Charlotte Stevens — Showered with Gifts (1927) 🇺🇸
To have a father who lives in the Philippines and spends much of his time traveling about the Orient, has both advantages and disadvantages, Charlotte Stevens has found.
The disadvantage is, that she sees him only once a year, when he visits her in Hollywood, where she lives with her aunt. But on the other hand, there are those wonderful packages that come twice a month, filled with gifts that make all the other girls envious.
How would you, for instance, like to own an exquisite Philippine dress that once belonged to a Filipino chief’s daughter? It consists of layers of black and red, gorgeously embroidered in glittering gold, and has wide bat sleeves. There are also in Charlotte’s wardrobe stunning silk pajamas and kimonos that her father sent her when he was in Shanghai.
In her jewel box are hand-carved ivory bracelets, a black coral bracelet, two hand-carved pendants of white jade, and queer rings with odd, gleaming stones. The prize of her collection is a necklace from Tokyo made of two hundred and fifty hand-cut crystals.
Her apartment is filled with trinkets — a paper weight and inkstand made by a Filipino boy, a musical cigarette box, unique bowls, reed baskets.
The annual visit of her father to Hollywood is an eagerly awaited event. He comes from Manila laden with still more interesting gifts.
A “second Norma Talmadge” is what they call Charlotte in Hollywood. And there is, indeed, a striking resemblance between Norma and this youngster with the big brown eyes, cut obliquely at the corners. She has, at times, the piquancy and insouciance that Norma displayed in Kiki and, again, that quiet charm which is more characteristic of Norma. Charlotte is of Italian and English ancestry, with a prosaic Chicago background.
She is one of the most industrious of the younger girls in pictures. She leads a whirlwind life, acting at times on the local stage as well as before the camera.
Just why Charlotte hasn’t gone further in her picture work is a puzzle to her friends, but they all believe that she will eventually win out. At present, she plays chiefly in Westerns for small companies.
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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, August 1927