"I DON'T LIKE IT."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19798, 19 November 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

"I DON'T LIKE IT."

WHAT FILM STARS HATE.

STRANGE PET AVERSIONS. WORRIES OF THE STUDIO. DETESTATION OF LOVE SCENES. 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 bo paid for doing it, could be other than a pleasant occupation ? Yet, if one conducted an inquiry among the screen stars, ho would probably find that to them their film-making means nothing more than something that is just part of the day's work, and in some cases it would be discovered that it is a part that appeals to them least of any other, writes May Herschel Clarke in the Picture Show.

"I shall never forget one of our most famous stage and screen stars." says the writer, "telling me that she hated playing in love-scenes before th<J camera, her reason being that she found it distinctly emb; rrassing to make love with a lot of electricians, property men. and carpen ters standing around, [t does not matter that she has played in countless love scenes on the stage—to play in thcrn in a film studio happens to be ono of her pet aversions.

"Despite .ill 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 he 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 111 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 the South Seas." would have inured her to the ideal of being gazed at, yet at tho studio she never enters the restaurant if she can possibly help it—"Such clatter, such staring!" says the Instead, she chooses tho seclusion of the little dressing-room which has been built for her, on the set.

Alice Terry is among tho stars who cannot bear to look at their own work during the filming of a picture, and indeed she refuses to do so. "I begin to find flaws in my own work and try to change it, instead of leaving all that to the discretion of the director," she exp'ains "That is why I have adopted the habit of doing all my work before the camera and letting those behind it attend to the rest." The bete noire of some stars lies in being constantly identified with some particular role, or type of role, in which thov 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 the bane of her life. "I don't want to lie an ice-cream soda sort of personannounced Betty wrathfullv. 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 "Last Frontier," William Bovd 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 mo." A comic aversion has grown out of the appearance of El Brendel, the screen's new comedian, 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 .£'100! Brendel and "Boz.o" became so attached to each other that, whereas at one time the comedian numbered goose among his favourite dishes, he can no longer contemplate eating such a delicacy. "If I 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 the production was in progress. "I got tired of meeting friends on the way to the studio each morning," explains Lowell, "and having them ask suspiciouslv: 'Getting home from a party, Lowell." Why Tliey Felt 'ißocky."

Ever since he was a child Richard Dix has suffered from those hateful dreams in which tho victim feels himself falling from a great height. For this reason he particularly dislikes playing in scenes "shot" at any great altitude. In one of his pictures, "The Shock Punch," he was called upon to sit on a beam at one corner of the twenty-fifth 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 Brooms," when, one never-to-be-forgotten morning, lie had to consume veil or more Havanas. No wonder Neil turns palo when cigars are mentioned !

Bettv Compson hates to bo governed by a clock, which to her sifrntfies something terribly tyrannical. When she is at work in the studio she leaves her watch at home. "It makes no difference to me whether we stop at eight or at four." she says, "but certainly it would be hateful to know I couldn't get off the set until after five!"