Screenland (May-Oct 1931)

for June 19 3 1 expensive woman. When Chanel is "carelessly" dressed in the daytime, she wears a profusion of jewelry. But for formal wear — little or none. Perhaps a single jewel. Something to frame, or enhance the beauty of the wearer. A friend says that Gaby once objected to her "funeral appearance" and draped a rope of jewels about her neck. Later she found them to be worth almost a half-million — ■ dollars, not francs. Chanel has a remarkable collection of the most precious stones ■ — but treats them as of no importance. Nothing, she says, is interesting to her after midnight. Ah, ah ! Fashions, like loves, are never revived. Fashions become costumes. Loves — customs. Chanel likes the "long bob"— the little knot at the back of her head. She is casual about everything — except her work. She has factories manufacturing the fabrics she sponsors. She exports millions of dollars' worth of perfumes all over the world. She owns an artificial flower factory. And manufactures costume jewelry and glassware. Her establishments give employment to 9,000 workers. She is reputed one of the wealthiest women in France. And is famed for her philanthropies. Her age is trent-ct-sept — thirty-seven to you. She doesn't look it. She has no recreations. Only work — and rest in the country. No hobbies. She's frank as only the French can be, and refuses all pose and posture. Thus she means it when she says American women have fine taste, invariably selecting models she, herself, would choose for them. Because of her employees, she will never retire. Five is her lucky number. She calls all her perfumes and dresses by number only. Titles — "Keep the Husband at Home" and so forth, are vulgar, she says. Five is the number of her most popular scent, and the best of her models. The gowns to be created for the Samuel Goldwyn-United Artists stars are to be made by her own fitters from sketches sent by her from Hollywood. She declares her fame in fashions is based upon her simplification of women's clothes. And by then I had gained courage to try my French again. I said "adieu," which seemed to be the only word of French Mademoiselle understood. At any rate, her radiant smile showed it was the most pleasing word I had spoken ! Her Best Friend Won't Tell Her! Continued from -page 57 story from her without her suspecting. It was from another source that I learned the Fairbanks picture never materialized because Fairbanks had sold the rights of it, "Monsieur Beaucaire," to Paramount for Rudolph Valentino. Furthermore, since I had met Betty, she had married and her husband was a producer in Hollywood. So she settled here and at the moment was engaged in making a series of pictures for Fox. I have known Betty six years, now, but there are many cubby-holed yesterdays that are new to me. She is no patroness of the personal pronoun. What she has accomplished is in the past and remains in the past. She can't be bored cluttering up the present with it. At rare intervals, I have heard her say that she considers her performance in "The Showdown" one of the finest she has ever given. That she enjoyed making "Underworld" and "The Last Command." But this is said as though it were about another person entirely. She is skittish of friendships. . The word, to her, touches the idealistic. It is expressed by silence or by actions ; it is a mutual "going to bat" ; it is sympathetic understanding to the most minute detail. She has been hurt often by "friends," hurt in funny little ways that perhaps were unintentional. She is sensitive to the nth. degree. Why one so sensitive should have entered on a motion picture career is surprising. Heaven alone knows to the full the exquisite brutality of this industry. But she entered upon it because, as she says : "It was all I could do. Many was the time when work was nothing but a hope and I was down to my last nickel that I wondered if I could do that." Her sensitiveness, her shyness of people made me realize that the cool indifference of that first meeting was not intended as such at all. But she is still that Betty Brent. I have heard people characterize her as "high hat" and even "snooty." She isn't. They appreciate this when they know her. She enjoys having people come to her home, people who enjoy being there. She serves a meticulous dinner. Her appetite is small but she insists upon a tastily appointed service. Before going to bed, she likes a cup of tea, regardless of the hour, and, sometimes, a sandwich, preferably an egg sandwich. She invariably adventures to the ice-box, and after scrutinizing it invariably spurns what she sees with : "There ! Nothing to eat in this house again !" Bridge is the only "social" card game she really likes. She will play for the amusement of it or for whatever stakes her guests decide upon. She is thoroughly miserable when accidentally enmeshed in a serious game. She plays bridge to have a good time, not to be on the defensive, if she by chance bungles a hand. Solitaire is her particular sport. Betty knows more games of solitaire than any human extant, I do believe. She has learned two new games which she plays with two decks of cards. She likes them because they take longer to play ! Rummy and Russian bank are favorites. Also casino ! She loves books. She has a standing order with a local bookstore and receives all the new novels, plays, and biographies as they are issued. First editions mean little to her, yet among her most prized possessions is a first edition of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn." She gets a chummy feeling from having books around her. People who borrow them and neglect to return them are among' her particular aversions. 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