Screenland (May-Oct 1929)

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98 SCREENLAND The NeW Johll Gilbert— Continued from page 29 not even met. They get their 'facts' from gossip, and you know how any story changes in two or three tellings. "There are only two things in the calendar of license of which I have not been accused, and I am expecting the worst at any time!" said John Gilbert. Personally I do not think the yarn Jim Tully wrote about him in Vanity Fair a year ago did Jack any real harm. His admirers and his friends only rallied about the more loyally. I know they did out here and I think Jim Tully knew they would. Not meaning to paint either Jack Gilbert or Jim Tully as a saint, I'm sure Jim had no malice in his heart when he dipped his pen in vitriol with Jack as the victim. He knows human nature pretty well, and he probably knows too that a double dose of poison counteracts itself. Insinuations are dangerous and deadly, but an open attack usually brings to the fore thousands of crusaders. In the meantime, the yarn probably increased Jim Tully's popularity as an interviewer. As a little girl said after eating two dinners, "Believe it or not, I am still hungry." And a popular young actress who was climbing but had not quite reached the top told me: "I would rather be interviewed by Jim Tully than anyone I know. And I can stand what he says." Why was she so eager? Because she knew that every producer in Hollywood would read it, and that she would probably get a contract out of it. Well, Jim didn't and she didn't, but that is another story. At the time his Gilbert article appeared, I asked Jim why on earth he wrote such a scurrilous attack. "Because I felt like doing it," he replied. "And if Jack is big enough he will get over it, and I think he is big enough. You might imagine by reading the story that I am Jack's deadly enemy. As a matter of fact I admire and like him very much. There is another side to him that is extremely fine. But that side was not the burden of my song. The story won't hurt him." And it hasn t. Not with the box-office, at any rate. But you can well imagine what torture it was to a sensitive mind to read such, stuff about himself. Jack might have caused a lot of trouble over it, but he went no further than to tell Jim, as man to man, just what he thought of him. And Jim apologized. Yes — Gilbert is a provocative person from a writer's point of view, because he takes everything big — good news or bad. In spite of his wise resolutions, small things continue to get a rise out of him. He is a child of moods, one minute bursting with joy, radiating it, uplifting everyone around him with the happiness that is greater than he can control, the next minute, for no apparent reason, he may be down in the depths of despair. And when a nature as strong and magnetic as Jack's is depressed, he is not the only one who knows it! Though he may think he is keeping it entirely to himself. He is always good copy and he always will be. The fact that he is married may have arrested, but will not change the restless, searching vibrant strength of his personality. With the passing of his glamourous bachelor days, many maidens may have written finis to their dreams; yet I am sure, Gilbert being what he is, their interest will never stray very far from him. Born under a mysterious sign, no one will ever know just what Jack will do next. His friends know one thing about him — that he is a swell guy — but how he will react to any given circumstance, that they can never be sure of. Neither can he. And that is perhaps the secret of his great success on the screen. Things and people we do not quite understand fascinate us. Although beginning his stage career at the early age of one year, Jack Gilbert had a whack at several professions before going into pictures seriously. In the first place he didn't think he would make good. He overheard Irvin Willat say he never would, because his nose was far too large. This blow, coming as it did just when he was rising out of the five dollars a day class, and had high hopes of a career, depressed him for days. In fact, he decided to commit suicide, but his sense of humor saved him. He wrote scenarios, directed pictures and then determined to get the best of his nose, with what success we all know. He plans to return to his writing when his days before the camera are over. He is very intuitive. "Sometimes it is uncanny," he told me. He will arrive at a conclusion when other more 'practical' minds are still groping with logic. Nine times out of ten Jack will be right. He can't tell why he knew that it would turn out that way — he only knew that it would. His hunches have led him to trust this intuition, this inner voice, and when he has a problem to think out, he always tries to get away by himself and think it out alone. He may fret and fume, but having a sincere nature, his real desire is to get to the bottom of a difficulty and work his way out of it. And he can do this only by thinking things out by himself. Because being alone is so necessary to his growth, he often cuts himself off from his friends and then suddenly realizes that he is lonely. You would never think the idol of the film world was a lonely person, would you? But he is, or was before he married Ina. It was more a soul loneliness than material. "It was good for me," he said. "I had a lot to learn, and I have learned some of it. I am much more tolerant, much more understanding than I used to be. Things that would drive me mad in the old days, have no effect upon me now. I know that people often do things because they can't help themselves. I didn't think that once. Sometimes things were done that I took as a personal affront. I would often resent it bitterly and then there would be a quarrel. "I have more to bring to marriage than I had ten years ago. All I want is peace. I think the best way to keep it, when there are indications of fireworks, is to keep one's mouth shut. Then the mood passes and good friends are still good friends with nothing to 'make up." " Take his marriage with Ina Claire as an example of one of his unexplainable impulses. Many people think both of them weie crazy. Both have fame, position, wealth. Both are at the height of their brilliant careers. What more did they want? But what most people do not know is that, although their lives seemed to be the gayest of the gay, both were lonely. Both wanted a home that they could share with someone, someone with whom they had a great deal in common. Someone who would understand without having to be told. Both had about decided that it was too good to be true and then as usual when people stop nagging fate for things, it is handed to them. As Ina said, she and Jack first quarreled, and then started to laugh. "And we've been laughing ever since. I thought Jack was rather comfortable in his own splendid opinion of himself, because that is what most people who don't know him think, and he thought the same thing about me, and we both decided to steer clear of each other — but somehow we couldn't!" I had heard that Ina was going to chuck (Continued on page 101) 1 (faciei Francis, Ziegfeld Follies beauty, is now playing in Pathe comedies produced by George Le Maire. N.o relation to Kay Francis!