Screen and Radio Weekly (Aug 12, 1934)

10 HE Queen I of the film colony has appeared in her last close-up; her chuckling laughter, heard around the world, is stilled forever. There will never be another such queen. She happens only once in centuries. With the passiig of Marie Dressler, a lustily amusing epoch of the screen ends. A chapter of picture history, which belongs to her own peculiar and particular era, has come to a close. More powerful than a czarina, more gracious than a medieval princess, as tenderly pitying as a mother with a wayward son, the great lady of Hollywood will be greatly missed. Such a woman as Marie Dressler cannot be painted in miniature. Requir'ng a huge canvas, the brush strokes must be daring and the finished portrait as colorful and full of sunlight as a Gaugin, as-splen-, didly robust as a Rubens. Marie Dressler has made millions laugh and millions cry. No greater tribute can be paid any @rtist. a of the humbies heat peat zs ihe halls of kings, Marie Dressler will be remembered with affection. W uen storms of criticism rocked the colony, when earthquakes of scandal shook it, when jibes and jeers were its daily portion, there was always Marie Dressler. “It can’t be all bad, or wonderful women like Marie Dressler wouldn’t be there.” Thus the public reacted to some of the censure. “Keep your chin up; learn to take it; look at Marie Dressler! She didn’t work for almost ten years, but she kept on hoping and having faith!” To stage and screen people out of employment, this has been their greatest encouragement. “*Resting, eh? At ‘liberty’ are you? Well, what about Marie Dressler? She ‘rested’ for years and was at ‘liberty’ so long she got callouses on her soles from walking from ome agency to another, from one casting office to another, from one studio to another, but she didn’t give up.” Thus are innumerable players inspired by the story of “Queen Marie,” who climbed to fame and fortune after fifty! And the glamorous and beautiful ‘ stars, whose mirrors reflect the ap‘proach of age, console themselves with the statement of Marie Dressler: “If you know how to act, if you know how to live, old age can't stop you!” Ironically enough, Marie Dress ler passed into another sphere of . living at the apogee of her career! Is this sad or is it the better way? In any event, it is the way she would have preferred it, had she been given a choice. There is one thing that makes her passing seem extremely pathetic: She loved people so much that she fought like a fiend to remain alive in order to be with them! A CCORDING to her birth certificate, she was 62. but according to her own philosophy, she was less than 30. “The only people in the world who grow old are those who are tired of life,” she said once. “Life is a solid rock under our feet or a piece of Gafitwood in a raging torrent, depending on what we do with it. “Age should be calculated on laugnter and tears. If we can laugh and cry, we are young; if we are bitter and hard, we are old.” ast SCREEN & RADIO WEEKLY adeout To young actresses sitting at her feet, she said: “Live—yes—but live intelligently. Don’t let other people tell you what to do or to say or to think. You can’t give out what you haven’t got and the most beautiful‘ face in the -world is vapid if there is nothing behind it. Sturdily, happily, lovingly she trudged along — laughing when things were half killing her, laughing when things were high, laughing when things were low, laughing at the great and near-great, laugh MARIE DRESSLER ing at the pretenses of some and the bluff of others laughing, laughing. It has been said of -her that she was probably one of the most amusing human beings who ever lived. What many have overlooked is the fact that behind her amusing witticisms, there was an ageless philosophy; mixed with the brilliant quips was homely wisdom and common sense. Marie Dressler often held her tongue in her: cheek, but it never left a bitter taste in her mouth! Tuere is irony in the fact that she died away from the only real home she ever had. How she loved it! Beautiful in setting, design and _ furnishings, completely suited to her tastes-and inclinations, this home was the realization of a dream that had haurted her from her-earliest childhood. 5 When she built it, she said: “This y Molly Marsh house doesn’t need a warming. It will heat itself from my own heart. “T shall live in it, I shall have my friends in it, but I shall not let it ensnare me. The way to get old is to settle in front of the fire.” Sue made her first moving picture in 1914, “Tillie’s Punctured Romance.” In the company with her were two young and unknown players, Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, who shot to fame because of their success in that film. She did not take films seriously but returned to New York and the stage after the one picture. It was just after the war that Marie Dressler was faced by her greatest trial. A wave of: girl shows hit the country and Marie was no longer young! She belonged to the past! For nine tragic years Marie Dressler never had a job! It was a terrible experience and that laugh for which she had become noted and those amusing quips which had secured her introduction into the most exclusive society of London and New York, stood her in good stead. When pictures were suggested to her, she laughed again. “They don’t want old women on the screen. I am homely; they want -beauty. I haven’t a chance.” At last, as a final resort, she came to Hollywood. She rented a little house and a car, kept her smile and her courage, found enough money to pay her colored servant,.Mamie Cox, who had been with her for years, and got nowhere. Just as she was returning to Europe to open a little pension, Frances Marion, famous scenario writer and an old friend, wrote the screen play of “Anna Christie” in which Greta Garbo starred—and by dint of much persuasion: got Marie Dressler into it. In her first dramatic role, she walked away with the highest honors and was recognized as a great artist. From then on she had so many offers she didn’t know which to accept first. Her salary walked up and up, until she was amazed. Pictures were written for her, honors showered on her and her comedy became of more value to a picture. producer than all the scin tillating dramatic actresses he had on the lot. : No WOMAN of the stage and screen has been so internationally recognized. In 1933, which was herbanner year, President Roosevelt invited her to the White House as his. guest for the week-end. -—In November of the Same year, Louis B. Mayer gave a huge: party for Marie Dressler— the largest ever given for a star. Everyone who was anyone in the industry was invited and they all came. Will Rogers was one of the toastmasters; Lionel and John Barrymore and their families were there; -Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, Frances Marion, May Robson, the late Gov. James Rolph, of California—these were a few of the famous ones. “If only I could let the. world know how grateful I am for all that I have been given,” she said in a voice choked with emotion. “I have been given everything that anyone could desire, including a home that I have longed for all my life.” But the cards were stacked against her; her screen career was finished, regardless of the fact that Mary Roberts Rinehart’s “Tish” stories had recently been purchased for her, Time after time she rallied, due to her unflinching determination to get well, but the chapter was closed, the sequence was over, the Master Director had other plans for her. A great woman, a great artist, a great friend — the first lady of Holiywood—Marie Dressler!