Evening star., 1932-08-21

NObL1O11 Is dl lLupOItaIl
r. part of a film stars life
i Shrinking violets (but for
one glowing eXample) are
apt to shrink right out of sight.
Ballyhooers who get too greedy
explode eventually and go the
way of overbrusque sopranos.
Keeping in the even but Towering
channels of publicity is an art
which requires the major brains
of film companies and which is
so important to the cinema
player that he or she should do
his or her best to comply with
what seems to be required at the
moment.
Greta Garbo and George Ber-
nard Shaw are urquestionably the
greatest geniuses at this game the
world has ever known. Caesar had
a splendid publicity recorder and
Napoleon'S daily press sheet was
not to be sneeZed at. But Miss
Garbo and Mr.. Shaw have had the
phenomenal luck to strike front
pages of newspapers when revo-
lut.ons, revolts, suicides and
marital explosions have had to
take second place.
The extraordinary pussyfooting
that Miss Garbo has been able to
accomplish, her ability to sneak
In and out of a country with only
a half dozen people to see her,
and her unfailing zeal recently in
avoiding even the one lone report
er which metropolitan paper sta
tioned on the boat to watch her
daily standings in and around
her de luxe state room, all are
indications that she has abnormal
sense as to the value of getting
much out of nothing. The Maude
Adams of the screen, Miss Garbo
is the one successful example of
bluShing retirement which is said
to be not only voluntary, but also
agreeable. This tussle-haired ard
sometimes looking star
has made herself the greatest
news attraction the screen has
ever known-and this by doing
less than raising her little finger.
Now then along comes Miss
Joan Crawford, who some prefer
to groom as a second Garbo, and
who is a good actress, but not by
any means great one yet. She
travels to England and is greeted
with the greatest publicity fan
fare ever accorded a visiting
screen or stage celebrity. The
front pages of daily papers are
blistered with news about her.
She is photographed getting off
the boat, arriving at her hotel,
coming out of her hotel, going to
the theater, eating, smoking,
dancing and generally behaving
herself in the decorouS, yet spec
tacular, fashion that one would
expect of such a handsome
celebrity.
And the British cinema experts
roar with indignation. The Era,
Britain's foremost authority on
what's what in the film world,
boilS over at the undue ballyhoo
that was accorded Mis- Crawford
1t suggests, and rightly, that this
young and gifted player is not yet
Garbo and that when the time
comes she should be exploited in
the Garbian manner-but that
until this theatric fever pitch has
been reached she should be prop
erly soft-pedaled.
This avalanche of publicity
which fell upon Miss Crawford as
she reached England may not
have been her fault-but it GER
tainly can be attributed to over
excitement on the part of her
manager and the overseas M.-G.-
M. representatives Such an ex-
hibition of rah-rah Americanism
is distinctly harmful. The fact
that these hungry press poten-
tates were able to launch their
star on the front pages of these
papers Is a tribute to their zeal,
but not to their Imagination.
While this lady's talents are all
on the up and up, and her beauty
enough to label her Hollywood S
most beautiful actress" these
assets at present are not sufficient
to make her a Duse, or cause the
excitement that publicity experts
crowded her with.
The British, particularly, are a
polite race who think of Holly
wood somewhat as they do of tor
toise-shell glasses. They tolerate
1t because it seems to get people
somewhere-but they are not in
clined to admire. When. there