Screenland (Sept 1922–Feb 1923)

"Well, all right ! That'll be fine ! I guess I'm funny, that's all. Well, Mack Sennett Comedies must need comediennes as well as bathing girls! Here goes!" The result is well known. Not a Classic Beauty I^AZIMOVA is far from beautiful if one means a classic nose, chiseled lips and all that. And nobody is more scornful than Nazimova herself if you say she is beautiful. Yet who could beunbeautiful with those sapphire blue eyes of Nazimova's? Those eyes sparkle with intelligence, humor, sympathy. When you talk with her, you are likely to see nothing about her but their lure. Her live mind, her fascinating personality, make you forget she is not beautiful. So beauty isn't all. Many a beautiful girl comes to Hollywood with the thought that her beauty will put her over and that the directors will fall over each other to secure her services. It is extremely difficult to make many of them see just where brains and hard work count and that they play really a greater part than beauty. But they usually come to after they have spent many weary hours flashing their beauty and cooling their heels in the outer reception room waiting for the director to find time to see them. Then they spend more weeks' and weeks trying to locate as an extra with about as disastrous resulR The Truth Dawns Curls Cover Large Ears M art Pickford, whose curls set a world-wide vogue for several years, wore those curls to cover the defect of large ears ! I saw an old picture of Mary's the other day, in which she hadn't beauty, personality, nor even curls! Yet I think nobody was ever lovelier on the screen than Mary was as the rich little girl in "Stella Maris!" She has learned lighting, make-up, since those old days, but she has learned something m0re — acting and how to put personality over. And yet at that it isn't the rich little girl you remember in "Stella Maris," except by an effort of memory. It is the poor little homely slavey, with the beautiful soul, played by Mary, that you remember. Though you will also remember that it wasn't the homely little slavey who got the close-up clench in the fade-outs, either. Despite herself, ZaSu Pitts is becoming very pretty! It was her drab personality, her sad little buttermilk eyes, that landed her first in pictures, playing the slavey in "The Little Princess" with Mary Pickford. Afterward she was actually awarded a starring contract on her deficiences ! But back of it all was a beautiful soul, a brilliant mind, real acting ability. ZaSu is happily married now to Tom Gallery, and is the mother of a beautiful baby. When I saw her the other day, I decided that happiness "was a beautlfier. 46 Ji he truth eventually dawns upon them with a crash when they begin to realize how overcrowded the profession really is and that, even with their beauty that set Main Street wild, it is necessary to possess a considerable amount of talent. For the most clever and the best appearing stars do not jump right into the big head lines and it takes a year or two to get a start. Most of the new beauties who rush in are not in a position financially to rush back home and they either file their names with the undertaker to go back east as companion with his first shipment or wire to dear old dad to mortgage the cow and send her return money. No one can tell off hand just who will and who will not make a success in screen work. Many actresses who were not even classed as pretty have come up through the ranks and are today headliners at the studios. Others who seemed to have everything in their favor and who were selected by directors as being good possibilities, have fallen sadly and quickly into oblivion, forgotten by everyone except the angel who attempted to put them over. identification for the fans who idolize them. Can you imagine Bull Montana as handsome? Not by any -stretch of the imagination. And Dick Southerland's features do not carry over to the fans marks of great refinement. Erich Von Stroheim has made a success and he never got to be a star because he was handsome. It is true that Buster Keaton and Ben Turpin would either attract attention on the street, but the remarks you would hear concerning their looks would not lead you for a minute to think of them as being handsome. Of course, there are men in the movies who are handsome, but like the women of the screen, it has not been entirely their appearance which put them over. They, too, must have talent, be willing to work long hours and wait until their popularity comes to the surface. Few Handsome Men w ith the men it is quite different. Few of them would carry off any prizes at a beauty show, unless, perhaps, they should be awarded the consolation prize. Their deficiencies seem to be in their favor and to serve as marks of . Not All Types Adaptable A. girl with brains, talent and beauty combined will not always make a success on the screen and some of the beautiful women who have gone big on the speaking stage have been dismal failures when it came to their appearance on the screen. There are certain types which can not be put across on the screen and all the ability of the director, the cleverness with which the lights are used and the willingness of the subject will not make them a success unless they are naturally adaptable to screen work. Happiness Promotes Beauty §^0 happiness brings beauty as well as beauty, happiness. Helen Eddy is the subject of many disputes regarding her looks. Some people think she is beautiful. Others that she is very plain. _ At any rate she is not ugly. She is a type. And it was that fact, and because she had brains and ability that she got her start with George Beban as the Italian woman of many of his pictures. ' , There -are scores of girls working in department stores, in beauty shops, as stenographers, who are far lovelier, by virtue of their features, than most of our screen .beauties. Yet through brains, ability, oppor