Picture Show (Oct 1920 - Apr 1921)

Picture Show, April 2th, 1921. 21 LOUISE FAZENDA AT HOME By EMMA-LINDSAY SQUIER. "AN interview ? " repeated Louise Fazcnda's voice over tho phone. " Surely! C'omo right over to the house. I'm making a pie just now, but you won't mind " I assured her I wouldn't, but down in tho bottom of my lioart I did. Sho and pies have such an aTmity for each othor, you know. The last timo 1 interviewed tho energetic comedienne, it was on tho Sennott lot, and as I camo by the sot where Louise was working, a custard pie whizzed by me and hit the wall not ten inches away. Miss Fazenda hurried up and helped wipe oft some of tho bits of shrapnel, apologizing and telling me that sho had aimed in the opposite direction, but that custard pies had a habit of backfiring. I merely mention this in passing, to account for my feeling when sho spoko of being occupied with a pie. Well, anyway, there 1 was at tho appointed hour ringing the bell of a modest little white fiat, wondering what Louise Fazenda would be like off the screen. For I had always seen her at the studio in hor grotesque make up, with an antiquated dress and skinned-back hair, and while I knew, of course, that comediennes at home look like other human beings, I was not quite prepared for the altogether lovely young lady who opened the door for mo and told me cordially to come right in and make myself at home ; mother was in tho kitchen finishing up some blackberry jelly but would be in presently, and wouldn't I take that rocking chair. Louise as sbe really is. Louise was dressed in a lavender smock and a woollen skirt, and her feet were encased in comfy mocassins. Her golden-brown hair was piled up on her head and it curled around her cars in manner quite unpremeditated — yes, she has curly hair, but you'd never know it in her pictures — it never gets the ghost of a chance to express its personality. " Did you expect to find us in a palatial Hollywood ' bungalow ? ' " she asked, as she curled up comfortably in a big Morris chair. " Mother and I like this kind of a place much better. It's quite large enough for the two of us — father is away so much, you see ; he's a merchandising broker and just comes home for visits — so what would mother and I be doing in a big house with a hundred servants around ? We don't even keep a maid — wo both like to cook — oh, wait a minute and I'll bring you some of mother's jelly ! " She whisked off into the kitchen, where I beard her calling her mother, " dear," and when she came back it was with a dish of perfect blackberry jelly, not quite cold, and after that it was hard to talk shop. " What do you think about my name ? " she asked abruptly, as I was putting away the last of the jelly. " Doesn't it sound as if I'd eat up nights thinking it out ? But it's really mine — yes, it's Italian. My father's parents wore born in Italy, so I como by it honestly, but it's such a drawing-room sort of a name ! I ought to bo a tragedienne to live up to it. " My name is like mo," she went on, with hor eyes wider than ever, " sort of a misfit." " A misfit V " I echoed incredulously. Wanted to do Dramatic Stuff. YES, really ! " she assured mo seriously. " You see, when I first started in pictures I just kneu: I was going to bo a sob artist. I had visions of myself acting like Nazimova or standing where tho sunshino would fall on my hair a la Mary Pickford. Oh, I had it all planned out : I was sixteen then, and our finances were such that I had to do something. Acting was tho only thing I wanted to do, so I applied for a job out at Universal — and got it. It was in a comedy with Galo Henry, and I was employed in several others, but still I had tho dramatic bee buzzing around in my bonnet, and because I did have rather good screen features, they gave me a chance at heavier stuff." " And you made good, didn't you ? " I interrupted. Louise has that capable poxsonality which makes you feci sure that she would succeed at anything she tried. " Yes, I — didn't .'" she responded mournfully. " I was so bad, I was funny. I don't think I ever came on to a set without falling over myself, and I had a merry little habit of backing up against a table and pushing off a lamp or a piece of expensive brie a brae. The end came when the director told me to come downstairs ' lightly ' — I was supposed to bo an orphan daughter or something sad like that — well, I tripped on the top step and I came down — lightly, hitting each step as I came, and landing at the bottom with a dull sickening thud. I picked myself up, and the director was just looking at me steadily, deciding what to say first. I didn't give him a chance. I left that day and applied at the Sennett studio. " ' Can you take a fall ? ' Mr. Sennett asked Louise Fazenda as she appears in Mack Sennett Comedies. me. I thought of tho stairs and said I could. They thought I looked funny, 1 guess, so they put me to work — and here 1 am I " " I forgot to ask you to excuso my mocassins," she said, when I rose to leave "' They are so comfortable — Minnie, the Indian Tiinccss, made them for mo when they were doing ' Mickey ' at the studio. I suppose I ought to dress up for an interview — but when I'm home I don't feel one bit like a ' film queen.' " " You don't look it," I assured her, and 1 hope she knows that I meant it as a compliment. Louise Fazenda in " Down On tbe Farm. Louise snowed under by ber correspondence.