Photoplay (Volume 36 – 37 (Jul. - Dec. 1929)) online

most beautiful young wife.

The Andrew Jergens Co., Cincinnati, 0.

© 1929, Tbo A. J. Co.



Oix most beautiful Woodbury users chosen by

John Barrymore, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr.



Every advertisement in PIIOTOPLAT IIAGAZIXE is cuaranteed.



New
Pictures



(Tir/^OW do you like

t~1 the new Blanche

^^ Sweet? You

don't e'ven have to

answer — there's only one

reply possible ! The mike

is doing marvels for our

perennial blonde favorite.

She has leading roles in

two big pictures, "The

Night Hostess" and "Al-

ways Faithful," and

there'll be plenty more




\



\



\




Vandamm



CfFj ^OX has given this little girl some great big parts, and the fans have done the rest.
A* Marguerite Churchill stepped from the theater to the big sound stages on the Fox lot and
«-/ made good in a very impressive way. Her work in "The Valiant" and "Pleasure Crazed"
made her scads of friends, and many more good things are in store for our Marguerite




'/



^



C~T^ UTH CHATTERTON, the stage's greatest gift to the screen. For years a much beloved

J\ star of the theater, the coming of the phonoplay brought Ruth a new and even greater

X^_^ career. "Madame X" and "The Doctor's Secret" gave the fans her glorious voice, and

her popularity is enormous, even rivalling that of the great Garbo. Next — -"The Laughing Lady"






"â– >:-1








y



,-#



v'



*




Elmer Fryer



^ â–  ^ HE newest Mexican tamale, destined to rival Vele? and the rest as a pretty sizzler of the
i screen. Arrrvida is her name, and she is a discovery of Gus Edwards, who gave her her
first film chance in his short musical films. Then she graduated to an important role in
"General Crack," John Barrymore's new picture, and a lead in "Under a Texas Moon"




4,. '-%H'^<^v'






Elmer Fryer



(^"T^/^ALV Hollywood calls her the prettiest girl in pictures. The other half is divided among
g i other candidates. Need we add that this is Loretta Young, only seventeen and already
<_X one of First National's most prized leading women? In addition to all this, she is the

girl friend of Grant Withers, and so one of the most envied of Hollywood's younger set







/^^ all the meteors that have flashed across the Hollywood sky, none in history has ever
^^^^scooted brighter and faster than John Boles. It took him a long time to get started, but
when the mike turned loose his splendid voice in "The Desert Song" our Answer Man
began to spend sleepless nights answering questions about his hair, eyes and heart condition



ilM^'^'im':




(t






(t





Paris pays

I^CMACC
TcTliC

Priinccs«c



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Other designs up to $25.

The new Silhouette can also be

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THE H. W. GOSSARD CO., Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, London, Toronto, Sydney, Buenos Aires

Oivieion of ABsociated Apparel Induatriea, Inc.



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youtn its ell!

aays PHYLLIS HAVER
"M.oods . . . so often come stealing
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helieve my nose .. .'Ti^hy what is it?'
I ashed the girl who proffered it . . .
'It has a name just lihe tts fra-
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...Its called . . . SEVENTEEN/"




A New Mood . .
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.Alooas . . . glorious tnings ... It
you play up to the roles tnat they
create in you! A.iia youtn . , .
gayety . . . laugnter . . . tney re
all in Seventeen! It s as niodern
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Iry Seventeen today . . . you will lind it wherever fine toiletries are sold

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and smart in shadings . . . tne Toilet iVater, like a caress no other compact you've seen. You will adore them all!



The National Guide to Motion Pictures



[TRADE MARKi




December, 1929



Close-Ups and Long-Shots



By James R. Quirk



PHOTOPLAY has fifteen candles
on its birthday cake this month.
Thank you.



T



HE show must go on.

"Died from an overdose of




chloral hydrate."

"Alcoholic psychosis kills actress."
Such were the newspaper head-
lines. Her body lay in a Broadway
public funeral parlor. A few old
friends and five thousand morbid curiosity
seekers. Five thousand dollars' worth of ivith
sympathy floral scenery. Across the street the
electric lights of a theater blazoned "Jeanne
Eagels in her greatest picture, 'Jealousy.' "
The show was going on.

STAR! Success! Fame! Fortune!
Behind that stage front, years of pain and
suffering with tuberculosis and neuritis of the
optic nerves. Struggle, from tent shows to
Belasco star. Worry. The merciless battle to
keep alive and keep going. Unhappiness.
Envy. Gossip.

Pitiless driving of harassed soul and broken,
pain-racked body. Making fortunes and giving
them away. Hemorrhages. The show must go
on. Stimulants to help drive the poor helpless
body. Sedatives to deaden the blinding agony.

Temperament, they called it.

Courage, I call it.

The show must go on.

DOGGONE if those British film fellows
haven't made a splendid motion picture,
and a talkie at that.



The name is "Blackmail," and
it is well worth seeing. It is the
first English-made picture to win a
star rating — one of the best of the
month — in Photoplay.

English film editors, who are al-
ways squawking that we are agin
their pictures, please copy.

You make 'em. Tommy, and we'll
star 'em. Fair enough?



THE screenpecker is the strangest bird in the
Holly Woods. It flies around the studios,
alighting on motion picture problems, or what
seem to it to be problems, and pecks away for
dear life.

The difference between a woodpecker and a
screenpecker is that the woodpecker knows
what he's pecking about, and the screenpecker
doesn't.

The woodpecker is born to his job. His
father and mother were woodpeckers. He has
natural equipment and instincts to guide him.
The screenpecker is not so fortunate. He lacks
instinct for guidance and pecks at any old thing
that smells of celluloid.

The woodpecker is drilling for food. The
screenpecker digs for the pure cussedness of
pecking.

WILL HAYS was recently made the object
of a vicious attack by Welford Beaton,
editor of "The Film Spectator."

Beaton was not satisfied with just publish-
ing his spleen in his paper, which is read
principally in Hollywood and by motion picture
exhibitors.



He wanted it to reach beyond his own circulation.
So he went to the trouble and expense of wrapping up
his poison in pamphlet form, and mailing it wherever
he thought it might bring in subscriptions from folks
who like to read this sort of thing.

Of course, he has a perfect right to his editorial opin-
ions, but as one who has been a close observer of Mr.
Hays' problems, I have an entirely different opinion.

Beaton has three delusions. He sees himself the one
true prophet and salvation of the motion picture. He
looks upon the talking picture as a failure. He cannot
think of Will Hays' salary without foaming at the
mouth.

HE called Hays everything except a drunken bum,
a torch murderer, and a moral leper, and blames
him for everything except the World War, the loss of
the battle of Bull Run, the kidnapping of Charlie Ross,
the murder of Stanford White, and the failure of pro-
hibition.

He forgot to accuse Hays of beating his mother,
and doing crossword puzzles.

I have studied psycho-analysis only casually, but it
does not take a psychiatrist to diagnose the trouble with
my fellow journalist.

He's plumb nuts!



mess, and warned tourists to avoid it in rainy weather.
Janet was only a hundred per cent wrong in her in-
formation on Greenville. She must have been thinking
of a couple of other cities. Twenty thousand souls live
in Greenville. I have heard from every single one of
them, so I know. It has thirty-five miles of perfectly
paved streets, fine railroad service in all directions, and
is one of the chief commercial centers of northeast
Texas. In fact, it is everything that Janet said it
wasn't.

JANET has been spanked and sent to bed without her
grapefruit. She will be given two hours home work
every day until she knows the geography of Texas back-
wards and forwards, and can call off the population of
every city, town and county from memory. She's
really a nice girl, but she's been on that confounded
eighteen-day diet.

The editor again apologizes in his usual Chesterfield-
ian manner, and offers to set them up for the entire city.
No, no, it's too big for that. But the next time I get to
Texas I pledge myself to stop at Greenville and go right
up to the city hall and tell the Mayor we're sorry and it
won't happen again.

Everyone on Photoplay's staff knows Greenville
now.



A FEW weeks ago Beaton told me in mournful tones
that the talkies were succeeding in spite of any-
thing he could do, but his face and voice lightened up
with great glee when he said that he was going to pub-
lish an attack on Hays.

I asked him what all the shooting was about, and the
one logical reason I got out of the conversation was that
Hays is getting $100,000 a year as head man of the
picture business, and Beaton's pickings are considerably
smaller.

"Whom would you nominate for his job?" I asked.

I was disappointed and had a distinct feeling my old
friend was slipping, when he didn't have nerve enough
to nominate his omniscient self for the salary and the
oak-panelled Fifth Avenue office.

That's the reason some fellows don't get everything
they deserve — they lack confidence in themselves!

LADIES and Gentlemen of Greenville, Texas:
Photoplay Magazine bows its head in shame,
scrapes its high, white forehead in the dust, and begs
your pardon.

Even if Photoplay were too unfair and stubborn to
apologize on the grounds of fair play, it would be forced
to by the avalanche of denunciation in letters and news-
paper clippings from your justly irate citizenry. You
folks certainly have civic "it."

Seems that Janet French pulled a boner in a story
about John Boles, who is getting to be a big camera and
microphone shot in Hollywood. She said his home
town, Greenville, was a hamlet, that its streets were a

28



DISCOVERED: One woman in the world who
doesn't float off into a state of innocuous desuetude
at the very mention of Rudy Vallee's name. The gal?
None other than li'l Alice White.

Alice was dining with a boy friend at the Roosevelt
Hotel in Hollywood when a photographer tapped her on
the shoulder and said: "Will you please step outside for
a moment and have your picture taken with Rudy
Vallee?"

"Sorry," said Alice. "Otherwise engaged."

" But Mr. Vallee has requested it particularly," in-
sisted the amazed photographer.

"Still sorry," said Alice. "Still otherwise engaged.
What were you saying, Sid, before we were inter-
rupted?"

SPEAKING of children :
"Numerous studies made by scientists
have failed to establish any appreciable con-
tribution to delinquency from motion pic-
tures but we find them to be helpful in many
ways.

"The motion picture is perhaps the most
useful of all present mediums of expression
in the inculcation of generally accepted
standards of morality and behavior."
Statement of Dr. Phyllis Blanchard, psychologist
of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, at the
International Congress of Psychology which was held
at Yale University.
Facts vs. Poppycock.




TheMicrophone-Z;^^ Tt

Of 1 he S tudios



error

By

Harry Lang



Mike, the demon, who sends the vocally unfit
screaming or lisping from the lots



THIS IS a story of Terrible Mike, the capricious genie
of Hollywood, who is a Pain in the Larynx to half of
filmdora, and a Tin Santa Claus to the other half! —
who gives a Yoo-Hoo-There Leading Man a Voice like
a Bull, and makes a Cauliflower-Eared Heavy talk like Elfin
Elbert, the Library Lizard! — and who has raised more hell
in movieland than a clara bow in a theological seminary.

Why, you can't even begin to write the half of the story of
Terrible Mike and what he's done. You can only take a heap
of ha-ha's here, and boo-hoo's there — laughs and sobs, heart-
leaps and heart-aches, sudden wealth and sudden ruin, funny
things and tragic things and howcum things — and try to
string 'em together into some semblance of yarn.



And even then, every Hector' and Hectorine that struts
the streets of Hollywood will read it and say: "This guy ain't
said NAW-thin' yet. . . ." And they'll be right— but here
goes.

:(: * *

IN the first place — or is it? but let's put it there — young John
W. Microphone, to give Terrible Mike his family name,
has made the leading lady of the screen a LADY in fact as
well as in name. Not that she wasn't ALWAYS a lady —
no one'd EVER go so far as to say that. But look —

Before Mike crashed the studio gate and brought in his
lady friends, what was little Miss Starlet like? You know.
Ya-da-da-DA-poo-POO;— let's GO!!!— THAT'S what she was.

29



Little and hot, like a red pepper — and the Mexes were the
hottest. She thought poise was just the label they put on
imported canned peas, and savoir faire, she'd guess, was just
the French name for a chocolate cruller, huh? She was a
cute kid or a jumping bean from over the border, and Sex-
Appeal and "It" — whatever THAT was — were her everything.

AND so Clara Bow says she's planning to take a year's trip
abroad when her present contract with Paramount ends,
and Ruth Chatterton is knocking 'em dead in the talkies.
Mona Rico, for whom they had to fireproof the films, is
God-knows-where, and Pauline Frederick flares into first-
magnitude stardom.

Alice White is thanking Allah that she can sing, besides
being cute, while Winifred Mrs. BiU-Hart Westover comes
out of obscurity and wows it in "Lummox"!

Terrible Mike has cooled down the incandescent flapper —
he's giving her an awful kick, and is putting Poor Old Lady
Has-Been back on the throne.

Miss Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall ;

Miss Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall —
For aU of her "S. A." and all of her "It"

Just couldn't make her in talkies a hit !

— ^from "Mother Goose in Hollywood"

Consider Bebe Daniels and Clara Bow. Envision for your-
selves a see-saw. One end goes up; the other end goes down.
Bebe is on the end that's going up, and Clara is — well, er,
let's confine ourselves to her own admission that she's going
to take a European trip by and by because she's tired.

"I've been working hard for years," she told a Hollywood
friend the other day, "and I need a rest. So I'm figuring on
going to Europe for a year or more, when my contract expires."
It expires in about thirteen or fourteen months, and not a
soul at Paramount has said it'll be renewed.

And at the same time, Mr. Paramount is kicking himself
all over the lot because of Bebe Daniels. Bebe, you see, bought
up her own contract with Paramount not so long ago because
they didn't think she was worth two toots in talkies. They



were paying her a'fat salary, and using her in ordinary pictures.
They couldn't afford to spend much on her productions, was
the excuse, because her salary under contract was so big that
they had to skimp on her pictures to make money. When
they wouldn't give her a talkie chance, Bebe slapped down
$175,000 and bought back the contract that called for her
to make three more pictures.
And now what?

WHY, just this: Bebe Daniels, as this is written, has just
finished the lead in "Rio Rita" for Radio Pictures. And
there isn't a doubt in the world, say the wiseacres of Hollywood,
that that talkie will be one of The Big Shots of the talkie
year. Bebe's work is one of the biggest sensations of the
miUions of sensations Terrible Mike has pulled.

Strange, too. Bebe has a voice that you wouldn't think
twice about, ordinarily. Nice voice, and all that, but no
power — no force. Now that's just where Mike does his stuff.
He took all the nice things in Bebe's voice — and there were
plenty of 'em — and added the thing she didn't have — POWER.
And boy, what a voice it gives her on the screen! — you'd even fall
in love with a strabismic wart-hog if it had a voice like that.

On the other hand, Clara Bow's voice certainly didn't lack
power. Her first all-talkie — "The Wild Party" — proved that.
Her first scene called for her to dash into a dormitory full
of girls and greet them with, "Hello, everj'body. . . .!" WeU,
the sound-mixing gentleman in the monitor-room above the
stage, not being familiar with the — ah — er — vibrations of
Clara's voice, didn't properly tune down his dials for Clara's
words.

She burst in, told them "HELLO, EVERYBODY!!!"— and
every light valve in the recording room was broken!

Little Miss Starlet, in ermine and scarlet,

Getting a thousand a day,
Along came the talkies, revealing her squawkies —

And put poor Miss Starlet away!

— from "Mother Goose in Hollywood"

How'd you like another contrast — even more startling than
the case of Clara and Bebe? [ please turn to page 124 ]



See the



Sensational
New Styles

from

Hollywood

In This Issue



How ant I going to discover
'tvlial is smart? How many
times have you asked yourself
that question!

The most style-wise stars
have posed especially for Photo-
play readers in clothes actually
designed and made in Hollywood
by the foremost fashion dicta-
tors. They have been beauti-
fully photographed by a well
known artist.

Pajamas, evening gowns, din-
ner frocks, sports costumes,
street dresses and hats are in-
cluded in the collection. Each
ensemble has been carefully
selected and each one is typical
of the film center, which has be-
come the broadcasting agency
for world styles. The clothes
appear in both the personal and
professional wardrobes of the
stars — a complete forecast of
the new trends followed by all
chic women. As every type of
gown has been selected these
pages have an appeal for every
woman.



Look for the Winners of the $5,000 Cut Puzzle
Contest — in the January Issue, Out December 10 !



30



Grant Withers, the despair
of Pueblo and the
sensation of
H ol ly wood !





Kid



Well, here is Grant! For

once, the Hollywood people and

the fans all over the country like

him. Do not mix Withers with the

party of the second part!



WHEN I am old and grey and little children cluster
about my octogenarian knee, lisping sweetly for a
story, I shall tell them of the time when it bored me
to yawns to dance with Grant Withers.
And now Grant is the sensation of Hollywood. Screen stars
chuck their nice husbands for one date with him. Ga-ga little
girls huddle together and giggle with excitement when he passes
by. Elderly matrons send discreet notes to suggest that they
would not turn down a dinner invitation.

It is safe to say that no youngster has ever before caused such
a stir in the sensible, sedate film colony. If you saw him in
"The Time, the Place and the Girl" you saw something of the
real Grant Withers.

But I recall a certain monthly Saturday night dance, at the
Minnequa Country Club, in Pueblo, Colorado. I had gone
with Grant's brother, Newton (the family car having been
borrowed for the occasion), and was feeling ver>' grand in a blue
chiffon dress that showed all of six inches of my spinal column.
Lord, but I was risque!

I was sixteen. Grant was two years j'ounger. A mere child.
To be tolerated only because he was escort's brother. Con-
descendingly, between yawns, I gave him one dance because it
was expected of me. What was the good of an old, sophisti-
cated woman of the world like me wasting music on a kid?
How was I to know that he'd turn out to be the favorite Beau
Brtunmel of the gold coast?



By Janet French



Pueblo's one Man About Town committed a heinous crime
that night. At the local theater a group of Mack Sennett bath-
ing beauties were making a personal appearance. They
weren't good swimmers, nor were they exactly beautiful, but
other accomplishments made up for that. Our j\lan About
Town brought them en masse to our ever-so-nice club dance.

We girls were furious. The risque qualities of my blue
chiffon paled beside their — shall I say bizarre? — costumes.
We huddled together in little groups to talk about them and
the chaperons raised their lorgnettes and looked horrified.
It was town scandal for months.

I WAS dancing with Grant when they hove on the scene. His
mother stopped us right in the middle of the floor. She
eyed Grant suspiciously.

"Look here, son," she said; "don't you let me catch you
dancing with one of those girls." And then, turning to me,
"Please, Janet, see that Grant doesn't dance with them."

I complained to Newton about it later. "I can't stop him
from dancing with them," I said. "I think it's rather unkind
of your mother to ask me."

Newton laughed. He had an eye on the little blonde in the
flame-colored dress, but he knew he didn't have a chance with
Grant around. "Grant always does everything he wants to,"
he said. "He's a crazy kid and he'll dance with them if he
likes, even if he knows he'll catch the devil at home."

Grant danced with them. He caught the devil at home. But
that's Grant Withers. He has always done everything he
wants to do. And when he wanted to run away from military
school and come to California, he did, leaving his nice, conserva-
tive family in an uproar.

But there's no changing the kid. [please turn to page 104]

31





Ramon
Novarro



Mae
Murray



Gary
Cooper



ToB



ecome



A



In One Easy Lesson





Gorinne


Walter


Joan


Ronald


Mary


Buddy


Griffith


Morosco


Bennett


Colman


Brian


Rogers



THEY laughed when I said I wanted to be a Hollywood
hostess. Then I told them I read Photoplay. It
seemed to make everything all right.
Do you want to be a big success in the film center?
Do you want the stars to beg for invitations to your palatial
home?

Do you know all the romances, quarrels, friendships in
Hollywood?

Would you know how to seat your guests so that nobody
would throw bottles at anybody else?

If you think you're so smart, figure out this problem.
These guests have accepted an invitation to dinner:
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Morosco (Corinne Griffith).
Mr. and Mrs. Irving Thalberg (Norma Shearer).
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (Joan Crawford).
Miss Mary Brian.




Oh dear no, Mrs. WhifHetree! Under no circum-
stances seat these two stormy petrels together, or
even within glaring distance! Mae Murray and
Eric von Stroheim, you know, my dear. Per-
fectly adorable people, mind you, but there was
that little trouble while they were making
"The Merry Widow," you remember. So not TOO
near, Mrs. Whiffletree!

32



IMiss Lupe Velez.
iMiss June Collyer.
jMiss Loretta Young.
Miss Constance Bennett.
Miss Joan Bennett.

Miss Mae Murray (the prince was indisposed and couldn't
attend).

Miss Jetta Goudal.
]Miss Bebe Daniels.
Mr. Buddy Rogers.
Mr. Ramon Novarro.
Mr. Grant Withers.
Mr. Gary Cooper.
Mr. Ben Lyon.
Mr. William Haines.
Mr. Ronald Colman.

Mr. Eric von Stroheim (Mrs. Von was not feeling well).

Mr. Nils Asther.

Of course, this is all make-believe. These twenty-four
people would never accept en masse. But never mind.

Imagine you're the hostess. You have a host (as all
really well-bred hostesses have). You sit at the foot of
the table. Your husband is at the head and twelve people
are on either side.

Now here's where the problem comes in.

AS you might imagine (as WELL you might imagine),