Screenland (Nov 1929-Apr 1930)

for January 1930 41 HOU ^OW! Hedda Hopper, Erstwhile Quaker Girl, is Now the Smart Sophisticate of the Talkies By Ralph Wheeler Hedda Hopper's hobby is men. She admits it. She is proud of it. "Men with a capital M," she added, "not New York men or Hollywood men, but men, generally!11 One hand gestured in the general direction of the entire masculine world. "As a general rule men are much more interesting than women. Of course, there are exceptions, but they only serve to prove the rule. Don't you think so?" I didn't know exactly what I thought. But I agreed. Everyone agrees with Hedda. It may be her throaty, staccato voice which does it. Or it may be the color and force of her personality. If Hedda's hobby is men, it's another example of the old axiom, 'Turn about is fair play.' Many members of the sterner sex seem to be greatly concerned in making a hobby of the fascinating Hedda. Everywhere she goes, she becomes immediately the center of a group of admiring masculinity. Until I met her, I believed that such women lived only in the imaginations of writers of fiction and plays. She has been places and seen things. She is still going and seeing. Her sheer joy in life and people is contagious and stimulating. Hedda has green eyes. She would. I believe that the histories credit Cleopatra and Lilith with eyes of the same jade hue. Hedda's eyes are slightly slanting and usually narrowed. When she looks at you through those quizzically drooping lids, you remember that you need a manicure and hope that your hair is not too noticeably uncurled. To Hedda, dressing is an art. Her clothes speak the language of simple sophistication. This day she was wear' ing a lemon-colored sports outfit. It was perfect from shoes to soft felt hat of the same golden shade. Its lines ■ — well, after looking at that costume I no longer wondered Hedda is celebrated for her gaiety, her svelte way with clothes, and her unfailing good humor. No wonder she is one of Hollywood's most popular personalities. at Hedda's successful pursuit of her hobby. But Hedda wasn't always the woman of the world whom the screen, Hollywood Boulevard and Fifth Avenue know today. Ask Altoona, Pennsylvania, about a girl named Elda Furry. Altoona will tell you the story of an entirely different person. Elda was not born to the lemon-colored flannels and the smart drawing-rooms of our Hedda. She knew only the grave simplicity of a Quaker household, a quiet-speaking and devout world which shunned the gaieties of life. Can you imagine the svelte Hedda in a Quaker bonnet and fichu? Neither can I. But she wore them until she was eighteen years old. Then she ran away, changed Elda to Hedda, discarded the cap and fichu for clinging satins and tailored flannels. "I guess it was the desire for life and success, which really persuaded me to run away from home. The first stirrings of my hobby so to speak," Hedda smiled, thinking of that young Elda, who dutifully spoke her thees and thous while dreaming of the other world beyond the Quaker hills. "I went to school in Pittsburg, and there I met a girl who was playing in the chorus of a New York musical comedy. I used to sit hour after hour, listening to her exciting stories of Broadway, the bright lights, the gaiety. "After she went back, she wrote me frequent letters, urging me to try my luck in New York and promising to help me find a job. So I ran away from home, finally, leaving a note on the pincushion in the prescribed manner. The only way in which the story differs from the regular ten-twenty-thirty melodrama is that I did not come home in a snowstorm without a wedding ring. "The girl made good on her promise. I landed a job in a chorus. For three years I kicked and danced and learned what the theatrical game was all about. When I look back now on that ignorant, (Continued on page 111)