Silent Gossip!

I love reading movie magazines from the silent era. I read gossip magazines now, but I don't give a damn about most of the people profiled. But, reading gossip about silent film stars? Oh, I am there!

I was digging through some Photoplay magazines from the 1920's and wanted to share some of the tidbits I found from their gossip column. 

Oooh la la!

• We asked little Mary Brian recently if she's been falling in love, or doing anything exciting, recently. "No," she naively answered. "But I might, if you wish, for publicity."

• A woman was visiting the Jack Gilbert set of "The Cossacks." She was thrilled at the fish drying, the Turkish costumes, etc., but amazed to watch them so realistically flogging Jack Gilbert. When the rescue party dashed forward, one of them accidently shot off a gun behind her. She jumped and cried: "It's alright, you can kill me now. I have seen Jack Gilbert working."

• Clara Bow went to Yosemite National Park for a vacation recently, and celebrated by getting lost and falling in a pool of water in hunting her way back to camp. Every ranger in the district was sent on a frenzied hunt for her. But they all missed her, and she came staggering home alone. What we want to know is how any man could ever miss finding Clara!

• Mary Philbin admits to excitement because a famous Hollywood fortune teller said she was to play in another Von Stroheim picture.

• At least Olive Borden has one consolation along with thast broken contract which has caused so much Hollywood gossip. George O'Brien has been rushing her madly since his return from Europe. But it is nothing serious, Olive insists, and proves it by letting him to to a buffet supper given by Virginia Valli in his honor.

• Waddles is dead. She is survived by her best friend and severest critic, Louise Fazenda. Twelve years ago Louise and Waddles, the Mack Sennett trained druck, crashed the studio gates together. You remember the pair in many comedies, don't you? Long ago Louise retired Waddles on a pension of good food and comfortable lodgings. Waddles lived in the back yard of the comedienne's Wilshire home, and although she was not young when she entered pictures, Louise had come to regard her as a permanent fixture. Now she is gone and Louise mourns her loss.

• Buster Keaton tried a personal appearance tour of prominent picture houses but quit in his second week at a Pittsburgh theater. He was doing a Salome burlesque which proved too strenuous.

• Charming candor on the part of Mae Murray's husband. David Mdivani was arrested for speeding recently in Santa Monica. When the judge asked him his occupation, Mdivani answered simply, "husband."

• Lita Grey-Chaplin and her stage-door Johnny, Mr. Roy D'Arcy. In spite of a heavy settlement from Charlie, Lita has gone on a vaudeville tour. It costs money to build a big house in Beverly Hills. Roy is waiting for one of those leisurely California divorce decrees to ask Lita to become the second Mrs. D'Arcy.

• It is rumored that two hearts have been caught on the rebound. The return of Eddie Sutherland to the Paramount fold to wield the megaphone in the next Bebe Daniels picture is not entirely a business arrangement. Bebe, whose engagement to Jack Pickford seems at an end, and Eddie, who recently received his divorce from Louise Brooks, have been seen frequently together and the wise ones say that Eddie may assume more definite directorial duties in a matrimonial way. 

• Merna and Mrs. Kennedy, and Lita Grey Chaplin and Mrs. Grey all live in the same apartment house but neither couple knows that the other is there! What a problem the landlady must have keeping this tragic information from the various mothers and daughters. You remember it was Lita who introduced Merna to Charlie. 

• A reunion that cut off the revenue of the telephone company. When Lupe Velez was on tour, Gary Cooper spent most of his salary on telephone calls. And he paced the platform of the railway station for two hours before her train was due. That's love. 

• Josephine Dunn returned to MGM, after having been loaned to Fox, in a radiant mood. "The grandest thing happened. They tell me over there that I have sex appeal."

• We start many style in Hollywood. Now a new method for expressing loyalty. Nick Stuart has a new sports car. One door bears Nick's initials and the other carries the initials of Sue Carol. What could be nicer?