Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Hollywood — The Stars the clergyman, and the bridegroom were all breathless with expectation, but at the last moment the bride changed her mind. She declared that she would not be married at all, turned the bridesmaids out of the room, and locked the door. Frantic appeals through the keyhole elicited no answer, not even the appeals of the bridegroom himself. But, in this emergency, the star showed some of the quality that had brought her to the forefront in the films. Returning to the drawing-room, she chose four of her most muscular guests. " Go upstairs,' ' she ordered ; " break in her door, and carry her down. She has come to be married, and married she is going to be." These haughty commands were obeyed. The door was forced. Screaming and kicking, the well-known authoress was carried by main force to the altar. The clergyman's reflections have not been recorded. We may expect that he was sufficiently overawed by the wealth about him, since even American clergymen do not escape the universal influence, or he may have been one of those who would legalize anything at any cost, one of those who would force America to be sober, chaste, and non-smoking by Acts of Congress and inquisitions of the police, and who might consider that any kind of a marriage, no matter how enforced, was better than permitting the girl to continue in a career of notorious sin. Though little conforming to the star's ideal of a grand film wedding, the ceremony was carried out. Seeing no means of escape, the girl consented to sign the register, and we understand that this marriage by capture has been rather more successful than are the majority of movie marriages. But we often felt that America was balancing a violent progress in some directions by an equally violent return to the primitive in others. The stars are taken at the facevalue by the humbler [159]