Talkies Made in Early Morning

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 780, 28 September 1929, Page 12

Talkies Made in Early Morning

BATH IE STUART BACK FILM STARS AT SCHOOL Talking pictures in Hollywood are made in the early morning. * At 5.30 a.m. Bathie Stuart made the speech which Aucklanders will hear when a picture called "Under the Southern Cross’’ is shown here. Miss Stuart returned to Auckland this morning after spending some months in the United States. She w ill go back to America in December. "We worked all night making

‘Under the Southern Cross,’ ” Miss Stuart said. "There are so many airplanes flying over Hollywood that the noise is liable to be picked up by the microphone and this would spoil the picture. Everything must be done in sound-proof studios, and consequently every precaution is taken. “It is terribly hot wdrk. All the doors are closed and the heat from the lamps is terrific. I had to put on two lots of make-up in the one night." Miss Stuart trained a number of Samoans w T ho appear as Maoris in “Under tile Southern Cross.” It was impossible to get Hew' Zealand natives so the producers commissioned a number of Samoans who had been engaged in making another picture. From the photographs in Miss Stuart’s possession some very lovely Maori mats were made and a Maori hut built near the side of a lake. Tikis and pols were also made with photographs as a guide. Since the talkies have become so popular all the big picture stars have started to go to school again. Mary Bickford and others of similar prominence in the film w'orld have engaged people to teach them to speak, sing and play the piano. The English voice is much in demand in Hollywood and consequently English actors and actresses do not go short of engagements. During her stay in the film community Miss Stuart met Shayle Gardner, the Aucklander, Claude and Betty Fleming, Betty Ross Clarke and Rene Riano, who have all toured New Zealand at various times under the Williamson banner. When she returns to America Miss Stuart will do some publicity work for the New Zealand Tourist Department. She does lecturing tours and gives programmes of Maori songs which have delighted the people of the United States.