A NEW CLEOPATRA

Evening Star, Issue 21823, 12 September 1934, Page 3

A NEW CLEOPATRA

MALIGNED WOMAN HOMAN PROPAGANDA When a historical picture of the pretentiousness of Cleopatra ” is undertaken, a tremendous amount ot research must be done before a camera turns a crank. Cecil B. Do Mille, who directs the picture, had a competent research staff working for a year before actual production began. This sort of film is De Mille’s metier, and the research work confronting him seems only to spur his enthusiasm. There have been many famous plays stones written about the glamorous Egyptian queen, but De Mille preferred in his screen presentation to have an original story prepared after all available data on Cleopatra had been obtained. The famous library and museum at Cairo, Egypt, and every famous. library in the world with data on the subject has contributed its bit. Writers of the period, from Plutarch to Dion Cassius, were wrung dry for facts. l The year s research was followed by approximately two months of actual filming. This .research has. exploded some of Hollywood’s ideas of Cleopatra’s conduct with the men in her life. VERY PROPERLY MARRIED. For instance, according to the version, Cleopatra was anything but a loose woman with a score of lovers, who wasted her time in extravagances, notous .living and cruelties* She had two lovers, according to recorded facts, Antony and Caesar, was married to each of them, was widowed by, death, and was a loving and wise mother to her children.- Her extravagances were mainly for political purposes, to impress enemies of her country. That she succeeded is history, for both Caesar and Antony came as enemies of Egypt and left as friends. , . , , Much has been made of the legend that she tried out poisons on her slaves. This is a half truth, according to the research reports. Criminals condemned to horrible death by torture, by crucifixion, and other customary punishments of the time were offered by her .the choice of taking poison, which they eagerly accepted as a mercy. As the first enlightened vivisectiomst. so to speak, Cleopatra was attempting to perfect a' painless poison. Her wicked reputation Cleopatra ac j quired as the result of propaganda started at Rome by enemies of Caesar after he had fallen in love with and married the ” cultured and beautiful queen. These stories were spread to make it appear that Caesar was unworthy to rule Rome. After Caesar s death, when Antony met Cleopatra, he, too, believed these stories, and was quite surprised to find her quite different. She was better educated than anyone of her time. _ She spoke twentysix languages and dialects. Popular opinion holds Cleopatra to be dark, even swarthy, with possibly negroid characteristics. Actually she was a blonde. However, Claudette Colbert in the film will portray a brunette Cleopatra. History further records that with the exception ot the Egyptian court dress that she was obliged to wear as queen, Cleopatra favoured the Greek styles. Other facts were discovered by the Hollywood researchers. Cleopatra was “ taken for a ride ” by a bunch ot double-crossing Egyptian politicians who wanted to get rid of her so they could “sell out ” Egypt to emissaries of Rome. The fellow delegated to put her “on the spot ” weakened and merely tossed her out of a chariot m the middle of the desert with the warning that she would be slain if she ever showed up in town again. This all took place because Pothinos, Prime Minister of Egypt, was trying to “ muscle in on her territory using her brother Ptolemy as a “ front.” . Cosmetics have had little added since those days. There was red paint for the finger and toe nails; there was rouge, eyebrow plucking, hair waving, with elaborate irons nearly as complicated as those of our time, creams and oils for the complexion, massage, hair bleaching, hennaing, and dyeing, amt even the use of gold dust to scattei m bleached hair to make it glitter. Ihe upkeep) of a blonde came high m those

days. The Romans were one up on the Greeks; they had soap, invented by ‘the Gauls, whom they had conquered. A magnificent throne with a background of ostrich plumes shading from white to deep rose is one of the spectacular sets of the-film. The plumes make a huge half-circle with a 20ft radius behind the throne on the royal barge. On the set, an even temperature, rather warm, had to be maintained to keep the plumes in condition. SILVER-MOUNTED OARS. The luxury of the Large is thus described by Weigall in his ‘ Life and Times of Cleopatra ’; — “The royal galley was rowed by banks of silver-mounted oars, the great purple sails hanging ‘ idly in the still air of the evening. The vessel was steered by two oar-like rudders, controlled by helmsmen who stood in the stern of the ship under a shelter constructed in the form of an enormous elephant’s head of shining gold, the trunk raised aloft. (Note: The elephant’s head I describe from that seen upon the queen’s vessel shown upon the coins). ’ “ Around the helmsmen a number of beautiful slave women were grouped in the guise of sea nymphs and graces; and near them a company of musicians played a melody upon their flutes, pipes, and harps, for which thc_ slowmoving oars seemed to beat time. “ Cleopatra herself, decked in the loose, shimmering robes of the goddess Venus, lay under an awning bespangled with gold, while hoys dressed as cupids stood on either side of her couch, fanning her with coloured. ostrich plumes of the Egyptian court. Before the royal canopy brazen censers stood upon delicate pedestals, sending forth fragrant clouds of exquisitely prepared Egyptian incense, the marvellous odour of which was wafted to the shore ere the vessel had come to its moorings. “ The company was led down to the banqueting saloon, where a dinner of the utmost magnificence was served. Twelve triple couches, covered with embroideries and furnished with cushions, were set around the room, before each of which stood a table whereon rested golden dishes inlaid with precious stones and drinking goblets of exquisite workmanship. “ Returning once more to the deck the elated guests, now made more impressionable by theieffects of Egyptian wine, were more amazed to find themselves beneath a marvellous kaleidoscope of lanterns, hung in squares and circles from ' a forest of branches (interlaced above their heads.” Typical of other information unearthed by the De Mille researchers was that concerning amusements in the Egypt of Cleopatra. HOW THEY PLAYED. Blind man’s buff was a popular game on the palace sward. So ivas hopscotch. Visiting statesmen took part in this; and it was considered excellent sport when they were bumped over —by -accident, of epurse—particularly if thev wore pompous. Courtiers of Alexandria were fond ot kite flying. They lent a perilous touch to- this innocent sport by tying themselves to large kites and thus taking miniature flights. Sometimes, it is said,' they had to be rescued from trees. , , , , There wore great hobby horses, intricately built, which reared and plunged fearsomely. And there was quail fighting. Apollodorus, Cleopatra’s 'tutor, himself fed the champions in the queen’s pens. j On the shaded stone piazza of the palace Cleopatra played knucklebone;! dice to you devotees of backgammon —another game, incidentally, at which the queen was adept. Checkers was another favourite game.—Rosalind Shaffer, in the ‘Chicago Tribune.’