Screenland (Nov 1934-Apr 1935)

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Unlike many professional couples, the Laughtons like to appear together on the stage and screen and they are looking forward with keen delight to the next Shearer film, "Marie Antoinette," in which Charles will have the role of Louis XVI, with Elsa portraying that of Princess de Lamballe. "This friend, the Princess, played a prominent part in the stormy and tragic life of Marie Antoinette," she enthusiastically explained, "and while she was false at one period, there is much sympathy in the character." Looking over some rare French prints of de Lamballe, we found a striking resemblance to the Lanchester face. Framed in dark curls there is the same narrow contour, the same bright, dancing eyes that catch and hold you, the same pertly pointed little chin. Elsa is very magnetic. She has an exciting quality that immediately stirs your imagination — she could never play a character that was passive or vague or sordid. Royal dames are her forte, like Anne of Cleves and Princess de Lamballe. She is striking in looks, too. There is no one on the screen like her and she will hold her own as a very distinctive and unusual type. While Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Elsa is a true Londoner. Her fain ily were highly conservative but luckily for her she says her mother had advanced ideas about rearing her daughter and permitted her to take dancing lessons. And how she loved them. She threw herself into mastering the intricate steps with the energy of a steam engine. Along came Isadora Duncan's brother who labeled her a "talented child," and sent her to his famous sister's school in Paris. The World War interrupted her dancing but after the Armistice she returned to the ballet, which in time, carried her into stage revues where she sang as well as danced. "I'm best," she said, "in putting a song across In some mysterious way my high, flute-like voice gives it a satirical turn that puts it over with a bang." . It was after completing lhe Private Life of Henry the VIII," last summer, that the Laughtons showed how serious they are in their loyaltv to the spoken drama. SCREENLAND They turned deaf ears to lucrative screen offers to gratify a cherished ambition and took over the Old Vic Theatre in London, putting on a series of plays that covered everything from modern comedy to Shakespeare, which proved a successful venture and added luster to their names. "The greatest chance of my career came in the role of Ariel, in 'The Tempest,' " she told me with her amazing enthusiasm. "Usually this is portrayed by a boy, but I looked the part and my dancing experiences aided me in giving it the perpetual humming-bird movement it required. "While few of us can hope for immortal fame we all wish to accomplish something trulv worth while. I feel I did this as Ariel, and in a classic, too. It may be merely a pin prick but at least, it will make me remembered for a little while. "Homesick? Oh, sometimes," she admitted. "Long-standing friends mean so much. Too. while I preen under your sunshine, I still love my London fog. There is always the mystery of the coming morning. What you wear and what you do all depends on that first glimpse you get when you awaken and draw open the curtains." There is no doubt that the Laughton romance adds special glamor to both Charles and Elsa. Everyone adores a true love story. While they do not find it necessary to flaunt their devotion it is always evident. "The last time we were here," Elsa told me, "I had to return to London for a stage play while Charles remained to enact the part of Nero, in Mr. UeMille's 'The Sign of the Cross,' and everybody kept asking me if I wasn't afraid to leave him alone in Hollywood. Such utter nonsense! If a couple love each other nothing can separate them ; geography has nothing to do with it. I never gave it a thought and I'm sure Charles didn't. Charles didn't! Everyone knows he was just about the loneliest fat boy Hollywood ever saw. But now with his wife with him he is happy. They will remain until Christmas, then return to London, for they are under contract with Alexander Korda, Charles for three and Elsa for two pictures. Until then they are comfortably settled in a charming bungalow at the swanky Garden of Allah. From the wide casement windows in their living room we watched the afternoon shadows lengthen across the blue swimming-pool, their favorite rendezvous, for both are expert swimmers and take a plunge at least twice a day. Big Moments With the Movie Great Continued from page 29 Colonel safely aboard, he turned indignantly to Coop. "With all my grief, he sputtered, "you've got to be a comic and ask can I swim !" ■»,•« "I wasn't trying to be witty, Gary expostulated solemnly. "If I'd wanted to be funny I'd have said, 'Come up and see me sometime!'" . ... , One of the highlights of my life and one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me occurred on the occasion of my first birthday in Hollywood. Sue Carol and Nick Stuart were the first friends I made out here. Flow they found out it was my birthday I don't know. But Sue arranged a surprise party for me at the then-fashionable Montmartre. She had rounded up everyone m town who had shown me the slightest attention since my arrival— many of them people she didn't even know. Jimmy Fidler took me up there on the pretext of having made dates for us with a couple of girls from home who would meet us there because their parents didn't approve of him. I'll never forget my feelings as Sue, looking like a picture, met us at the door and led me to that table. And whatever life may hold in store for me, no thrill can ever equal that I got later when the waiter came bearing a huge birthday cake with sixteen — or was it sixty? — candles and all the lights in the place went out except those on the cake, while the orchestra plaved "Happv Birthday to You." Incidentally, that was the night I first met Bing Crosby. He was singing there at the time, as one of The Three Rhythm Boys. And speaking of Bing brings to mind almost as many memories as does_ Mr. Arlen. But there is one mental picture of The Groaner, as he is affectionately called by his friends, that age cannot wither nor custom stale. . . A vear or so ago he and Dixie suddenly