Screenland (Nov 1938-Apr 1939)

Inside the Stars' Homes Continued from page 13 liked them. Mr. Ziegfeld was very fond of caviar on ice, and our butler used to make delicious chicken livers served on small pieces of toast. Now I frequently serve tomato juice, pineapple juice, even pomegranate juice, before dinner. "If men are to be catered to, I believe we'll have mushroom soup. Most men like that, and it is good. If women are being favored, bouillon of chicken or veal, delicately flavored and served with a dash of whipped cream on top, will usually be appreciated." MUSHROOM SOUP Add 1 tablespoon of beef extract to 1 quart of water. Thicken with 2 tablespoons flour, stirred into 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Let simmer, stirring; ■ add 1 can of mushrooms (cut in slices) with their liquor. Heat 1 quart of cream in double boiler. Add just before serving and season to taste. "A good salad is a green or vegetable salad, according to what you can get at this season of the year, served with a delightful dressing. Brunswick dressing is nice — hardboiled eggs with a little salt, mustard (Gulden's), paprika, pepper, with tarragon vinegar added slowly, and then half a cup of olive oil, added a little at a time. "If your guests are men, you may be sure they will like steak, broiled and served piping hot; or roast beef or roast lamb, beautifully cooked. I always serve two green vegetables with the starch vegetable. Women like chicken, but very few men seem to prefer it. With the salad, I like to serve a small cheese roll, or cheese-sticks, or some tasty bite that adds flavor to the salad. After a heavy meal, I believe it is wise to serve fruit or ices as dessert. I always try to make this a pretty dish. If you are having tangerine ice, for example, put it back into the tangerine, and have pieces of the orange skin glaced and decorate the top with them. Or, if you like, you might have tiny green sugared mint leaves. If it is pineapple ice, use the pineapple as container and glace bits of the fruit for decoration. Serve from the pineapple. Glaced grapes are delicious, and look quite lovely served on ice." GLACED GRAPES 2 cups sugar 1 cup boiling water % teaspoon cream of tartar Put the above ingredients in a smooth saucepan (not too large). Mix until sugar is dissolved. Then boil without stirring until syrup begins to look yellow. Wipe off crystals that adhere to sides of pan. Remove pan from fire and place immediately in pan of cold water to instantly stop boiling. Then remove from cold water to pan of hot water to prevent hardening during dipping. Take up grapes separately on long hat pin. Dip in syrup until well covered, remove and place on wax paper. They will keep one day only and may be prepared with success only in dry weather. A dinner at Billie Burke's is a beautiful affair, like a meal on the stage. The dining room was done by Adrian; and no stage or screen set was ever lovelier. There is turquoise linoleum on the floor, with a huge cream-colored woven rug over it; the drapes are turquoise, so long that they lie on the floor. The furniture is silver-painted, the chairs have turquoise leather seats, and the table top is of turquoise composition that is proof against liquid, heat or cold. "It's so lovely I don't use table mats be cause I hate to cover any part of it," confided my hostess. In the turquoise-and-silver buffet, Adrian has designed spaces into which potted plants may be set, and today these were pinkflowered geraniums. The serving table and glass cabinet are of silver. "I had the cabinet painted to match the set. It's a sort of piece-by-piece set. Adrian first designed the table and four chairs, then as my salary grew he added four more chairs, then the buffet, and last the serving table ! "Here are the Napoleon plates we use for dessert. Each one has the likeness of a member of the Bonaparte family on_ it, hand-painted, and quite marvelous likenesses, too." There were crystal elephants on the table, their trunks pointed East. "They must always face East, you know, something to do with Mecca, I suppose. When we were in our last house, the doors in the dining room were West, so when we entered there were all the elephant rears on view !" Elephants were Mr. Ziegfeld's prize collection, and there are elephants everywhere —a huge china one in the library, a great white porcelain one in the garden, big as a dog, a tiny jade one on the table bell, glass quartz, metal and wood ones in parades, in couples, singly and in groups. There are almost as many pictures of Patricia as there are elephants — Patricia in Florida in 1925, dressed like a small boy in knickerbockers [ at three, in baby white ; a figure, a head, a profile ; Pat growing up. There's a bronze bust of Mr. Ziegfeld in the hall and a portrait upstairs, and everywhere there are things presented to him by celebrities, or dainty figures given to or collected by Mrs. Ziegfeld (as she is never known). There's a wee frog orchestra on a shelf in the living room; a Dutch boy and girl in silver, containing respectively pepper and salt, in the dining room ; dozens of dancing maidens, coquetting damsels, etc., in the cabinet in her upstairs sitting room. This is another pastel room, with a silk divan, French desk, cabinet and chairs painted in medallions. Miss Burke's bedroom echoes the pastels, with a quilted rose satin bed and delicately draped dressing table ; but Pat's bedroom furniture is in dark wood, her colors are more decided. She has a unique dressing room in blue glass. The playroom in the basement is Pat's, too. A place equipped with games, card tables, music, comfortable couches. Pat is a definitely different individual— but the house reflects its mistress —Billie Burke. Ann Miller's smart coat combines Hudson seal and black Persian. London Continued from page 66 C. Aubrey Smith — as the autocratic Colonel Burroughs — and tall John Clements as the temperamental young officer hero, Harry Faversham. You'll probably remember John as the Russian commissar who saved Dietrich's life in "Knight Without Armor." He is playing the part originally scheduled for Robert Donat but that gentleman is so busy making up for all the time his asthma kept him out of the studios he wouldn't have been free for months anyway. His next assignment is to play for M-G-M's British unit again in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," and he's already soaking himself in the part of the lovable schoolmaster, coached by his little red-haired Scots wife Ella as usual. I wonder whether there is something about red hair which attracts handsome dark-eyed actors? When Don Ameche arrived on vacation some weeks ago I noticed his pretty Honore has light red hair too, swept back most severely. Don assured me he was going to have the "quietest possible time. I've made five films in succession and I'm just worn out." And how does that boy get rested in London? Well, on the day of his arrival at noon he and Honore, all in blue with a white-spotted veil over her sailor hat, jump into a taxi and stay out sightseeing until four in the morning. Then they get up at three the next afternoon and at midnight I find them enjoying real English fried steak, mushrooms and beer at a West End restaurant. Eddie Cantor came across the Atlantic for a fortnight as well — "Yeah, I'm Mister Dionne in slow motion" — though he only brought two of his five daughters, Janet and Natalie. High spot of the irresistible Eddie's visit took place in the stately brown and gold restaurant of the exclusive Dorchester Hotel where you can generally see Royalty eating. As Eddie was lunching he suddenly espied Darryl Zanuck across the room and the dignified atmosphere was rent by an ear-splitting yell. "Hello, Toots I Come on over." Grace Moore spent a few days at the Dorchester recently but dainty little Gladys Swarthout and her husband Frank Chapman chose a quieter, smaller spot when they came to do a round of the London concerts. Another singing visitor from California is Kenny Baker, who is playing Nanki-Poo in the screen version of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, "The Mikado," now being shot at Pinewood Studios. I met George Sanders in the flowergardens at Pinewood the other afternoon, studying the script of the new crime thriller in which he's going to be villain there. Amusing to hear George tell how he left England for Hollywood solely and simply because he had a hunch he could act for the films though he didn't know the first thing about them. Most amazingly his hunch turned out right, as you know. Still another returned native is Robert Morley, who says it took him weeks to persuade Hollywood executives he really meant it when he wouldn't sign any longterm contracts — they thought he was holding out for a bigger salary and offered it to him, so impressed were they with his work in "Marie Antoinette." Now Bob js down beside the sea in Cornwall, acting in the little repertory theatre with a tin roof and hard wooden seats which he started at the village of Perranporth. He told me he would probably go back to Hollywood for just one film this winter and voted for Mickey Rooney as the best actor there. I thought maybe he was wise-cracking but Bob sincerely meant it and said even 94