Screenland (May-Oct 1931)

106 SCR.EENLAND lieve it myself. What I ought to do is put you on the next steamer back, but since you're here, I'll take you round to see him." They went to the theatre and, without explanation or comment, Mr. Cochran introduced Tallulah to the great Sir Gerald. Tallulah smiled sweetly. "How do you do?" she said. "Here I am, all ready for rehearsal." Sir Gerald remained unimpressed. "Rehearsal ?" he inquired. "Didn't you get a cable ?" "Cable?" Tallulah looked blank. "What cable?" "Telling you not to come." "Why, no !" she said, eyes wide with disappointment. "I received no cable." "Well, I'm terribly sorry." Sir Gerald was polite but unmoved. "A cable was sent. And I have another girl rehearsing the part." "Oh, that's quite all right," said Tallulah, trying to give an imitation of a Spartan, bearing up nobly under a mortal blow. "It doesn't matter. I'm glad to be in England anyway. And maybe," she added ami ably, "the other girl will break a leg or something." A few days later she and Sir Gerald were both dinner guests at the Cochrans. It was a little scheme, hatched by the kind Mr. Cochran, to show Tallulah off in evening dress. Whether it was her evening dress or her social charm, whether Sir Gerald was being worn down by pressure, or whether it was simply that the other girl was doing a rotten job, has never been revealed. It didn't matter. All that mattered was a telephone call next day from Du Maurier's manager, asking Tallulah if she still wanted the part. And so, in "The Dancers," she made her London debut and an instantaneous hit. As her first curtain fell, she heard a terrific noise from beyond, and her heart sank. She had been warned of the English practice of booing — a horrid clamor raised by the galleries to indicate their displeasure with what had been offered them. She couldn't hear any applause — nothing but that hideous racket — so they must be booing her. "Nice !" she thought, as her head began to swim. "Interesting experience! That's what I came to England for!" Then she felt herself being propelled by an excited manager toward the stage, and with the rising curtain came the delicious realization that the "hideous racket" was really the most heavenly sound in the world to an actor's ears, and that this dear London audience, far from booing her. was welcoming her with round after round of fullthroated and magnificent applause. "I couldn't understand it," she says, "and to be perfectly honest, I still can't understand it. I think I'm good," she went on with that engaging candor that flavors her remarks like a piquant sauce, "but I don't think I'm as good as all that. Anyway, it was then and there I decided that I loved and adored and worshipped London, and never since has London given me any cause to change my mind." Next Month: After Putting London in her Pocket, the Lure of the Talkies Brings Tallulah Home Again ! Lew Cody's Corned-Beef and Cabbage Dinners Continued from page 10 for hours. Potatoes, carrots and turnips are added. For the dessert course there are cheeses of every variety, with crackers. Half a dozen mustard pots, with contents of varying degrees, are placed on the table for these dinners. Coffee is served with the cheeses. Each place is marked with a small pill box filled with bicarbonate of soda! There is never any planned entertainment for these occasions. Rut before the evening is over there is usually an impromptu vaudeville show going on. Nick Lucas is a frequent guest, the melodies from his guitar silencing the chatter in the cellar room. The voice of the late Ernest Ball singing his "Mother Machree" many times stopped every bridge, pool and checker game in the room. George MacManus has been there and left behind as a souvenir a can of Dinty Moore's Corned Beef and Cabbage, a product which his cartoon's made famous. O. O. Mclntyre has teetered a chair on the cement floor in a corner and reminisced on the tour of Paris he made with Cody. Valentino was once a frequent guest at the corned beef dinners. Pola Negri was another. Buster Keaton, Norman Kerry and Marshall Neilan are there for every c.b.c. dinner, with daily visits on the side. Roscoe Arbuckle is another long-time friend of Lew's usually to be found on the corned-beef-and-cabbage dinner guest list. "Quite a few of these people know that corned-beef-and-cabbage for dinner on Saturday night means corned beef hash for breakfast the following morning," said Cody. "So they just 'drop in' around breakfast time." Just as much thought is put into the "background" and incidental highlights accompanying these festivities. There was the time when a visiting magazine publisher was guest of honor at one of these odoriferous feeds. Shortly before the arrival of the chief guest, Cody and his butler spread a continuous line of magazines" from the drive Lily Damita makes even organdie look sophisticated. Note the tricky black vest, gloves and large hat and don't miss that watch-fob. Very chic, Lily. way to the front door. Every magazine but the guest's particular one was represented in the layout. "This man looked pretty forlorn by the time he got inside the front door!" laughed Cody. Another special and individual feature further added to the publisher's bewilderment after the dinner party was under way. A radio announcer cut into a program with the important news item that Mr. So-and-So was wanted by the Hollywood police for grand larceny. The guest of honor, dismayed almost to the point of being speechless, hurried to the telephone and called his wife, visiting relatives in a nearby suburb, telling her to pay no attention to the radio broadcast about him — that there must be some mistake. It was a very sheepish guest of honor who learned afterward that one of Cody's servants was doing "special broadcasting" from a microphone located upstairs. There is another individual, popular if not highly important, who attends every corned beef party that Lew Cody gives. Invitation, or no invitation, "Traffic" is always on the spot, waiting for a few licks to compensate the long wait ; and he never fails to get them. "Traffic" is the fox terrier that stopped Cody's car in the midst of Beverly Hills traffic several years ago. The dog, then a pup. climbed right up into Lew's automobile and into his heart. And has remained there ever since, at the present time educating a new puppy that no wait is too long when there are corned beef fragments as a reward. The new pup has been called "Odd" — after O. O. Mclntyre. whose friends call him that. There may be no connection, but there was that time Mclntyre published Lew Cody's telephone number in his column, suggesting that Cody enjoyed telephone conversation after 4 o'clock in the morning. The phone rang constantly for a whole day. Then Cody had his number changed, keeping the new number secret from all newspaper columnists, both friends and enemies !