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A LADY OF COURAGE SOME time ago Gloria Swanson, to an American interviewer, said : I'm pig-headed. When I get an idea in my head, I can't think of anything else. I can't rest until it's accomplished." This was after she had made her first independent picture, " The Love of Sunya," backed by her own and her friends money. She was determined to make it a success, but at its first very private show- ing, realised it was a " flop." So she set to work and by drastic editing of the film, and by spending the time before its premiere in a clever publicity campaign, in which she did more than her share, saved it from failure. It was for this film, by the way, that she chose John Boles, then a New York stage actor unknown in the film world, to make his first screen appearance as her leading man. Gloria's whole career has been one illustration after another that she has a combination of courage and perseverance that will not admit defeat. While she was shivering on the seashore as a bathing girl in the early film days, her eye was on drama, and when Cecil de Mi lie gave, her a chance to prove her worth, her work in " The Admirable Crichton," " Why Change your Wife ? " etc., led to stardom. Unfortunately, the De Mille Society dramas resulted in her starring in a series of polite pictures in which she had little else to do but wear beautiful clothes well, and " clothes horse " was the name given her, despite an occasional flash of the real Gloria. Even after " The Love of Sunya," the name persisted, and she determined that she really would show her critics their mistake. So she chose a role as far removed from her Society parts as possible— that of Sadie Thompson in a screen version of Somerset Maugham's " Rain." On it depended her future as an actress. She surmounted censor difficulties and scored an unqualified success. Following this she gave another proof of her courage. She en- gaged the temperamental Erich von Stroheim to direct her in " Queen Kelly," and another screen player almost unknown in America, though popular over here, to play opposite her—Walter Byron. Some of the picture was shot, then came trouble, and what had been taken was shelved. The coming of the talkies made her realise she must do something quickly or be lost in the flood of new personalities. A very short period of voice training, and she made her first talkie, " The Tres- passer," in which she acted superbly and sang with great charm. Again she showed her originality by having its premiere in London, and was nearly crushed to death by the enthusiastic crowds who attended. Everyone wondered what she would follow this with, but few expected the answer—she was going to re-make " Queen Kelly." And with a new director and the same leading man she began again to turn another defeat into success.