EXIT—-THIS WAY!

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

EXIT— -THIS WAY!

Royal Roads to Oblivion FATE OF STARS WHO FORGOT THERE is no certain way of getting into pictures, but there are many ways of getting out. An American writer says there are seven royal roads to oblivion. Here are a few of them.

(1.) Get mixed up, even remotely, in a scandal involving a serious crime or a breach of morals. (2.) Work up a temperament and overrate your own importance. (3.) If you are a woman, marry a man who is antagonistic to your career or who is a tactless manager. (4.) Overplay your type.

(5.) Allow yourself to be starred before your abilities warrant the promotion. (6.) Take too much time off between pictures and allow the public to forget you. (7.) Make a string of plain, bad pictures. Most producers can help in this way.

The most obvious and tragic case of bad publicity was, of course, “Fatty” Arbuckle. He ruined his own career and nearly dragged the whole movie business with him. He recently scored a personal hit in the stage revival of “Baby Mine” in New York. In a lesser degree, Mary Miles Minter made the same dreadful mistake. Little Mildred Harris’s unfortunate marriage to Charlie Chaplin and the subsequent publicity did not do her good.

When it comes to drawing moral lines the public is as fussy and unreasonable as your maiden aunt. It forgave Charlie his first divorce; it probably will forgive him his second one. But although she tried movies and vaudeville, Mildred Harris never made any progress.

When things were breaking for Alla Nazimova she was earning 10,000 dollars a week. Having Madame around the studio was like living in Kansas during the cyclone season. Nazimova knew more about making pictures than Cecil B. He Mille, Irving Thalberg and Jesse Lansky all rolled into one—God forbid!

Nazimova launched her own company and announced that she was going to have her own way. She got it. And

it finished her in pictures. She tried the stage, with indifferent success. Then she went into vaudeville. At nresent she is in England. The lady has talent. But in her black, bobbed hair there is more than a sprinkling ° f OP*a Petrova was accused of temperament. In reality. Petrova was ahead of her day. Now she is living at Great Neck. Bong Island, writing plays. Pauline Frederick was not exactly a victim of temperament. At one time she earned 15,000 dollars a week and was virtually her own manager. She was a great actress, but a'poor business woman. She married frequently and unhappily, and her enthusiasms were misdirected.

Slit*, too, is in langland, pnjoymg «in astonishing- success. The Knglish ar e not so fickle as Americans. Miss illederi. k left Hollywood because she refused to play secondary roles. Some will voluntarily give up a career for marriage. Agnes Ayres married Manuel Keacchi and gallantly save up her career. She had a young daughter and she thought she was happy in her home. But something wenwrong and Miss Ayres has lost both her husband and her career. She is playing: minor roles at a fraction of her former salary. The marriage of Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Ravne was doomed from the start Fame the divorce and. oddly enough, Auntie Public welcomed Francis X. and was coolly indifferent to the deeply wronged Miss Bayne. JlSt so long ago, Wallace MacDonald was having luncheon In New York. He pulled out his watch and showed a group of friends the picture of a pretty girl. The girl was Boris Maj. "She’s not going back into the pic-

tures,” announced Mr. MacDonald. “I'm th€> head of the family now.”

Mae Marsh fell in love with her Press agent, Louis Lee Arms, and promptly lost all interest In her work. She grew plump anti the old spark was lacking. Griffith gave her a single come-back in “The White Rose,” but Mae’s Irish heart is concentrated on her home and her children.

Enid Bennett is Mrs. Fred Niblo and is now starring in the role of wife and mother. Dorothy Dalton, another star of Triangle days, is Mrs. Arthur Hammerstein. June Caprice married Harry Millarde, the director, after vainly trying to be another Mary Pickford. Louise Lovely is married to William Welch and permanently off the screen. Francelia Billington married Lester Cuneo and the marriage turned out tragically. Rubye de Remer married Ben Troup, a millionaire. Gloria Hope is happier as Mrs. Lloyd Hughes than in the days when she was trying for film fame. Zena Keefe also chose matrimony—and oblivion. Marguerite Clark retired gracefully when she married H. Palmerston Williams. Billie Burke is Mrs. Florenz Ziegfeld and has a charming young daughter. The bitterest fade-outs of all are suffered by the stars who overplay their type. The public loved that strong, silent look on William S. Hart’s face. Then suddenly it decided it had seen enough of that strong, silent look. It adored Louise Glaum in those spidery costumes. The adoration turned to in difference.

Theda Bara was encouraged to become wilder and funnier. When Miss Bara obliged the public laughed. It demanded “hot stuff” of Leah Baird, Virginia Pearson and Rosemary Theby. The Misses Baird, Pearson and Theby got “hot” and the public got cold. Miss Baird is writing scenarios. Miss Pearson is married to Sheldon

Lewis. Miss Theby is married to Harry Mvers and works now and then—mostly then. Sessue Hayakawa was a clever

actor, but unfortunately a Japanese. He plays occasionally on the stage and in vaudeville and has just bought himself a home in Great Keck, Long Island. Katherine MacDonald was lauded up as “the American Beauty,” but merely being beautiful wasn’t enough. Lila Lee was thrust into stardom as a mere child. Lila grew up so fast that she outgrew her dresses and the stories that had been selected for her. If she had taken the grade more slowly, she would be an established star to-day. However, Lila is married to James Kirkwood and has a young son. J. Warren Kerrigan allowed absence to make the heart grow, colder. Kerrigan came back to prominence in • The Covered Wagon,” but he has done little since. Pearl White went to Paris five years ago and forgot to come back, Carlyle Blackwell migrated to England, made a few British pictures, and married an heiress. Even a star with the personality of Geraldine Farrar could not stand a string of mediocre productions. Clara Kimball Young allowed herself to be mismanaged into oblivion. She has gone into vaudeville. Anita Stewart allowed herself to be killed off by trivial pictures. Wanda Hawley could not stand the combination of stardom and silly pictures. Natacha Rambova made one picture, “When Love Grew Cold” and broke all records by walking out of four out of the seven exits at once. Crane Wilbur became tired of being a pretty fellow in the films and took to writing plays. Ruth Roland’s profits from real estate are larger than any film money she ever made. Anita Loos stopped writing scenarios and sub-titles and dashed off “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” The book and play will earn her a million dollars. Irene Castle quit the films and stopped dancing. She married and has a little daughter. Irene is now in ! business. She acts as fashion adviser > for dress manufacturers and she has a fine business reputation.

that he had seen only one man here whom the rest of the world would accept as worth looking at on the screen. And he met him only last Thursday. For screen purposes our features are all wrong, according to this witness. But our disabilities do not end there. Careless dress we claim as a national characteristic. But the rest of the world calls it shockingly bad taste. People go to the pictures, among other things, for the styles, said Mr. Dexter. This applies even to masculine attire. At some stage of the picture immaculate clothes are demanded of every successful leading man. We, however, are afraid to dress immaculately. “I say this seriously,” said witness. “The best-dressed man in Sydney today couldn’t hold his own to a fivedoilar a day ‘extra’ at Hollywood.” Witness confessed he knew that he was inviting cartloads of trouble in turning the spotlight of his criticism on our girls. Nevertheless he did it. He declared that it was time that somebody spoke hte truth. For four months of this year he conducted throughout Australia a film quest to find a girl to send to Cecil B. do Mille’s studios in Hollywood. The search was conducted in all grades of society and over all Australasia. Pie personally interviewed 1,104 girls. From all Australia six girls were gathered and of these only two measured up to standard. Since then witness had seen another six, who, he thought, might be worth a trial. As a result of his analysis of the Australian girl from the screen standpoint, witness emphasised the following flaws: Either the teeth of our girls are naturally poor or they show the result of bad dentistry. Among all the girls he examined in Melbourne, in conjunction with one of Melbourne’s leading dentists, he found only one with perfect teeth. She came from West Australia. In our girls there is a tendency toward premature development, and even where the physique is correct they lack the art of making the most of themselves. They have not been trained to walk in beauty. Marked Depression Our girls suffer from a marked depression or inhibition. Their actions are too much governed by the thought of what people will say of them. The speedy result is loss of individuality. The Syndey woman, witness went on to say, is 12 months behind the New York styles. This would have a very adverse effect on any picture produced here. He blamed the big stores for this condition. They could have the styles here a month after New York, he said, but we did not get them for a year. “Successful picture production here calls for an entire change of our national characteristics,” witness added. “In our criticisms we are destructive and not constructive.” Despite a fire of cross-questions from the commission, witness stuck to his guns, and returned a devastating broadside when he was asked on what grounds he made his statements about the lack of beauty in the Australian race. “Well, look around this room,” he replied, to the consternation of both commission and audience. Mr. Dexter made one excursion on very dangerous ground when he main--1 eauty in a race demanded mixed blood.