The CHIEF ESSENTIALS of BEAUTY

Ladies' Mirror, Volume I, Issue 4, 2 October 1922, Page 45

The CHIEF ESSENTIALS of BEAUTY

SAMUEL Goldwyn, President of Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, has made a sincere effort to find new faces and new screen personalities for his productions. To gain his object, he inaugurated a “New Faces Contest.” One of the judges of this contest gives his ideas on Beauty in the following article. What is it that makes a woman beautiful?

Throughout all time this question has occupied the attention of the world. The history of mankind is in large measure the history of woman’s beauty. Wars have been waged and

dynasties have fallen as a result of the delicate curve of a woman’s chin, the. appealing outline of a woman’s brow, the plastic proportions of a woman’s - lips, the lucent colour of a woman’s eyes. It was Phryne’s beauty which rebuilt the walls of a great city; it was Aspasia’s beauty which inspired the works of Pericles; it was Helen’s beauty which cast the ancient world into a sea of blood; it was Cleopatra’s beauty which altered the course of two great empires. . . . And, in modern times, one need only mention the names of Katherine of Russia, Ninon de L’Enclos, Mme. Du Barry and La Pompadour to call to men’s minds the dominant part which woman’s beauty and charm have played in the destinies of nations. But here is an amazing and significant fact: there has never been an accepted standard of feminine beauty. T'l 1. . ... _ 1 1 1 __ ; 1 muugii every age nas iwu an Ideal of womanhood, and every country has possessed a representative feminine type, the standard of woman’s beauty has changed as often as the standard of life itself has changed.

T3UT although the world has never agreed on a standard of beauty, the conditions of life in the different countries and in different ages have had much to do with influencing and developing the varying types of ideally beautiful women; for every woman, in order to have a wide appeal, must reflect the colour of her environment and typify the spirit of the age in which she lives.

Therefore, a girl who is truly beautiful from our present standpoint, must not only possess certain eternal and indisputable qualities of intimate fascination, but she must also embody the ideals and tastes of her modern surroundings.

First, she must be fundamentally feminine. That is, she must have those qualities of sex which instantly arouse in everyone the consciousness of her womanliness. But I do not mean that she should be helpless and incompetent in the mid-Victorian manner. That is effeminacy, not feminineness. A woman who, like Alice in the old song, “Ben Bolt,” trembles with joy when you give her a smile, and weeps when you give her a frown, is an anachronism. What I do mean is that she must be sympathetic, warm-hearted, non-aggressive, capable of yielding, impressionable, and with a sweet womanly humility. Next, she must be intelligent. She must have brains, without being “brainy.” Her intelligence, too, must be feminine. Norma and Constance

Talmadge are delightful examples of intelligent beauty. Furthermore, a truly beautiful girl is one with personalitythat is, with a subtle and indefinable attractiveness of bearing and manner. Personality is one’s inner self — thing which cannot be assumed or imitated, because it springs from one’s unconscious sincerity. Its effect is to hold people, to focus their attention, and at the same time to fascinate them.