Talking Screen (Sep-Oct 1930)

They Are Clay In Her Hands [Continued from page 47] son both suffer from nervous strain. That's where my soothing touch comes in. Norma Shearer is another of my pets — I'd work myself to the bone to keep Norma beautiful. I'd take it as a personal disgrace if she ever began to sag. Young Doug Fairbanks comes to me, too — just to keep fit. I. keep Jack Holt fit too. Keeping them fit is my best work, which also means keeping their looks. Sick people are never beautiful people." ^EAR Anna Q. Nillson. I go to the hospital for her. It's just tragic the way she lies there so patient. But she'll walk again, and be more beautiful than ever. You see. Her blood's good, why wouldn't she? Gee, I can hardly stand her heart-breaking brave smile," says Sylvia, even if she does bully Anna every so often. Mary Lewis is another of Sylvia's clients. '"We're getting her weight down fine," she brags. "But if she puts off another appointment with me, I'll — " and one realizes awful things await a delinquent Mary. "Say, you should see what a wad I took off Carol Lombard," brags Sylvia. Then she points joyously at a signed picture of Allan Hale "To Sylvia, who lives off the fat of the hams." Her cutey laboratory on the studio lot is lined with such autographed pictures from grateful clients who shamelessly admit on many of them just what Sylvia has achieved for them. Laura La Plante, for instance, credits Sylvia with a banished ten pounds off the right places. It is most disconcerting to have this remarkable woman's gaze travel o'er one. She will be talking about something else, the while her hand pats a saggy chin or a finger pokes in a neck-saucer. She does any amount of good deeds. For instance, there is a youngster with film yearnings who is too thin, so she is massaging and fattening him up and coaxing his cheeks to new charms, just for love of her work. I HE was born in Norway, where her mother was Emilie Wilhelmsen, an opera singer. Her father was a Danish painter — so Sylvia was brought up by her grandparents. "And I guess it was because they always told me I was an ugly duckling that I became so violently interested in beauty. No matter how tired I am, I always give myself a facial every night — even if it's 2 a. m.," she confides. Her husband is an ex-lumber man, and one of her sons is "artistic." The other boy is "Assistant film editor. " She grins — which means that he is in the cutting room. Sylvia's married name is Mrs. Ulbeck, but no one ever calls her anything but Sylvia. And she gets more fan mail than many a star — -all asking for advice about defects. She keeps two secretaries to help answer all this. "Look at this pitiful letter . . . girl of fifteen who only weighs eighty-seven pounds . . . sounds tubercular to me," but she sends a kindly reply full of all sons of sensible health advice, and precious hope. Hollywood is chock full of beauty specialists, but there's only one Sylvia. How It Feels To Be Famous {Continued from page 66] Kay Johnson had this to say; '"Very humble. I used to take my acting more or less as a matter of course, but not any longer. The tremendous penetration of the screen into all the nooks and crannies of the world is very scaring to me. I worry over my work much more than ever before. This 'fame,' as you call it, has become a ring of eyes, all of them quite ready to change from approval to disapproval the minute you slacken in your work." 'AYS Blanche Sweet: "When one has acquired that status which is commonly referred to as famous and is serious about die future, one will take a complete inventory. Then he or she will , become an even more serious person. It may cause one to withdraw from various contacts which will cause some persons to remark 'highhat!' But, in truth, it will be merely taking complete stock of one's self and then acting accordingly." Eddie Quillan, still bubbling with the enthusiasm of a small-town boy, waxed eloquent. "It's nice to know," he said, "that I can do things for my folks with the larger salary which has accompanied a certain amount of screen success. All her life, mother haj been putting the things her nine children wanted, ahead of her own requiremen'.s. Now I can help her." ESSIE LOVE describes public notice as fleeting and fickle. Joan Crawford says that now her name is listed in electric lights, her day-dreams have disappeared and she finds herself in one continuous round of hard work. "I was so happy I thought I would die from so much joy." Lupe Velez replied in answer to my query. "Interesting but disillusioning!" remarked Ruth Chatterton. Kay Francis frankly admitted, "You have to be famous before you get the feeling." In all my interviewing, two stars, in particular, claimed my greatest attention. First of these was Lon Chaney, the "man of mystery." 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