The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-17
M E N , w o M E N
 A N D T HIN c s

will have in your minds eye one of the ] greatest. little comediennes in movie iand.
 l l had seen her time and again on the 1 screen and laughed myself almost thin over her make up, facial expressions and comic pastures. but strange as it may seem, just enjoyed her and took her for granted without ever bothering myself to know what her name hap pened to be.
 | I suppose l have seen more moving pictures than the average movie fiend, but somehow I enjoy watching the films without troubling myself to know the name of the actress or actor who is starring. I might possibly on a pinch be able to identify Mary Pickford or Douglas Fairbanks, but l wouldn't wager a jitney on many of the others outside of the comic stars.
 1 I recognize Charlie Chaplin without any difficulty and the size of Fatty Ar sufficiently for me to know him. I also 1 can pick out Mack Sennett and Ben Turpin without studying the posters on the outside or reading the text which Eliminates the pieces in which they take part.
 l I'll go bit further and state that ! although l acted as chairman at the luncheon given to the dozen or more | fxx-f, ,lyl Loew on their visit to Birmingham, yet if they were to fill a return engage ment I would be unable to introduce any of them properly without being prompted. and as far as recognizing any of them on the reels which l see I find myself hopelessly at sea, although several times l have flattered myself as the plot unfolded that I was able to do
 This is why l was proud of myself i the other afternoon down at Loew' S when 1 immediately was aware that the Sis Hopkins girl, who meandered out on the stage after the introduction by l Manager James, was my old movie !favorite in Mack Sennett's comedies; but until he pronounced her name, I had never taken the trouble to christen her in my thinking, but always held her in pleasant memory as the girl who had l frequently made me smile.
 1 Louise Fazenda dropped into Br- mingham almost by accident, for it all | came about because she happened to have one free day on her schedule from New York to Los Angeles, and so Grant land, head of publicity for Loew's, Inc, who will be pleasantly remembered here as the wet nurse of the Loew stars, arranged for her to stop off here so that her many admirers might see her in person. This is why we got to see her and she got to see us
 I am sure glad that she came and that I had the chance of seeing her on and off stage. Now, it's a risky thing for a screen artist to essay a talking part. Some of the greatest have failed to make good. They are good to look at, but poor to hear. All I have to say is that if the motion picture industry ever has a dull season or even goes
 to the wall, Louise Fazenda needn't worry, for there are none in vaudeville who has better talking act than she | puts on.
 If you think it is an easy job to come out before an audience keyed up to
 vaudevillian specialties. with no other
 method of holding their attention than just your ability to talk, then you have
 never tried it. I think l know some thing about the difficulties of a public speaker in gripping his crowd for have had as much practice on as many
 different crowds as any man in the
 business, and I unhesitatingly say after much experience as a four minute man,
 that the vaudeville bunch is the acid
 test
 I heard Miss Fazenda at the matinee
 and evening performance. Tn the after
 noon I was puzzling my brain to know
 whether she was simply naive in her
 method or whether it was the very highest art. To look al her and see her evident embarrassment was to jump to
 the conclusion that she was on tue eve
 of a breakdown, but she never broke but went on in such a simple, girlish !, way as to make friends of every one
 before her You could just feel it ir
 the atmosphere that the crowd wanted
 her to make hit, and she did. The audience can help whole lot
 went back at night to study hel
 manner. and I found that she did not have cut and dried talk as most per
 formers are obliged to have, but thaf while relating the same incidents sh' had not stereotyped them, but hat trusted to the moment to phrase ant express them through gesture ant
 thereby give to them that touch of nat : uralness which is always irresistible when backed by strong or winsom'
 personality. At the evening talk I wa: back stage and around me the actors il
 the ther bills and they were as freshly and intensely interested in what sh
 said and did as thoAe sitting out II
 front. Higher praise than this no per
 former may hope to achieve.
 In the afternoon after hearing he , land witnessing the. wonderful openin; $ balancing act. thought had my littl , cup full and so I strolled down into tn
 office of Manager James. Tn fev
 minutes Mrs. James came in with Louis \ Fazenda and her mother and presente' s them to me as Mrs. and Miss Fazenda 1 I laughingly remarked that 1 though
 Louise Fazenda was stage name am K not sure enough to goodness one . They were both amused at my surmise :, I found out that her father used to liv
 in New Orleans. that her mother reside'
 for years in Indiana, but that Louise - while born in the middle west Wa
 reared in California.
 Mir. James. who was quite busy. aske c me to join his wife and the two visitor . in ride. and accepted with pleasure / for | am heaven born guide and want 7 ed the party to get the best views o
 Birmingham. It was raining, but W D salled forth and soon were on top o T Red mountain. The valley below wa t.f-- T | l. r1