Screenland (Nov 1929-Apr 1930)

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Sample *"C LEE-AARON CO.. Dept. 12-D, Suffolk, Va. The next issue of SCREENLAND Will Be On Sale December 5 She'S Not the Type— Continued jrom page 81 every family. , "I had never even given the talkies a thought. When the part in 'The Silver Cord' was offered me, I accepted it because I loved the role and because it would not mean my leaving California. The short engagement was sort of a lark. So you can imagine what a thrill it was to receive that card, saying 'Come to see me tomorrow,' and signed, 'Cecil De Mille.' " Two days later Kay was signed for the heroine of "Dynamite." After a week's work, she wrote her name on the dotted line of a long-term Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract. De Mille had spent weeks searching for just the right girl for "Dynamite," one who could look, act and talk as if to the manner born. More than fifty women of the stage and screen had been tested for the part. Some looked like the boulevard but talked like the other side of the railroad tracks. Others spoke with finishingschool intonation but looked and walked in the manner of the back-halls. Along came Kay. .The part fitted her like a custom-made glove. Hollywood waited and wondered. Then came the opening night. An enthusiastic mob hailed a person and personality heretofore unknown to the screen ranks. But Kay's personality does not stop with the screen. It carries on in real life. I saw her charm a hard-boiled cameraman, a stony-hearted electrician, and a tired press agent with a smile and a plate of sandwiches. She was sitting for a series of home portraits, one of the ordeals to which all screen newcomers must submit. To the cameraman, the electrician and the p. a. it was just another sitting, just another actress, just another detail of the day's work. And they were hot and tired. Then Kay, tired, too, but fascinating in a peacock-green negligee, turned on her smiles and the warmth of her genuine cordiality. "Let's rest a few minutes," she suggested after the twenty-seventh pose. Miraculously appeared a Japanese house boy, bearing a tray of sandwiches, cakes and such raspberry tarts as I never have seen before nor ever expect to see again. While Kay talked and smiled and played hostess, the cameraman forgot the fading afternoon light, the electrician forgot his ancient grudge against all cameramen, and the p. a. forgot a desk covered with unwritten stories. In the midst of the fun, Kay's mother arrived from a shopping trip. She is in California, visiting her daughter. She talked to me while Kay continued the afternoon's work. "This all seems like a dream to me," Kay's mother smiled, waving a hand which included California and the movies and the whole works. Now I know where Kay acquired that smile. There are only two of its kind in existence. "When Kay decided to go on the stage her father and I thought we had reached the peak of surprises. But when we received her wire, saying that she was going into movies, we couldn't believe it. "Kay's desire for a theatrical career began when she was a student at Drew Seminary. Mr. Johnson and I didn't know much about the stage. We had always hoped that Kay would marry one of the boys at home, and settle down to a peaceful life. "She wanted to go to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, so I went to Mr. Sargent and asked him if he would talk to Kay and discourage her. He talked to her, but, aften ten minutes, instead of discouraging her, he turned to me and said. 'Mrs. Johnson, it would be a crime to keep this girl from the emotional outlet of the theater.' In ten more minutes he had argued so eloquently that I was as eager as Kay for her stage career." Before her course had been completed at the American Academy, Kay was signed for the Chicago company of "R. U. R." Then came four years of steadily greater roles. With "Beggar on Horseback," "The Little Accident," and "The Free Soul," Kay found herself one of the most popular young leading women in New York. She met John Cromwell. A whirlwind courtship. Marriage. California honeymoon. "The Silver Cord." Cecil B. De Mille. "Dynamite." Hollywood! The film capital is writing a new label. It bears just two words, which may serve both as its stamp of approval and its classification: "Oh, Kay!" The Duncan Sisters — Continued jrom page 32 a party to listen to their quips. They became the highest paid sister act in vaudeville. They stand at the very top of vaudeville and musical comedy. And yet none of their successes in the entertainment field have given them as much happiness as their present venture into pictures. "Home towns are home towns," Vivian Duncan told me. "Once we played on a bill with an Eskimo who lived about two jumps from the Arctic Circle. He got so homesick that he asked for a release from his contract, and went back to where you have to break the ice away from a plate of ham and eggs. "Rosetta and I have enjoyed vaudeville and musical comedy. We have made many friends all over and we will miss them. But we have a large family of brothers and sisters, and we can't see them very often when we are on the road. If our home town was Kankakee, where there are no picture studios, perhaps films wouldn't be so enticing. But to be able to work in Hollywood, within reach of the folks, oh, boy!" They're not strangers to pictures society, these Duncans. They've vacationed in the West every year except one, and always their home has been a rendezvous for cinematic fun-lovers. They point with pride to the fact that out of but three Hollywood parties that Greta Garbo has attended, theirs was one! They know their Hollywood: they love it; and now, for the first time in a succession of very busy years, it is at last their permanent address. "I doubt if we would ever have made another picture if it hadn't been for talkies," stated Rosetta, the clown and mimic of the pair. "We made a silent one. and we didn't like it. Our whole reputation has been built on our ability to put over songs and gags, and the public missed our noise.