HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 193, 15 August 1931, Page 11

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

(By

Mollie Merrick.)

HOLLYWOOD, July 13. In Films Again. Jetta Goudal is not only playing in pictures again, but between parts, and in the role of Mrs Harold Grieve, she i.» decorating some of the most famous homes in Hollywood. Irving Thalberg’s Provencal cottage owes much of its charm to the originality of Jetta Goudal. Its Gallic simplicity is delightful and as a background for Norma Shearer it is perfect. Jetta Goudal did the famous red-and-white Tashman house, the talk of the colony at the moment, and a daring setting a very blonde, very bronzed and very daring lady. The Heat Wave. Heat wave—no, it is not a new picture —it is just the thing that has settled down on the local studios and is giving make-up men and directors intense trouble. Try and make a picture on schedule—and schedules this year of grace have been shortened by one-third at least—and combat the local heat-wave, and see where it gets you. Lovely rosy cheeks melt into the saffron yellow faces affected by studio cosmeticians; Cupid’s-bow mouths, painted way beyond the lip line, for all movie women long to be sensuous beyond the degree Dame Nature intended them, melt and slip over towards the ear, and the waxed and mascara’d eyelashes are a wreck two minutes after the close-up lights are set. The make-up man, streaming perspiration, follows along in the wake of tha star, making repairs every five minutes. Spirit gum that sticks like cement in normal weather lets fake moustaches and near eyelashes and chic lace-pieces fall gently. Air-Minded. That motion picture stars and executives have become

* abnormally a i rt minded is the belief I of J. B. Alexander, | president of the I company of that i name, who has had I much to do with I supervising air efI fects in picture I epics. Billie Dove, Ben Lyon, Ken Maynard, Paul Lukas and many other picture stars have

bought aeroplanes from this man and learned to fly under his instruction. Picture players take to higher altitudes naturally. Perhaps tha publicity makes them feel at home in the high heavens. At any rate, most of them have had a trial at the upper reaches and there have been singularly few fatalities considering that some of ‘he most famous beauties and highestilaried players pilot their own ’planes. Phantom of Non-Support. The phantom of non-support lies at ie base of most of the Hollywood mariages. The divorce case of Gretchen Young Withers against Granville Gustavus Withers proved that Loretta Young bought all her own clothes and took care of herself completely during the brief year of her marriage to Grant W ithers. If you peeped into the secret places of many a Hollywood bride’s heart you’d find the same old story. When Helene Costello married a childhood playmate after one of the most romantic courtships Hollywood has ever seen, that young man just sat down and folded his hands because his actressbride was earning a good income.

Women who stand before cameras in the summer heat and who hang about studio lots in stuffy little dressingrooms waiting to be called on to the sound stages, may have glamorous existences so far as the public is concerned, but their day is often far more ' gruelling than that of the average working girl. The latter comes to work at eight-thirty and finishes at the .stroke of five. She can weigh what she wishes, she can have her hair straight or curly, long or short, dark or light, and she can do as she pleases when the doors of the shop are shut. During her marriage to Jack Gilbert, Tna Claire carried the entire expense of her own private existence, and with

a glorious and spoiled star who has never known the meaning of the word economise—this is no small amount. All of wfiich proves that some of the handsome heroes of the screen are quicker with the smile than they are with the fountain pen and the cheque-book. Engaged for a Lifetime?

Terrance Ray, fiance of Fifi Dorsay who gaily tells everyone she intends to be engaged for a lifetime but married never, has just bought an aeroplane and will fly to New York to see Fifi before she sails for Europe on a vaudeville engagement. gossips have it that the two will marry in New York and honeymoon by aeroplane. When a screen star says she will never marry that is often the sign that wedding bells will ring out at once. Out in the Sun. Since movie actresses have learned that days of complete rest in salt air and far beyond the reach of the disturbing telephone do more for them than all the beauty parlours in the world, the usual haunts of stars were deserted over the week-end. The various colonies popular with acting folk which stretch from La Jolla to north of Malibou were thronged with film players, enjoying a quiet week-end. The big parties of yesterday are no more in this village. A great deal of canvas has been unfurled and all the seagoing

gang return grinning sheepishly through their lobster red. If it is too red, they return with much misgiving, for directors have said their say about some of the sunburned effects. When too heavy, they photograph black, so that when the beautiful heroine, who looked like a magnolia in the

opening scenes of the story, looks as if she had just returned from a long, dusty drive, you will know that this is due to too much sun and summer. Along Malibou way, Lilyan Tashman and Edmund Lowe entertained in their brand new red and white home. Louise Fazenda has opened the new Spanish home which has just been completed on the site of her old Malibou cottage, destroyed in the fire some time back. Frances Marion and George Hill prefer Arrowhead Lake district—the charm of high mountains and tall redwood trees. Their new home is being built and they were recently up at the lodge with a group of friends supervising construction. Vilma Banky and Rod la Rocque have built a most beautiful home there among the Redwood trees and even spend the snowy Christmas far from Hollywood. Reginald Denny has a real log-cabin lodge on the edge of a great gorge which makes one feel that the whole world has been cut away and that nothing but vast primitive stretches of creation reach out into infinity. Musical Talkies Again.

The general impression is abroad in Hollywood that musical talkies, will have another fling. I honestly believe that much of this opinion is due to the in ® m in hi m in si in s iii m m m m ® m is © m

tepid reception accorded many of the smart comedies and drawing-room plays translated into talking pictures. Alarmed by light box-office receipts on heavy-expense pictures, the producers who have made profits disproportionate tc the output of brains and cash, realise that a return to melodrama with frank and non-humorous treatment of the subject, or a return to the musical picture is their one way out. Musical pictures, as such, have never had a fair show in Hollywood If some of the time and money and attention spent say on Norma Shearer’s pictures were to be expended on a picture for Lawrence Tibbett or Evelyn Laye—or upon a picture made with these artists together—the net result would undoubtedly justify the output. “ Woman of Bronze.” “ Woman of Bronze ” is the title uniour credits Joan Crawford with bestow-

ing on her present make-up effect. It is great, if a little bizarre, and consists of the deepest type bronze skin tone possible, hair dyed the most brilliant blonde, and a smear of vivid mouth to break the monotony. With this amazing combination Joan Crawford wears little but white. It

points up the bronze quality of the ensemble. Miserable Treatment. Evelyn Laye, one of the most beautiful and talented women on the musical stage to-day, suffered miserable treatment at the hands of Hollywood. Not only was she given a story utterly alien to her type and talents, but the recording of the piece sounded like nothing so much as a dog-fight; even John Boles’ voice, usually the ideal recording one, being heard to decided disadvantage. When you take a polished, worldly beauty, and put her in the guise of a little native flower girl in a Budapest cafe, you handicap her talents exceedingly. The woman who made “BitterSweet ” one of the outstanding stage successes of the past season, had no chance when surrounded with Hollywood’s idea of a story. Grace Moore to Marry. News leaks into Hollywood that Grace Moore will be married to a wealthy Spaniard. Her Hollywood career was a brief one. A nice voice—a pretty voice, which recorded exquisitely—a matronly silhouette and ye olde tyme prima donna’s hand-to-chest-to audience-to-throat method of showing emotion. In the middle of the most modern story you always felt that Grace Moore was about to burst into “Una Voca Poco Fa’’ or something equally elaborate and archaic. But she did well in the colony during her stay Several men of importa/ice are said to have fallen victim to her blonde suavity and her reign on the sound stages was imperious if brief. Gloria Swanson is Missed. When Gloria Swanson gets back, Hollywood may truly said to function again. We do not like our perennial

stars of the screen to be away, and this | star will commence “ To-night or

Never,” her next picture, almost at once. The Ursula Parrott story, “Love Goes Past,” will be shelved until the present one is finished, and “Rockabve” isn’t being mentioned at all.

Gloria is still the suave, competent lady who has progressed from comedy to modern sophistication. She has exchanged the Wallace Beerys of the earth and the Herb Somborns for the Henri de la Falaises and the Gene Markeys. That’s progression. Something to Envy. The even satiny tan of movie players has long been something to envy.

Betty Brent las one of the most marvellous nutmeg tans I have yet seen. She doesn’t believe in sun glasses—is one of the modern enthusiasts who understand the value of sun-glare for the eyes—so the hds are as smooth and brown as the rest pure white bathing of her face. In a

suit, hand knit, she is a dream. You must have them hand knit if you’re anybody in Hollywood these days. Ina Claire had the first one, in red, white and blue. She wore it without comment, as is her fashion, and smiles a bit knowingly when the colony comments on the “ hand-knit ” article. Audacious Move. The most audacious move in modern “ talkies ” is the latest Norma Shearer picture, “ A Free Soul,” which reveals the young actress as a highly emancipated daughter of a very emancipated father; what is more, the star seems to be the victim of a thoroughly emancipated dressmaker. It is an interesting story and it has Lionel Barrymore to thank for its paramount screen interest. But Norma Shearer practically nude, although a sheath of white satin is ostensibly used to delude us into the notion that she is dressed, is, in my

modern opinion, a bit thick for entertainment loudly heralded as being made for old and young alike. I am : told that such, things constitute the producers’ idea of “ box office ” and that no small amount of time and trouble is taken on the shots which reveal scenes of this sort to the most

dramatic advantage. Copyright by the “ Star ” and the N.A.N.A. All rights reserved.)