Sally Eilers Must Parley-voo!

Waipa Post, Volume 47, Issue 3371, 23 September 1933, Page 9

Sally Eilers Must Parley-voo!

AFTER LEARNING TO ENJOY FAME SHE «.,.". GOES ON VACATION TO :.;,..■;" .europe. .

BUT IS CAPTURED BY BRITISH PRODUCERS FOR ONE PICTURE.

; : . ' SaUy Eilers, star of ''Bad Girl" and " State Fair, who persuaded to break her vacation An Europe by 1 British International Pictures to star opposite Ben Lyon .in Allan iXw-an's I Spy,"- is obligfed; to "parley-voo" all day. In the film she is mistaken by the hero for, a- French countess, and for story purposes fosters the deception by speaking'to him in that language. ' Sally ;\vias dismayed to learn that she must become a iniademoisell© tout de suite, and with only a little high school French ,<al her command engaged a teacher. So thorough is she with her preparation for the part that she refuses to speak English at all, and if she gets stuck for ai' : .phxase <or a'word appeals to her teacher* rather than laipse even once into her own tongue. jßen Lyon and Allan Dwan, together with the unit, find it Tvery" going since Sally has became so proficient that' she already (ftnvierses quite freel|y in what to them -i riiigKt as well be Hindustani. Ben can just manage 'Ou est-kf plume de ma tante," but Allan only remarks humprously;" 00, 1a,12 !" to all Sally has to say. , -Sally declares that she is really very glad of this pjffi'orturiitiy, for she is determined to visit Paris when " I Spy'■" is complete, and is sure to lenjoy herself the more ' for- being Mable to parley-voo. ->• Onlyiabout six- years ago Sally Was yisiting the Sennett -iot'in -HblMrood with her friend Carole Lombard. It wasa'chance visit, with little thought of a pi ace in pictures, but lit so happened that that very afternoon Carole was 'ordered-to don men's trousers for a comedy role. (She objected, and Sally—well, she stepped into the breach and . the? birieeclhies. That started her filim>areer. ,In those days she was- a demure young lass in her 'teens. Gradually she worked her way to recognition, and it was not so verv long before she was a success in " Goodbye'Kfiss." Varying roies followed—she was a fast woman in "StatelFair,".'*. simpering flapper in" Bad Girl," and a-wise-cracking girl in" Sailors' Luck." But always she made good.. . • - . ; - i: v - Then, as was inevitable, came starddm. It was as a iream come true for Sally is not one of those successful screenjstars; who never dreamed of becoming an actress. She>had -dreaSiied- of:little else, and when opportunity came theimost of it. She knew nothing about hoursiof'persbnal fatigue. To her it was all in the days wqrk';whichyould, one ; dayprdmete her to the goal of her a'mpdiion. ■ x , . ~ , • -With starring honours hers, however, she was able to relax; "Sally tWe star is by no means the Sally who made hiar screen debut a few years ago. In those days ; she was 'reserved lyoungster just out of high school, with a determined little!chlin that belied her: quiet demeanour '•and ; a serious outlook on life in general. „,■ . - , -Te-day she is vibrant, bubbling, happy, confident; and even Ipliywtood, accustomed as'it is to complete changes, is'wonderiivg at the transformation.- It has been attributed to v her triilmpb in " Bad Girl," and her later hits, and. to

her successful marriage with Hoot Gibson. But these things, though important, are not the principal reasons. Sally herself explains it all veijy simply. " I've learned to enjoy life,"' she says. " That's the wjtiofo secret, and yet it's something most people never learn. We are brought up in such an atmosphere of inhibitions and complexes and prohibitions that most of us can't escape and be ourselves. "The old Puritan idea that just being happy is sinful sfjill persists, and it's a difficult thing to combat. When I started in pictures and got tihiat marvellous chance to play the lead in a big feature rigfnt away I was thrilled beyond words—and yet, for no good reason, I was desperately afraid of showing it. "Then, as I got other roles, the same fears assailed me. All screen players worry too much, anyway, and I was no exception. I worried albout my parts and whether the director liked amy work and whether the public would approve imy efforts. |I did not realise that all this was suicidal because it distracted attention from the elementary necessity of playing the role as well as I could and without apprehensions as to the result. " Yet I continued to work for years, right up to work.. ing in ' Bad Girl.' I knew that that part was an opportunity that comes to few actresses, and I was horribly afraid of fumbling, it. " Then one morning I awoke. Just like that. All of a sudden I realised how silly it was to waste time in worrying when, after all, the public's verdict would be cast without regard to my own feelings. And with that realisation came a knowledge of what I had been missing by not taking life as it came and getting all the happiness I could out of it. iSo I reformed. I wish now I had done it lyears earlier." As though to prove her words Sally announced her intention eai-ly this year of taking a vacation in Europe, and off she went; but in England the fates intervened in the form 6i a commissioner for British Pictures and the announcement that Sally is to star .in at least one picture from that studio. That's how it happens we will soon be seeing her in a British production.

POOR Mae Clarke! Just as her bad-luck time seemed to be over, she is involved in a motor accident with Phillips Holmes and has to witjhdraw from the cast of " Made on Broadway." Faced with nine days of re-takes, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had to borrow Sally Eilers for the pkrt. It will bo at least a month before Mae is able to resume her screen work. X-ray pictures disclose that hisr jaw was fractured when she' was thrown, against the steering wheel of Holmes' car. In the thick fog Phil had given an on-going motor too much room, and had run into a parked machine. ■ In an otherwise gloomy situation Mjae finds soawe comfort in the doctor's assurance that she wiill.not be disfigured in any way. She is at home, back in the tod where she spent so manly months following her breakdown of last spring.

TTERE'S an actress by accident. Florence Britton, now in a feature character part (in Columbia's "Brief Moment," is the one. A producer witnessed her performance in a college production df " Our Betters." He at once signed her for a play. Samuel Goldwyn saw her lunching one day With a friendj. and asked her to take a test. She did, and received a role in " Devil to Pay," with Ronald Oolm'an.