Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-26
BY ALAN MACDONALD.

IN EYOND the flicker of a doubt
| - starvation Is the motion pictur,
luminaryS most constant frien(
| H. and companion. In fact, In
Vulnerable must be the comfort,
loving men-mainly middle -aged-~who
squirming in the dark before one oil
the screens frequent inanities. have
caustically observed that the particular
leading dangel could have got the
star" connected with her name no.
| where else than from the word deSig-
| mating the usually unhappy condition
OF going without food. Not sesing eye
! to eye with modern youth, they have
been unable to discern any other rea-
son for the little lady's stardom than
| the truth that all movie makers like
their fair ones slim TO the verge OF
emaciation.
Just as garrets once made poets So
starvation goes to great lengths TO de-
velop silver sheet summaries. Likewise
to keep luminaries bright witness that
hardy perennial. Douglas Fairbanks.
making his heroic, II ill-presS- ACCENTED
fight against the fat that comes in the
forties. A slight Jump in his poundage
and the dauntless comedian bounds
upon a diet of shredded wheat and fig
juice~vwith very little fig juice--and
stays there until the corporal crisis has
passed,
WITH this Spartan example to say
w nothing OF countless others even
more narrowing, before them. all the
baby stars and starlings OF Hollywood
take to starvation as does ward heeler
nowadays to a feeble-minded voter,
All except prettJ little Molly O'Dayi
Toll lie
Go anywhere among filmmongers and
ask about Molly, Ten to half OF one
per cent your gossip will exclaim:
"Oh, yes. know--the beauty who
ate herself out of Stardom. Sure she
was bound straight for the big money.
They were all ready to star her In four
big pictures! But she couldn't~--or
wouldnt~-give up Ice cream and
candy"
And thereby wags the only tale OF Its
kind
Naturally Molly was not born with
the motion picturesque name OF Molly
O'Day Only in the movies do things
like that happen, No, the family name
was Noonan. The sire was a lawyer
and later Supreme Court judge, with
a home In Bayonne N. J. Mrs Moo
nan was an Irish beauty who once
sang In opera, and the family was a
large one. Molly and her two sisters,
Sally and Isabelle were the pride and
Joy OF the elder Noonans' hearts.
Irish beauties become either thin
it'll. old ladies or else go 10 the other
extreme and become plump old ladies,
As every Irishman knows. this Is al
most rule In the race. Mrs, Noonan
has crown into the latter category
fi obably In all New Jersey there
weren't three prettier colleens than the
Noonan girls There was Sally, the
| slight, slim vivacious tomboy, there
was Isabelle. the stately, stattlcsque
one. and there was Molly. whose eyes
would melt the hardest heart In the
worid~a gentle, generous girl who
| took after her mother
| When Sally went 10 Hollywood =,
though history, according to the press
| agents. is silent on the point~~there
was probably much misgiving among
the elder Noonans You know all the
things they say about Hollywood; so
did the Noonans but when Sally
| caught the eye of the more or less al
mighty Micky Neilan, director extraor~
| binary tagain see press agents,, and
| overnight became a star In his pictures,
the viewpoint Of the Noonans nat
uraliy began to change. And when the
slender Saliy's salary reached the point
xhs1- II WA many IHaa mare than