Screenland (May-Oct 1929)

The gorgeous Irene Bordoni has come to the films via "Paris," a picturization of the play she did on the stage. It's a talkie, in Technicolor, too. Irene was getting her first taste of sound-picture life out at First National the day I was there. Because of a few technical errors the scene had several false starts. "Zees lights!" said Mile. Bordoni. "I am dizzy I Do not register zat I am dizzy, will you?" Zazu Pitts plays her maid, just as Irene is slipping on a very gorgeous Chinese green gown the bell rings and she says to her maid, "Open ze door." The gown was very tight fitting, and being so occupied in trying to get into it she said, "Open ze dress!" and then burst out laughing, the scene being spoiled of course. "I was so annoyed wis; ze dress — I got my lines all mixed up." Then Zazu forgot a word too, which made them even in the matter of spoiling scenes. Finally it was taken to the satisfaction of everyone; but the director let the camera grind on, while Irene wriggled and squirmed her way into the silken prison. Suddenly she said, "Well how long do I do zis?" Whereupon everyone laughed. ❖ ❖ $ Carmel Myers was married on June ninth at the Janet Gaynor writes her name in the cement of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, recently added to the William Fox chain. Glenn Hunter, star of the stage version of "Spring Is Here," greets Doug Fairbanks, ]r., who is to play in the tal\ie version of the same musical comedy. film for the now extinct Cameraphone Company. Today the ex-ball player and vaudevillain is appearing in the cast of "Thunderbolt," a 100-percent dialog production. It is his first role in the modern audible pictures, although he has played parts in many silent films. In that audible production made 21 years ago, Donlin and his wife first sang their songs, spoke their lines and did their tap dance for phonograph records. Then, while the records were played back again, they rehearsed their act to synchronize with the spoken words, the songs and the dance. When they had it down to a fine point, they did it before the cameras. When the film was released the phonograph records accompanied it. Starting of the picture and the phonographs was perfectly timed, resulting in fairly accurate synchronization. The film was made at the Cameraphone studio at 4th Avenue and 43rd Street, New York. Temple B'nai B'rith in Hollywood. The modern Hebrew marriage is a very beautiful ceremony. They don't promise to love, honor and obey for life, but they do promise to keep in their hearts the same friendship for the loved one that they now have. Surely that is putting as small a tax on restive human nature as one could expect in a contract. May McAvoy was married on June twenty-sixth to Maurice Cleary. Hollywood has been going shower crazy what with Carmel and May. An interesting shower was given by Mildred Davis Lloyd to May at Mildred's new home in Beverly Hills that Harold Lloyd built for her, to which all the members of Our Girls club were invited. After a lapse of 21 years, Mike Donlin, a former big league baseball player, is back in talking pictures. On a Saturday afternoon in October, 1908, Donlin and his wife, Mabel Hite, put on their vaudeville act as a talking (( Behe Daniels christens the Hollywood-Reno air line said to be the fastest in the world. Captain Roscoe Turner assists at the ceremony. 89