Silver Screen (Nov 1930-Oct 1931)

Buddy Rogers averages about two thousand letters a month. Clara Bow received the tiniest letter, addressed merely to "It". Mary Brian got one with only her picture on it (the post-office did the rest). Louise Fazenda answers and keeps every letter sent her FAN MAIL is a funny thing — to some stars, it's a treasure; to others, one of life's nuisances. Yet, everyone in pictures, from bit player to dazzling star, receives a certain quota of letters. Writing to one's favorites has long been the leading indoor sport of America and about every other place on earth. Letters swirl into Hollywood in one long stream, never letting up. In fact, if all the money expended on paper, envelopes and stamps were totalled, the result would more than keep Al Capone in machine guns for the rest of his life. Fact! You all know that the players who receive a large volume of mail employ secretaries. But a few of you have the impression that said secretaries never let a single letter you write to your favorites get to them. That isn't so. Joan Crawford's secretary reads her mail and turns over to Joan every letter she thinks she would enjoy reading. Joan personally answers many of the letters. Norma Shearer reads all her own mail. It is delivered to her home and she reads the letters at her leisure, answering many personally and referring the others to her secretary for answering. Marie Dressier, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page, John Mack Brown, Lewis Stone and Conrad Nagel read personally their entire stacks of fan mail, answering numerous The TRUTH The Lowdoivn on Your Letters to the Stars, the Names of the Stars Who Qet the Most Letters, the Stars Who Ansiver the Most, and the Stars Who Don't Answer at All letters themselves and referring those of a general nature to their secretaries. George Arliss, too, is meticulous about acknowledging his mail and frequently pens replies himself. James Gleason, without a doubt, has the most unique method of answering fan mail. He dictates the notes to his secretary in between swims in the pool in his garden. This gives him a chance, so he says, to think up good replies as he does a high dive or the Australian crawl. Sue Carol, Nick Stuart, Ramon Novarro, George O'Brien, Richard Arlen, Estelle Taylor, Louise Dresser, Richard Dix, Ruth Roland, Ben Bard, Dorothy Lee, Stanley Smith and Jack Oakie are others who take a keen interest in their mail and answer many letters personally. In the amount of letters she receives per month, Clara Bow leads Hollywood. More than a million persons all over the world have written her! She has been getting on an average 15,000 to 25,000 letters every month since she made her first starring success in "It." Postal clerks handle Clara's mail just as they would handle mail for a small town. Her 700 or so letters a day arrive at the studio in neat bundles with printed labels furnished by the post-office department. The Bow's nearest competitor is Garbo. She receives slightly less mail than Clara. And, contrary to printed reports, she does not completely ignore her mail. In fact, she reads much of it. "The letters are delivered to her dressing room and piled on a huge desk until she can find time to look them over. She NE^"ER does answer a letter, but she really enjoys reading them. Her mail is largely from married women who ask her about men and life, marriage and love, and who try to discover the secrets 14 Silver Screen