Screenland (Nov 1930-Apr 1931)

114 SCREENLAND Your Beauty . . . and 250 Experts In up-to-the-minute laboratories... in the United States, Ca nada and Europe — 250 expert chemists are constantly working with leaders in research to improve cosmetics and other products for beauty and health. This international organization of experts is affiliated with the great United Drug Company, whose products are distributed exclusively through 10,000 Rexall Drug Stores. Whatever science can devise to beautify the complexion and enhance the charm of women — this you find at Rexall Stores, perfected by the U nited Drug Company. Not only the fi nest products but the lowest possible prices; for Rexall Stores buy direct from United Drug Company factories and save the in-between profit for you. Whateveryou need for complexion, toilet or hygiene — save with safety at your Rexall Drug Store. United Drug Company Products are sold only at Rexall Drug Stores. Liggett andOwlSto res are also Rexall Stores. There is one near you. Sha ri, a hew delight in toiletries forthe particular return he came down with a severe attack of jungle fever and was removed to' the Infanta, along with several rare birds he had secured in the tropical interior, and other odds and ends he had collected during his stay in Guatemala City. Wire dispatches carried word of his illness to America, followed shortly by denials that he was seriously ill via his own radio — there are two, one for long distance and one ordinary marine radio on the Infanta. But Barrymore recovered slowly and the trip to San Salvador and points south and east was cancelled after the countries had made all preparations to fete the family. The Infanta put about and started home with Barrymore convalescing and absorbing the quinine that is a panacea for all tropical fevers. Passing Asuncion Bay the lookout pointed out a huge white skeleton on a deserted stretch of beach. The Infanta halted and a boat put out to examine a skeleton which proved to be that of an extremely large whale. Two giant vertebrae were swung on board the motor launch and hoisted to the Infanta's deck and the trip north was resumed. Whale skeletons are scarce, chiefly be cause their weight soon causes them to be buried in the sand even when the deceased monsters are washed ashore. The giant bones have taken a place with the great collection of curious and valuable objects that Barrymore has gathered in his great trophy house on the grounds of his Beverly Hills home. Lean and tan, still somewhat shaken with fever but enthusiastic over the success of his long trip and the health and happiness of his baby on board boat, Barrymore reached his California harbor early in December. His transition from seaman to land lubber was as simple as the reverse process. He discarded the yachtsman's cap and put the old felt crusher on rakishly over his left ear. The yacht club flag and the Barrymore flag, a golden crowned kingsnake on a green background, were hauled down and put away. Barrymore was home from the sea. _ Fish stories and quinine figured principally in the memories of the trip. There was no beard raising this time. In his fisherman's log there is a record of a new method of baiting a Marlin hook which he would, he admits, be all kinds of a fool to divulge ! The Girl Stood on the Burning Deck Continued from page 21 in managers' offices. I expected that they would, of course, call me up. But after a time, I decided that perhaps the}' thought that they had no part that I would accept and that I had better stroll around and intimate that I didn't care what I was offered, that all I ever wanted to do anyway was to bounce on and upset the plot whatever it happened to be. And in musical comedy it never took much to upset it, anyhow. I will admit that I was somewhat flabbergasted, not to say 'non-plushed,' when even this brought no messengers on horseback from the managers. Then playwriting friends of mine went to see them with plays written for me only to bring back the somewhat appalling verdict, which was apparently more or less universal : "Miss Dressier used to be splendid, of course, but she's through now. The public wants youth. I'd just forget about it if I were you." Even then I was not dashed. My friends were always lugubriously optimistic. "You'll get something else, Marie," they said, or, "The stage is awfully hard work anyhow, dear. There is something easier than that. You'd be a whiz selling real estate." Well, I had tried selling real estate — some of my own — and I came out of a deal that cost me over $20,000 with a check for $50, some worthless notes, and a grateful woman's tears. I knew I would be no good at that, but I was willing to try — and did — and then the boom burst and my real estate deals went under. I think it should be said to my credit that I didn't buy some kitchen tables and chairs, paint 'em orange and black and start a tea shoppe with sandwiches cut by a thimble. I did, however, take a fling at nearly everything else. The worst of it was I could never relax in my scale of living. I realized that if there was to be any future for me at all, I had to pre1 sent the front of a well-dressed show window, that I had to keep my end up! Human stars must be seen without aid of telescopes if they want jobs, but the managers were looking for undiscovered planets. I discovered another curious fact. It is more difficult for a person with a reputation in one line to hunt a job in an other than it is for an individual unknown in any line. I am, for instance, a conspicuous person. Nature made me so. Everywhere I go, people recognize me — they always have. It would be impossible for me to escape the police and do an incognito. If I got a job scrubbing down subway stairs, so many people would stop to talk to me that I couldn't earn my salt as a scrubber, and I'm a good scrubber. After you have been before the public as long as I've been, you are good only in your own job, or as a curiosity. I don't expect anybody to believe this, but it's what I ran up against. My good friends developed insomnia lying awake trying to think up ideas that would make me rich quick. I tried some of these schemes between naps. The trouble with most of these swell notions was that they worked on the principle of well-digging — beginning at the top and landing at the bottom. I struck bottom several times, but being an adept at stage falls, I managed to land without any serious casualties except a growing confusion as to what could be the matter. I decided that no vice is so bad as advice. If I had kept on taking all that was offered me, I would now be waving at my friends from Welfare Island as they passed in their yachts. Of course, I know my well wishers have my welfare at heart. They meant their advice kindly, but it always hurt me more than it hurt them, as any kid who has been spanked will tell you. I had always petted the theory that anybody who wanted work could find it. I never for the bisected interval of a minute allowed myself to think that I couldn't support Marie Dressier after working so hard for her so many years. She had always been a good provider and the only person who took care of 'the little woman.' She couldn't be through. But was she? . , , (In Part II, to appear m the next, the April issue of SCREENLAND, Miss Dressier tells how she re-climbed the slippery stairway back to Broadway— to success; and of her introduction and hard struggle to win first place on the screen and in the hearts of film fans.)