Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-11
DEMANDS Of ROLES
REQUIRE PHYSICAL
CHANGES Of STARS
Characters Ordered to Reduce
or Gain in Few Days
to Fit Parts.

Gable dispatches from London say
fashionable women are having their
little toes carved off SO their feet will
fit American shoes.
Speculation as to whether or not
we'll be hearing next about the men
having their ears trimmed so their
heads will fit American straw hats
might not be out of order.
This looks like a grand idea-alter-
ing customers to fit clothes; and while
it's not exactly the same, it may be
on the same general theory that mo-
ton picture directors are adjusting
actors and actresses to their parts
these days.
Two instances are fresh in mind.
Rupert Hughes in writing The Bitter
ness of Sweets" which he has just
finished directing at the Goldwyn
studio has sketched in a heroine who
weighed ninety-eight pounds and gain
ed twenty pounds during the action
Of the story. Then, instead of pick
ing a ninety-eight FOUNDER to play the
part, he called for Colleen Moore,
normal heft one hundred and ten, and
told her to trim herself down to ninety
eight. She did. After swapping all
the ninety-e eight pound views of Col
leen he thought were necessary, Hughes
told her to change herself to a one
hundred and eighteen FOUNDER. And
she did that too.
Dropping 20 Pounds
Next. Maurice Tourneur was looking
for some n to play the title role in
his forthcoming production OF The
Christian" for Goldwyn. He wanted
a thin, ascetic sort of chap-and pick
ed Richard Dix, six feet. rosy, brawny,
weighing 176 pounds. After doing the
picking, he said to Dix:
by the way, before you get to Eng
land. drop twenty pounds
Dix had lost ten of the twenty when
he arrived in New York. He raised a
wavering hand, and said sadly:
This going without food certainly
ruins me. And I've got another ten to
peel off. and I'm going to be at sea
where 1 suppose l won't have any
thing but an appetite to keep me COM
pany."
Mae Busch, who is playing the fem
mime lead in the picture, and whose
contours happened to suit Tourneur's
ideas of what a "Gloria Quayle" should
be. smiled c%heerfully, and said:
"You should have seen Richard eye
ing the butter and sugar in the diner
coming east. 1t was pathetic. I'm
waiting for the sea air to get busy on
him. It'll be funny"
What Dix said then has nothing to
do with this article, but the fact is
he was so happy at the chance to
been willing to turn himself inside
ont ~ of 1oact nakn a Uond try Qf
it.
Remodel the Type
OF course, the reason for this alter
ing of the physique of players in mo-
ton pictures, is that the director
selects the type that appeals to him
as nearest to his ideal of the part he
has in mind, and then proceeds to make
the type conform even closer to his
INSTALLATION of the characters. But
it certainly does add to the intricacy
of acting in the movies.
Chances are that tired business men
would be more tired if they had to
alter themselves to harmonic with the
shapes of their customers. Can you
imagine the boss of q wholesale cloak
and suit establishment saying to n
of his statesmen:
".Jim Goodman will be here from
Oshkosh next week. Jim Is a bit fat
himself and likes a fat man. Be wear
ing a double chin and a nice, fancy
.embonpoint when he blows in. And af-
ter he goes get ready to rattle your ribs
and wave your Adams apple at Bill
Gootz, of Podunk, the following week.
Bill is a rail, and hates EN- fat"
If the signs , mean anything it
should be very long before some enter
p~rising bird hangs out a sign labeled:
MEN and women altered to suit.
For all occasions" Anyhow, it's q
great life.