Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

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26 Esther Ralston is practically the only star who still makes those nice, silent pictures. Photo by Eichee DON'T ask me where any one is," Fanny ordered grouchily. I had looked around the usually crowded Montmartre for familiar faces in vain. "He, she, or they are either down with influenza, or were working all last night in dialogue sequences for talking films. I can't decide which has wrought greater havoc in our social life. I suppose sound films have, because, after all, people do recover from the flu, but it looks as though sound films would go on forever." Fanny retired into a long silence, so I knew that she had been deeply affected by the new conditions that have cast a pall over Hollywood. "At least, no one can call Hollywood a nine-o'clock town any more," she remarked at last. "But there is no gayety in that observation. People stay up all night, but it's for work nowadays. You know, atmospheric conditions are better for recording at night. At least, that is the theory this week. Next week the electric engineers may decide that all dialogue sequences should be made up in airplanes, or down in submarines, and the players will have to do whatever they suggest, without argument. They are the new tyrants of the business. No one can talk back to them, because this business of recording sound is still such a mystery. None of the players understand it, and sometimes I doubt if the engineers do. "One of the studios ordered several sound-proof stages built, according to plans drawn up and approved by the engineers. They were sound proof all right. When they tried to film some dialogue sequences there, you couldn't hear the voices, even when the players shouted. Nothing short of a trumpet chorus could have made an impression in that stillness." Sometimes I have a faint suspicion that Fanny exaggerates slightly. To hear her tell it, all Hollywood is overcast with gloom. And I was sure that I heard a ripple of laughter from the general direction of Lilyan Tashman's table. "Oh, well— Lilyan," Fanny exclaimed as though she were an exception to every rule. "Lilyan was born lucky, or smart, or something. She is one of the few old stand-bys in pictures who will surely benefit by the introduction of sound. She has an absolutely individual voice. It is gorgeously vibrant, and runs all over the scale. You know how monotonous most voices are ? Well, Lilyan's never is. "Even at that, Lilyan gets a bad break now and then. Last week she had to choose between four pictures, all of which were going into production immediately. She took the lead in 'The Genius' for Paramount, and then just when it was too late to go into the others, production of 'The Genius' was called off. Somebody had the bright idea of reading the story, and imagine the embarrassment of the executives when they found that there was hardly any story at all. Yet people say that Van Vechten exaggerated conditions ! Piioto by Autrey As soon as Sue Carol's legal battles ^re over, she is expected to sign a contract with Fox.