Evening star., 1933-12-10


There was a time when going to
Hollywood meant that you were doomed.
Artistically it predestlned a collapse
OF power and suggested that whatever
ability lay at your finger tips would
soon be washed away in sea Of medi-
ocrity
This is no longer true. Acting in the
films is a respectable and legitimate
game which every one from Mrs. Pat
Campbell to Katharine Hepburn is
turning to these days. 1t neither strips
people of their talents nor cheapens
them except in SO far as the type of the
story they appear in Is concerned. They
can flourish on Broadway and flourish
in Hollywood and come back from
Hollywood and flourish all over again
and no one has any business saying
that because they have been West that
they are merely Hollywood actresses"
Miss Hayes in particular is the last
person to suffer from such calumny.
Her wistful gentleness has never been
disturbed by any harsh Hollywood
winds. She Is just what she has always
been-sincere and appealing. The pub
lie finds it hard to believe that she has
grown up, because once at ridiculous
ly young age she played "Babs." and
the jump from 'Babs" to "Coquette" to
Mary of Scotland is more of a Jump
than the public is accustomed to.
Whatever she does, however, and
whatever she plays, it is impossible to
say that Hollywood has been unkind
to her, or that she suffered from going
there, Her work in The Sin of Made
line Claudet" and Farewell to Arms"
was as refined and as ikeabie as any
thing she had ever done previously on
the stage. Although she had no fond
ness for The Son-Daughter," it didn't
tear her down from the heights she
had attained and subsequently no one
can say that her Hollywood roles, ex-
cept for her small unnecessary part in
Might Flight" ever played her espe-
cially foul.
She is definitely not lust Holly
wood actress" if such term applies
TO that particular group of people who
sprang into fame with the silent films
and have thereafter gone steadily out
of business. We refer to the Norma
Talmadges and the Mary Pickfords and
these other West Coast celebrities who
have been superseded by mature stage
stars who know how to speak better
than they do.
Miss Hayes was practically Graded
on the stage She played right here
in Washington in amateur productions
when mbst young things were given
over to roller skates and hoops She
has had the stage in her heart since
she was old enough to walk. And Mary
of Scotland has proved once and for
all that she is not just charming
little actress. but one who can SPEAK
the real and the deep emotions with
the best of them.
There is thus no reason under the
sun for raking her over the Goals as
being partner to any Hollywood super
ficiality She may not be a tempes uous
Bernhardt with the wide eyes and the
golden voice" which Author Zeller
wakes so enthusiastic over in his new
biography of the divine eccentric;
she may not have the slim grace of a
Duse or the one-time beauty of young
Ethel Barrymore Qong before she gol
to Philadelphia but she has quality
of charm and wistfulneSs which, ex-
pressed best in Barrie plays, is never
tfeless well suited to anything which
has beauty of words and expression and
real feeling at the back of them.
Nor should Hollywood b. blamed for
having tortured Miss Hayes It has
done everything in her favor. 1t has
spread her name before larger world
than she ever knew before and made
her national idol where previously she
had been merely a popular and an
attractive actress.