HOLLYWOOD NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 11, 13 January 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD NOTES.

GOSSIP OF THE STUDIOS.

(By MOLLIE MERRICK.)

HOLLYWOOD (Calif.), Dec. 12,

I've been amused watching the metamorphosis of the beauties brought from the four corners of the earth in the latest Hollywood contest. The "before and after" aspect of these girls ie a matter for thought. Regarding the work of the make-up and beauty staffs of the studio, on these exemplars of pulchritude, a woman gets to thinking: "I wonder if I am doing the best things to reveal by good points and show me up as a champion V

Of course practically the first thing done on a general scale was a fine wholesale plucking of eyebrows into various shapes —or off completely —or thinned down to a little or-nothing. It seems very few people are born with the kind of eyebrows that are right for their other features. That ie why most Hollywoodites draw their brows on with their grease-pencils. . , . ,

Loretta Walker, the lass from Hillsborough, Ireland, was one that fooled me. I would have sworn that this "Search for Beauty" winner's fiery hair with the marvellous sheen on it, would be photographically "tops." Well, the sheeny-flaming locks filmed a mud colour. Then the boys discovered that this girl was wearing her waistline down somewhere about her hip-bone and that it should be raised. When this was done, and her clothing tightened to reveal her flgure, she had one of the swellest outlines in the pictures. When she returns to the Emerald Isle, there'll bo one more Gaelic blonde to reckon with. For the reddish locks are now dandelion colour; which, as you well know, is one of the oldest Hollywood customs. Nita Harvey, a winner from London, was a nice frank schoolgirl type, with a reassuring emile and a wholesome air in general. She emerged from the makeup men's hands with angular brows —the type that grow only in wildest dreams or on motion-picture "lots" —an "exotic" coiffure, "slinky" gowns that reveal even more than I dare to tell, and all the other appurtenances of a successful vampire. "Mama" Harvey won't know her child when ehe sees her again.

Helen Gray, from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, ran into some rare difficulties. A champion swimmer, ice hockey player, and all-round athlete, she always dressed to accentuate her slimness. But the studio had ideas about curves, and she was dressed so .that the "curvacious" effect was obtained in some miraculous manner. Then this girl was a devotee of soap and water, and wouldn't be told the advantages of cold cream make-up until she saw the net result.

Gladys Willar, of Worcester, Mass., thought she was the ideal "vamp." She

put her eyes at half-mast, and dressed in what she thought was an intriguing make-up. The make-up men gave her arch, honestly-youthful eyebrows, cut her hair off and frizzed it up all over her head and decked her out in a snappy little sports outfit, which transformed this vamp into a little high school girl. Joyce Nielsen, the New Zealand girl, thought she was all right until she tried to dress in furs or other luxurious type of things, such as velvets and lames. Of course, the firet thing the studio did

was to got her into velvet all slathered up with fur, and they say she showed plenty of "Q" in this type of attire. In tiic panic way, they laughed down the objections of Lucille du Toit about havin" her hair curled. This entrant from South Africa has lived in convents much of her time, and has never had her hair touched by a curling iron. The studio thinks she looks better curled. Ah, well—the studio thinks. They have thought that about Ann Harding, but La Harding has fooled them. She looks better with her hair simply done and uncurled. They thought Klissa Landi would look line in a "sophisticated" coiffure with spit curls, but La Landi said she'd go back to the stage first. And those two ladies have the most aristocratic heads in all Hollywood!

Happy days seem to be here again for playwrights, what with M.G.M. payin<r what the boys in Hollywood call "a hunnerd "ran"—100,000 dollars to you —for Eugene O'Neill's hit, "Ah Wilderness." Four weeks of bidding, with almost every company in the business coming in on the deal, ended in the Culver City studio paying this top-notch price for the gayest drama, of adolescence our American genius has yet written. Walter Huston ;n;ty play the Cohan stage role. George M. Cohan himself will be producing on the Vox lot this year. Or again, Lionel Barrymore may get the role.