Screenland (Apr–Sept 1923)

SCREENLz Hollywood Co-respondents America were getting up a league to erase the name of George Washington as the father of his country, and substitute therefor the name of William "Two-gun" Hart, the sad-bad man of the films. The newspapers have done a lot for the co-respondent business in Los Angeles— although the crop hasn't been so good during the Hays regime — and will do more for it, if let alone. (Continued from page 89) And worried wives in Noah's, Ark., and On, Wisconsin ; and Bull, Montana ; still try to have friends keep an eye on hubby when he goes to Hollywood — wives who long for divorce, the red chevron of matrimony. But movie wives have to get along with plain desertion, or incompatibility or some other mild dissolvent. Not for them the luxury of the corespondent. Imagine the feelings of the actress helpmate viewing a possible co-respondent in a public place — and having to be civil to her for fear of headlines. An ordinary housewife thus enjoys a boon not granted the cinematron. She can name a star as co-respondent — if she gets a chance. The cinematron doesn't dare — even when she has a dozen chances. It's a free country, of course — do you really think it is? The Trumpeter of Fame dust out of her golden-brown and gave it a tinting or two at t parlor and had her face looked alter a bit, and a few pounds here and there scientifically remove i •t;'* was all set to storm hei y ictures again. r She has been making notable successes, in spite of tl •• < little stars, a in small roles ever s$w reappeared in our fair city. Then came a ray of reason even in Hoi ood. Someone over at the Mayer studios I gu option enough to see a sen in The Famous Mrs. Fair, which hadn't been ov such a screaming succe; on the legit., and another ray of netrated Del the directorial mind oi . bio He na' didn't choose an old lady in a lace bonsm net and mitts to play the i her, not who just couldn't get rid i 1 h< war tns hang-over except by ie raring over the country. Many a lei . ;tor Tl than Fred Niblo woulc: one true a to movie traditions, reg; th « play or commonsense. But Myrtle v Stedman was cast as Mr... Fair and one ? of the most sensational mcc< :s of h 1 year resulted. And it was three-fou? due to Myrtle Stedman's fine sense the fitness of things, her matured, ripened acting judgment, acquired during those years when she watched emptyheaded little jazz babies drawing down thousands of dollars a week for the heavy labor of wearing nifty clothes and driving eccentric and speedy cars. Fanny Ward Scoffs at Time A, . way off in Paris Fanny Ward ate her heart out because she was old. She could not bear to give up the screen, yet she had to. She had been too ^ deeply buried by public opinion. We (Continued from page 42) remember seeing her in a ghastly Paris made movie, some hectic melodrama or other, about two years ago. But the word comes. that with the blowing of Gabriel's horn, Fanny Ward is among that glad company. She has been rejuvenated by the X-ray process, which Gertrude Atherton has so well advertised in Black Oxen and is now ready to conquer America all over again. Paris, and other European film centers, like their players well seasoned. If an actress hasn't a little age on her, she is considered raw and uninteresting. In a country where an unmarried girl is considered outside the pale, so far as desirability and the power to intrigue and interest is concerned, and where a man just must be a little bald or a little wrinkled to be luring on stage or screen, it is no wonder that Fanny Ward became eligible to screen fame. But Fanny was homesick. She wanted to be able to appear in her own country. And now, the word comes across the pond ' Fanny is as young-looking as ever, 'and twice as alluring. Other Rejuvenations * hree other long forgotten names are heard in the roll call of the dead who now live. Wally Van, who played in over three hundred short subjects with Lillian Walker, John Bunny and Flora Finch — backward, turn backward, oh time in your flight ! — has signed up again for grease paint activities. He played in The Common Law, a Selznick picture, and is going to produce and star in his own productions. A little balder and quite a little wiser and mellower, Wally of the many memories has come back to his love. He'll probably make a lot of our half-baked xlians and underdone Valentinos like kindergartners. 'The Kerrigan Comeback" e all saw J. Warren Kerrigan the impossible in The Covered viz agon. He came back. He does not have to apologize for himself in that play. Fortunately the vehicle was enough — even though a covered w, is slow — for him to ride comfortably back into port again. There was a very good reason Kerrigan dropped out of sight. The reason died not long ago, and now Kerrigan is without a mother. For three years he personally took care of her night and day. Now that he is free to work again, he brings to the screen ' a wisdom and richness of feeling that should register well. That he still loo much the matinee idol in The Covered Wagon is no proof that Kerrigan will not make a real come-back. In his first role he was necessarily not up to the best that is in him. But it was a fine second-best at that. Pauline Frederick is on her way back to filmdom. She is in Hollywood n divorcing her fourth husband and clearing the decks for a new screen career Given the right stories, in a new :, when flappers are not considered one absolute necessity of a the program, Pauline Frederick, who is a consummate actress should find hersel. and rise to such dignified heights o~ the screen as Margaret Angling ; n Ethel Barrymore serenely occupj the legitimate. And so they arrive every day — these once dead, now living stars, tra clouds of glory — a new spiritual glory which bids fair to dazzle the flappers who are scurrying for cover.