Evening star., 1923-03-25
Norma 1dlmddge and Desert Romance

SUBSTITUTING the desert wastes Of
Mexico and southern California
for the romantic Sahara. Norma Tai
madge was SO nightly thrilled in the
making of The Voice From the Min
aret.' that she could scarcely wait for
the last shot to be ground out before
packing her kit and journcylng east
ward. accompanied by her husband.
mother and sister Constance. in order
| to see the real thing
She gives a fascinating account o|
her encounters with caravans sheiks.
nautch girls and the grim and sordtd
ragedles of the ageleSS source of the
hctlonlstS' romanceS.
Shelks. caravans. the desert of Sa-
nara, says Miss Talmadge. they are
All more terrible than picturesque. I
Know, have seen them--in fact. am
just through seeing them.
Just before ] left Europe on our
recent vacation trip, I made a Journey
nhr9ugh q part of the Sahara desert
one OF the few white women who
nave ever made such q trim hgI
Just completed the film version of
ROBERT hichens' The Voice From the
M:haret. and il struck me thar II
would be very good thing To CO.
some of the places where the sc,iop
OF the story took place, and also thar
II would be very good thing for
me to look at the original Garden ~
Allah, for perhaps in the near future
! may MAKE another Hichens story,
Allah o4 VI
1T was a wonderful trfp-stranea
coiorful and never TO be forgotten.
We had already been on a motor
trip through Germany and France
we're
my mother and my sister Constance.
struck when we got to the Sahara
They couldn't seem to hear the cali
OF the desert. Therefore. I went on
caravan routes with my husband and
my manager, John Considine.
we went first to Algiers which is
interesting but pretty well tourist
ridden. From there we took a funny.
jerky, smelly French government
tored south to Batna and then 10
Biskra. Near Biskra are the marvel
Gus gardens now known TO every
one as the Garden of Allah 1t is q
marvelously beautiful place.
Just before you get to Biskra you
come to Ell Contara, which is called
the gateway of the desert. The great
cliffs stand sheer and rugged like
the portals of an ancient doorway
opening out into the illimitable Sa-
great oasis, Benz Mara, where we saw
10000 date palm trees
AT Biskra my husband took me
into native dance hall. where we
saw the first of the sheiks II was
very queer and rather creepy. There
was a sort of vaudeville show. with
dancing girls, who appeared on a lit
tie platform, while the audience sat
squatted around on the floor, smok-
ing hookah and drinking thick.
irh T,t,Iyi yioI1 T..
like the scenes that Robert Hichens
describes. The tobacco smoke was so
thick you could cut it with knife
and the place smelled as though d
Chinese family had just moved out.
THE Moorish houris, l shall have
to confess, were not up to the adver-
tising. In fact, most of them We're
not Moorish. anyway. The majority
Of the dancing girls were either Span
ish or Jewish, and were the only un-
two of them were really lovely. but
the rest wouldn't get very far in Il
movie test.
"The dancing was nothing like the
wild, hectic Moorish dancing that ]
had heard about. In fact, you could
hardly call it dancing al all All the
girls did was to get up before the
audience one at a time and wave their
scarves or handkerchiefS around in a
lazy, bored way. Once in a while
they shook their shoulders and made
a few gestures with their arms. To
tell the truth, they looked bored to
death. In this regard they had moth
ing on the audience.
"The real sheik doesn't appear to
be an animated character. While the
girls were dancing the men hardly
looked at them, but sat around like
Jumps of lead, only their black, pierre
ing eyes showing any signs of human
animation. Most of them were dirty
and unattractive. There was only
one Valentino among them. He was
really gorgeous, but disdainful.
THE only time that the place reused
to anything approximating life was
when my husband tactfully deposited
some good American dollars as a lit