Screenland (Nov 1937-Apr 1938)

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Greater cleanliness is one step toward loveliness . . . and Bathasweet gives water greater cleansing powers. Proof of this is found in the absence of a "ring" around the tub when Bathasweet is used. Moreover, the water is softened — gone are the drying effects that hard water may have on your skin! No wonder thousands of fastidious women insist on the benefits of Bathasweet. 50^ and $1 sizes at drug and department stores — 10<? sizes at " 10 cent' ' stores. free— a gift package of the two Bathasweet fragrances. Garden Bouquet and Forest Pine, sent free anywhere in the V . S. A. Mail this coupon with name and address to Bathasweet Corp., Dept. S-C, 1911 Park Avenue, New York.^ I actor his father had been annoyed; SO Douglas made his own contacts and took unpublicized bumps in the process. When he'd married his parents had been none too glad; he plunged into romancing on his own. His father has a fortune, but he has literally been on his own financially all the way. So the clean sweep wasn't too bad a pill. Especially since he'd formulated a protective philosophy, fashioned a shield for his heart. Before he left for London he said to me, "I don't let anything touch me. I stand off and watcli myself going through dilemmas and because I'm amused they don't hurt me. I can't be hurt — for I can't be shocked or surprised. Inside I'm not touched by my experiences !" "That was a pretty adolescent platform I had, wasn't it? Refusing to be touched by things or people, so dogmatically !" He lit his pipe, borrowing a light from a passing prop boy. "Now I realize that things and people used to over-impress me. Rules had me buffaloed, too. I was naive. Instead of trusting my own instincts I deferred to others. Automatically they knew better ; how could I be wiser, my hunches about myself more correct?" He's learned while he's been growing up that it's not wrong to pause when in doubt. "But my career had always been in the hands of everyone else. The front office directed it. And me, unconsciously, in the bargain ! I wasn't mature enough, on the other hand, to carry stardom." He leaned back in his canvas chair and mused on. "Well," he said. "I believe that no matter what happens to me now I'll be ready for it. Before, I wasn't. I fumbled because I thought I was thinking clearly enough — and I wasn't at all. It was hard not to accept the pronouncements of very positive people. Sometimes one has to be whammed on the head, severely, to understand what a mistake it is not to gamble on yourself. It would have been fade-out for me, I'll bet, if I hadn't taken a chance on myself ! He vows he regained his self-respect in London. There they were enthusiastic for his services and he saw an opportunity to produce as well as to act. However, he is honest about the results. "After two years spent in organizing a film company I still couldn't make the kind of pictures I wished. I had the minority block of stock. So the pictures I've been making abroad weren't the tremendous strides I wanted." The pioneering zeal isn't dead by any means, though ; merely "detoured" temporarily. "It wasn't like going to a new land. I'd gone to school in England. But being a man with business interests taught me a lot." Immediately he found out that it wasn't compulsory to be a freak. As Hollywood's crown prince his every move had been extravagantly commented upon. He'd been made a goldfish. He would have avoided that deluge of excessive publicity, only he wanted to be a thorough success and so he'd slavishly followed Hollywood's rules. "I suppose I am not the party fellow I ought to be — when I saw it wasn't a rule in London that you had to entertain a lot I quickly stopped trying to be supersocial. In four years there I gave but one party ! "While the pictures were being lined up I went on the stage." He did two plays, touring the provinces and afterwards clicking before London's critical audiences. "I could, I learned to my delight, earn a decent living behind footlights. But 1 found I didn't want that, that I didn't enjoy acting in a theatre as much as I did working in pictures. Probably the lengthy rehearsals, the nightly repetition reminded me of school routine ! The screen has so much more scope, means a continuous flow of new, unlimited efforts. It's so much more creative. A hundred departments strive for a single effect. No, I've no Broadway bent." 1 interrupted purposely. "You're skillfully steering away from all mention of a new love. In case you hadn't heard, you are quite eligible !" He seemed exceptionally glad to wave at Irene Dunne, returning for their next sequence, at that remark. "Can't you simply say all I know myself is what I read? Truthfully, I've been out a few times since I've returned. There is no one, speaking of love. I'm working so hard I don't mind. And," he added resolutely, "I've become true to myself alon • that line, too. I have always hated the exposure of innermost feelings, mine or anyone else's. Blatant self-revelations are like stumbles into private rooms at the w rong hour. "I'm not worrying about a home and children now. Maybe that will come for me. I don't know. Being unmarried gives me an independence I relish." I was adamant. "And once," I stated, "you told me you had to have someone to share your joys — or there'd be no joys for you !" "But you can liave sincere companionship without love," he retorted. "The reaction of a good friend gives you a kick. And you know it !" He had something there, even if it wasn't a romantic confession. "Your most satisfying experience while you've been away, then," I proposed. "You were forever swearing that you were cut out to peer at distant green fields." "I am still curious," he answered. "I don't think one changes radically. One develops, I hope, but I think we all remain essentially the same. I'm like my father in having a phobia for the whole world; I've never wished to settle down in one spot. I've traveled all over Europe so far, and that's been great. I want to see Africa next, the Orient when it's calmer. I feel, consequently, as though I've planted many roots. There are familiar landmarks here and abroad now. The most satisfactorytimes I've had have been the days when I got out my little thirty-five foot cruiser and headed up the Thames. I usually take some friend along and we go about a hundred and fifty miles, stopping at little pubs for a beer and dinner and conversation with the country people." He isn't buying the trimmings he once considered necessary. "The grand scale never intrigued me. So now I've not even taken a house; I'm utilizing my father's beach place at Santa Monica for the moment, and drive in. I've a very useful and fast Ford — which is all I need for transportation!" Picture Marlene Dietrich hopping gaily from her limousine to his Ford — that's a local sight. I was anxious to see Norma Shearer swoop up to the Carthay Circle with him in such comparative rhodesty, but he and Norma were with a couple of bloated aristocrats when they premiered. "I've ambitions, all right," he was saying as they called him back to the cameras. "Big ones. I hope I always will have. When the time comes when I'm satisfied I'll be through. But I don't want to advertise my plans. I'll express myself through my actions. If I don't succeed on this try. at least I won't have made a fool of myself !" More considerate, matured, Douglas has become a man with genuine background. He'll carve his permanent niche now, because he's accustomed to contending for every conquest and he's listening to his own intuition at last. Someday I can writ'1 his lasting love ■ story. With dramatic abruptness another dynamic, strong-willed woman will enter his life. He is just twenty-eight ! 90 S r R f HNLAND