Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

114 giiimi: Advertising Section The Best Magazine for the Girl of To-day MODERN GIRL STORIES Vivid LoVe Stori ones an Adventures of Presentday Girls On Sale on tKe First Friday of Even? MontK Buy It Now! Trie Three Sphinxes Continued from page 89 which is as good as any. And that's all we know of Greta Garbo. The lady herself remains annoyingly silent regarding her past. She admits that she has had no stage experience, beyond an entrance in the yearly competition at the State Theater. She now looks at Hollywood and Culver City through half-closed, slanting eyes — as profoundly disturbing as ever gazed at any Oedipus. Of course rumors have been spread about by those who "know." Some say that Garbo was a waitress in one of the open-air cafes in the Swedish capital. They add that the poverty and sorrow she underwent made her fearful of life. Only those who have experienced poverty really know how cruel human beings can be to one another. Some say she was a singer. Who cares? The only man Greta has ever appeared to be happy with was Mauritz Stiller, the director — probably because he was the first person to be kind to her. Not even that galloping cyclone, John Gilbert, could entirely supplant Greta's first guide and friend. Stiller's death moved her profoundly — yet hers was not the arm-waving, hair-pulling sort of sorrow, but the silent grief that is always deeper and more poignant. Greta refuses to speak of her family. But one can perceive that she loves them with an unspeakable love. She admits that she has a mother, a sister, and a brother. One sister died a year ago, adding to the Garbo's ineffable sorrow. Greta is young, in her early twenties ; yet the wisdom of the world and grim reality flash through her eyes — at times. Again, she is very childlike — at times. Then she becomes sad and, oh, it makes one's heart nearly break. On such occasions she wants to be alone — which is often enough — as if to battle some army of hideous memories — or is she longing for something or some one? Well, well. There they are — Jetta Goudal, Ronald Colman, and Greta Garbo. These three people puzzle Hollywood. They are its sphinxes. They will probably remain so. If one knew each one's mind, what would one learn? Much, or more mystery ? History Repeats Itself Continued from page 33 something more than just "Voices ! Voices ! Voices !" That indescribable, elusive quality known as screen personality, will, as of yore, be the determining factor. Geraldine Farrar had it to a greater extent than any of her contemporaries drawn from the stage. Her Carmen and Joan the Woman will always hold a high place in the annals of screen performances. Would the hampering restrictions of voicerecording mechanism have limited her in these fiery portrayals? Would Ethel Barrymore, whose screen personality was negative, have registered magnificently if her famous, throaty drawl could have been faithfully reproduced? If Elsie Ferguson had had the benefit pf vocal contact with picture audiences, would her cold, patrician beauty have longer survived the camera test? The pictures of Sir Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, Cyril Maude, and William Faversham were sorry flops. Lady Tree's biography of the late Sir Herbert, and the recently published reminicences of Cyril Maude, throw an interesting light on the attitude of these great actors toward the movies, which may explain in part why they, and lesser stage luminaries, were not more successful. Pictures to them were a freakish hybrid, neither flesh, fowl, nor good red herring. Tremendously interested in, and curious about, all that pertained to the new medium, giving of their best under unfamiliar and trying conditions, they yet reflected, perhaps unconsciously, a certain degree of condescension. They stooped to conquer ; but, saturated with the theater tradition which had solidified through the years, they couldn't unbend sufficiently. It was a noble experiment, but it didn't click. The picture public would rather hear what may be the gamin accents of Clara Bow than the most dulcet, cultivated voice that ever sent a Little Theater group into refined ecstacies. It is the fact that the "mamma doll" can speak, not the quality of the sound which issues from her sawdust interior, that fascinates a child. After hearing them all, let the fans decide which of the established film favorites they wish to hear more of. Then, having worked out the gold mines in their own back yards, it will be time enough for producers to start f renziedly prospecting unknown fields.