Screenland (Apr–Sept 1923)

66 SCREENLAND in the most fashionable and conservative section 1 of Los Angeles by stating, with fetching naivete, to the realty agent that she was a sister of Dorothy Dalton and desired a home for herself and mother. When the "wild parties" that she staged antagonized the neighborhood, she was investigated, with the result that her claim to sisterly relationship with Miss Dalton was proven untrue, her "mother" was a myth — and she was speedily ejected. The stars' telephone-numbers and street addresses are always kept a dark secret, closely guarded from the curious public that throngs here in droves, eager to talk with or see in person the silversheet luminaries. Sans make-up the actors often pass unrecognized in the streets of Los Angeles, and tourists complain that they spend hundreds of dollars on a trip to California and sit around Hollywood for weeks without once glimpsing a favorite star. Disgruntled, the visitors return home and knock the players. It is a question of time. Were the stars to receive all those who demand admittance to their private lives, they would have no time for work. Even when a telephone number is obtained, one must first give one's name and reasons for calling to the maid who answers — one must almost catalogue one's vaccination marks ! — before the dulcet voice of the star comes singing over the wires. If one be not a friend or one's name not known as that of a magazine writer, one is told that the star is "out". Moral Scruples Go By the Board a. M Persecution Via Telephone ilured Davis, before her marriage, made the mistake of allowing her name to appear in the phone book. And for a while, before the family learned that courtesy sometimes carries its own punishment, Mildred had to answer the phone as many as twenty times in one evening, the callers being tourists anxious to see her or to obtain her autographed picture. Helen Chadwick had the same sad experience. Ruth Roland, because of her many business interests and real estate investments, must have her name and number in the book. But her secretary, a most efficient young woman with a positive genius for culling out those whose business is legitimate, answers the phone and courteously but speedily dispatches the merely curious. Only an inch and a half of pine door between this moviemad public and the studio land of make-believe romance ! But it's harder to open sometimes than a burglar-proof safe. The studio doorkeepers are the crabbiest souls alive. Somebody has said that if the diplomatic corps ever needs recruits, they can be obtained from the ranks of the assistant directors. I hasten to add that if ever there is another war, two studio gatemen will suffice to wipe out, without bullets but simply by sarcasm and verbal attacks, the enemy army. ,ll sorts of subterfuges are used to obtain entrance to the studios. One man, appearing at the Lasky studio, professed to be an old friend of Sam Wood, claiming that th director had invited him to visit the film-shop ; all of which sounded very interesting to Mr. Wood, who chanced to be standing nearby and who never before had laid eyes on the individual. A favorite method is to pretend to be a representative of some out-of-town newspaper or magazine, foreign publications usually being chosen as there is more likelihood of getting away with it as "special correspondent" for some English, French or Spanish paper. By the time the fraud is unveiled, they figure they will have had time to see and depart. But the publicity men are wise chaps and it doesn't take long to determine if the man be genuine and his credentials authentic. A while back a chap appeared at the Paramount gate and produced letters of introduction from a New York City newspaper. Apparently the signatures were genuine, so he was given the freedom of the studio and wandered around at will, meeting all of the stars, obtaining photographs which.he promised to send with his feature article to his paper, and being entertained at luncheon. Then it happened that one of the studio executives, in writing to the firm's Eastern offices, casually mentioned the man's name as correspondent for the Metropolitan (publication Soon word came from New York that the paper had n authorized representative in Hollywood. Steps were taken to locate the transgressor, but his sixth sense must have warned him of impending disaster, for he had faded away as does the day into night. He has never been heard of since — which is quite lucky for him. Even genuine magazine writers do not pass through until their faces are known to the gate-tenders, or unless they are vouched for by the publicity office. I am one of those individuals who are always leaving credentials and such important things in the bureau drawer at home, and many times have I had heaped upon my head a rain of vituperation. You cannot blame them though, with threefourths of the world, sooner or later, demanding admittance to the land of imagery upon some fabricated excuse. Would-be actors also seek to make use of this scheme. The idea seems to be that if one can just get inside the magic portals, one may accost a director and obtain a job, thus assuring one's fame and future — a mistaken notion, as all employment is arranged through the casting-offices. Some, too, are merely curious tourists, who wish to view the scenes "back-stage", possibly on a still hunt for all that scandal they ve heard about and have somehow or other failed to find (Continued, on page 91) Stetler Photo Anna Q. Nilsson's superb aplomb was rather shattered when she learned that a Mrs. Helen Anderson had been masquerading under the Nilsson name in MUford, Mass. n.