Picture-Play Weekly (Apr-Oct 1915)

12 PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY chauffeur directions to drive with all the speed he could get from the machine. The man on the seat eyed him for a minute, then asked sarcastically : "What's a matta? Tryin' t' beat it from a fare y'u short-changed ?" It took considerable persuasion, and finally a promise of five dollars to decide the shrewd man at the wheel to take a chance. In a half minute after he had been at last induced to change his mind, the car was dashing through the streets, disregarding shouts from sleepy policemen on their beats. It was fairly late, and Draper stood with his mouth close to the little round hole in the glass behind the chauffeur, urging him to go still faster. When the ride terminated, the millionaire in chauffeur's dress paused only to tell the driver to wait outside, and rushed into the hotel. Here he was promptly stopped by an attendant, but a well-directed shove as promptly removed the obstacle, and Draper ran to the reception room. The place w.as in a commotion. Three policemen stood around a man in evening clothes, and on whose hands they had just snapped a pair of handcuffs. Irma stood off in a corner with a handkerchief at her eyes. The guests w-ere passing excited remarks, and the name of Draper was uttered frequently. He summed the situation up quickly. Broadway Jim had taken his place at the reception, and stolen the jewels. James Draper himself had been accused, naturally enough, of the theft, and Irma had been forced to think that her fiance was, after all, the notorious gentleman burglar. Draper rushed up to the policemen. They nearly fainted. Every one was in a quandary to understand how there could be two James Drapers, and it took a vast amount of explanation on his part and that of Irma to bring to light the truth. At the end, however, the story was confirmed by the prisoner himself, who confessed to his identit}^ seeing that there was no use in denying it. "And now," whispered the young millionaire to Irma, drawing her aside, "you've made as big a capture as you could in all the rest of your life, if you spent it as a detective. So it's time for you to retire. You got Broadway Jim, that isn't half as important as what he got for me. If it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be going to marry me tomorrow, would you? But can you lend me five dollars until I get home? I owe it to a chauffeur." Vivian Rich — Personally. T^HE other day two stonemasons on ^ a business street in Los Angeles paused in their work to follow with admiring gaze the figure of a slight, dark-haired girl who came out of a building and crossed the square. "Do you know who she is?'' asked one of the men. And then, without waiting for a reply, he said : "That's Vivian Rich. There isn't a week I don't go to see her at the movies." "I can beat you at that," grinned the other happily. "We've a baby girl, a week old, named for her.*' Among the many beautiful leading women in pictures there is none, perhaps, who is more widely loved by persons of all ages and degrees of social attainment, than ]\Iiss Rich, whose name is synonymous with the success of the Flying "A." Winsome, refined, and sympathetic, she puts her charming personality into everj' character she plays. Her repertoire is immense — and never has she failed to please. jNIiss Rich was born at sea. Possibly this is why she is gifted with the imaginative, romantic temperament, which even years of schooling in Boston could not educate out of her. She gave up the opportunity to go to college for the stage, making her debut in New York in "The Country Girl" — and never has she regretted her choice. Though only in her early twenties, she "has found herself,'' and is happy. One of her old teachers at the Boston Latin High School, on seeing her former pupil for the first time on the screen, entirely forgot her pedagogic dignity in her enthusiasm at the sight. "Why, it is Vivian!" she exclaimed. "I had not even heard she was acting in pictures. But I would know her anywhere— the same sweet, unspoiled child. And she was clever, too — always at the head of her class." Every day brings ISIiss Rich many letters from old friends in the East and from countless new admirers. They are from all kinds of people in all possible walks of life. But the misspelled, illiterate letter receives the young actress' personal attention equally with the most charming, fluent epistles. For she delights in the friendship of everybod)% and regards her popularity both as a great honor and as a responsibility. Sunday afternoon is her favorite time for answering personally many of these letters. ]Miss Rich lives with her mother in a little bungalow in Santa Barbara. They are famous for the delightful weekends they give their friends, who run down from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Their home also is a Mecca for many old friends from the East, especially young people whom Vivian knew at school. Not long ago she entertained a house party of her former classmates, and there were picnics and riding, and drives in relays in their charming hostess' runabout. Swimming, fishing, and tramping, all these fascinate iliss Rich, who is a real out-of-doors girl. Her favorite part of picture w'ork is that which takes her far afield on "locations." The wildwood type especially is suited to her dark beauty, and as a girl of the mountains she has starred in innumerable romances taken among some of the most picturesque settings ever photographed for the screen. The more simply the American leading woman is costumed the more apparent is her girlish loveliness. Alore petite than tall, her features are delicate, and her manner natural and unstudied. She is charming in the smock of sackcloth which she wears in the rustic subjects, and in a cowgirl get-up her brunet coloring is rendered especially striking. A filmy evening gown transforms her into a society beauty, or, when occasion requires, she can play the unsophisticated home-loving daughter or wife with equal grace. Indeed, ^Miss Rich herself has a serene, contented nature, and most of her affection centers round her home. She and her mother are the best of comrades. The young actress cares little for notoriety, she is not aggressively interested in the feminist movement, but is just a delightful, unaffected girl, earnest in her work, and devoted to her friends and her home. When her collie, "Guess," strayed away a w-hile ago, she was inconsolable. Happily, somebody presented ^liss Rich with another dog.