Screenland (May–Oct 1927)

92 SCREENLAND CHARM by MARY MARGARET McBRIDE and ALEXANDER WILLIAMS A bit sophisticated More than a bit witty Altogether delightful CHARM IS YQUR BIG ASSET — • It is the so\d of beauty. It opens all doors to you. It rounds out your personality. This book shows you how to cultivate it. Order It Today — $2.50 RAE D. HENKLE CO. Inc. Publishers New York City USE THE COUPON Rae D. Henkle Co., Inc., Publishers No. 45 Fourth Ave., N. Y. C. Enclosed is $2.50. Send my copy of Charm postpaid. Check here if you want it sent C. 0. D. Name — — Address City and State -— erftct Complexion You, too, can have that satiny, unlined Skin Others Envy For erasing the tiny lines around the eyes and for feeding the tissues of the skin, Wesley's Skin Food will give you marvelous results in a few applications. Send 20c to-day for generous trial jar and a Skin Rejuvenating treatment. Representatives wanted — Exceptional opportunity. W rite for exclusive territory. OTELIA WESLEY Times Bldg. Inc New York jssss to beautiful proportions — while you sleep! ^fllUTA nosE flWUSTER Jk is SAFE, painless, comfortable. ^=wf) Speedy, permanent results guar ^ W anteed. Doctors praise it. No >ld Medal metal to" harm you. Small cost. Won 1923 " Write for FREE BOOKLET befose-afteb ANITA CO... Dept. G-G9, Anita Bldg., Newark, N. J. Why Stay Blindfolded? ■^KTlB^ Learn tit. Truth. You know that Tjyjjr vibration is the principle of creaJgg% tion Y°u are using only 20 per cent of your vibratory energy. Learn the hidden secrets within yourself and how to use them for success. Write today. Dept. 32 INSTITUTE OF ASTROLOGY P.O. Box 149, Times Sq. Station, New York Frances Marion Tells You All About Screen Life See page 90 of this issue. Every Kick on Broadway is a step toward Pictures (Continued from page 19) I mean thrones — and ruthlessly tear up the contract of any dancing girl who fails to keep in trim. Too many flamingoes' tongues, and out she goes. Contour, my dears, is everything. But outside of this little difference, the Dancing Girls of yesterday and today are twisters under the skin. Yes; you can count at least a round — but not too round — dozen dancing girls in pictures today. They danced their way in, and they must keep moving if they hope to please. The movies must have the best of everything. They understand this — their understanding is simply wonderful . You'll go a long way before you'll find anything like it. Because wherever or whenever any girl displays perfect understanding, along comes a movie king, sees her, and signs her. Understanding — at both ends. Come on you Dancing Girls! The more the merrier. The directors can always use a gross or so for the Big Banquet Scenes, and you may be picked out of the mob for a close'up. Then, after a bit here and a bit there — maybe a real part. And then, — why, stardom, of course — as if you didn't know that all the time! Look at Joan Crawford. Not so long ago Joan was Lucille Le Sueur, a dancing girl in a Chicago cabaret revue, delighting the crowds with her beauty and her graceful stepping. But Joan wasn't satisfied. She wanted a larger audience for her twinkling toes. New York, with the welcome on its mat for youth and grace, found a place for Joan in musical comedy. She liked her dancing job so well that she took another, after show hours, as a performer in a night club. Soon she found herself a featured twirler in the Passing Show of 1925. It looked as if Joan — I mean Lucille was no passing fancy on Broadway but a permanent institution. Now, everybody in the world visits the Winter Garden sooner or later — and Harry Rapf, Metro-Goldwyn' Mayer magnate, was no exception. He saw the show one night, and made a mental note of the fact that Lucille Le Sueur was a "bet" for films. A screen test of the young dancer was forthcoming. If this were a fairy-tale, boys and girls, the screen test would turn out to be a wow, a knockout, and a riot, and Lucille would be on the road to stardom — just like that. But, boys and girls, this is not a fairy-tale; it's a true story. And that screen test was not — so — good. Mr. Rapf still had faith in his judgment and saw that the girl was given a second test and instructed more explicitly in the art of movie make-up. Nothing seemed to come of this, either, and when Lucille went west to Kansas City to spend Christmas with her folks, a future on the screen was the last thing she was thinking of. Presents from New York shops for mother and brother; the homey Christmas with real old-fashioned cooking — the little dancing girl was just a kid, going home for the holidays. But Santa Claus, wise old bird, had something up his sleeve, and he slipped it in her stocking. Her Christmas present was a telegram from California telling her that the second test was a success and that if she wanted to, she could report to the studios in Culver City for work. Could she! Can't you see those folks in K. C. when the pride and joy of the family — the beautiful daughter who had already made 'em sit up and take notice in New York — was summoned to try her luck in a movie studio? After Lucille Le Sueur had attracted some attention in small roles for a while, the public was asked to vote on a new name for a new star. The public chose Joan Crawford — and she's still one of the chosen. She has kept on dancing — before the camera, in "The Taxi Dancer," for instance; and after, at Hollywood parties. It's her danc ing that still gives her the biggest kick — and us, too. Sally Rand is being groomed for featured roles at the Cecil B. deMille Studios. And you know what that means. Or don't you? Well, it means that some day, if she's plucky and lucky, Sally will step right up into the front row of the stellar chorus whose graduates include such famous names as Gloria Swanson, Leatrice Joy, Vera Reynolds, and Jacqueline Logan. It means something to be picked as a deMille possi' bility — it's a distinction craved by every AC Syd Chaplin and the hyphen in "The Missing Link".