Screen Mirror (Jun 1930 - Mar 1931)

the clothes closet in Constance Bennett’s dressing room. Then came the day when it slipped over the blonde head of Constance and settled its gingham folds around her slender body. Suddenly something happened to the dress which had been just an ordinary gingham house frock. It didn’t look like itself. It assumed a new air and an almost salon-like distinction. It was a frock and not a house dress. “The hardest thing in the world is to make someone like Constance Bennett look ordinary and commonplace,” Adrian remarked, when he walked down on the stage to watch the gingham dress in a scene from “The Easiest Way.” "The wearer makes the clothes. If you’d sew a few rags together and put them on Constance, she’d look as if she had stepped out of a limousine.” Constance and the gingham dress were sitting in a most shabby room in the midst of an ear-and-eye-smiting confusion of ragged children and dogs and tawdry furniture. It was Constance’s shop girl home and she and the gingham dress tried to belong there. But, in spite of their valiant efforts, they were part of another world. “It is much more difficult to ungild a lily than it is to gild one,” Adrian went on, his eyes on the blonde loveliness in the polka dot dress, sitting on the edge of a tumbled bed, talking to a frowsy mother and a frowsier young sister, "We used every bit of our ingenuity to try to make Miss Bennett look like the daughter of that mother and a tenement house dweller. But in spite of the ginghams she continued to look like a million dollars and Park Avenue.” But that was the secret of the girl, Laura, of “The Easiest Way.” If she had belonged in the frowziness of that room, she would never have climbed out of it into luxury. The ungilding of the lily continued with a pink voile and a plain black velvet coat, both bargain basement style and both elevated to the French Room by the distinction of their wearer. This outfit Laura wore when she stepped out to the movies with the best “boy friend.” Then Laura took the easiest way and moved out of the tenement into an apartment and into charge accounts in the books of world-famous designers. Out from the glass case in the studio wardrobe were carried the silks and satins and furs to the dressing room. Back into the case went the blue and white polka dot and the others of its stamp. The blue polka dot dress became again just an ordinary dress, hanging in a case. Its organdie ruffles were wilted, its folds hung limply. It might have come from any bargain basement. Without its blonde wearer, it was worth two-ninety-five and was not cheap at the price. Beautiful Satin or Drab Calico Look the Same on Constance • IT WAS just an ordinary blue and white polka dot gingham dress. There was nothing unusual about the dress. It had little frills of white organdie for collar and cuffs and it might have come from any department store’s bargain basement. It could have been the house dress of any one of ten thousand women. But it had not been found in a bargain basement and it was not to be worn by any one of ten thousand housewives. It had been designed by Adrian, who fashions the costumes for the Metro-GoldwynMayer stars. It was to be worn by Constance Bennett. t>4 Jon bi^ron Photo by Hurrell The gingham dress was hanging in a glass-enclosed case along with a priceless array of silks and satins, velvets and furs. But it wasn’t one bit impressed. It knew that it was just as important as any one of the others. After all, Constance must wear its polka-dotted simplicity first before she could take the “Easiest Way” to the silks and satins and furs. After a few days the gingham dress was carefully pressed and carried out of the wardrobe to hang against the gray wall of • THOSE two highly talented and popular young players, Constance Bennett and Robert Montgomery, are featured in “The Easiest Way.” It is declared that the talking screen translation of the famous play Is greatly enhanced by the splendid performances this duo offers.