Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

27 Fanny the Fan discovers that Hollywood is no longer a nineo'clock town, but this means not a thing so far as budding social ambitions go, because it's talkie work that's responsible for late hours. "Speaking of Lilyan — if you want to see a good show, don't watch the people coming in, but just watch her face. Eddie Lowe thinks she is a fine actress on the screen, but he says she is the world's worst at hiding her feelings from the public, when she isn't in front of a camera. You can almost figure out what people look like by Lilyan's expression of approval, or horror, or utter dismay. A woman came in here the other day wearing a complete museum collection of gewgaws and ornaments— she really suggested a history of dress trimming — and Lilyan's look of unbelieving bewilderment was priceless." 'I wanted to ask you I got no further. Wherever clothes are mentioned nowadays, it is safe to assume that Betty Bronson is under discussion. According to rumor, Betty had a long confab with Elinor Glyn in New York, and Madame Glyn told her that her , clothes ought to be more individual. So Madame Glyn took her to Natacha Rambova's shop, and together they designed a wardrobe for Betty. "I'll never be happy until I see that wardrobe," Fanny proclaimed. "In fact, I am thinking of organizing a searching party to send out a general alarm the first time Betty appears in one of the creations. No one has greater respect for Rambova's" designs than' I have, but I just can't imagine Betty wearing them. I" still favor Betty as a simple, little gingham girl. "I suppose you have heard that Gloria Swanson is going to bow to public demand and do a picture called 'Clothes' ! I, for one, will be standing in line to see the first showing." You don't have to know Fanny as well as I do, to know that that is nothing new. Regardless of what Gloria makes, that is the one picture that she most wants to see. "Gloria has a very sweet singing voice, but I hear she is determined not to sing in films until it is thoroughly trained. She has been taking lessons and making voice tests, but Gloria doesn't want any one to hear her until she is satisfied herself. While most of the film colony was more or less excited, Greta Garbo calmly set off for a vacation in Sweden. Photo by Louise Photo by Ball After the heavy dramatics of "Queen Kelly," Gloria Swanson will thrill her original fans in "Clothes." "Marion Davies is to sing in her next picture, 'The Five O'clock Girl.' She was in musical comI edy on the stage, you know, so it is nothing new | for her. And just as a favor to me, would you f mind mounting a soap box here and now, and making an announcement to the crowd? Marion does not stutter when she gets in front of the micro, phone. . She is. perfectly at ease, and entirely natural when she is among friends. Any one who has worked around Marion isn't merely a friend — he's an adoring slave. The only time she ever has difficulty with her speech is when she meets strangers who make her feel self-conscious and ill at ease. "As a matter of fact, Marion's first vocal tests blighted the hopes of several scenario writers. They had taken time by the forelock and had written comedies around the role of a girl who stammered, hoping to sell them to Marion. Then her voice came out unhesitant and clear. She couldn't even stutter when she tried !" "It looks to me," I broke in, "as though the new year will be the tin-pan-alley era in motion pictures. Song writers have been imported in droves ; cabaret and night-club stories are the inevitable order of the day. Hardly a picture staggers through its natural course without a theme song of some sort. I suspect almost any day now to hear that John Barrymore is taking saxophone lessons in secret. Or perhaps he will go in for tap dancing." Fanny scoffed at my optimism in thinking of any phase of pictures nowadays as an "era."