HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19268, 3 January 1931, Page 23 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

(By

Mollie Merrick.)

(Copyright by the “Star” and the North American Newspaper Alliance). All rights reserved. The Spanish Vogue. Hollywood has gone Spanish, if one is to judge by the number of the colony who continue to patronise the cafes and theatres of Olvera. Street. This is a block in the heart of old Los Angeles which has been reconstructed in the original Spanish fashion with, I suspect, just a dash of atmosphere thrown in. Here one can dine, dance in a dimly-lighted patio, enjoy a very clever puppet show, stroll through the open-air bazaar where, if you're Mexican-p<, ttery-minded, you can get almost anything, or visit an art shop or a bookstall. Just the good old Spanish days in a condensed edition. Most of the movie crowd go to the “Golondrina,” a little basement cafe, that has excellent Spanish food and good music. Sometimes the guests are persuaded to take a hand in this. Recently, at dinner there, I saw Leatrice Joy, Julanne Johnston, Leo Carrillo, Jimmie and Lucille Gleason, Russell Gleason and Marguerite Churchill. Leo Carrillo not only sang a song or two himself, but in a few* minutes had the entire crowd “aye-aye-ayeing’* to their hearts’ content. So Colourful! Looking through the newspapers and magazines may have brought to your mind the fact that the moving picture advertisements are colourful to a degree. Perhaps frenzied would be a better way of describing them. The dignified Leslie Howard, playing in “Outward Bound,” may be amazed to find that his picture is billed in one magazine as “a helluva good picture about heaven.” Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey in “Half-shot at Sunrise,” are called the “bon vivants of belly-laughter.” As for the picture, it is a “terrific bombardment of cockeyed hokem,” that will “panic the natives with the wildest lay-out of hokem-peikem-soakem-fun that ever wowed its way off the talking screen.” So “get out your laughing mask —the nit-wit nuts are out to slaughter gloom.” John Ford's production, “Up the River,” boasts of Dannemora Dan, E jg @ Hi S S a ® dL £ E S M SB E SB SB SB SB m

E S S HI iU M I*3 HI ® HI HI HI HI © SB H 3 HI HI Hi US “who was both broad shouldered and ‘broad’ minded. For him life was just one jam, jane or jail after another.” In another ad., he is “the lunk—the soup and drill guy—with a skull like a Chinese baboon.” Even the more educational type of films have their share of the bizarre in advertising. In urging people to see “Africa Speaks,” one advertisement says: “See women with the horny bills of ducks—impala deer that leap and glide through the air—the sky blackened by countless pink flamingoes All very interesting, but when you begin to see the conventional purple elephants, take warning. The Orchid Market. Times may be hard in other parts of the world, but if you want to know about movie people and their times, the story of the local orchid market will tell you an interesting tale. Now that every leading lady and professional beauty in the colony has her quota of ermine, her mirror diamonds, her imported town car and home in Beverly with swimming pool, there is nothing left but to hang her w r ith orchids. On all public occasions the local beauties sport these exotic, luscious blooms. They are the only charming extravagance which a village beau may bestow on his girl. They are the conventional tribute from a husband on all party occasions. At openings they are in lariats that extend from the shoulder to the hip, and only the very bourgeois wear them with fern or accessory trimmings of any kind. How They Like Them. Bebe Daniels likes hers to be white with purple centres. This is a. rare type, and Ben has scoured the market hereabout to find them for his lady love (who happens to be Mrs Ben Lyon). Each morning Billie Dove’s maid twines orchids in the Spanish doors of wrought iron which separate her boudoir from her dressing room. Gloria Swanson likes her orchids a deep red. Dolores del Rio prefers royal purple ones. Evelyn Brent wears the catalayea, and Betty Compson is invariably hung with rare blooms o/ the orchid family when she comes a-premiering. When Milton Sills died, his wife ordered a pall of orchids for his bier, and the luscious purple blooms made a regal funeral drape. When Rudolph Valentino passed from the hearts of the world, Pola Negri had his casket draped with an orchid blanket which was superb in its tones. When stars are ill, I am told that the flowers sent them are invariably orchids. A lesser bloom—with the single exception of great boxes 'of HI HI HE EE H! ® EE ® EE iU EE EE I*l @ EEJ ® E*J HI EE Eg

gardenias—being considered too ordinary for people who have a standing order with the florist for their roses and others flowers, from day to day. The orchid boutonniere is very popular with men. The small \jyhite orchid affected by Valentino during his life being the favourite. Of course, Marion Davies raises them by the thousands, the halls of her beach bouse being invariably full of the blossoming plants. Jack Barrymore and his wife, Dolores Costello, go in for a little light orchiding in their home also. And some of us wear a knot of pansies and like ! Ramon Novarro. Ramon Novarro, who has alternated these last weeks between talking in the microphone in the guise of a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star and standing behind the cameras in the guise of a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer director, will remake one of his great successes if rumour means anything these days. “ Scaramouche,” that divine picture which practically made the Novarro one of the idols of the cinema world, will be remade with talk, and it is said that the French and Spanish versions of it will be directed by Ramon Novarro himself as well as having him for a leading man.

Direct Their Own Stories. Despite the fact that this is the heaven of the publicity agent, some ladies manage to direct their own stories of this type—and not so badly, either. It has the advantage of not having too many in on the secret: and some of the best trained publicity agents will talk once the coup has been pulled off: I am minded of the beauty who felt she was due for a few head-lines. So she bethought herself as to how she could get them. .. . Came a great light. She secured for herself an unpolished black pearl. It was in the delightfully crude state in which it had come plump from the oyster. The beauty went to a popular fish restaurant and ordered herself some 03'sters on the half-shell. During her meal she gave a great squeal and held up a small object which was hastily passed from hand to hand at the table. Word went round the restaurant that a pearl of goodly size had been found—a black pearl. The lady toddled to the nearest jeweller to have the pearl appraised. It was of considerable value—two thousand dollars, in fact. Next morning the headlines ran, “ Beauty Eats Oysters at Two Thousand the Bite.” The story was picked up and landed in good locations throughout the country. Was she proud of her ability? . So proud, she told about it!

@ a ® M I*l ® IS H! ® ® Si S Si IS SS HI S S E Ina Claire’s Interest. Word comes from New York that Ina Claire, now making a talkie on the East Coast, is frequently seen at the theatres during out of studio hours. Her attentive attendance at a performance of Helen Hayes in “ Mr Gilhooley ” on the eve of that play’s closing, proves that Ina Claire’s heart is still behind the footlights, although her financial interests would seem to be best served behind the cameras. She came in quite inconspicuously, it seems, and alone. Wearing a dark tweed coat with rough fur collar and a little dark hat pulled down over her eyes. During the intermission she strolled about the lobby surveying the pictures of the cast. In gelatineland when Ina Claire arrives at the theatre there is a great rustling of silk and display of ermine—orchids from shoulder to hips—it is Mrs where life is taken with less scintillance, it is Ina Claire, actress. Their Joke. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey contribute this: “Those* girls look exactly alike. Are they twins?” “ Oh, no! They merely went to the same plastic surgeon.” Paderewski. The Polish pianist, Paderewski, is making an extended tour of the Eastern States of America.