Talking Screen (Sep-Oct 1930)

Hollywood Hobbies impoverished of the celluloid fraternity she can be found at the homes of her married friends, romping with the youngsters. Her parties for the tots, frequent events at Pickfair, are gay ones. Ramon Novarro's hobby is his Little Theatre, a completely equipped playhouse, with stage footlights, scenery, drop curtains, cinema screen — everything down to the Neon sign that blazes forth over the door. It also , contains a pipe organ. Musical revues are staged for his intimates at great expense. Ramon engages salaried aaors and choruses. He hires a regular orchestra. He designs the beautiful settings and costumes himself. He personally rehearses and directs his shows. JAMES CRUZE, producer-director, has found his pastime, which is open house for his friends on Sunday afternoons, expensive in more than one way. In addition to the financial outlay, these parties have cost him his wife. When Betty Compson left the Flintridge estate recently to file a suit for divorce, she announced that she could no longer go on with fifty-two ^f these functions each year. She declared the crowds disturbed her study and rest. The Cruze Sunday afternoon parties are known the country over. The guest book contains the name of many internationally famous persons. The director never goes out — socially speaking. He asks his intimates to come and see him. After shooting all day, Jimmie goes to The Hacienda — as the place Is known — and spends his evenings planning the next day's work. But Sunday means company to him. Some Sabbaths find as many as 250 persons in the house enjoying the scenery, the gardens, swimming pool, the food and refreshments. It is a legend in Hollywood that Jimmie doesn't know and never before saw half of those he entertains. If they have the nerve to crash the door, he hasn't the heart to eject them. Food and drink for these affairs cost him in the neighborhood of |20,000 a year. How [^Continued from page 38] ever, that doesn't include the damage to furniture, house or grounds. The gardens surrounding The Hacienda come next with Cruze. He has invested more than §100,000 in landscaping and flowers. His friends say he calls each blossom by name and that he bets on the color of the pansies before they are budded. JOHN GILBERT goes in for tennis, and expended $25,000 on his court because it was necessary to blast it out of rock mountainside on which his home stands. Because he enjoys playing at night, he had an elaborate lighting system installed. Others who take to this game on a less elaborate, but equally enthusiastic scale are Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., H. B. "Warner, Ernest Torrence, Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland and Clive Brook. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and George Fawcett are inveterate golfers. Reginald Sharland, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Joseph Cawthorn are fishermen plus. Hobart Bosworth, Mary Brian and Lina Basquette ride the bridle paths. Bosworth, clad in white, his white hair blowing, and mounted on a pure white horse is a picturesque figure. Musical instruments provide mental relaxation and muscle development for Buddy Rogers, Adolphe Menjou and Charles Chaplin. Buddy, who has much invested in his equipment, plays the saxophone, trombone, cornet, piano, organ, drums and guitar. Two of his musical compositions have been published. Menjou, also a composer, spends his leisure at his grand piano. Chaplin divides his aflfections between his pipe organ and violin. He plays his own works for his friends. Gloria Swanson, Kay Francis and Lilyan Tashman devote their spare time to seeking new and startling wearing apparel among the fashion dictators. It has been said that Lilyan spends two-thirds of her income on clothes. Jack Oakie, too, invests his surplus in thmgs to wear — things to be heard, not seen. HOWEVER, there are a few laughs to be had from this Hollywood business of riding the hobby. For instance: Mason Hopper, the director, has prowled the dusty and musty shops in all countries for cook books. He delights in springing strange dishes on his guests. Robert Woolsey, the comedian, has volumes of stamps, and Bert Wheeler, his panner in fun, saves tinfoil. Harold Lloyd has many thousands of dollars in his Great Dane kennels. Clara Bow likes dogs, owns four and is going to buy more. The breed, she says, doesn't matter. Richard Dix expends S50 weekly for food for his thoroughbred English setters, to say nothing of the caretaker's pay. John Robertson, director, can't forget his boyhood on a Canadian farm and to date has lost more than $100,000 operating a ranch near Hollywood so that he can spend his off days laboring with the hired help. Billie Dove and Evelyn Brent have rare perfumes and costly containers valued at more than $10,000 each. Fay Wray also enjoys this indoor sport. Dorothy Lee has a thousand toy dogs valued at $5,000, and Joan Crawford has two thousand dolls. Crane Wilbur owns twelve movie cameras and delights in shooting pictures on his travels. Ann Harding goes in for elaborate bathrooms. She is building six of them, all gaily colored, into her new home. THERE'S only one person in this town of spendthrifts whose hobbying nets him a profit. Charles Bickford for years has vacationed on whaling vessels in the north Atlantic. When he came to Hollywood he bought an interest in a whaling fleet operating out of here. So far he has harpooned four whales himself from his own ships. And the dern hobby is going to net him $25,000 this year! Where Do They Come From ments, hh gives singing lessons without charge to other stars and takes an active part in the management of the Red Arrow Airplane Works, of which he is a part owner. Bernice Claire, by the way, is also interested in the Red Arrow enterprise. PATRICIA AVERY and Estelle Taylor have been stenographers. Polly Ann Young, Raquel Torres, and Josephine Dunn were educater! in convents for commercial pursuits. Ki'l Dane was a carpenter in Denmark v/hen he was thirteen years old, and he has since worked as a stage hand and as an aviator. Dorothy Sebastian owned and managed a gift shop in. Birmingham be [Contifiued jro7n page 26] fore she joined George White's Scandals. Conway Tearle and Alec B. Francis are lawyers ; Francis practiced for five years in Ireland. John Boles, Eugene O'Brien, and Lew Cody studied medicine. Allan Dwan, Charles Bickford, Norman Kerry, Ken Maynard, Lloyd Whitlock, and Jack Holt are electrical or civil engineers. Dwan had a contract to rewire the old Essanay Studios in Chicago. He liked the glamor of the studio and stayed there to write scenarios. Holt's first job was with a railroad company in the West. He quit it quickly to become a cow-puncher. Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson, Jack Hoxie, Edmond Cobb, and Tom Mix were also cowboys. Tom was with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the SpanishAmerican War. BETTY COMPSON once played the violin in a small photoplay theatre. George O'Brien was Tom Mix's cameraman. Nils Asther was a member of the Swedish diplomatic corps. There are a hundred others quite as strange and quite as surprising. There may be a moral somewhere in these annals. I do not know what it is. But I do know that Eddie Nugent, whom Metro Goldwyn Mayer now seems to be grooming for stardom, used to be a professional feeder of ostriches. 77