Screenland (May-Oct 1931)

34 Temperament? nunki Says Leila Hyams By Ralph Wheeler Add sage sayings: "I have a temper of my own but I don't waste it around the studio." — Leila Hyams. SOMEONE has described Leila Hyams as a glacial blonde. A regal beauty. Proud, haughty. Elegantly poised, charmingly sophisticated. A magnificent blossom of serenity. With this in mind, it was something of a shock to behold her, elbow-deep in a briny pile of fish, industriously scraping scales and performing other vital postmortem rites over the denizens of the sea. "Shake later," she suggested, laughing and bronzed with seaburn. "Had a swell day. Got sixty pounds of barracuda, bonita and halibut. Gosh, what sport !" Now it takes real beauty, genuine elegance, supreme poise to pass inspection washing fish. Leila's taffy hair, wind-blown and fragrant with the tang of salt air, was damped at the temples by honest toil. Not the slightest suggestion of make-up on her face. Her eyes seemed strikingly violet against the copper hue of her tan, and white teeth flashed all the whiter. Oh yes, she wore blue overalls with a red bathing suit peeking over the edges. On her feet were wet canvas shoes. "You may guess we're going to have fish for dinner," she laughed. "But you don't have to eat any if you don't want to. We can always open a can of salmon. Or do you prefer sardines?" This fishing business, we learned, is one of Leila's pet diversions. At least once a week she gathers up some kindred soul at Malibu, hires a broad-bellied launch and sets out for the kelp beds where they bite fast and furious. Leila is not the hot-house type of beauty. Hers is a world of the Great Outdoors. "How about the diet question?" Leila pondered. "Well, I suppose they are good things for some people. But I'm not one of those people. I love to eat. I must confess a weakness for pigs' knuckles and sauerkraut. It's only bad temper, anyway, scoffs the good little sport of the M-G-M studios And I'm not German. Out here at Malibu we swim and play on the beach a great deal. What it does to your appetite it compensates in exercise that keeps the weight down. I love to drive, golf, and do almost anything else that keeps me out in the sunshine and air. That's one reason why I don't harbor any great ambition to go back upon the stage. "Of course I was a flop on the stage, to be perfectly frank about it. My greatest success in the theatre was my debut at the age of three or four weeks. My parents took me on soon after I was born and introduced me to the audience at the old Hammerstein Theatre in New York. I was reared in the theatre and it holds pleasant memories for me. But it terrified me after I was grown and cut loose from my father and mother to try my own wings. "Every actress, in or out of pictures, dreams of triumphs on the stage. I would like that, of course. But all the glamor of it wouldn't be worth the surrendering of the happiness I have found out here. For some years I struggled in Broadway's shadows for a living. My pride was cut too deeply for me to want to go back and try it again. Perhaps it would be different, now that I have some little screen name to go on. But it couldn't be the same as success then would have been. "Most important of all, however, is my complete satisfaction with my life today. I can't find anything to be discontented with, with the possible exception of an occasional role I don't like. But it doesn't always follow that parts I don't want to play turn out to be bad for me. Nor is it at all true that every characterization I enjoy playing proves to be entirely acceptable on the screen. "I am lazy by nature, I suppose, but I do {Continued on page 117)