The Expressions of Gladys Leslie (1920) 🇬🇧

The dainty ingénue girl with the wondrous smile.

Do you remember “The Vicar of Wakefield,” produced a few years ago? It wasn’t particularly memorable except for the discovery of a little girl with a wondrous smile and camera individuality.

“The Girl with the Million-Dollar Smile” was the title given her by a New York critic in his review of the picture. She was comparatively unknown, but the smile made her famous in a day. With the first showing of The Vicar of Wakefield, the name of Gladys Leslie was written in headlines. Miss Leslie had made her first step on the way to stardom.

To-day she is one of the girls whose popularity is to be reckoned in hundred thousands.

Luck Was Against Her.

It all sounds very much like luck, as do most stories we read of stars. But Miss Leslie assures us that luck had nothing to do with her advancement. Indeed, she felt luck was against her. Before her “bit” in The Vicar of Wakefield, she had been a weary little extra seeking opportunity. For a year or more she had persisted in her attempt to secure a part. It’s no fun waiting about for days to gain a chance to play one day in a mob scene at the wage of fifteen shillings. Miss Leslie’s persistency is the more remarkable because she was not compelled by circumstances to earn a living.

“Had I been, I could never have afforded so much time in watchful waiting,” she remarks.

Her First Part.

But it was time shrewdly invested. Albert E. Smith, the famous star-maker of Vitagraph, who is ever observing new talent on the screen, discerned in Miss Leslie the ability and a certain personal charm of girlishness so popular with the public. He placed her under contract to star in Vitagraph pictures, commencing with “His Own People,” a whimsical tale of old Erin.

Strong Parts.

It was when Gladys Leslie first appeared in a photo-play that an enthusiastic newspaper writer described her as “The Girl with a Million-Dollar Smile.” The name so aptly described her that it stuck, but though Miss Leslie is pleased that her smile has charm, she wants her admirers to know that she can play serious parts. At present we have only seen her in lighter roles, but in the coming plays, “The Girl Woman,” “The Grey Towers Mystery,” and The Golden Shower, we shall see Gladys Leslie is capable of something stronger. These plays show her as an emotional actress. There are more tears in them than laughter.

Stage Plays on the Screen.

Recently Miss Leslie has appeared in two stage plays adapted to the screen, “A Stitch in Time” and “Too Many Crooks.” Both were declared to surpass in amusement quality the stage originals, and “the girl with the million-dollar smile” had not a little to do with the improvement. A new picture, The Girl Woman, starring her, will soon be released. The title would indicate that Miss Leslie had attained maturity. As a star she has, but in appearance she is the fragile bit of femininity to be found in the early ‘teens period.

A Practical Miss.

When Miss Leslie is not in the studio of Vitagraph, she is to be found in her bungalow home a few streets away. It is a quaint house, the romantic sort, with honeysuckles over the porch and roses crowding down to the front gate. But the back garden is the star’s pride. It contains neat beds of all varieties of vegetables.

Gladys Leslie confesses her pet hobby is her garden, not the flower garden, but the edible variety. The flower garden at the Leslie home is very beautiful, but that is under the personal supervision of Gladys’ mother; the vegetable garden is the one Gladys is proud of, and well she might be. Gladys says she is very practical in caring for the kitchen garden, but she has also found an invaluable beauty secret. We all know how fresh salads beautify the skin, and the exercise of gardening is splendid to keep the figure youthful. Not that Gladys needs this, as she has only just had her twenty-first birthday. (It was March 5th, by the way.)

Gladys doesn’t care very much for pets. “I had a nice dog once,” she replied, in answer to a query, “but he died, and I haven’t found another to take his place. I hate silly poodles.”

Her Greatest Wish.

Miss Leslie declares she is utterly lacking in fads and hobbies, that she is, in reality, a freak among actresses. She hasn’t a poodle nor a kitten. She doesn’t case for motoring. She dislikes restaurants and social functions. Her diversions are chiefly reading and gardening. And she actually enjoys long walks. Her ambition is to excel in bright comedy dramas that carry the message of gladness. Particularly does she wish to appear in a film version of Ouida’s [Ouida Bergère] “Two Little Shoes.”

A Full Description.

A friend who has lately spoken with this little star, describes her in appearance as “a child of sixteen, with short, curling blonde hair, brown eyes full of expression, and a fragile, rose-petal prettiness. Her smile is as much with her eyes as her lips, with them she can tell the mood she is in much plainer than if told with mere words. They can be naughty, pleading, merry, flirtatious, demurs and sinister, but mostly they are merry.” It is with her eyes and her million dollar smile that Gladys Leslie has won her high place in the beauteous army of screen stars.

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Gladys Leslie, the Vitagraph Star.

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If you want to write to her, address your letter:
Gladys Leslie,
c/o Vitagraph Studios,
Hollywood, California.

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Photo Captions:

• I like you.
• Innocence.
• I’m interested.
• Her wondrous smile.
• Just shy.
• Her look of fear.

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(Special to “The Picture Show.)”

Collection: Picture Show Magazine, June 1920