Evening star., 1929-12-08

"COME, sing me a song that shall
thrill the world-and get a move
on it. See!"
The words were not uttered, of course.
but Earl CAROLS ingenious press agent
heard them, nevertheless and he was
stumped. Why? It makes a story.
When Carroll first set out to construct
his current issue of the "Vanities," the
i well known revue which runs annually
| in a series, as 1t were, he sought to build
show that would make Flo Ziegfeld
| turn pale and throw other revue pro-
ducerS into fit of CONSERVATION. How
should he commence? What would be
| the theme song? Around whom or what
| should he start to build?
He began with w. c. Fields, the IA
nous comedian, known and sought after
from Broadway to the Land of Ballyhoe.
Fields sensed his inspiration and re-
| sponded accordingly. First the come
| dian wanted a salary that would make
any ordinary producer dizzy. That was
soon adjusted. Then he demanded TO
| be billed as the star of the show. Now,
Carroll'S revueS in the past have had
many stars and his current show was
| to have a galaxy of the most brilliant
attainable. But Earl settled that. And
then, horror of horrors, Fields demand
ed that his name be billed as the star
before, ahead of and over the Carroll
| trade mark "Vanities," which is the one
grand and glorious ideal of CarrollS
theatrical career. 1t could never be.
But Fields insisted and even shook Hol-
lywood in Carrolls face until his cheeks
paled to ashy whiteness. He fought
back. but to no avail. and then the
naughty producer, for the first time in
his varied career, capitulated.
That settled. Carroll turned to the
next stone in his edif1ce. 1t proved to
be a perfectly beautiful young miss,
Dorothy Britton. She had a pretty
| name as well, but it wasn't famous
either on stage or screen. But Dorothy
had been crowned Miss Universe" in a
famous contest between the beauties of
the world at Galveston. Tex. That was
something unique. More, under Car
rolls expert tutelage, she had rapidly
advanced from a prize beauty to prize
beauty with theatrical talent. She
proved it in "Fioretta," also in Sketch
| Book" More. it is said she has now
developed into an honest-to-goodnes
actress who can speak lines and do
things to attract attention and interest.
| And Dorothy became a sort of sub-star
of the current "Vanities."
But other things beside bobbed up.
| Fields wrote the funny skitS, and you
may be sure he intended that they
should be the outstanding features of
| the show. Dorothy supplied the ulti-
mate element of beauty and she had
! to be humored to give beauty an ideal
setting, so Carroll went so far as to
| hire what is said to be the costliest and
most beautiful girl ensemble in the
world" that Venus might vie with
| Momus
But up bobs another Dorothy, this
time Dorothy Lull, who had first APP
peared on the screen with the famous
Pearl White, then in THE Eyes of
Youth" with Marjorie Rambeau, in the
| first outstanding exhibition of her mar
| velous control dancing" Miss Lull had
ben through the ballet school of the
Metropolitan Opera and had noted
teachers in her art. But, withal, she
was unique in her control dancing"
Another Sub-star.
/ Mere people are not all of the "Vani-
ties" show. Under the guidance of dis
ciples of art and architecture. "The
Temple of Mythology" had been con-