Screenland (Nov 1934-Apr 1935)

76 SCREENLAND KC30L MILDLY MENTHOLATED CIGARETTES CORK-TIPPED The Truth About Bergner Continued from page 21 If you've never tried a KGDL, try one when your throat feels all smoked out. Ready? Light up! Didn't know any smoke could be so refreshing and so good — did you? The mild menthol cools the smoke, soothes your throat, and brings out the choice tobacco flavor. Free coupon with each pack is good for handsome merchandise. (Offer good in U. S. A. only.) Send for FREE illustrated premium booklet ... and switch to the cigarette that keeps your throat KGDL SAVE COUPONS/or HANDSOME MERCHANDISE THIS W ^COUPON <} > B 61 W CO — REDEEMABLE— SO Coupon* I Heck ConKrv^s ooRlity inrtl Jti«tl or luncy bad as Co >t^z 15* ^ TWENTY Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Louisville, Ky. and inevitably as she breathes. Not for nothing have half a dozen Continental countries acclaimed her as the supreme dramatic genius of the generation. Her performance in Margaret Kennedy's play "Escape Me Never" was the outstanding success of the last London theatrical season. It moved Sir James Barrie to take up the pen that has been lying idle for seven years, inspiring him to break his vow and write one more play so that the little Austrian's performance in it shall ensure him a magnificent swan-song. But acting entails tremendous physical and mental strain, and slender elfin-like Elisabeth is nearing forty and by no means robust. To be able to spend long hours ranging the whole gamut of human emotions she has to conserve her strength with infinite care. A doctor is constantly examining her, making sure that she is not taxing her nervous vitality too much so that she breaks down completely as she did last spring. Elisabeth has no energy left for social gaieties ; and, essentially candid and clearsighted, she does not desire the pretentious honors that accompany success. She sees the glamor for what it is worth and long ago rejected it. "Fame is empty and it passes on," she said to me once. "Love and friendship last and they satisfy !" To her work, she gives herself utterly — no actress could be more punctual nor more courteous to her fellow-players. But when her day's work is done, she considers she has discharged her obligations and that the rest should be her own. So passionately and determinedly she keeps her private life apart. In that slight body dwells an indomitable spirit, a pale flame illuminating an alabaster vase. The world only sees a silent little woman with a Mona Lisa smile. We who are her friends alone know Elisabeth Bergner, tenderly sensitive to the needs of others, generous to a fault and graciously hospitable. She refuses to live in hotels or apartments. Always she must have her own home, a house and a garden and her fat old Tyrolean maid to guard the door, pretending to strangers that she speaks no English. Then all over the house Elisabeth splashes her favorite yellow in cushions and brocade draperies and antique brass and gilded troughs to hold her books. She reads omniverously, on art and philosophy and travel and the theatre ; in German, Italian, and French as well as English. There is always a pile of books beside her bed which has her golden cherub mascot hanging over the head. Everywhere in her rooms are flowers ; not roses and orchids, for she hates sophisticated blooms, but the simple flowers and grasses of the fields arranged in big yellow jars. Sometimes the leafy branch of a tree will be propped against the wall ; and, wet or fine, every window is open. If possible, she lives in a hilly neighborhood for that reminds her of her native Salzburg. (The Beverly Hills will delight Elisabeth and she will assuredly rent a bungalow on the most inaccessible peak.) Her friends are always welcome to join her for afternoon coffee which she takes instead of tea at five o'clock in the Viennese fashion. It is black coffee topped with thick whipped cream and served in china bowls, accompanied by a basket of the marzipan sweetmeats Elisabeth seems to be crunching at all hours of the day and night. She is not very interested in food — dinner is her only meal of the day— but she is continually smoking Turkish cigar ettes in a long and slender amber holder. Beauty treatments never trouble Elisabeth— amazingly she can keep fresh without them. Her skin is as soft and clear as a child's yet she only washes it with soap and water and very occasionally cleanses it with wax. Powder and a touch of dark lipstick is the scanty make-up she affects, and her hair owes its sheen to ten minutes brushing witli a stiff hogsbristle morning and night. At home Elisabeth always wears loose woolen lounging trousers and vividlycolored little jackets buttoning to her neck and made of satin or suede according to the temperature. She wore a costume of this kind for some of the scenes in her first film, "The Loves of Ariane," in which Percy Marmont was her leading man. Made in Berlin four years ago, political reasons caused it to be shelved and it has only just been released. Not often that studious fans can see a star's first talkie and her latest at the same time ! Wisely Elisabeth dresses in strongly individual style, for hers is a type far removed from the average. In London most of her' clothes were designed for her by Victor Stiebel, the young modiste who creates for members of the British Royal Family and some of Mayfair's richest women. Plain straight lines, high necks, fussy shoulder effects and tiny caps characterize Elisabeth's models. Her favorite street-suit has a long tightfitting skirt to lend her height, a bolero jacket of striped black and white tweed, a white satin shirt with a fringed cape collar and a black straw cap with one white organdie bow for trimming. For evenings Elisabeth loves velvet gowns, clinging and draped with "Queen Christina" collars of pale lace. As wraps she wears short jackets of metallic tissue with huge bunched sleeves that make her resemble a pretty medieval page. Her sports clothes usually feature stripes and she always has some one-piece black swimming suits for she takes her only exercise in the water. Her husband swims with her, her companion as in everything else. Paul is tall and dark and suave. He never loses his temper or his pleasant smile, and his quiet voice, curiously compelling, is never raised. Not even when a lamp cracks at the crucial moment or an actor steps over the lines and ruins the take as happened when he was directing the banquet scenes in "Catherine the Great." (But the look he gave the man was more eloquently effective than any verbal storm ! ) Elisabeth calls him her "big bear," using the affectionate German diminutive, and frankly adores him. To see them together is to realize what marriage blessed with perfect understanding can be. There is no elaborate demonstration. A look, a smile, a gesture — that is all, but each seems to know instinctively what the other is thinking. Elisabeth leaves all her financial and business arrangements to her husband. It is Paul who interviews the studio chiefs, afterward discussing their proposals with his wife in private. Then he returns with her decision, which is really her acceptance of his own advice, as a rule. She trusts and relies on him implicitly, happy that he can organize these things for her so that she is free to concentrate on her work. When Elisabeth receives the script of a new part, she spends long hours lying on her bed and poring over its possibilities ; reading and re-reading it in silence until she feels she understands "the character she t