"ONE OF THE DAMES."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

"ONE OF THE DAMES."

BINNIE BARNES ON EILMLAND Binnie Barnes, the English actress who made such an impress as Catherine Howard in Alexander Korda's "Private Life of Henry VIII.," and who went to Hollywood recently to play in "There's Always To-morrow," says that Hollywood is very much what the guest chooses to make it.

She defends the inhabitant of the film centre, saying that it is the visitor who tries to paint Hollywood red. "By and large," continues Binnie, "my analysis of Hollywood is that it is not a difficult matter to commit social suicide here, yet it is 1 the easiest community in the world in which to live one's own life exactly as one chooses.

"I find that most film players are home-loving folk. In fact, some of them are such home-loving souls that they go head over heels into debt to build elaborate houses.

"Some of these homes are as much like studios as stage sets, and some of their owners as much out of place as would be the carpenters and electricians in overalls should they come into a Louis XIV. set without dressing for the part. The Busy Rich. "There are few idle rich in Hollywood. The rich here —the lords and ladies of the mansions—are extremely busy, democratic people, their principal difficulty being the maintenance of any semblance of a private life." Miss Barnes touches on apartment and beach life in Hollywood, and then becomes more personal. "Some of the theatre-goers who saw me in 'The Private Life of Henry VIII.' have failed to recognise me because I am not still wearing the clothes. Then there is the Englishman who advised me to go to London and get into the films there, because 'the English would like one of your type.' The estate agent who let me the beach cottage remarked that 'Catherine was a swell gal,' but refused to believe that I had played the role. "At a party given by Ida Lupino, where I met ever so many players, one ituest remembered me as Catherine, quite distinctly he said, adding: 'You were one of the dames who was shot up, weren't you ?' "