Screenland (May-Oct 1931)

for June 193 1 127 eral story conference and everybody is allowed to sit down and try to tear the structure to pieces. Once we get what we consider a fairly fool-proof story, the rest is easy." After seventeen years. Mack Sennett had turned a few one-room shacks into the most famous comedy studio in the world. He had discovered Swanson, Chaplin, and the rest. He had made plenty of money, bought his mother a great big ranch in Canada, built her a fourteen-room bungalow at Santa Monica Beach, and was just ready to sit back — a rich good-looking bachelor — and twirl the world by the tail. But it wasn't to be ! Overnight, talkies hit the front page of the dramatic world, and the pantomimic art was murdered at one blow. "I had to start from rock bottom again," Sennett explained. "As soon as my grotesque characters started to talk, they weren't funnj any more. Reality blotted out laughter. Even to see a man lose his pants to music didn't cause a chuckle. "After thinking it over a good while, I decided that instead of being a hindrance, talk could be made to help the comedy world because it would add the element of hearing. All wit wouldn't have to be visual. But it was a mighty, mighty tricky transition — adding dialogue to pantomime. "I determined to stick to the old silent formula for comedies but to add sound, dialogue, and color — sparingly. Further, I found it absolutely necessary to delete slapstick and introduce in its stead sophisticated situations. Subtlety was the keynote now — instead of f ann3 flops ! "First, I changed my sets. Modern drawing rooms were the thing — not the old fashioned 'parlor.' Handsome period furniture which could still break against the cranium of the villain was the next order. And, last, out went the comedy clothes. Instead of loud checked suits and fantastic get-ups. today the hero and heavy wear well fitting sack suits, dinner jackets and tail coats. And the girls ! Why, they all have Paris models, and now when Patricia O'Leary or Marjorie Beebe faw down and go boom, the daintiest of French lingerie peeps out. "Although the environment has changed, the comedy sense remains the same. The sight of a man falling into a bodv of water will still bring down a big movie house. But instead of the victim diving into a muddy sewer we find him falling into a cool, crystal pool in a cypress-fringed garden. "The old-fashioned 'chase,' introduced by the French, without which a picture could scarcely be made, remains the same except that modern dress is utilized. Instead of the old Keystone Komedy Kops finishing off the picture in a mad dash down the street, now we utilize gigantic forces. For instance, lately I used most of the United States' Navy forces in the Pacific fleet, in one of my comedies for Educational. The chase started with one coast guard cutter. A destroyer joined in, and these were augmented by a fleet of battle planes, an airplane carrier, and finally the Pacific battle fleet with the navy dirigible 'Los Angeles' floating over head." Mr. Sennett's next comedy will have startlingly new ingredients. It will be an airplane picture having as the background the entire country from the Atlantic clear to the Pacific. The Transcontinental and Western Air Company have agreed to supply Mr. Sennett with many planes. An entire sound studio — complete with cameras, lighting, and sound equipment — will be fitted up in one big airship — the first complete floating sound unit, we understand. A tri-motored Ford plane will be used for the flight from New York to Kansas City and a big Fokker from Kansas City to Los Angeles. One of the most novel features will be the use of color in this film, and, in this connection, it is interesting to know that Mr. Sennett is the only producer to use color in short comedies. "On my recent flight from Los Angeles to New York," Mack says, "the continual change in the panorama proved one of the most thrilling experiences I have ever had, and it is my intention to reproduce these scenes in natural colors so that none of the beauty of the California orange groves, the gleaming snow-capped Rockies or the Painted Desert may be lost. "Novelty, reality and humanity are what I am tr}'ing to put into my pictures," Mr. Sennett concluded. "Every human experience I have ever suffered or enjoyed has been turned into grist for my comedy mill. "That is my little personal contribution toward the laughter of the world !" Compson Close-up with Betty Continued from page 66 Time was when Betty wasn't a success. Back in a small LTtah town, small Betty studied the violin and longed to be an actress. It was inevitable. Being an only child of moderately poor parents, Bettywas taken to the theatre when anything good came along because there was no one to mind the baby. So she always knew the theatre. Papa and Mama Compson visioned her as another Maude Powell. But not Betty. In Betty's blue eyes, she saw herself as another Olga Nethersole. "When my father asked me why I didn't spend more time on my violin, I told him I didn't want to be a violinist. I wanted to go on the stage. He said I should go to a dramatic school, but I knew that wasn't the way to start. I wanted to join a stock company. As a matter of fact, I didn't. I started in vaudeville. I was playing in an orchestra to pay my way through school. It was one of those old-time shows with several short films and two or three vaudeville acts. One day one of the acts didn't go on. They asked me if I didn't want to try a single with my violin. I did. After that I had several seasons in vaudeville. When I found myself in Hollywood I heard they needed a swell actress at Universal. I told them I was it. And they believed me !" That was the beginning of fifteen years and 312 pictures ! After several comedies and serials, came "The Miracle Man" and it was a miracle to Betty. She was a star over night. Success followed success. Then Betty tried domesticity and dropped out of pictures. Came the talkies and she scored again. When the time comes, if ever, that Betty leaves the screen it won't be to sit and fold her hands. She'll take up interior decorating in a serious way. Even now she gets more fun out of doing the old home site over every year or so. "You wouldn't think of wearing the same dress for several years," says Betty logically. "Why wear the same house?" She's devastatingly frank. She likes to go to fortune tellers because they have such a bland way of assuring you even-thing will turn out all right — as it usuallv does ! 30 lbs Off safely/ REDUCE ^ my way "t weiglied 16 0 1 pounds." says Mrs. F. B. McC. of Philadelphia. "Now I weigh 130 pounds and my measurements are much better. I feel so relieved to know that I need never be stout again." 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