Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

114 Advertising Section The Brand of | a Good Book 1 Chelsea House Popular Copyrights The biggest and fastest selling line of cloth-covered books. Ask your druggist — your bookseller to show you any of these latest titles. There's something doing all the while in a "CH" book. These books which have never before been published were written for men who love the sweep of the great West, the mysteries of big cities, the conquest of man over his environment. Tolly anna Turns "Coquette" Continued from page 61 George Gilbert Joseph Montague Paul Bailey Roy W. Hinds Arthur Preston Loring Brent David Manning THE QUICK-DRAW KID THE "GOLDEN DOLPHIN "LOOKOUT" LARAMIE THE TUNNEL TO DOOM THE VALLEY OF THE MONQUIS THE BLACK SANDER GUN GENTLEMEN BLUNDELL'S LAST GUEST Albert Payson Terhune THORNTON THE WOLFER George Gilbert THE COASTS OF ADVENTURE James Graham OL' JIM BRIDGER Joseph Montague THE SLEEPING COP Isabel Ostrander and Christopher B. Booth THE BAYOU SHRINE Perley Poore Sheehan THE SILVER SKULL George C. Shedd THE TRAP AT COMANCHE BEND David Manning HIDDEN OUT Howard Fielding YOUNG LIGHTNING Charles Wesley Sanders THE GLORIOUS PIRATE James Graham SCHEMED AT SANDY BAR George Gilbert THE HOUSE OF DISAPPEARANCES Chester K. Steele ISLAND RANCH STRANGE TIMBER THE FLYING COYOTES THE THUNDERBOLT'S JEST THE MUSTANG HERDER Thomas K. Holmes Joseph Montague Raymond S. Spears Johnston McCulley David Manning MUTINY Frederick R. Bechdolt 75c Per Copy 79-89 SEVENTH AVE. NEW YORK CITY Now she has shed all that. Though concerned about the picture, she waives worries to others. She teases, she is vivacious. One has to acclimate oneself to this delightfully spontaneous April Mary. Keen interest in a basket-ball game — merciless kidding of John Mack Brown — mimicry of his Southern drawl, her blue eyes laughing into his — a candid pride in her clothes — a light vein of nonsense in everything. "I had great fun getting acquainted with my screen self, dressing me for a picture. Costuming oneself for the camera differs vastly from designing one's personal wardrobe. I had to learn my lines, and colors, and effects to give me height." Small, fluttering hands would touch with a fleeting caress the soft folds of her frock, ending, palms upward, in that gesture whereby a very young girl seems to be saying, "Look at me ! Aren't I nice?" Even her hands coquet. Yet so well does every motion fit into her new mood and environment, each seems a spontaneous expression, rather than a mannerism. The pathos of the child-Mary cast lingering shadows over Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks. Her marriage and happiness, her material success and interests, did not mitigate this wistfulness. Even amid worldly splendors, among distinguished personages, traveling with a retinue, or living in the semiseclusion of Pickf air's luxury, it was inescapable. She and Doug became regal rulers of filmdom, due equally to Hollywood's esteem and the distinction which they attained. When they began to entertain royalty, and invitations to their formal dinners became the aspiration of other stars, Mary became more mature of manner. That elegance which is of severe but costly simplicity marked her. Her rare public appearances took on the aspect of importance, though she was without hauteur. Now, with flapperish Norma, a radiantly exuberant Mary appears. Her gestures are Norma's, toned down with that perfection of taste always a characteristic. A new animation shines in mischievous eyes, leaps from her carefree air. She entertains more frequently people whose lo\& claim is that they are interesting, instead of distinguished, seems more joyous at her own parties, and appears more often in public. Teas are graced by her presence ; occasionally she even lunches at Montmartre. Her laughter flows easily; her vibrant interest in everything is marked. I doubt that these evolutions have been conscious emulations of her picture phases. While largely that effect which she wishes to create upon the screen is reflected in her personal program, it works vice versa ; as she feels it right to be, and is, as she pleases in her private life, so each change is mirrored in her work. Now she considers herself entitled to the youthful enthusiasm hers by right. Possibly she realized that a career may become leechlike, its demands exaggerated out of justifiable proportion. Partly premeditated, perhaps, but largely, I prefer to think, accidental, is her decision to permit indulgence of natural inclinations, instead of forever making obeisance to her sense of obligation. "I am doing things I have always wanted to do," she said. For the first time during any talk I have ever had with her there was no reference to duty, either personal or professional. I think that she has gone through an important psychological change. The loss of her mother was her greatest tragedy. I feel certain that for a long while Mary did not care much about anything, and that it required considerable courage to take up her life again. Doug's vitality probably energized her. _ To be true to that mother-love which was the boundary and the essence of her career, she must go on, and achieve ; to sorrow would be to sap that plant, the seeds of which had been planted with great care and nourished into flower. Both her heart and her brain, so inextricably interwoven are they, must always motivate her. Work is a form of love ; financial recompense alone could not intrigue, with her independent wealth. In attempting to better her art, I imagine that she is expressing a dual love, for her mother and. for the work itself. So she drove herself to work, in a change of scenery, and finds it vastly entertaining. Even the charm of Pickfair, where for months she was content to loaf, no longer holds her. Twelve hours a day are spent at the studio. Doug is restless, eager to travel, but Mary wants to make picture after picture. A vitality blazes within her to achieve, to climb, on this new ground to which she has assigned herself. A gentle glamour always surrounds Mary at the studio. Beneath the surface ease, there is the usual busy worry over her. How they do all love her! Her office and technical forces have been with her for years.