Radio stars (Oct 1935-Sept 1936)

RADIO STARS Ijou JUDGE PERFUME Her Ladyship— "Bea" Lillie (Continued from page 37) RPPLY HIS TEST TO YOUR TRLCurn M POWDER. JuJgc your talcum bv ill fragrance!* Ast for Landrrs BlenJcJ Talc .... pure. soil. tine talcum ibal !> utterly * feminine anj excitingly allur'. ing! Choose one of the five exclusive double -bleucU. • Lilae, anj Roue, LavenJer anj Pine S^ect Pe, mj Gardenia OrehiJ, anJOrange B/o«»o/n Carnation anj Lily O the Valley i 107 Vr s$Si Lc\i\der FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK P.S. Get all the features of a dollar lipstick for 1 0c. Ask for the new LANDER'S PERMANENT TRIPLE INDELIBLE SWIVEL LIPSTICK . . . made with a cold cream base! No House-to-House Canvassing Ambitious women who need money can make up to $23 weekly showing latest Pansstyled Fashion Frocks to friends, neighbors direct from factory — many as low as $2.98. Work from home full or spare time. New plan makes house-to-house canvassing unnece: sary. Not a Penny to Invest Experience not required. In addition to making this fine income, you can get sample dresses to wear without a penny of cost. Write at once for details of this amazing Free opportunity. You are not obligated In any way. Give dress size. FASHION FROCKS, INC. Dept. JJ-250, Cincinnati, O. • Any complexion can be made clearer, smoother, younger with Mercolizcd Wax. This single cream is a complete beauty treatment. . Mcrcolized Wax absorbs the discolored blemished outer skin in tiny, invisible particles. Brings out the young, beautiful skin hidden beneath. Just pat Mercolizcd Wax on your skin every night like cold cream. It beautifies while you sleep. Mercohzed Wax brings out your hidden beauty. TJSE Saxolite Astringent — a refresh in a. stimuli lat'nS skin tonic. Smooths out wrinkles and age lines. Refines coarse pores, eliminates oiliness. Dissolve Saxolite in one-half pint witch hazel. XSY Phelactlne— the •'different" depllatorv. » Removes superfluous hair quickly and gently. Simple to use. Odorless. At drug and department stores everywhere. 66 her art — the crisp, provocative pantomime, an upward flash of her eyes, a twist of her mouth, an unexpected stumble of her feet. . . . All that remains to work with is her voice, but she herself does not fully realize its rich potentialities. For she has a rare gift of conveying some subtle double meaning, some racy bit of humor by the very tone of her voice. But in the early days of her career, she took herself very seriously. On a fateful Friday the 13th, she opened in her first show and did her bit to the frightening accompaniment of a Zeppelin raid. If by any chance she sang off key that night, it was not due to any instinct for being funny ! Songs were sentimental in those days, and sad, and she sang them with all the ardor of a young girl whose emotions were deeply stirred by the patriotic fervor and excitement of a world at war. But raids soon were a commonplace and that impulse to burlesque, to express a wayward humor, would not let her be. "I usually was dressed as a boy in those days," she explained. "Men were scarce, you know. So one night I put on a lovely thick moustache, in an effort to be funny. But Chariot was furioushe fined me five shillings." Bea Lillie fined five shillings for trying to be funny ! But if Chariot was angry, he was not lacking in perception as he seemed. For Bea Lillie remained with his Revue and when he brought his show to America in 1924, she was one of its bright and shining lights and New York went mad over her. She has been on the stage almost continuously since her first appearance with Chariot. Briefly her romantic marriage with Sir Robert Peel intervened. But eight months after the birth of her son, she returned to the theatre. "I thought I'd give it up," she admitted, '"but I don't think you can. . . ." She said that again, when we were talking about the relative attractions of theatre, radio and pictures. . . . "I made a silent picture with Jack Pickford and later a short and a full-length talkie, but I was not at all satisfied with them. The innumerable retakes are trying beyond words! I'd get so tired and then I'd get mad ! And all the spontaneity was lost before they were ready to 'shoot'. . . . But of course I love Hollywood— I've played there a lot. Perhaps we'll go there this summer — I hope so." And perhaps, if she goes, she may consent to make another picture — she ought to, for as a pantomime artist, she is superb — but she won't, if it would interfere with her work in the theatre. Radio appearances likewise have to be fitted into the theatrical schedule. Not that she does not enjoy broadcasting, but the color and the life of the theatre are in her blood. "It is my first love — I don't think anyone who has had a taste of it could give it up," she repeated. Her introduction to radio, like that of so many other famous people, was on Rudy Yallee's program. Her own first program was on the Borden hour when, for twenty-six weeks, as Beatrice Borden, she bewitched the radio audience with a type of humor that was new and different. Then followed her weekly appearance on the Columbia program, the Flying Red Horse Tavern, with Walter Woolf King and Lennie Hayton's orchestra, under the sponsorship of the Socony Vacuum Oil Company. The ordinary difficulties of working this in with her starring part in At Home Abroad were greatly increased when the show went on the road. Then, instead of appearing with her co-actors before a studio audience, she had to perform by herself, her part being piped in from wherever she was playing. "It was rather fun when I could hear the program. I felt just like an ostrich! No one could see me, but I could talk to Walter and hear his response. But in Chicago, I had to go on at a signal — no audience, no Walter — just a matter of rehearsing the script, reading it, timing it !" She and a girl in New York prepare the scripts, working over them together. "I don't write them." She disclaimed any talent along that line. "I think of ideas for the sketch, humorous situations, we talk them over and she writes them." "And Aunty Bea's Bedtime Stories?" "Oh, that was a mistake ! We never should have begun them ! But they won't let us stop !" Absurd, ridiculous, invariably amusing, are Aunty Bea's bedtime tales, but the little skits offer a greater variety, a wider range for Bea Lillie's gifts, her inimitable antics. She never uses gags. But it doesn't matter so much what she does, it is her way of doing it that is so deliriously funny. It is sheer genius and there is no one on stage or screen or radio to challenge her title of queen of comedy. But speaking of titles reminds us, of course, of her other title — Lady Peel. Even the most democratic American must feel respect for a title that has stood for so much in English history as has that of Sir Robert Peel. (It was the first Sir Robert who organized London's police force, long years ago, and thus originated the nickname 'bobbies', too.) Today the title is proudly borne by a tall, handsome lad of fourteen, for Lady Peel's husband died two years ago. I mentioned Robert and Lady Peel gave a quick dash to a trunk in the next room. "There's a book of press clippings — Sadie keeps it for me — I want to show you — " | Sadie, who has been her secretary for fourteen years, lifted out the book, laid it flat on the trunk. With quick, nervous fingers, the slim, dark-haired girl — neither actress now nor titled lady — turned the pages. "This is Robert — see how tall he is !" It was a picture of a handsome, highhatted lad, walking proudly beside his mother. He is a student at Harrow now, ambitious to study law, but though the ocean is between them so much of the time, she manages to see him at every vacation. If she is playing here, he conies