Screenland (May–Oct 1927)

90 SCREENLAND 1 1 1 1 r || 1 1 1 1 lllll in i inn 1 1 1 1 ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1| 1 1 1 1 1 A step toward the Real Scenario Money with FRANCES MARION America's highest paid screen writer. Miss Marion has written thirteen scripts for Mary Pickford, a half dozen for Norma Talmadge, and in the past year has done the screen versions of "Stella Dallas," Winning of Barbara Worth," "The Scarlet Letter," and The Wind." She has seen too many "Minnie Flynns" come and go before her to miss any of the high spots in their singularly similar stories. She has made practically every one of the characters in her novel so faithful a portrait of an actual "movie" celebrity that many readers will guess the identity of each before they have read three chapters. The title of Miss Marion's book scarcely portrays its excellent qualities. An associate editor of Screenland, after reading this book said: "It has the true atmosphere of the Motion Picture Studios and should interest every screen fan." This book is in its 4th edition. It offers more insight to the screen than any current book. Write for Frances Marion's success: MINNIE FLYNN. Scieenland Book Dept. (Desk 5) 49 West 45th St. New York City For the enclosed $2.00 please send me a copy of ".Minnie Flynn." Namj: Address 0. I I II I I I I II i I I i I I I I i • illinium □ The director-star had sent for Miss Wray. He was looking for a leading lady to play the wistful heroine of "The Wedding March," tender, tearful little Mitzi. "There were three of us in the room," Miss Wray tells it, "Mr. Von Stroheim, the woman who had arranged my introduction, and myself. For half an hour Mr. Von Stroheim had left me almost entirely out of the conversation, although he seemed to be studying me from the corner of his eye. "Then he arose from his chair to signify the interview was ended. And very gently, he said: " 'Goodbye, Mitzi.' "I buried my face in my hands and cried. "My tears were uncontrollable, so great was my joy. Two words of leave-taking had decided my future on the screen. Later Mr. Von Stroheim told me he was glad I had shown so much emotion because sincere tears were part of the temperament of Mitzi." Since these pages are harbingers of good news for Miss Wray, sequence may be disregarded for a paragraph or two to mention the next thing in store for her. Recently she met Mauritz Stiller who is assigned to direct Emil Jannings in a picture based on "Hitting For Heaven". Jannings saw several reels of "The Wedding March" in a projection room at Paramount studio. He hurried to Stiller, saying, "I must see this girl, Fay Wray. I must have her for my leading woman." After the introduction Jannings was doubly sure that none but Miss Wray would do. And so she will have the role of the Salvation Army lass in the new Jannings' starring production because the great character star has demanded it. And not long ago, when she was sixteen, she was an extra girl who had waited for three months to be called even for extra work. She was still a student at Hollywood High School, then, and had registered for picture work at Century Studio, a girl in a white middy blouse and pleated serge skirt who had a burning intuition that she was destined to be a celebrated actress. School plays had nourished her dramatic ambitions. On her second day in pictures the director gave her a bit to play. Her fragile beauty — an ethereal quality of loveliness, many call it — her pleasing dignity; a grave, sweet power in her blue eyes, gave promise even then. A week later she was called back as leading woman in another comedy, "Gasoline Love." Despite the fact that she had the leading role she was so young the law required her to have a tutor on the set to keep up her school work. Casting office files at the various studios had to be slightly revised about this time. Instead of "Fay Wray, extra; slight, fair type," the cards stated: Fay Wray, leads; five feet and three inches, 114 pounds, golden brown hair, blue eyes." She played a lead in a Fox two-reel comedy and went from there to Poverty Row. It was her one and only experience in the picturesque, down-at-the-heel pro' ducing quarter of Hollywood. The picture, a five-reel Poverty Row feature, has never been put on the market. It was intended to be a "quickie" but it took five weeks to make. Even Poverty Row has expensive production difficulties. A six months contract with the Hal Roach studios, followed by ten months in westerns at Universal gave Miss Wray her fill of comedy falls and melodramatic horse operas. She was frankly dissatisfied. This was not acting. This was not the pure, clear air of the drama that she longed to breathe. Riding a pinto with a swarthy villain in pursuit was not in keeping with her vision of art. For Fay Wray has a strong sense of the sublime. It is part of her unquenchable faith in herself. She is a skilled pianist, with a pronounced leaning toward the melodists, Strauss and Schubert, Schumann and Chopin. Artistic gifts seem to run in the Wray family. Fay is one of five children. Her brother, J. Vivien Wray, is beginning to attract attention as a writer. Her sister, Willow Wray Jackson, is studying for grand opera. Two younger brothers, Richard and Victor, are attending school. "I did not see Mr. Von Stroheim for twelve weeks after he had promised me the part. On the first day's shooting the cameraman took me aside and whispered, 'Von has okayed your first scene.' Is that anything unusual? I asked him. He fairly shouted back at me, 'Unusual! It's never happened before. You'd be lucky if he okayed the tenth.' This gave me confidence and made me very happy. The young actress's remarkable performance in "The Wedding March" drew a long-term contract with Paramount even before the production was finished. Von Stroheim's superlative estimate of her that "she is ten thousand women in one," was shared by Jesse L. Lasky and B. P. Schulbcrg. They think she is potentially one of the greatest stars the screen has seen. Fay Wray is lyric feminine proof that romance still lives. She set a gilded lance of hope at rest and tilted with Hollywood. And with what eloquent results everyone now knows. She is the type one likes to vision in an ivory tower toward which the roses climb on old ivy in the moonlight, a golden-haired wraith of girl, gazing into the distance for an armored knight who will carry her away in the scented, purple darkness. She has glorious dreams and faith that they will come true. That she will win what she wants from life already seems assured because she has something wonderful to give in return. Dreams become realities to girls, who, like Fay Wray, rise from slapstick to the sublime, from "Gasoline Love" to "The Wedding March." Good luck, Mitzi. 'CC Viola Dana is a cute little cut-up in "Naughty Nannette" her next picture.