Screenland (Nov 1928-Apr 1929)

youngest sister of Constance Bennett, who made a great hit on the screen but retired to marry the young Man' hattan millionaire, Philip Plant. ❖ * * How false rumors get started is the mystery of the world, but I am assured on the very best authority that what was said to be a break between Max Reinhardt and Joseph M. Schenck is not a break at all. Inharmony never existed between the celebrated German producer and the motion picture magnate. Herr Reinhardt and Lillian Gish are now at Palm Springs working on their first film story, which will be "The Miracle Woman." # * * Several interesting romances in Hollywood this month. The most exciting, I suppose, is between Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon. Ben has long been spoken of as one of the nicest boys in Hollywood and Bebe as one of the most popular girls, but most people had given Ben up in despair as a confirmed bachelor. No date is set for the wedding but it is bound to be soon. They went to the Equity Ball together and from their expression I don't think it mattered much where they were, just so ' they were together. It is rumored that Phyllis Haver is contemplating matrimony, too. With William Seaman, a New York business man and close friend of Mayor Jimmy Walker's. It has been proved that there can't be any secrets on a sound stage. A visiting lady was taken to the monitor's box as a special mark of favor. Her husband was telling two friends a naughty story down on the stage. She heard every word of it though she couldn't see him. But heavy was the rolling pin that lady held over her husband for the rest of the day. % * * Over Universal way Reginald Denny and Eddie Cline, his director, were pulled about a sound the monitor was picking up that couldn't be accounted for. All was perfectly quiet on the stage; people hardly breathed. Yet the noise in the monitor's box continued. "It must be the garlic on this set," said Eddie Cline at last. The mysterious 'pick-up' sounded something like this: "Gubbley-blup, gubbley-blup," with a rising inflection in the middle. "What in time is it?" everyone wanted to know, while the little sound went cheerfully on — gubbley blup, gubbeley blup, gubbeleyblup — until strong men began tearing their hair at the wasted minutes. Well, it finally developed that at the far corner of the hundred-foot sound stage in a little boxed-in space two property men were brewing their midnight coffee! Charlie Farrell is so excited about getting his new house ready in time for his mother's arrival that he can hardly wait to get out of the studio. It has taken months to build and more months to grow things on the place. The Cape Coddish atmosphere is what Charlie is most proud of. And speaking of Charlie one naturally thinks of Virginia Valli. I wonder why? Virginia has at last had a well-deserved break. I am told that she has been handed the much-coveted leading role opposite John Gilbert in "Redemption," directed by Fred Niblo. Renee Adoree will play the luscious part of the gypsy girl. It will be an all-talking picture, and there will be gypsy songs and dances. Estelle Taylor, who is playing the part of the wicked enchantress in the new Lon Chaney picture, "East is East," was looking more than usually beautiful the other day in a jade charmeuse gown which fit every nook and cranny of her lovely figure. Her eyes had the most wicked slant to them and I afterwards found that the 'slant' was held in place by bandages hidden beneath her hair. If you want to know whether they were comfortable or not, you might try them out at your next masquerade ball. After the third day Estelle's forehead was blistered and the fourth day she was in considerable pain. But one must suffer for one's art once in awhile! Lupe Velez is in it, too, and the girls are great friends. They had not met until they started to work together in Chaney 's film. <C Mr. and Mrs. Milton Sills at home. "The Bar\er" and his beautiful wife, Doris Kenyon, are playing together again in the new Sills picture. S3