Screenland (Apr-Sep 1924)

BABY STARS the Thirteen Starlets of 1924 Are Right There, Says Lucille \^arrimer Dorothy Mackail Elinor Faire of her evi Undoubtedly Goldwyn has signed up the wistful little girl, too suddenly plunged into leading-ladyhood, and this bit of national publicity is a very good thing for her contract. But is it wise to thrust Lucille into the limelight as a star of even so distant a day as "tomorrow"? She has scarcely cut her eye-teeth yet, and her wisdom teeth will not be causing her dentist worries for another five or ten years. For Lucille is really only a kid, probably the first player ever press-agented as older than she actually is. About ten years from now Lucille is going to have a lot of bother making people believe that she is only twenty-four or five. Lucille Ricksen was a thin, rather anemic looking little girl who played in the Edgar comedies, written by Booth 'Tarkington. She got the job largely because of her yellow finger-curls and her demure little smile. Then one day we saw a picture in which a nervous, fidgety little lady seemed to be doing a good bit of acting, in spite dent self-consciousness. It was in a married-flapper picture of Marie Prevost's. The program gave us the astonishing news that it was Lucille Ricksen, little Edgar comedy Lucille, playing at being nearly grown up. At that time Lucille was positively not more than fourteen years old. At the time she was cast for The Rendezvous by Marshall Neilan Lucille was fifteen, and press-agented, probably in fear of public opinion, as seventeen. The timid, shrinking little girl of that somber picture was made to think thoughts and face situations which no child of fifteen should deal with. In the hothouse of stardom, she may lose the wistful childishness which has made her a fondly remembered figure in kid pictures for the last few years. At that, Lucille will probably make screen history, if they can find plays to suit her. It is a safe bet that Goldwyn will know better than to star her for another four or five years yet. Lucille is probably doomed to play leading roles opposite Conrad Nagel and other male stars for an indefinite but needed period. Gloria As for the others, Time alone will retheir capacity as actresses. But physic , the little dears present a soothing eyefull. As an aggregation of pulse-quickeners, they are there. The press agents proved themselves excellent judges of optical values when they chose as Baby Stars cuddly little Gloria Grey, Norma Shearer of the cameo-like features, Hazel Keener, the artists' Lucille Ricksen model, sloe-ey Carmelita Ger Julanne Johnstone aghty, cunning Alberta Vaughn, Elinor Faire, Ruth Hiatt, Blanche Mahaffey, graceful Julanne Johnstone, Marion Nixon and Margaret Morris. Julanne Johnstone has just finished the leading feminine role in Douglas Fairbanks' picture, The Thief of Bagdad. That picture will be the proof of her ability as an actress. If she is as good an actress as she is charming to look at, her success is assured. Elinor Faire had a long and inconspicuous engagement in Fox pictures. She emerged out of obscurity in Charles Brabin's Driven. Since then, nothing of note or interest. She will also be dimly remembered as the invalid miraculously healed in The Miracle Man. But as far as starring goes — well, somehow Elinor Faire does not seem to have the strength of personality or the background of success to be a real candidate for stardom "tomorrow." Norma Shearer had her chance in Pleasure Mad. There was a lot of talk about Norma when young Benny Schulberg hired her. Seems like she was a Toronto society girl, or something like that. At any rate, she is pretty and very slenderhas a wealth of frizzly goldenbrown hair and piquant features. But in Pleasure Mad her eyes failed to register — probably because she was not accustomed to the harsh studio lights. Pleasure Mad was not a great picture by any means. Something of the local "fame" that the other Baby Stars enjoy may be deducted by the fact that the writer, who has been in intimate touch with Hollywood and pictures for three years, had never heard of the girls until their names were mentioned as Baby Stars; that the dramatic editor of a Los Angeles newspaper could give me no bit of information about them; that one prominent casting director had never used any any of them even as "extra talent;" that a woman publicity writer for one of the big studios was equally in the dark about them; and, most strange of all, that one of their fellow Baby GreV Stars could tell me nothing about them except that "she had heard somewhere that Gloria Grey was a dancer and had the lead The Girl of the Limberlost." Maybe the 1924 Baby Stars can all act. Maybe they will all' come to that Promised Land, where their names will always be in electric lights four feet high But, anyway, they're awfully cute And when you come right down t o, it, that's more than Duse is. Hazel Keener Blanche Mahaffey 57