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46
SCREENLAND
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Broadway Blonde
By Jean Cunningham
IT is rumored that some few Broadway stars packed a superiority complex in with the latest dress models when they departed for Hollywood. But Ann Harding is not one of them. Take it from the studio maid and hairdresser who attend her, the star who scintillated so brightly in 'The Trial of Mary Dugan," 'The Woman Disputed," "Tarnish,, and other New York successes, absolutely neglected to equip herself with an inflated ego when she came West.
It was on the set at the Pathe Studio where she was working in her second dialog picture, "Her Private Affair," that I learned of Miss Harding's negligence in this respect.
Alice, the studio maid, and Gladys, the hairdresser, were chatting just outside the door of Miss Harding's portable dressing-room when the young actress and her husband, Harry Bannister, who plays with her in "Her Private Affair," appeared.
"Well, here's our baby," said Alice in decidedly motherly, albeit not at all 'maidenly' fashion, if one may be permitted a poor pun.
However, the friendly greeting seemed to ruffle the beautiful Ann's composure not at all.
"Oh, you sweet things!" she cried. "Here you are waiting for me, after working so late last night."
It seems that Alice and Gladys had worked the previous evening preparing Kay Hammond, who plays an important part in "Her Private Affair," for some sequences in which Miss Harding did not appear. Hence her appreciation at their early presence on the set — a fact, gentle reader, which only too many stars would have taken for granted.
After Gladys had dressed Ann's long golden tresses in a bewitching and very sophisticated off-the-ear fashion, and Alice had garbed her in the beaded chartreuse chiffon gown she wore in the morning's scenes, I found a chair beside the two obvious admirers of the star.
"You like Miss Harding, don't you?" I questioned.
"Like her?" asked Alice. "Who wouldn't? She's an angel. There are no pretences or
little poses about that young lady. And do you know why?"
I did not, but signified that I would be interested in find
Ann Harding's milliondollar blonde hair — all real money, too! — lends itself to one of the most interesting and unusual coiffures in screenland.
ing out.
"Because she was born a lady," explained Alice in effect. "There are those who scoff at the part good family, good blood and good breeding play in a person's character, but I'm not one of them.
"I've seen stars who started out as the daughters of servants — some as servants themselves. As they climbed to the top of the ladder they felt necessary to adopt affectations and temperamental gestures to prove to themselves that there was nobody higher up than they were. I've read books on psychology in which this is described as 'an inferiority complex,' and I think it's true. In their innermost minds such people are aware that they have not had the advantages of education and environment enjoyed by people who had always had money, so they felt that they had to go to them one better in other ways.
"Now, Miss Harding is entirely different. She is the daughter of a general in the United States army. Her