Screenland (May-Oct 1928)

SCREENLAND 99 YouDaringYoungMen Seize Life's p^estMU working education. But Nancy had other notions which were being carefully and secretly nursed in her small head. A few years later she heard that Lee and J. J. Shubert were about to revive Floradora, and were planning to introduce a juvenile sextette to put new life into the famous high-stepping six. Nancy was quite convinced that she was destined by history to be one of that juvenile sextette. So she set out to beard the Shuberts in their private offices. She was able to scamper away from family control for two important reasons — her mother happened to be shopping on this day, and her brother was attending the movies. Little Miss Drexel. dressed in her best, sailed into the Shubert headquarters with the utmost aplomb. Before anyone quite knew she was around, she had slipped past the outer guardians with the eel-like agility of a trained dancer. Before she herself quite knew it, she was in the inner sanctum of J. J. Shubert himself. Now, J. J. Shubert is quite an awesome person even to some of the most hardened personages of Broadway. Strong men have been known to turn pale and perspire in his presence. Little Miss Drexel, for all her scant dozen years, saw no reason for turning pale, and perspiring would have been unladylike. It was another instance of the blind courage of youth. She stated her case firmly but politely — she always believes in being polite to everyone, including producers. And doubtless much to his own astonishment, J. J. Shubert engaged her for the juvenile sextette. The Shuberts were so captivated by the charming showing which she made in Floradora that they engaged her again for their musical version of Quality Street. But after that, mother again became active. Nancy had been appearing before the footlights at night while attending school in the day, and mother decided that this double load might harm a growing child — perhaps stunt the girl's growth. And her mother figured that she would rather have a healthy, normal youngster than the most talented of the Singer Midgets. So Nancy was tied down to her education again. Still she nursed that cosmic urge toward professional life. And when the beauty contest was announced, she felt that Heaven was flinging manna in her lap and it would be positively criminal not to tear off a big hunk. So she entered — only to find that the manna could turn sour, like other easily plucked fruits. Perhaps all the while the reader has been wondering just who this Nancy Drexel is, and whether he has ever really seen her on the screen — or whether his eyelashes caught and he missed her brief flitting through The Way of All Flesh. No, there hasn't been a mistake. The reader did see her, but in another incarnation. Here's the big secret about Nancy Drexel: her name used to be Dorothy Kitchen. She was known under that name in all her previous screen manifestations. When she was corralled by Fox, it was decided to change her name to Nancy Drexel, because it was shorter — and the astute producers were foreseeing the day when her name in electric lights might run into money. Also, perhaps, there was a haunting thought that it would be nicer to wipe the slate clean for a girl who had begun her screen career under the dubious auspices of a newspaper beauty contest. With Fox she played opposite Tom Mix in The Broncho Twister, based on a story by Adela Rogers St. John. In this she was pursuing the natural trail that seems to point toward fame for so many of Mix's leading ladies, following in the footsteps of Clara Bow, Billie Dove and Olive Borden. She also received seasoning in the two-reeler class under Gene Forde — and the two-reeler class, it is now being recognized, is one of the most fertile fields for helping budding talent to sprout. Miss Drexel is regarded by the directors who have handled her to be a natural actress of a high order. In addition, this diminutive player has that other vital requisite for a film fame: she photographs without any worries for the cameraman. No less a director of discernment than Murnau foresees fine possibilities for her. Murnau's judgment is coming to be regarded as a trade-mark of success in Hollywood, since he picked Janet Gaynor from a print of Pigs (The Midnight Kiss) — shipped to Germany, and his direction of her in Sunrise added much to the glamourous Janet's standing. In a similar way Murnau was struck with Miss Drexels work in her early he was casting for picture, this demure CT Nancy Drexel is in '4 Devils' and at least two of them are lur\ing in her eyes pictures, and when 4 Devils, his latest miss was one of the the company. She plays a role that gives her wide scope for a great exercise of talent, not only emotionally but physically. For she is a trapeze artist in the picture. The grace and dexterity acquired from dancing was of immeasurable aid to her in looking charming while putting drama in the air or tying her supple person into a bow-knot. She enjoyed her role immensely in 4 Devils, just completed, despite the fact that it entailed some arduous stunts. She had to report as early as 6:30 on many a morning at the studio, in order to practise her tricks on the flying bars under the guidance of circus experts. The long hours of drilling and the constant shots before the camera cut her hands with innumerable blisters, and put a strain on her shapely arms. And yet she liked it. "It's really a lot of fun," she acknowledged toward the close of the picture, "more fun than I've had in a picture in a long while. And I'll be sorry when the picture's over and we can't do our trapeze exercises any more." She still cherishes a lurking fondness for Broadway. 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