Screenland (Nov 1930-Apr 1931)

120 SCREENLAND one of them she said, laughing in the delightfully candid way she has, "I probably wouldn't have landed it, anyway. I haven't had enough experience in singing to play that part. I knew that before I started, so why should I waste my time and their money? I'm not going to sing in pictures until my voice is ripe. Building it up in a mixer's booth takes all the music out of the voice." Speaking of how a closed mind hampers growth we laughed over the time William Fox wanted her to play "The Queen of Sheba" during the first year of her contract with him. "Why, I couldn't think of such a thing. Why, my grandmother would never stand for it !" she gasped. Bill Fox's fist pounded his massive desk until everything on it rattled as he shouted, "We're not making moving pictures for your grandmother !" Estelle stared at him, startled but defiant, as he outlined all the things he could and would do to her in the picture business if she didn't play "The Queen of Sheba." She heard him out and then spoke her line. "All right. That's what you can do. But I can do something, too. I can get out of the picture business. I can sell ribbons in Macy's basement and I'll do it, too, before I'll be photographed practically naked !" And whether, in spite of his rage, Bill Fox admired her spirit, or whether he was showman enough to bide his time, thinking 4 said the kids would die. And I said to the studio, 'If the kids die, is it your fault or mine?' So finally they said the kids could come along ; and Ollie said that if I took the kids she'd have to come, too, and take care of 'em. So I said all right ; although I'm darned if I wanted any dames around." "That's not the truth, Harry, and you know it !" And even though Mrs. Carey was convalescing from an appendicitis operation she nearly leaped from the couch. "The fact is, I followed Harry down to Africa to keep the ticks off of him. I should let some other woman pick African ticks off my husband ! Can you imagine me pacing Falcon Lair with Valentino's ghost, mumbling over and over to myself, 'Well, I wonder who's picking the ticks off Harry tonight' ?" "Yeah," Harry admitted with a reminiscent grunt. "An' they was ticks, too. I don't suppose," he remarked disparagingly, "that you ever had any elephant ticks — well, these elephant ticks are as big as my fist." And even though his wife talked him down to the end of his thumb I couldn't help but reflect that a tick the size of Harry Carey's thumb was, briefly, a tick. "Yeah," he finally conceded, "I guess it's just as well I had a dame down there at that. And as I look back at it I guess most of our evenings was spent pickin' ticks. First Ollie'd pick some off me, and then I'd pick some off her. That's the way it went all right." Whatever the reason, the fact remains that Olive Carey revolted and joined her husband in Africa; and if stalking elephant ticks and being chased by African buffalo, Thomson gazelles and the wiry dickdicks constitutes good clean fun, she may have had a pretty neat time of it ; but, personally, I think she would have done much better had she remained at home and that a few years and contact with life would change the mind of a girl who looked like good box-office to him, is a thing neither Estelle nor I know ; but although he didn't speak to her for a year, he didn't break her contract. It ran its full length and it must have burned him up to see her branch out a few months afterwards practically nude in "The Ten Commandments." The Fox contract stopped just short of Estelle's emancipation, her conquering of false modesty. She laughed when she told me about that. "Even to this day I'm clothes conscious on the set." A complex dating back to the training of that beloved grandmother who had impressed her with the fact that little girls shouldn't show their limbs. "When I decided to do 'The Ten Commandments' I had a net suit made that was skin tight and completely covered me. You couldn't see through it but it didn't pick up in the camera, so cleverly was it made. I always thought Mr. DeMille was a good sport to humor me in that. After all, it must have seemed stupid to him. As for me, I have learned to over-ride inconsistencies. If it is all right to show one's body on the beach why must the world come to an end if one's work requires it in the studio? There is impersonality in work. I know of many things more damaging to character than dressing a la Sheba. Malice, for instance, and deceit and jealousy and things like that." LOCATION WIDOWS Continued from page 27 joined the Domino Club of Hollywood. The great majority, however, have not revolted. They remain at home according to custom. Jobyna Ralston, for example, when Dick Arlen goes on location manages to use some of her time with meetings of the Regulars Club ; and she also finds herself pretty well occupied with family affairs, and by tennis games or a splash of swimming with Walter Huston and Lloyd Brownfield who live nearby and drop into the Arlen's often, even when Dick's at home. Then, too, Charlie Farrell and his mother live but a block away. "I knew Charlie long before I did my husband," Miss Ralston admits. "In fact, he introduced me to Dick." (Come on home, Arlen, come on home! — before Maureen O'Sullivan does away with your wife!) "And, of course, my evenings are fairly well filled with bridge." "As for me," Mrs. Charlie Bickford avers, "I don't mind these locations so much." (And if her husband's the wild man he's reputed to be, I can't say that I actually blame her!) "My children, aged eleven and five, naturally take up their share of time, and, of course, I always have my bridge." "And that's an idea," Mrs. John Miljan chuckled. "When my husband's been away I usually redecorated the house ; but this time I rather fancy that I shall get in some bridge." "I, too, get in considerable bridge," Mrs. John_ Boles remarked. "But part of my time is spent in an orgy of house-cleaning — you know how sensitive John is ! He dislikes the very sight of a broom and vacuum cleaner and things like that — and as I said, there's my bridge at which I ofttimes win !" Mrs. Glenn Tryon takes advantage of her husband's absence by going in for a a little shopping. (And apparently this is the only location widow to whom it oc She loves to play all kinds and types of parts. She likes to play good women and bad women. She is always interested to find that many of the bad women are rather better than the good women, and she tries to play them that way. Tries to make them human. Just now she is starring on one of the most interesting parts she has ever played, Dixie Lee, the delightful but naughty lady in "Cimarron," starring Richard Dix. She shivers a bit at the task before her — hopes she will be all right. She still has an inferiority complex. A few years ago one heard, "Estelle Taylor is the best sport and one of the most popular girls in pictures, but she's a terrible actress." That was because she was floundering, not sure of herself. Singing released that fear. She didn't care at first whether she was good or not. She just loved to sing. Happiness in her work has given her poise. The best work of her career began after she started this new medium of expression about two years ago. Reports of people who have watched her rehearse in "Cimarron" are enthusiastic. One of the most brilliant men in the studio told me it looked as though Estelle Taylor would give an outstanding performance. She is fulfilling her belief in herself. She has become a fine actress. After all, belief in one's self is half the battle. Add brains, courage and ambition, and there you are ! f curred that a husband's absence makes a capital time for such a pursuit.) "But I never actually buy anything. For when Glenn's not at home, I'm too restless to make up my mind — and it's not a bit exciting ! So instead of spending a lot of money, I win it at bridge !" And while Joan Crawford finds life without Doug Jr. strangely uninteresting, she holds no objection to bridge when it's played right well Whereupon, I began to suspect that my investigation would benefit no one so much as the United States Playing Card Company. And my suspicions were strengthened when Mrs. Richard Barthelmess admitted that while part of her lonely hours was spent checking up on her children, most of her time was occupied with good, snappy contract bridge ; as were the hours of Mrs. Conrad Nagel, aided and abetted by Mrs. Johnny Mack Brown. And what does Theda Bara do when director-husband Brabin's away? She plays bridge, just like ninety percent of the others ! Preposterous, indeed, but as for this condition constituting an actual menace, even a child could tell you that four location widows around a bridge table were comparatively harmless ; at least to anyone save themselves. Obviously their husbands have nothing to worry about, and June Collyer and the rest of the cinema debutantes may sleep the sleep of the succored. But here's some advice, June, if you'd care to accept it : see that you keep those widows well supplied with playing cards ! And the first time your boy friend breaks a date with "Awful sorry, Junie bugs, but I gotta have a little bridge lesson tonight," just take a tip from me and begin to exert that hidden oov/er — and wire the husband, too! It doesn't pay to take too much for granted whether one is a husband, wife or location widow. We're all funny that way.