Picture Show (Oct 1920 - Apr 1921)

Picture Show, April 2ml, 1921. ig A CULINARY INTERVIEW WITH WANDA HAWLEY Who Can Coolc a Dinner as Well as Ske Can Act on tke Fit ms " By EMMA LINDSAY SQU1ER you You WHEN I opened the door of the Hawley bungalow, in response to a summons somewhere from within, I was greeted only by the sound of footsteps in the room overhead, and a great clamour of pots and pans in the kitchenette. I pictured the steps above as belonging to Wanda, who was doubtless getting into some charming frock in honour of my presence at dinner, and I was about to go on up, this privilege being mine by right of having known Wanda for many years, when the tumult in the kitchen ceased suddenly, and from the open door there emerged not tho Chinese cook or coloured maid that I had imagined, but Wanda herself, flushed of face, dishevelled of hair, wearing a dress torn in several places, flecked with flour and spotted wiili grease. " Oh, Emmy," she greeted me hastily, will excuse the way I look, won't you ? know I cook riiy own dinners " " You do ? " I demanded incredulously. " I was told by a press agent that you did, but I didn't think it possible." Wanda laughed, and her dimples appeared automatically. " Why, of course it's possible," she assured ino. " I always cook dinner unless I'm working awfully late, and in that case we go out to a cafe. You must remember that I was ^brought up in the good old-fashioned way, and my mother taught mo how to cook. Why, Burton and I," — Burton is Friend Husband, and he belonged to the footsteps in the room above — " we'd much rather eat here in our own little bungalow than at a hotel or restaurant. Sit down, Emmy. Dinner will be ready in just a minute. Burton, darling, won't you please hurry ! " she called up the stairw&y, then flitted into the kitchenette again, where tho clamour of pots and pans began again with a vengeance. Wanda, it might be remarked, in passing, is not the type of person that one would take to to domestic ; one can as easily imagine a Bird o' Paradise in a hen coop. Yet, when it comes to that, she is a deceiving littlo sort of person in many ways. She is just a wee bit of fluff with pale gold hair, sky-blue eyes, and a cream and rose complexion that is light-proof and time-defying. She looks like a Dresden doll — and has the mind of a Portia ; she can quote Latin until your head swims, and she plays the Rachmaninoff Prelude with the bold, powerful technique of a maestro. One would imagine, to look at her, that her chief delight would be in dining at a fashionable cafe, witli pink lights and a decollete gown to enhance her charms. Yet, here she was, in a soiled blue housedress, entirely happy and unashamed, flitting from kitchenette to dining room, laughing and chatting, and sending occasional calls to the room above for Burton to please hurry, just like a regular housewife whose only knowledge of the movies is obtained from the audience side of the silver screen. " Now, then, we're all ready ! " she announced, as she deposited three plates of steaming hot soup around the table at correct intervals. " Burtie, darling, if you don't come, quick, we won't wait for you ! " sho called warningly, and this last threat brought a quick response of feet clumping down the stairway, and Friend Husband appeared. He is young, and good-looking enough to be taken for a movie star, and he is, as Wanda will tell you proudly, a " wonderful business man ! " S^ince his return from the army he has bought a garage in Hollywood, and that, says his wife, solves the petrol problem — for her. Kisses. " YY/E w'" nave been married just exactly yy four years this next month," she told me, as we started in on the soup. " And I will say this — even for publication — • I'd rather have my husband kiss me than any man. I know. " What I mean is," she hurried on, and Friend Husband swallowed his soup with a startled gurgle, " any man in the movies — no, that's not it either. Burton, darling, please don't choke. 1 mean that movie kissot don't mean a thing in my young life, but that I'm as fond of Burton's as ever — you do know what I mean, don't you ? " We said we did, and Wanda removed the soup. It was replaced by casseroles of cold salmon, most delectably cooked. * " Salmon a la Wanda ! " gaily announced the little cook. " Salmon a la Wonder ! " paraphrased Burton. , " You wonder what's in it." " Everything but the gas range," returned Wanda. " But if you really want to know how to make it " She turned to me. After one satisfying mouthful I intimated that I did. " You tako a can of salmon," she recited, while I snatched at a scrap of paper, " and you make a cream sauce for it, then you cut up olives and mushrooms, a little onion if you like it, a bit of parsley helps out, too ; you mix it all together and put it in casseroles. Then you grate cheese over the top and put the casseroles in the oven to get thoroughly heated through, and you serve it cold or hot. " Say, what is this, an interview, or a cooking school ? " demanded Friend Husband, who had finished his Wanda salmon, and was waiting for the next course. " Well, we can't talk shop all the time," Wanda reprimanded him, .as she cleared the table for the next course, a juicy steak with trimmings, and an assortment of vegetables, all piping hot and appetisingly arranged. " What do you want to know ? " she asked me, as we commenced on the succulent dish. ' " Oh, the usual thing," I told her. " What pictures you like best, how you got into the movies, and — have you any more recipes as good as the one you gave me ? " " Indeed I have," she assured me. answering, woman-like, the last question and disregarding the others. " Let me tell you how to make noodles a la Hawley " " Wanda, dear," her better half broke in gently. " Pictures are more important than noodles." She smiled and dimpled — the two go together in Wanda's case — and then she looked thoughtful for a moment. Her Career in a Nutshell. WHY. Emmy, you know as much about my career as I do. Yoti know I went through grammar school and high school just like everyone does, and that I went to New York to study voice and piano, and got married on the way." This last with a fond look at Burton, which was returned in kind. " And you know how hard I studied to make a success in music, and how I accompanied for Albert Spaulding, and then how, just on the eve of my vocal debut I had laryngitis. " That sort of discouraged me for going on with music, though I could have been_a concert pianiste ; but Norma Talmadge took me to the Fox studio, in New York, and they liked my face, and gave me a leading part right off the bat. It was in ' The Derelict,' supporting Stuart Holmes." " And your name used to be Selma Pittack," I interpolated, " and you changed it " " In the usual matrimonial way," she finished. " But I took the name ' Wanda ' at Douglas Fairbanks' request when I was his leading lady in ' Mr. Fixit,' and I've kept it ever since. " Burton, dear,, will you serve the salad while I clear off the table 1 " Burton would and did, and I quizzed him in the meanwhile. It is not every day that one may interview a star's husband. I suppose you're a picture enthusiast ? " I asked, and he shook his head emphatically. "I am — not!" he denied. " One picture person to a family is enough.