Silver Screen (Nov 1930-Oct 1931)

ABOUT FAN MAIL B y Gordon Silver of her allure and mystery. She also receives many letters from young girls and from fans of both sexes who admire her more or less impersonally. J For five years Ramon Novarro has held the fan mail record for men, his weekly average being slightly over 4,000 letters. These come from all classes — from romantic youth and from serious maturity. He gets much mail from religiously devout persons who have read of his devotion to his church. Fan mail of the players varies considerably with the parts they play. After the release of a particularly good picture, the mail of the star and players will jump by leaps and bounds for a few months as the film is shown in various sections of the country. One of the amazing examples of sudden rise in popularity as evidenced by the receipt of fan mail is the case of Robert Montgomery. From a totally unknown player less than two years ago when he made his first screen appearance in "So This Is College?" Bob's mail has increased until today he is second only to Novarro in the number of letters received. Fan mail is a fairly accurate gauge of popularity. Yet it does not always seriously affect a player's position. This is borne out by the fact that John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, Marian Nixon, Charles Chaplin and Tom Mix pay practically no attention to their mail, yet they are all successful. Arthur Lake, David Rollins and several young players seldom send a picture or answer a letter unless a quarter and a stamp are enclosed. On the other hand, there are cases where fan mail has affected a player's position materially. Mary Brian might not have been the popular player she is today if it hadn't j or April 1931 Jimmie Gleason dictates replies to fan mail while swimming. Bob Montgomery is one of the leading mail men of movietown. The post-office, quite properly, delivered a letter addressed to "The Virginian" to Gary Cooper. Warner Baxter writes replies to all his fans been for her fans. Why? Because Paramount was just about to let her go without renewing her contract when officials noticed the huge increase in her mail. P.S. Mary stayed on, signing a new contract at a very substantial raise in salary! A few players save every fan letter they get. Louise Fazenda laughs when she says she has never thrown away even one letter! But it's a serious thing so far as "housing" is concerned — her attic is filled with letters — stacks, boxes, shelves and packages of them! The interesting thing is that Louise answers all and some of them run into eight pages. Her correspondence extends all over the world. One girl who wrote to her for years came to Hollywood one summer and Louise took her with her to Alaska on a vacation! Her Christmas card list of 500 is comprised almost entirely of fans who have been writing to her and receiving letters from her for half a dozen years. Louise has no set time for writing. Usually, she takes a box of letters to the studio where she is working and answers them on the set between scenes or in her dressing room. In her home she has a small oflice fitted up with a typewriter and supplies. She spends many evenings here, getting caught up with her correspondence. Carmel Myers keeps all her mail, too. In fact, she says she thinks it very bad luck to throw away as much as one fan letter! Carmel answers most of [Continued on page 60] 15