Screenland (Jun-Oct 1932)

82 SCREENLAND The honeymoon has to be postponed until her contract with M.G.M. is completed. By the way, she looks more like Lillian Gish than ever. Perhaps we ought to mention relief at getting Clara Bow safely married to Rex Bell. She did keep us fussed so long about her various heart-affairs. She seems pleasantly settled for a spell now. Not even a rumor of a tiff. Elsie Janis' marriage to Gilbert Wilson gave us no end of a flutter. It seemed incredible when it was revealed that Elsie was 42 and Gilbert 26 — the dear girl looked around 28. We had noticed when Elsie was in Hollywood that so many of the older men hovered. Ramon Novarro was almost the only youngish one. So we kind of understood what Gilbert's charms may have been to win her to taking the plunge. We're all for her. Anyway neither of them had ever been married before. 'l oin and Victoria Mix were both a bit hasty. Right after the divorce was final, Victoria rushed into matrimony with Don Olazabal, of the Argentine Embassy, and Tom, after righteous denials, takes Mabel Ward to wife. Mabel is Tom's third venture. A bare week before the wedding Tom was telling all and sundry he would remain free, free, free, and all that. Tom's little daughter is pleased with her new mamma, so all's well. Rex Lease, film cowboy, and Esther Muir, actress, promise us a regular wedding before this is in print. It will be Rex's third attempt at everlasting love. Lupe Velez, Fifi Dorsay and Lily Damita keep us on the tip-toe of expectation with their engagements, denials, quarrels, makeups, et al. Too exacting to ask any poor scribe to keep track of those frisky inconstant maids. Dorothy Mackaill and her Neil Miller seem to be maintaining the status quo satisfactorily. There's even a "blessed event-' rumor. Meanwhile, Dot is on a vaudeville tour. Sharon Lynn selected a Yuma judge to tie her up to Benjamin Glazer, but the fact that they took Dolores del Rio and her spouse, Cedric Gibbons and numerous other screen notables, along with them satisfied our imperative desire for the nicer formalities. We sighed a bit when ZaSu Pitts filed divorce against Tom Gallery and claimed desertion as long ago as 1926. ZaSu had managed to keep this state of affairs secret and they were listed amongst successfully wedded couples. Mrs. Bert Wheeler is another suing for divorce. Oh, dear, let's get back to something more pleasantly domesticated. Roscoe Ates officially adopts his charming little step-daughter, Dorothy Adrian, now eighteen, who was a wee mite when he married her mother. Wally and Mrs. Beery — a witty, pretty blonde — adopt an eighteenmonths old baby girl as their very own and undertake to care for two small boys. Constance Bennett officially adopts Peter, son of English friends who were killed in an automobile accident. Peter is three. Miriam Hopkins, romantically "estranged" from Austin Parker, nevertheless goes around with him still. Raquel Torres and Charley Feldman. Mary Philbin and Milton Golden, divorce attorney, are still going together. Estelle Taylor finally agrees to drop her counter-suit against Jack Dempsey, financial arguments having reached a basis of acceptance. Let me see, did I call this story something about getting them settled? Umph! It can't be done ! something like her — she is my guiding star and has been — oh, for so long ! I've always wanted to support her in .a picture — I believe I'd almost pay extra just to work with her!" Everyone knows how recently Joan lived this dream of hers in reality, only that her ideal supported her instead of the way she had pictured it. Joan has a faculty of making her dreams come true — even if it takes years and years. She clings to her mental picture until she sees it in reality. Again she said, "I have never had an unselfish, devoted friend in my life. Everyone who has been kind to me or close to me so far in life has had an ulterior motive which I have discovered after long association. I have been hurt so many times that I am afraid to trust anyone." Then "Do you really suppose I'll meet someone whom I can absolutely trust? Someone who will believe in me and I in him so sincerely and absolutely that we will find the perfect companionship? I want any marriage of mine to be clean and fine, happy and contented. I want to work hand in hand with someone. We must be an inspiration to each other. It must make each of us want to be fine, and famous, and strong, and everything noble just for the other !" Then she laughed wistfully and tears came into her eyes as she looked at me almost sheepishly and said, "Do you think such a thing is possible? Do you think I'm altogether crazy to hope for such a thing?" All this took place five or six years ago when Joan was still being shoved into westerns or any program pictures in which M-G-M executives wanted a leading lady. Do you wonder I say Joan has that faculty of making her dreams come true ! It was a most interesting experiment in human psychology to sit back and watch Joan creep forward in public esteem from this time on. It was a revelation to watch how persistent and steady was Joan's climb toward stardom. M-G-M executives did not take her very seriously. They were uncertain of Joan. She began an intensive campaign to make them take her seriously — and won. She began to fight for good roles. She refused to be shoved off into a picture that Joan The Rebel Continued from page 21 was being made — just because. They could not understand this agreeable, careless, happy-go-lucky kid, whom they had been shoving into anything they were making, suddenly becoming a demanding, aggressive young personality. They had been photographing her beautiful figure, without much on, and exploiting her dancing career, her legs. No one ever thought of Joan Crawford, the individual, the magnetic personality that was so soon to be a star. Joan began to fight for recognition and respect. She had been so carelessly good-humored in any of the studio's publicity demands that she had hurt her reputation and career News! Platinum Jean Harlow has been selected for the title role in "Red Headed Woman." to a point that would have discouraged the most astute heart — but not Joan's. She even called me and asked if I would write an interview about her which would never mention her legs, her dancing, her heartbreaking tendencies, her "flapper" existence, but would tell a human, believable story about her! Gradually, not suddenly, Joan began to get recognition. The public began to like her performances and her fan mail changed from violent mash notes, not always very "nice," to paeans of genuine admiration. No matter what part she drew, Joan put her whole self into the role — and won recogntion. M-G-M executives were not easily persuaded in the case of Joan Crawford, so it was Joan, herself, who, by steady, persistent plugging at every turn of the road fought her way to the top. Joan and Doug moved in the same crowd for a long time. Doug had been engaged to several of Joan's best girl friends, but neither thought seriously of the other until Joan began to think, "Why, here's the companion I've been looking for. We could be all that I've dreamed to each other!'' And Doug began to say to himself, "Say, I don't know what's come over Joan but she's great ! She's real, sensible, still worlds of fun — but different!" But the Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. love idyl has been told so often in every possible manner that I'm not going to try to tell it again. Suffice it to say, Joan's dream which she told me about so many years ago came true, like every dream Joan has ever concentrated on. Today, Joan, the star, is so much in the ascendant it is a wee bit hard to see the girl way down deep beneath all the pose and temperament of the star. But she is still there and will, I hope, remain the balancing wheel between sheer, empty temperament and sincere, vital, human being. She is still all nerves, temperament, moods, absent-minded tensity. Too much the star, too little the girl now. But I believe the girl is so definitely grounded in the star that she will soon realize everything. Then she will put the star back in her place where she belongs — a magnetic, splendid flaming actress moving the hearts and pulses of her audiences with her art — but never forgetting the human note beneath all the flame and fire.