Genevieve Tobin — Oh, That Mitzi! (1932) 🇺🇸
Genevieve Tobin has thrown aside cool restraint and is now one of the high-voltage ladies of the screen.
by Ben Maddox
Ten years of stage prominence, two on the screen, and not a trace of a love life is Genevieve Tobin's strange record!
Furthermore, she has got along very nicely entirely on her own and is not pining for a lover. There have been numerous males more than willing to be very much in her life. Genevieve has thanked them kindly, and serenely proceeded to enjoy what comes her way without the proffered company.
If you can remain aloof when all your fellow workers are marrying, divorcing, and continuously falling in and out of love, then you and Genevieve are sisters under the skin.
Until she appeared as the naughty but alluring Mitzi, in One Hour with You, a lot of us were immune to the Tobin charm.
She was first signed as a child actress by William Fox years ago, and in 1923 she reappeared under the same company's banner in an opus called "No Mother to Guide Her," which was billed as "a human drama of life's pitfalls."
An interview with her in Picture Play at that time chronicled the fact that "those in the know believe that she will be an overnight sensation." The predictions of "those in the know" fell on fallow ground. Her sensationalism failed to materialize and she returned to the stage.
Inducted into pictures for the third time in 1930, she displayed herself in "Free Love" and four other films as a capable but unexciting personality. Her contract lapsed and once again she returned to the stage. Beguiled by more dashing and exotic women, we forgot all about Genevieve.
Then came One Hour With You. The lovely Jeanette MacDonald was thrilling, as usual, but oh, that Mitzi! Her hair gone blonder — in the days of No Mother it was auburn — her manners gone hotter, and her restraint gone entirely, la Tobin goaled all of us with her glamour.
It then seemed imperative that I meet this million-voltage lady who had so suddenly turned on the heat. When that free-lance hit for Paramount had won her a six-picture contract with Columbia, I arranged for a noon rendezvous. Ah, one hour with Tobin! She is smaller than you imagine, not ritzy as reputed, and amazingly frank. Her eyes are green and happily cynical. You wouldn't call her a beauty, but certainly you'd classify her as intelligent, cosmopolitan, and witty.
I had heard that she was snobbish, thoroughly disliking Hollywood and its gaudy ways. High-hat? Well, judge for yourself. In make-up and an evening gown she climbed into a roadster and we drove to an inconspicuous French restaurant where we had a forty-cent lunch, served without even the formality of a menu. That alone reveals a lot! She doesn't diet, isn't fussy, and she's a good sport. "Actresses don't marry for love," she explains. "They marry a producer or director to help their careers, or a writer so he will write plays especially for them. I have never married because I know I can't mix alcohol and gasoline!"
Genevieve is not a man-hater. Heaven forbid! She likes us men-folks — at our proper distance!
"I have been making money for years," she explains, "and have never been dependent upon any man. My family and my friends have amused me when I wasn't working. I love acting, but I don't expect to go on emoting indefinitely. Oh, no! When the time comes that I need the companionship of a husband, I'll retire. marry, and raise a family. That will be the end of my career."
The rumor that she is anti-Hollywood is vigorously squelched.
"I can't imagine where that story started. Why, I like it so well that I haven't been back to New York in two years! The climate, the sun, the beaches, are heavenly. Santa Barbara is my pet spot."
Wherever Genevieve happens to be is apt to be her favorite place. When she was playing in London she was all for settling down in the English countryside. Now she can't decide between Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara.
"Actors are half talk. We are always announcing that we will do thus and so. By night we are equally determined to do the opposite. I've made plans for building a home, but somehow never get started on the actual building."
She lives in an apartment with her mother and has had the same Ford car for three years. Although she attends premières occasionally, she is not often seen with the movie folk.
"What have I against Hollywood society? Nothing at all. It's just that I am not well acquainted with those who head cinema society. But I run into all my Broadway friends here and surely can't be called a recluse."
The rapidity with which untrained boys and girls skyrocket to film fame astonishes her. Born in New York City of nonprofessional parents, she and her sister Vivian toured the country in vaudeville as children. She retired to complete her education in Paris, and then made her grown-up debut on Broadway in 1920.
Remember Marion Davies's "Little Old New York"? Genevieve created the stage lead in 1921 and played it for two years. She has shared billing with Leslie Howard and was featured in the English production of The Trial of Mary Dugan. While in London she gave a command performance for British royalty. She spent the whole year before she came West for pictures as leading lady on Broadway in Fifty Million Frenchmen. Her accomplishments include singing, dancing, and considerable ability at the piano and harp.
Her startling metamorphosis from the cool, plain woman we used to see to the enticingly warm Mitzi has attracted more fans to her than all her previous work rolled together.
"Don't evolve any subtle theories about my 'transformation.' I'm an actress! I had never been cast in a screen rôle before Mitzi required vivacity and gayety."
Simple and astounding, isn't it? Love or Svengali directors are credited with all Hollywood miracles. Here's one caused by a script!
Her faith in the power of a good rôle is extraordinary in a city where developing a unique personality is generally considered the major objective.
She likes the screen better than the stage. "If you do four or five plays a year, it's because they are flops. A successful show runs all season and is, therefore, monotonous. The screen offers a never-ending variety."
John Barrymore once told her she was a great actress, and the thrill lingers on. She regrets James Cagney's absence, as he was her favorite actor. Garbo and Dietrich are her feminine crushes. Noel Coward's plays arouse her to great enthusiasm. She thinks that one picture a year is enough for any star.
A self-made person, Genevieve's reputation for being a bit exclusive may have come from her unconscious superiority. Having made her way by specializing in her chosen profession — without pull — and having acted in the best theaters of New York and London, she has acquired a mature outlook that marks her as intellectually a step ahead of the average player.
In "Hollywood Speaks" she portrays a movie-struck girl who would accept death as the alternative to becoming famous in the typical movie manner.
Some day she'll wake up and decide she needs a man in her life. Then she'll bid us all good-by. Until that momentous day she'll keep us guessing as to which of her widely divergent screen selves is the real Tobin.
In the meantime, if it's all the same to you, most efficient of actresses, please give us more pulse-pounding, glamorous girls. You have everything under control most of the time, Genevieve, but when you elect to go hot-cha — well, Maurice, you said it. Oh, that Mitzi!
Alas, "No Mother to Guide Her" was a flop years ago and Genevieve went back to the stage.
Her hair blonder, her manners hotter, the new Tobin makes the fans sit up and take notice.
Collection: Picture Play Magazine, October 1932