HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 145, 20 June 1931, Page 26 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

r ('By Mottie Merrick.’)]

HOLLYWOOD, May 16. Engagement Announced. Fifi Dorsay, the most discouraged girl in Hollywood—so far as men were concerned—has a different idea. She has announced her engagement to Terence Ray, who has to do with mining and electrical engineering, and therefore is far removed from the taint of motion pictures. Fifi Dorsay found motion picture men singularly indifferent.

She expressed herself candidly as amazed at the service women gave eligible men in Hollywood village. It struck Fifi Dorsay as all wrong when a pretty girl who had fame and fortune—at least salary fortune—had to buy her own gardenias and take herself and a party of people to premieres. According to the Dorsay viewpoint there should be a willingness on the part of cinema men to do the buying of the orchids and gardenias and of the tickets to five and ten dollar pre-

mieres. But she discovered that the gentlemen often accepted the invitations whilst the lovely women whom all the world envied, bought the tickets, the flowers, supplied the dinner and the wines—even the shining limousine in which the party gaily drove up to the very mouth of the microphone. There in a nutshell you have it—the microphone and -what it means in a player’s life—decide such things. Enigma of Hollywood.

In some weird fashion John M’Cormick, ex-husband of Colleen Moore and film magnate, has

become the enigma of Hollywood. Since his divorce from the - merry starlet M’CorH mick has, at various g times, been rum- | oured reconciled to B the Celtic Colleen, B engaged to Dorothy B Mackaill and about B to retire into mon- | astic seclusion. When he sailed for Honolulu recently it was rumoured that he said

he would be the man Dorothy Mackaill would wed when her affections came to rest at last—that Walter Byron and the Honolulu physician to whom she has been rumoured engaged took second place with him. A further development in the M’Cor-

mick mystery comes when Mrs Janet Hamilton Gattis, a Beverly Hills widow, left for Honolulu after declaring she alone would wed M’Cormick. Some day we’ll know who’s whose. In the .meantime none of the situations — including the Mackaill one—has come to light. Tenants Terrorised. Beverly Hills tenants have been terrorised by the numbers of rough characters applying for various situations—from private secretary to chauffeur’s jobs—and the police of that community have had to provide special protection. Secrecy is being maintained as regards the names of the persons being harassed. A special guard has been placed over two famous children whose father is world-renowned in two mediums and who have been questioned of late as to their identity by rough characters hanging about the neighbourhood. A special police officer sleeps in the house and the children have been told to deny their identities to all questioners. Delayed by Illness.

Pola Negri, delayed in New York by illness, did not make her appearance in the movie village on schedule. This has not caused any furore. Strange to say, there is an apathy concerning the future fate of the once brilliant star of German and American films. Adolphe Menjou, once considered finished in Hollywood, has made a startling comeback; Pola might do the same. But the tendency here is toward big names from the stage these days and such players as are established from the old regime are given due homage. Within a fortnight’s time, the exPrincess Mdivani, who was the former Countess Apollonia Domski, will arrive to take the tests which may or may not result in a new foreign star. Each studio must have its foreign star. Garbo and Dietrich have caused that

state of affairs. Lil Dagover arrives to be the Garbo of Universal. Her beauty has brightened the screen for U.F.A. for a long time. Pola for Pathe. A Quiet Ensemble! Lilyan Tashman is wearing a tailleur these days that reminds one of a convent girl out on a vacation. A trim little coat and clinging skirt of navy blue wool. Tight little gilet of navy blue buttoned almost to the base of

the neck and relieved by a sudden white pique collar with small revers. There are small cuffs of pique, and a navy blue hat—a: shiny, thin jasmine straw with a bandeau. Here is where the trick conies in: On the bandeau, Lilyan Tashman has carelessly pinned an exquisite jewelled brooch—a basket of flowers with carved rubies, emeralds and sapphires. The basket is in baguette diamonds. Oh, 3 r es, and lest you take the conventual atmosphere of the whole too seriously, a star sapphire ring and a star ruby are carelessly slipped on the little finger of the right hand. The Latest Industry.

The Hollywood joke is one of the largest industries in this community. Glenn Tryon has the prize joke of the moment. He has a double-jointed arm which is productive of some ghoulish effects when the comic owner sees fit. Tryon arrives at the party provided with a slender and very brittle stick. When the fun is at its height Tryon slips the stick up his coat sleeve, executes a fake fall, the stick snaps with a ghastly sound and the brave man rises with his arm dangling horribly. Ladies go feminine and strong men show how men take pain. After the smoke blows away Glenn Tryon pulls the stick out of his sleeve, rights the trick arm, consoles the prettiest of the women appropriately and a right good time is had by all. The New Bathing Suits.

Whilst we are on the sea-going subject, the new bathing suits will come in for something or other when the Modesty Board gets a good look at them. The bathing suit of the moment makes me gasp, and when you do that little thing after four years’ residence here you are seeing something. The far-famed bathing audacities of the French beaches are mild compared to this “ all-for-sun ” creation which is being sported on the beaches of Santa Monica and Malibu. The suit consists of a tiny band about the bust and very brief trunks. There is a concession to bodice in the form of a band, some two inches in width, connecting the transverse section of the costume, with the trunks, in front only. The back takes care of itself. Tanned Skin Again Fashionable. It is fashionable to be mahoganybrown again. Last year the colony made a faint concession to the paleface mode, but this year already the devotees of sun and sea are showing a fine, ripe colour as the result of two weeks on the beaches. Lilyan Tashman’s sunburn is yielding to a classic bronze. It sets off her fair hair and is ideal with the very severe and chic costumes she affects for daytime use. For evening wear Lilyan Tasman has gone Greek in a great big way—her i>erfect figure moulded into her gowns through the torso and trailing to the floor in classic lines. She prefers the nude coloured evening gown, which is the most intriguing of the season’s modes and, just when she seems to be most classically costumed in cloistral folds of gleaming satin, she throws in a rakish dash of jewels. A Sidelight.

Hollywood is the place of dreams come true, of hopes deferred, of hand-to-mouth waiting, of grim bitterness, of perpetual optimism. All of which makes for a long line at the post-office money-order window. Either they are sending money'-orders home, out of the fulness of a realised dream of success, or they are trying to cash slim little money-orders from sympathetic ones far away who are backing a careerdream. Since there is no end of false pretences hereabouts, the postal authorities are most particular before paying out on the many money-orders presented during the course of twenty-four hours. I’ve seen some frantic establishing of Well-thumbed calling cards, monograms on signet rings, motor-car license cards, shabby bank deposit books. But the lady who fumbled with the neck of her frock and fished out a scrap of monogrammed crepe de chine to prove she was the particular M.R.G. waiting to receive fifty dollars topped the lot for originality. Blushing, the clerk handed out the required sum.

The brilliant New Zealand actress, who appears in the title role of “ The First Mrs Fraser,” the excellent London comedy to be presented by the J. C. Williamson company at the Theatre Royal early next month.

Duchess of Plaza Toro in “ The Gondoliers ” . Afterwards .she was a member of Marie Tempest’s company', and seven years ago she went to America and England, and appeared in both London and New York in a number of successful comedies and dramas. Twelve months ago. Miss Morrison was induced by' the Williamson management to return to Australia, and irl Sydney and Melbourne she was claimed by critics as being one* of the finest actresses on the stage to-day. J. B. Rowe will be remembered by New Zealanders for his brilliant work when he toured the Dominion as leading man with the Irene Vanbrugh-Dion Boucicault company. Miss Mary* Macgregor, who made her first appearance on the stage in New Zealand, last appeared here with Maurice Moscovitch in “ The Ringer” and “The Terror”. Leslie Victor, Roger Barry', John Wood and Reginald Wykeham have all previously appeared in New Zealand in important productions staged under the J. C. Williamson direction, and Miss Noel Boyd, Miss Mona Barlee and Miss Eileen Morris, three charming Australian actresses, will make their first appearance here in “ The First Mrs Fraser ”.

Clem Dawe in Melbourne. Clem Dawe’s Musical Revue Company' made an excellent impression in “Brighter Melbourne,” a two-act piece of 26 scenes, at the Bijou recently', writes a correspondent. Perhaps the most popular “frolic” was that in which Bill, a plumber (Clem Dawe), and Joe, his assistant (Les. White) resorted to a book of instructions to fix a wireless set. Their graphic “broadcast” description of the charity football match between the League and the Association was a wonderful imitation of the real thing. Eric Kdgeley, Les White, Nell M'Guire and Clem Dawe were associated in several skits, and Hallidav and Watson danced spectacularly. Music was provided by an oi-