Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-10
MOVIES AND MOVIE PEOPLE
BY MOLLIE MERRTCK.

HOLLYWOOD. Calf. September 10
(N.A.N.A.).-In the professional colony
the most valuable asset Is considered
the sense of nonsense"
Have 1t for the screen and you are
made: have it for private life and your
circle of friends is made. But a serious
| minded type who cannot lift his sense
of humor above work loses out
A hostess Is giving a party Tor
prominent man. On the morning OF the
affair a huge box of flowers arrives. On
opening it a card is found with the en-
grayed message, I'm deepest sympathy"
sent by her guest of honor.
A new boulevard theater opens and
the friendly rival a few blocks away
sends hearse to stand before the door.
All in fun.
A Hollywoodite wanted to play trick
on Doug Fairbanks when he went on
one of his last Eastern trips. A live
goose was found in the drawing room
| after the train got on its way. Some
| two hours later frantic telegram came
from the jokester, BE careful of that
goose-highly trained bird and very
valuable"
To which the terse reply, "Too late I!
The cook wrung his neck an hour ago"
Dan Totheroh, a playwright of no
mean degree of brilliance, is one OF the
spontaneous ones in village famed for
sense of nonsense.
James Gleason and Lucille Webster
nonsense with the best of them. But
now and again a professional nonsenser
forgetS his main asset when faced by
some of the problems Of the studios.
Bob Benchley submitted. one-act
sketches to use for talkies. The titles,
II remember correctly, ran something
| like "Mending the Furnace" Learning
to Play Bridge" and THE Next Door
Neighbors."
The studio told Benchley to take all
three and put them together. linking
| them with q thread of sex. Benchley,
who laughs successfully at every one and
everything in the world, got seriously
wrought UP over the order. OF course,
his friends in the village gave him the
ha-ha. And after a bit he learned to
join In. But for a moment the well
known nonsense-sense deserted one B.
Benchley.
why not2 get serious myself some
times around the first of the month.
The majority OF sound film enthusi-
ssts base their enthusiasm on the fact
that such artists as the four Marx
brothers, whom they have read about
In the magazines and newspapers, would
be out of their reach were it not for
sound Aims.
From smaller cities comes the de-
| lighted cry, why, we are to see and
hear Irene Bordoni, Marilynn Miller,
George .Arliss, Lawrence Tibhett, Tito
Ruffo and a score of other famous
onesi"
But often from the same throats
comes the request, Cant they try to
| improve the mechanism so that voices
VIII have an individuality and identity
as they do in life or on the stage?"
One thing good many of these peo-
pie do not realize. In comparing the
talkie to the stage play they forget,
perhaps, that they see and hear the The
stage play in a small theater for a
given sum, usually $3.50 and up If the
artist is a person Of any consequence
whatever.
The talkie is given for IS cents or
| less in huge auditorium built expressly
| for silent film projection. and the tone
ID amplified outside the bounds of real
ism to I'LL that auditorium.
Yet, following little expirement of