Henderson daily dispatch., 1937-09-20

York
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was AIuISCIccI euOuSH not long ago
to ask readers for help in the matter
of questions to ask movie stars when
| confronted in the ineffable flesh. A
lady writes in from Cincinnati with
such fervor that l am constrained to
print her communication. Perhaps.
as she intimates, her reactions are
universal. Are they?
"My Dear Mr.. Aswell:
Must you write above movie actors
and actresses? Must you? In all the
welter of our complicated modern life,
can't you find anything of more
value to write about than a lot of
people who are, to say the least, quite
ordinary and not even interesting?
Would you really like to know what
a lot of US lay people really think
about movie actors and actresses as
we see them depicted on the screen?
And wouldn't you just like to know
what we all think of reporters like
you and of publicity hounds, of both
magazine and radio variety who holt
up for our gaze race of people who
possess every virtue, who are super
human, gigantic, colossal, stupendous
superb?
"You reporters, who are afraid to
write the truth about movie folk and
who Immediately apologize wheneve:
you do write one word that isn'4
flowery and heavily scented with am
bergris-and who are supposed to be
purveyorS of the naked truth, Just
why is it that you simply cannot
will not write simple statement of
the facts?
AS far as thousands of us are con
cerned, we think right out loud tina
Robert Taylor's han6k ONE ySterio.
does not cover one inch of real dram
attic ability; that Joan Crawford's Biz
pop-eyes and gigantic mouth do not
an actress make; that James Cagney
and Pat O'Brien are both hams of the
crudest variety which no amount o"
ballyhoo can conceal; that Greta Gar
bo is the biggest phoney of them all
with her big feet, her big Viking flat
chested frame, dislike of Americana
added to her consuming fondness 70,
American dollars; and as for Marlene
Dietrich, her only talent seems to be
presentation of slinky sex roles.
which every daughter of Eve under
seventy can turn off and on at will
without being paid two or three hun
dred thousand dollars a year for dc
ing it. Aren't we funny?
"But then you must remember that
we are only lay people who are no
paid one cent to see movie people as
they are not.
"And then again, wouldn't you like
to know how much we appreciate the
works Of real artists like Paul MUM
Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Will
liam Powell, Jesse Ralph, Eddie Can
son Eddy, Grace Moore, Jeanette MIC
Donald, Ronald Colman and many,
many more of this class who really
have something to give, either in dane
ing, dramatic ability singing, comedy,
or ability to make us poor toads think
and feel.
Must you, my dear Mr.. Aswell oh
must you ask them provocative ques-
tons? They don't know the answers
any more than you do, for while cat
may look at king, does it follow that
just an ordinary alley cat should be
expected to answer questions put to
it as though it were an angel variety
of cat?
"By all means, my dear Mr.. Aswell,
go on being extremely courteous to
Robert Taylor, James Cagney, Joan
Crawford, ct al. But don't fall over
backwards while gazing up into the
dizzy heights of their colossal, stu
pendous, gigantic, superb, a li.tle-less
shan-the-angelS atmosphere"