Edith Roberts Talks of The Antipodes

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 212, 26 November 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

Edith Roberts Talks of The Antipodes

SYDNEY'S BELOVED “ ’ARBOUR” WAS NOT IMPRESSED

1 ! | TT’DITH ROBERTS, now back in the United States —she was in Australia recently—has been talking of her experiences in the Antipodes. This is what an American scribe has to say:—

| Edith Roberts, not long back from the Fiji Islands and Australia, where she and Eddie Burns and Arthur MacLaglen made “The Adorable Outcast” for Australasian Films with Paramount release, has a sheaf of interesting pictures and stories of the experience. Working on primitive islands is a thrill, but :t has its drawbacks, according to Edith. One spot selected for shooting was 14 miles through a pathless wilderness, and the distance had to be made on the backs of sturdy blacks steaming from the heat and well anointed with coconut oil. Pictures in Fiji More of the road was through pitcliblack caverns full of bats, with oor.ing subterranean streams making the footing slippery and dangerous and snakes slithering here and there under foot. Three days of tropic sun and Edith threw away her bottle of brown stain and worked in her grass skirt and flower wreath.

The usual native festivals were held, and Rahu Pape, king of the Fijis, preside a£ the poi bowl and treated the strangers to kava, the native drink, which strangely leaves the brain clear, but makes the knees very wobbly. The King’s palace on the island of Bau, a sacred spot, and a thousand of his subjects figure in the picture. The fiercest of the warriors turns out to be no less a person than Arthur MacLaglen, brother of Victor MacLaglen. Arthur looks quite the roughest of the native lot with an ivory moustache affixed native s:tyle to his upper lip. Still another touch from “What Price Glory” runs through the company’s adventures. Walter Long, heavy man, got quite fed up on aJI the Australians asking if he had seen “our ’arbour,” referring to Sydney Harbour, of which they are most proud. As the boat pulled away from the ; docks, Walter stood at the rail and i said, “ *Ave you seen our ’arbour?” and ! gave it “the bird,” as did the lad to | MacLaglen in the picture. The enraged Australians on board were ! scarcely restrained from dumping him into “our ’arbour,” for they didn't | think it funny at aIU