INFORMAL PARTIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 7

INFORMAL PARTIES

LIFE AMONG THE STARS AT HOLLYWOOD U.S. VISITOR LIKES OUR TRAINS Found . . . An American visitor who says that the most comfortable train journey she has ever enjoyed in her life was the trip on the Limited from Wellington to Auckland. Miss Agnes Kerr Crawford, who is at present visiting Auckland, is enthusiastic concerning New Zealand trains and about the verdure and beauties of the Dominion. “I have never been more thoroughly comfortable in my life than I was on that train,” she remarked this morning. “The stewards were most atten-

tive and everything possible was done for me.” And Miss Kerr Crawford is accustomed to travelling ill trains in all parts of the world. She is a journalist, who for some years was on the “New York Times” (the only woman among 40 men), and is now in Hollywood, where she adapts novels for the screen. Her journalistic career has taken her to all parts of the United States and she lias paid frequent visits to Europe. Now for the first time Miss Kerr Crawford is visiting New Zealand and her word picture of the glorious panorama from the top of Mount Eden should lure many American tourists to this Dominion. It is one of the loveliest sights she has ever seen in her active and interesting life. VERY INFORMAL Every day in Holywood is full of interest for Miss Kerr Crawford. In addition to her film work she contributes a page of social news about film stars to the Los Angeles “Examiner,” and so she has the entree to all the parties given by the wealthy film folk who live in the famous and beautiful Beverley Hill 3 area. No, these parties and entertainments given by the film stars and directors are not the extravagant and naughty affairs some writers would have us believe. Except for dinner parties and weddings most of them are very informal. But let Miss Kerr tell about them in her own words.

“Parties at Beverley Hills are just like parties anywhere else in the world except, perhaps, that they are a little more informal. A hostess never knows who Is coming after she sends out the invitations. It is not an unusual thing to see Norma Talmadge or some other famous star arrive with eight or nine people who have not been invited. But nobody minds that.

“With dinner parties, of course, it is different. Uninvited guests do not come to these functions. Most of the leading film people have their own private projection-rooms in which they entertain their guests. All the stars play a lot of bridge and this’ is a favourite form of amusement at the afternoon parties. HARD-WORKING PEOPLE “Yes, of course, they have bright parties in Hollywood, but the supposed naughty parties are very much exaggerated. The directors and stars all work too hard to go to extremes. The actors and actresses, too, have to take care of themselves. Most of them have their, own trainers who put them through a series of exercises every morning. Film work is very exhausting. "Most of the parties are given in private nouses. In public the stars are so mobbed by admirers that they cannot enjoy themselves. “Buffet suppers are the popular thing in the evening. Clothes are a peculiarity. It is not unusual to see at an evening function men in all kinds of dress, including plus fours, to women in the most extreme evening gowns from Paris and men in evening clothes.” Then Miss Kerr Taylor went on to talk about the Rod La Rocque-Vilma Banky wedding, which apparently was one of the most beautiful pieces of staging ever done in this centre of magnificence. They were married at 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and the church was decorated with masses of pink and yellow roses. The invited guests were given two tickets, one for admission to the church and the other for admission to the reception afterwards, i Two blocks before the church was reached all cars were stopped and a large white rose was attached to each windscreen. No other traffic was allowed through a police cordon. Batteries of cameras lined both side 3 of the route to the church and it was estimated that more money was represented in the church at that wedding than at any similar function in the world. HAPPY HOMES Curiously enough, according to Miss Kerr Taylor, there is an astonishing number of children in Hollywood and lots of happy homes. Film stars are not all publicity lnlnters and there are lots of them who still have the same wives and husbands they started with. People who do wild things for the sake of publicity are a minority. Misis Kerr Taylor also gave a picture of Jack Barrymore and others just as famous, collecting the day’s vegetables in the town markets. Merchants do not deliver goods there, so the stars, high and low, do their own shopping in the morning. Christmas is a happy time in the film town. Early in December the principal thoroughfare is lined with Christmas trees, four to a block. These are illuminated at night while Father Christmas drives up and down the boulevard in a sleigh drawn by live reindeer.