Screenland (Nov 1925–Apr 1926)

62 ; Gossip from Hollywood (Continued from page 57) and happy that Betty is afraid she will soon lose her faculty for worrying and may become — quite happily for all concerned — in' competent for her worrisome job. Incidentally while Betty was on location she was, of course, adored by all the cowpunchers her husband Jimmy used in making the picture. One very shy buckaroo wrote Betty at the studio and this is how his letter read: "Dear Miss Betty: — Will you please send me one of your beautiful photos without any obligation on my part.^ "Your pal -■ Hollywood is, as you know, full of youngsters, who come on from every part of the country in search of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They besiege the wellknown players and directors, asking them for a chance and for pointers. One such hopeful — that is he hoped to become an extra man — stopped Harland Tucker on the boulevard the other day. Harland, by the way, has turned both his No. 11 feet unreservedly toward cinema fame and away from the legitimate stage. "Well, Mr. Tucker, my great opportunity has come," said the extra man exultantly. "I have been engaged for a big production at Universal which Buchowetzki is directing." i "Indeed," said Tucker, "and what do you play in this picture?" "Oh, I am a cadet. Of course, there are 2,000 other cadets in the picture but Buchowetzki has promised me a real chance at acting. Why last week I worked two days and made $20. I have moved out of my old room into an apartment and things look so rosy I am going to be married next week." "Of such stuff is 'Hollywood optimism' compounded — and confounded," murmured Tucker. * * * Publicity person postcards in this zoological note: Hallam Cooley, Fox featured player, recently celebrated the anniversary of the day, eleven years ago, when he was introduced to the motion picture industry as juvenile lead in an animal comedy. Just some more monkey business, I suppose. * * * "Heaving the lead" is a nautical act but SCREENLAND (CNita X^di as the wic\ed lady in "Cobra." "heaving the cookies" isn't, as the members of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast filming sea scenes in "The Barrier'' Rex Beach story, recently learned. The company put to sea in a sailing vessel chartered for the occasion and ran into a stiff gale. "Great," said George Hill the director, "this weather is made to order for the picture." , • Work started, but the Pacific continued to roll as high as the proverbial goose is said to hang. George began to turn green around the gills and the cameraman commenced swallowing hard. Lionel Barrymore and Marceline Day, playing the doughty skipper and his daughter respectively, but not vice versa, voiced their anguish, "We are sick," the captain shouted as he staggered down what on land would have been a stair. Soon everything was on the up and up, and work succumbed to mal de mer, which is a $4.50 word for seasickness, for the long Pacific ground swells did their stuff well and often. The Stenographers' Union has entered a protest with Hobart Henley, the director, because he has changed the title of "Free Lips' to that of "His Secretary." They regard it as being in restraint of trade. Hoping you are the same, yours, Bert. The Stage Coach (Continued from page 45) show. Mr. Moore can get laughs without firing any guns at the audience, and does so. The Moore, in brief, the merrier. 'a I "APPLESAUCE" j FRESH from a triumphant career in Chicago comes Barry Conners' "Applesauce," with that pleasing personality, Allan Dinehart, in the main role. It provides a New York audience with a fair entertainment, provided said audience is not in too critical a mood. It's all about an ingratiating young rascal who doesn't want to work, but who is popular with everybody in town, including the canine population. It seems he's in love with the heroine, but is afraid to propose, having no visible means of support. When he doesn't come across, she accepts the advances of his rival, a hard worker (though a loose thinker), by name Rollo ]en\ins. This bit is excellently played, incidentally, by Walter Connolly. Dinehart does well by the main role, and is convincing as far as the role permits him to be. There is one barren stretch in the first act when he has to deliver a monologue on "What Happiness Consists Of." Our readers will be glad to learn that it is Mr. Conners' theory that happiness consists in giving, not in taking; that you can get only the happiness you put into things; and that happiness is like a kiss, you only get it when you give it. We slept nicely during this, and awoke, much refreshed, to see the rest of the show. Perhaps the best performance is Jessie Crommette's as Ma; she is remarkably alive and real. William Holden is as bad as his part as Paw, and it's a pretty bad part, creating such a father as never was on land or sea. Clara Bandick does a nice bit as the garrulous and pessimistic Jennie; Gladys Lloyd makes a pretty heroine, if not a great actress, and she is not a great actress. The remaining member of the cast, Albert An' druss, is pretty bad. In conclusion, "Applesauce," properly handled, may make a good movie vehicle. Let Mary Alden play the mother, Ernest Torrence the father, Richard Dix the hero, and Norma Shearer the heroine, if the movie producers are willing to get together in the sake of good pictures. Patsy the Party Hound — continued from page 45 home of Doug and Mary. Mary was looking like a little girl that had been good, and so her mother let her into the drawing room if she would promise not to touch anything. We. looked at her collection of porcelains and rich trifles like inlaid vanity boxes, and at the French period furniture, had tea, and discussed the house, and then on down to Anne Cornwall's home, where we were to dine. At Anne's we found husband Charlie Maigne and Percy Marmont and his wife; and Anne's cook had departed, so after Reed Howes came we went over to the Zulu Hut, in Laurel Canyon, for dinner. This is a very popular place with the film stars, being what Anne calls "a trick restaurant." ^ Outside is a Zulu knife-thrwer from Charleston, South Carolina, who adroitly throws knives at a hoard, making everybody want to follow suit. Patsy thought she easily could do it, and everybody had a try, but if it depended on any of us except Percy Marmont to make a killing of an enemy, all the people we hate, as Anne put it, would certainly live out their full lives. Percy proved an adept, and we suspect it wasn't the first time he had tried the sport. Inside the Hut you eat fried chicken and cornbread without knife or fork! "We are going to Percy Marmont's house!" whispered Patsy delightedly. Patsy has an awful case on all these sad-eyed heroes. We found Percy's house exactly what you would think it would be — a large, homey, substantial place, with a big garden in the back. We played bridge, and Percy won at that, too. Then, though Percy's two children were asleep upstairs, we must needs travel up and turn the light on for a look at the two chubby little girls. Downstairs we chatted awhile, and Reed Howes told us that he was from Salt Lake City, home of the Mormons. "I want to go there," exclaimed Marmont. "You can't smoke there,— against the law!" warned Howes. "Oh, well, is there any time for smoking?" inquired Percy. Kenneth Harlan and Marie Prevost celebrated their paper wedding,— first anniversary, — the other night, and Patsy and I went over to the party with John Roche. The occasion was a sort of house warming, too, as they have just bought one of those lovely combination English-California houses in Beverly Hills. It turned out to be a regular kids' party. "They seem to have forgotten, Kenneth and Marie, that they have been married a