! Just what makes a star? I want information. I am a poor, ignorant youth who happens to have opinions, and each time I expose them I am hounded mercilessly. Am I wrong, or am I right? Are you helping your star when you write to 'What the Fans Think," or are you satisfying a selfish whim of your own? Thomas G. Stockwell. 43 Summer Street, Montpelier, Vermont. Colleen's Pictures Wanted. I wonder if there are any fans who would like to trade pictures with me? I have been saving for several years, from various magazines and newspapers, pictures of our most popular stars, and I have quite a collection of them. This collection includes many of Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies, -Constance and Norma Talmadge, Bebe Daniels, Norma Shearer, Mary Pickford, Ramon Novarro, Richard Dix, and scores of others. I would like to trade these for pictures of Colleen Moore. Any size, 'shape, kind, or color will do, just so they are pictures of Colleen, In case you haven't any of her, I'd like some of Billie Dove or Madge Bellamy. I'd like to hear from those who are interested. Consuelo Romero. 138 South Townsend Street, Los Angeles, California. Answer Men Puzzle Her. I have short biographies of about three hundred and fifty actors and actresses, but sometimes the data of different answer men don't match, so I am very much puzzled at the number of birthplaces and birth dates of the actors. If there are any fans interested in casts of pictures issued in the last two years, perhaps I could help them out. I am collecting pictures of Janet Gaynor and Richard Dix, my two favorites. If any one has pictures they do not want, I would be very grateful if they sent them to me. Elizabeth Wallace. 184 South Fordham Avenue, Aurora, Illinois.