Talking Screen (Sep-Oct 1930)

How They Get That Way and The Better Wife. Mary Pickford wears a Westmore wig in Secrets, and has just ordered a lavender wig to match a new offscreen evening gown. Betty Compson, who almost never displays her own attractivf blonde locks on the screen, wore twenty-sevec made-to-measure Westmore wigs last year. Pure has completely revolutionized the wig industry with his hair lace foundation, whose practically invisible hairline ii entirely concealed before the camera by regular grease paint make-up. The hair, appearing to growon a human scalp, eliminates the despised "wiggy" look that has marred many an otherwise perfect make-up. amusing story is told of George Westmote. When his brood set out to conquer the film colony, he cautioned them. You've got to make yourselves indispensable!" He demonstrated his maxim when working on Valentino's Cobra. During the busiest scenes Westmore would suddenly halt the shooting, step importantly up to Nita Naldi, snip off a lock of her hair, then majestically wave permission for the cameras to continue! Nita started the picture with hair to her waist, but finished with a windblown bob. Much of an actor's success depends on the proper application of make-up. There are few, if any, perfect photographic types in Hollywood. Garbo is outstanding, and although she is sometimes accused of wearing false eyelashes so popular (at $1 a pair) with comedy cuties and super-vamps, her own are extraordinarily long and curly. Joan Crawfo'd has freckles which must be covered, but too much make-up is unbecoming to her. She wears only a little lipstick offscreen, and no rouge or powder. Anita Page usually gets her face wiped off before she faces a camera, for she puts on make-up with a shovel — a fault that results in a hard, golddigger appearance. Mary Brian, Kay Francis, anil June Collyer are all good photographic tvpes from a face artist's standpoint. The chief defects of the stars are mouths that ;ire too large (such as Lillian Roth's) and eyes too small (like Norma Shearer's.) Mar<?arer Livingston, who has probably the smallest eyes in pictures, was unable to get a "break" until she had spent six months developing an eye make-up that camouflaged rhs tragic deficiency. BEFORE facing the camera, the player cleanses his face thoroughly. Grease paint of his particular shade is dabbed over the face in tiny smudges, and is then patted into the skin with cold water to insure an even foundation. This patting sometimes takes twenty or thirty minutes before it is sufficiently smooth. Fye shadow is applied from the upper eyelash to the eyebrow. Next, the upper I'p is shaped with rouge and is closed over the lower lip to determine its proper si/e and shape; then both are filled in with rcilnr. Powder is' liberally applied with a •iofr puff, starting under the chin and workIns; up to the forehead. To powder the nose (ircf w(Hild make it appear enormous — and that's a beautv hint for the off-screen makeup of any girl. If your nose is of the button \_Continued from page .5.5] variety, by all means powder it first, liberally, and often ! Superfluous powder is taken off with a soft brush, never with the puff. A dermatograph pencil is used to line the eyelids, after which measure is applied to the upper lash, the lower, and finally to the eyebrows. THIS, of course, is a "straight" make-up such as your favorite star generally wtars. But there are 2500 make-ups that are almost everyday affairs to the make-up artists in Hollywood. Three hundred can be effected with fishskin alone. It is used on dozens of the most popular stars to pull up sagging flesh, eliminate double chins, and smooth out telltale wrinkles around the eyes and mouth. "Blocking," an intricate blending of (.lark grease paint with the light, further camouflages bad features by causing shadows that are not picked up by the camera in the glare of the studio Kliegs. Nancy Carroll's (.lollar-round Irish face, cute enough offscreen, would seem much fuller were it not blocked out" at the sides. Singers' throats, a new problem since Hollywood went talkie, must likewise be eradicated. M AKING young men old is but the work of an hour_ or so to a clever make-up artist; but he has to know his business or a stagey appearance results. A paler shade of grease paint must be used to give that faded look of age. The natural lines on the actor's face are accentuated with a dermatagraph pencil on the forehead, corners of the eyes, cheeks, temples, neck, and nose. Fish skin is wrinkled and applied beneath the eyes with bandoline to give bagginess, wh'le dark grease paint is used to make hollows that suggest the sunken features of the aged. A coating of powder tones down the harsh unreality of the shading and drawn lines. As the final step, the make-up artist adds a myriad of very fine lines with water colors around the eyes and lips. Cords on the neck and hands are made with cotton and grease paint. Putty, the favorite standbye of the old medicine show actor, is almost as obsolete as milady's pompadour and "rata" even for building up noses, chins, cauliflower ears, and moles. When a character is required to be bald, a wig is made with a cloth forehead on which grease paint and powder are applied, and which successfully conceals the young actor's own luxuriant locks. Side burns, "mutton-chop" whiskers, moustaches, and beards may" be added if further ageing is necessary. Cyril Maude in Grumpy, Tyrone Power in The Big Trail, and Gavin Gordon in Romance are outstanding examples of the make-up artists' recent attempts to out-age Father Time himself. Louise Fazenda, naturally young and attractive, considers herself an unhappy victim of the make-up men of Hollywood. A SINGER with a golden voice was chosen for a small but distinctive role in ^^onte Carlo. Unfortunately, he was quite short and had the romantic expression of a pugilist who had not won many fights. Jim Collins, Paramount's make-up man, built him a nose a la Barrymore, gave him an attractive wig and .a naughty pair of eyebrows, and changed the shape of his mouth with fishskin, grease paint, and lipstick. Specially made shoes added to the singer's height, while his costume completed the illusion of romance. The artist who creates faces for the highest priced stars is frequently called upon to {Continued on page 92} On page 55 we showed you Gavin Gordon in the act of being made-up. Here we have him, like the old patent medicine advertisements, "before and after." Those make-up men certainly ■ know their lines. 81