Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-25
MOVIES
AND MOVIE PEOPLE
BY MoLLIE NIERRICK.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
HOLLYWOOD. Calf, February IS
| (N.A.NA.) Mabel NorTnand's long-ex-
pected death came at last with a touch
of surprise to the colony. Few of her
contemporaries are still before the cam
eras. Mary Pickford. Marion Davies,
Norma Talmadge, Lillian Gish, Alice
Joyce and Anna @. Nilsson were studio
favorites when Mabel Normand was the
toast of the town For the rest, the
women she knew are retired, and an
entire new generation of film players,
to whom she was but a tradition, read
the story of her passing alphabetically.
Mack Sennett called her "the greatest
screen figure and the star Coincidence
of the earth, the only pretty woman in
history who was genuinely funny"
Yet her life from first to last was
spent around the corner from tragedy
The Taylor murder case blighted her,
and when the shadow of that calamity
was lifted. her chauffeur, Greer, shot
CORTLAND Dimes, wealthy clubman,
as he sat in Edna Purviance's living
room. Mabel Normand married when
her career closed Louis Coti, little
French Canadian boy, who had sat near
her in school. The world knows him as
Lew Cody.
| Her pallbearers will doubtless be
chosen from the group which worked
| with her In early pictures here-Charles
4 Chaplin, Maurice Costello, Wallace
Berry, Chester Conklin Ben Turpin and
Roscoe Arbuckle. But little of the
| $4,000 week salary remained when
Mabel Normand stepped across the
shadow line. She had never refused a
loan and was seldom repaid. Her gifts
had been the most elaborate in celluloid
! history, her extravaganceS the most sem
sational. The screens greatest laugh
maker laughed loudest of all herself
laughed so she would not hear the num-
bhngs OF disaster ever in her wake.
Mary Pickford, who recently an
nounced her intention of making "Peg
O. My Heart" now officially informs me
she will go into production Immediately
on Forever Yours" a vastly different
story from the little Celtic girl with the
curls of Hartley Manners creation.
This new story Is dramatic tale of
q woman'S love and loyalty, with a
locale in England and Wyoming and a
| scope which covers a merry youth.
changing fortunes Of middle years and
the wistful calm of old age.
am glad Mary Pickford abandoned
| her idea of clinging to the conventional
type and has adhered to her original
determination to plunge into adult roles
Tor all they are worth. Peg seemed a
return to first principles-and Mary
Pickford is too clever a woman to
double on her own tracks
Hollywood has a new game. Writing
the alliterative telegram is a stunt which
has the colony by the ears. With a time
limit of five minutes, try and be funny
in a wire, all the words of which begin
with the same letter. Hollywood loves
games. Games keep guests from possip-
ing, and the results of freely-induIoed
gossip are disastrous more often than
| not.
Here are kilograms done by some Of
the famous at recent party. The test
was announcing the birth of a child:
James Gleason-God gave Gertrude.
George grinned, grabbed gin. Given
| gate
Anthony Bushell-Cunning Chinese
child came calmly. Color caused calam-
ity Called Chu.
William Janney-Big, bouncing baby.
/ born before breakfast. Better bring
/ bootlegger.
Robert Armstrong Chesty Chester
came Christmas. cried, crawled. cele-
nrated, collapsed, casket, cremated.
Alexander Gray-Healthy Helen here.
Has hereditary huge hips. Hurriedly
hunting Horace.
! Louise Observation-Disclosures, idiotic in