Radio stars (Oct 1935-Sept 1936)

RADIO STARS to her. And every year or so, she returns to play in England. Someone has referred to her as a transatlantic commuter. Besides, there always arc the wireless and the phone to bridge the distance. She is equally at home in London or New York and loves them both. Most of all, she loves being busy, being fully occupied in her work. A week's holiday during Holy Week was a week too much 1 "By nine o'clock, I was yawning — it was dreadful !" In At Home Abroad, she is on the stage almost continuously, darting off to change her costume and reappearing for a new characterization almost immediately. While in New York, she added to that heavy schedule and her weekly radio program, a night club appearance. For some time she sang at the Rainbow Room there. Later at the Nezv Montmartre. "It's grand fun," she said zestfully of her midnight act. "I love it, and the more I have to do, the better it is !" She even loves being on the road "Especially," she added, "when I am with congenial people — this tour has been such fun. They are grand people, all of them." And it was fun especially when the tour took them to her own home town, Toronto, Canada. There she had a royal welcome— but she has that everywhere, for she has many friends wherever she goes and is entertained eagerly. Sometimes, perhaps, because of her title or her fame, but more often because she is herself such delightful company. But she has more than wit — she has dignity and charm and graciousness and very distinctive good looks. Her sleek black hair is cut close, brushed in mannish style back of her small ears. She has candid gray eyes beneath arched dark brows and a wide, sensitive mouth. She is small and slender and essentially feminine in spite of the boyish figure. But underlying all this, cropping out unexpectedly, is the mischievous sense of humor, never malicious but gay, sparkling, racy, delicately satirical and occasionally censorable, from radio's restricted point of view ! She delights in a Frenchy joust at hypocritical sedateness and her audiences thoroughly enjoy the piquancy of her delicious naughtiness. When she can, she takes a regular busman's holiday: "There is nothing I like better than to see a good show," she admitted. "I go every chance I get I" And she also is a radio fan and, like the rest of us, has her favorites. Among them she particularly enjoys George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny and Fred Allen. "They are always funny," she commented. "It doesn't matter what Gracie says — it's the way she says it. And George is so clever, too — a grand team!" You'd think that, with her crowded schedule, she would long for a chance to rest, but nothing seems further from her mind. In fact, if she has any extra time, she likes nothing better than a long walk, for sheer enjoyment of the fresh air and the out of doors and a glimpse of lake or river or park, as opportunity offers. I have never seen anyone with so much zest for living, such depth of enjoyment in the little every day affairs, such com plete happiness in her work, her surroundings, her friends. She hummed softly as she powdered her nose, patted her hair in place, waiting for the call-boy. "Of course I'd like to have a home, with Robert," she confessed. "But he is in school so much of the time and, anyway, I have him during vacations. My mother and sister are in London— I see them when I can. There's no point in my staying there — and I need to be doing things I" Chariot's Revue was produced in America in 1924 and 1926. In the intervening year, it was produced in England. Since then, Miss Lillie has appeared in She's My Baby, Oh, Please, Noel Coward's This Year of Grace, Walk a Little Faster, and others. Coward wrote several songs for her and is one of her intimate friends. In between her comedy performances, she has played straight parts, such as her role in George Bernard Shaw's Too True to be Good, and sung straight songs, but her public insists on her being comic. Her gift for apt and hilarious mimicry, for being spontaneously, richly funny and subtly satirical, is too rare to be dispensed with. Neither the theatre nor the radio can do without her own completely individual brand of humor! Her friends are the elite of the social world and of the literary as well as theatrical coteries. But she is disarmingly democratic, easy to meet and talk with. The toast of two continents, titled lady and successful comedienne, she remains "Bea" Lillie, whose chief aim in life is to amuse you and me ! • Men won't come near a girl who offends with underarm odors. 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