New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
By Harriette Underhill


fornia. The worst thing about pict-
ures is the way they have Of removing
people we like and taking them away
from our devoted midst to the state of
sunshine and flowers and California
red ink and native sons and things.
But Mabel has been at least half a
Californian ever since she made her
first success there. She goes back with
all the weight of the added prestige
she has gained in Goldwyn pictures in
the East-and even then she doesn't
weigh very much. We mean this lit
orally, of course, for we are very
strong for Mabel, "if you know what
we mean"
Now, seeing Mabel other than on the
screen is not so easy as it sounds, for
Mabel is notoriously forgetful of ap-
pointments. But she processes to like
us, and we believe her, for when she
made an appointment with us she not
only kept it, but she arrived there
first, so that we found her waiting for
Mabel, with her face against the pane"
"In one way feel rather like the
farmer, you remember, who said:
Coin to taown to git drunk, and gosh,
how I dread it, | know I'll be tickled
to death once Pm out there, but, gosh!
how | dread leaving. One of the fun
niest jokes I ever heard was the tray
elling for pleasure phrase. 1t is about
as sensible as the idea of going to the
dentist for pleasure. ] hate travel
ling!" said Mabel emphaticaly.
"But cheero! At any rate, thorell
be no more of that ungodly trip over
the Fort Lee ferry. There have been
times when I could have killed the
man who invented the Hudson River.
Irv Berlin can murder all the buglers
he wants, but Pm agin the man who
slams the gates of the ferry and says
Next trip
Everybody has been wonderfully
kind back here. But love the life in
California. And it is easier to work
seriously. And 1 have missed dread
fully some of my friends who never
come East You see, motion pictures
bring both coasts-and all coasts-to-
gether. That's one of the reasons why
it's a delight to be cinemese.
"Of course | hate leaving mother.
No, she isn't stage 'mommer.' She is
the real thing in mothers, l can tell
you. Every one always seems so sur
prised when l speak of mother. Don't
look as though l had a mother? She is
the mother | told you of who had such
long eyelashes. When l was little
used to call them trick mustaches. My
week ends with her on Staten Island
have been the only domestic life I've
had for the last few months. Living at
hotels doesn't spoil your taste for home
life; it makes you all the keener for it.
That is the biggest sacrifice I've made
in working. | can't very we'll ask
mother to give up her country place
and get accustomed to city life, which
she detests. And | never could have
lived with her on Staten Island and got
to the Goldwyn studios at Fort Lee in
time to do any work. Neither can | ask
her to come with me to California, be-
cause she has to look after my little
sister. That's one reason my friends
mean so much to me, no matter where
am" For moment the w. k. Nor
mand eyes, with their absurdly long
lacy lashes, looked out into the thronl
of nassers-by, and there was far
away look in them.
ooh, but are we downhearted? MOI
she said with a sudden and character
Tistically Normandesque change of mood
~ should jolly we'll rather say not, as
Charlie Chaplin used to say. The wal
is over, and in a short while, I hope
she'll have my brother back. / wish
could be here to meet him :" We
shifted the conversation to California
at is fact that you can work with
ever so much more pep out there. Fol-
one thing, there aren't so many dis
fractions. In fact, there isn't anything
to do but make pictures, and when i
gets too dark to work go to bed. That
life in California.
"And then the sunshine helps The
artistic say nothing of saving money
for the producer. There'll be no suci
problems and troubles as we had las
winter, when time after time we had tt
stop work because the juice was cut off
And we always had to stop at interest
ing points"
We asked her what new play she wa
going to work on first.
"'Sis Hopkins'" she exclaimed, laugh
ing. won't that be grand? Pm ..
sorry | never saw Rose Melville in tn
part. | hear she was wonderful. Sh
must have been, to be able to go OF
playing it and making money out of i
for so many years.
Ix,