New-York tribune., 1922-05-14

When Billie Burke
Became the Queen
OF the Movies
BY Harr;ctte Undcrhill


The moving picture finger writes
and, having writ, moves or, but It did
not move on until il had written g
check for $4,000. This Is the amount
collected By energetic atars during tho
drive for funds for the Association for
Improving the Condition Of the Poor.
+ started out as popularity contest
For movie stars, beginning with 4 per-
&ormance ct the Gayety Thoater and
winding Up with q ball at the Eotc!
A4stor l&st Tuesday night.
Freely Yo
Lave Ecceived
Never in his life before, 1 am sura,
did Joseph p. Day give so much for as
lite as he did at this ball. and l may
safely say taat. never in my l;fe. have
l received SO Iluch for so little With
oVa spending one cent sat at the table
opposite the bulletin board and expert
@aced aI! Of TIE thrill of one wko is
t.sAing thousands OF dollars. Il vas
NJ. Day himself who made YOU feel
that way with his first call, second
c&lls third call" and then his "iair
warnings" and he fairly dragged the
$500 bills out of the pockets Of tha
opposing parties. The only reagon any
ol-e could Gave for not spending any
nloi.sy was Because he did not have it
10 spo4.d. OF course, SO far as detern.in-
s..t SAe popu4lIlJJ o. the stars is con-
%e"-ec,, the contest was q CONTEXT in
lame onsy. 40 one took it seriously,
Du0 ). Is rather gratifying 70 learn that
Aeu..y al elgatl OF /. M!Il!ou dollars
has been collected for improving the
condition Of the poor. That ought to
improve g great many conditione.
For week different actors and
actresses had been collecting money
and votes from platforms and street
corners or, to be more accurate, they
had been collecting them from pedes-
trians wko crowded around the plat
forms ard street corners.
Billie Burke
Always q Minncc
When the bali opened at 10 o'clock
Billie Burke was leading the procession
with $4,000 votes. Marion Davies was
less than 1000 behind and Constance
BiAney was 200 behind her. Madge
kennedy, Mary Pic&ford. Julia Hoyt,
Mae Murray, Lillian G!sh and Con-
stance Talmedge were all ahead Of
Mary Carr, and yet, when the bidding
closed Mrs. Carr had 4at,oeo aid Miss
Burke had A72.eoo. Constance ninney
was third with ee5oo votes.
No one seemed TO take much In
tcrest in the king OF the movies, and,
after spending sn hour eves the e,cc-
ton Of Billie Burke Mr.. Day disposed
OF the male contingent In two minutes.
Edward Earle. who WAS Mary Pickfesde 9
leading man when he was fourteen and
sne was eight, won the kingship with
1880 votes, which was 5000 more than
Tom Mix received
Billie Burke sat at tabl. inst
across from where l was seated and
she seemed to enjoy the proceedings
immensely. That is one Of the de-
Hghttul things about Miss Burke-she
IS filled with enthusiasm, After M
Day got on the platform the bidders
seemed to forget everything else and
they tossed enormous amounts Of
money about with utter abandon.
'Flfty thousand for Mary Carr" some
one wo0Id shout whenever Miss Burke
would ride ahead, and then after
couple of warnings" some one would
come back with 10000 for Billy
Burke ard Miss Burke would blush
and dimple and look Just the way she
looked in Love Watches" She cer-
tainly is sweet thing, and if it had
been beauty contest as we'll she
would have won it.
i is lucky thing for the poor
who have all those conditions which
need improving that Mr.. Day was on
hand to wiring our the votes for
women, and it was a lucky thing, too,
that those who pinned their faith to
Mary Carr were as firm ss those who
were playing Miss Burke 80 win. and,
OF course, the real winner was A. I,
c. P.
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alelodrasnas To Be Filmed