THE LURE OF MOVIELAND,

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17994, 12 April 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

THE LURE OF MOVIELAND,

(Special to the Waikato Times.) HOLLYWOOD, March 12. Tucked away in “Normandy Village,” the title given to a miniature colony of French architectural homes in Hollywood, is May Beatty’s sanctuary, a charming spot indeed to all her old friends who visit, her from abroad. And to New Zealanders there Is a specially warm welcome, for with her name is recalled all the delightful Pollard memories of stage successes, when she was a bright, shining star. The world has been her home of recent years—England and the Continent, Australia and New Zealand—• but now she's “gone Hollywood 1” An actress of exceeding charm and ability, May Beatty Is a live factor whom Hollywood movie directors readily recognised, and she has just finished an important contract in “The Benson Murder Case," playing the part of a giddy widow. Comfortably Plump! “J can’t Lake sixteen-year-old girl roles any longer, you know. I’m content to l)c comfortably plump nowadays,” and she laughed in that Irresistible way of hers that just radiates youth. A review of this picture brought forth very laudatory notices of Miss Beatty’s work. “it's a strange feeling listening to oneself speak,” she said, “and it seemed as if 1 were hearing my sister Maud (Maud Beatty, beautiful principal hoy of earlier days, has been married for many years, and lives in South America.)

‘•Life Is so bright and jolly in Hollywood,” enthused Miss Beatty to the New Zealand writer, “that it’s like a tonic.”

“As for the gay parties that one reads so much about, well, when you're working from early morn till evening you’re far too tired to racket about at night.” However, she tells of a delightful party she and her young daughter (Hinemoa, known as Bunny) attended, given by a director of First National. Constance and Natalie Talmadge were there, and their mother, Peg Talmadge, and a crowd of other interesting film stage folk. Miss Beatty wore a lovely Paris frock of black Chantilly lace over flesh-tinted satin, and Bunny’s frock was del-phinium-blue velvet with a high-

MAY BEATTY IN HOLLYWOOD.

A CUP OF TEA FOR ALL.

(By Mabel Baker.) waisted effect ■ that Is much favoured at present. Bunny also in Pictures. Bunny has played a small part in pictures, too, In “King of Jazz.” She was in a pony ballet. Her father being one of the Lauries, of English comedy and dancing renown, she is naturally a born dancer, with an instinct for the stage, and a practical outlook as well. Leyland Hodgson Doing Well. The Leyland Hodgsons have the bungalow-chalet across the goldfish stream from Miss Beatty’s. They were both in New Zealand with “The O’Brien Girl” and other musical comedies, and also in “The Trial of Mary Dugan, in which Leyland was particularly good as the young counsel who defended his sister, as theatregoers will remember. The good-looking Leyland has had lucrative engagements in pictures, and is at present playing a prominent role in “East of Sue?,,” a legitimate production being staged in L°s Angeles. it’s typical of May Beatty that she wants to tell you all about her colleagues, and broadcast ttio good work they are doing.

And she stops to let you know how much she likes the Americans, and how hospitable and kindly they are, and how uplifting they are in their keen desire for progress. She has met many of the screen celebrities, and finds them very real and fascinating people.

One drops in often to have a cup of tea at the Beatty bungalow, and there is always someone of interest —

from New York, London, Australia or New Zealand.

Recent callers were Mr and Mrs ]•]. j, Garroll, who had a stay in Hollywood before journeying East; the ■•Nat” Madisons, Betty Sharman, and Claude Flemming and his wife. May is conservatively faithful to her cup of tea, and declares that when she first went to Normandy Village she was the only one with a tea-kettle! Now she has converted lots of the coffee-loving folk to tea-drinking. And a group of English actors are still talking of the wonderful real English dinner she cooked them—roast beef and Yorkshire pudding!