“I DON’T LIKE IT”

Evening Star, Issue 19724, 26 November 1927, Page 18

“I DON’T LIKE IT”

WHAT FILM STARS HATE STRANGE PET AVERSIONS There never was a truer saying than that about one man’s meat being another man’s poison! For instance* who would dream that to make love to a pretty girl or an attractive man, and he paid for doing it, could bo other ] than a pleasant occupation? Yet, if one conducted an inquiry among tho screen stars, ho would probably find that to them their film-mak-ing means nothing more than something that is just part of the day’s work, and in some cases it would bo discovered that it is a part that appeals to them least of any other, writes May Herscbel Clarke in Die ‘Picture Show.’ “I shall never forget one of onr most famous stage and screen stars,” says the writer, “ telling mo that she •hated playing in love scones before the camera, her reason being that she found it distinctly embarrassing to make love with a lot of electricians, property men, and carpenters standing around. It does not matter that she had played in countless love scenes on the sta^e—to play in them in a film studio happens to ho one of her pet aversions. “Despite all his experiences on stage and screen, Raymond Griffith is a shy man, and to this day shrinks from talking to people who want to chat with him about his film success. In fact, he says ho would rather play in a dozen scenes with lions and tigers than encounter a company. of visitors in the studio.- Ray has had plenty of feminine society in his pictures, but in real life girls scare him stiff! A FAMOUS DANCER’S ORDEAL. “ One would imagine that the dazzling popularity enjoyed by Gilda Gray, the famous dancer, who made her screen debut in ‘ Aloma of tho South Seas,’ would have inured her to the idea of being gazed at, yet at the studio she never enters the restaurant if she can possibly help it—“ Such clatter, such staring!” says the dancer.

Instead, she chooses tho seclusion of the little dressing room which has been built for her on the set. Alice Terry is among the stars who cannot hear to look at their own work during tho filming of a picture, and, indeed, she refuses to do so. “ I begin to find Haws in my own work and try to change it ; instead of leaving all that to the discretion of tho director,” she explains. “That is why I have adopted the habit of doing all my work before the camera and letting those behind it attend to tho rest.” Tho beto noire of some stars lies in being constantly identified with some j particular role, or type of role, in I which they have made a great success. At one time Lois “Wilson suffered a lot from being repeatedly referred to as “The Covered Wagon Girl”; while following upon her big hit as Peter Pan, Betty Bronson came to regard tho dear child attitude which many people adopted toward her as tho banc of her life. “ I don’t want to be an icc-croam soda sort of person,” announced Betty wrathfully. Picture-goers will have noticed that Betty has now grown up in her pictures, and that Lois is travelling in directions unknown to covered wagons. MORE PECULIAR AVERSIONS. Since appearing in the 1 Last Frontier,’ William Boyd has developed an aversion to playing in Western pictures. “ I did nothing but stand around, dolled up in a trick outfit.” he says, with reference to his work in that film. “I looked a mess. No; no more Westerns for me.” A comic aversion has grown out of the appearance of El Brendel, the screen’s new in ‘ You Never Know Women,’ in which he scored a big success as a clown. El’s partner in fun was “ Bozo,” a trained Chinese goose, valued at something in the region of £400! Brendel and “Bozo” became so attached to each other that, whereas at one time the comedian numbered goose among his favorite dishes, lie can no_ longer contemplate eating such a delicacy. “If 1 ever ate another goose, I’d feel like a. cannibal,” he-declares. The same picture caused Lowell Sherman to develop- a hatred toward his evening clothes, which is perfectly understandable, in view of the fact that he had to wear them every day in broad sunlight for six weeks, while tho production was _ in progress. “ I got tired ol' meeting friends on the way to the studio each morning,” explains Lowell, “and having them, ask suspiciously: ‘Getting home from a party, Lowell?’” | WHY THEY FELT “ROCKY.” Ever since he was a child Richard Dix has suffered from those hateful dreams in which the victim feels himself falling from a great height. For

tin's reason he particularly dislikes plitying in scenes "shot" at any great altitude. In one of his pictures, ' The Shock Punch, he was called upon to sit ol» a beam at one corner of the twentyfifth floor of a building in course of construction, but though he stuck it out long enough for the shot to be taken, the unpleasant sensations he experienced made him mightily glad when the affair was over. Neil Hamilton, who had never before smoked a cigar, felt a " little rocky "• in another way during the filming of a certain picture, 'New Hrooms,' when, ono never-to-be-forgot-ten morning, he had to consume 10 or more Jiavaiias. No wonder Neil turns palo when cigars arc mentioned! Betty Compson hates to be governed by a clock, which to her signifies something terribly tyrannical. When she is at work in the studio she leaves her watch at home. "It makes no difference to me whether wo stop at 8 or 4," hhg says, "but certainly it would be hateful'to know T couldn't get off the set until after 5!"