Jane Novak — That Chin (1922) 🇺🇸
Some beautiful women have made one thing famous — some another.
by Mary Winship
For instance, there are:
- Mary Pickford’s curls.
- Kitty Gordon’s back.
- Gloria Swanson’s nose.
- Bebe Daniels’ mouth.
- Mabel Normand’s eyes.
- Pavlowa’s [Anna Pavlova] toes.
- Phyllis Haver’s ankles.
- And Betty Blythe’s figure.
- When you think of Charlie Chaplin the first thing you picture is the famous feet.
- Doug Fairbanks [ Douglas Fairbanks Sr.] could be identified in the pyramids by his grin.
- Wally Reid [Wallace Reid] has done almost as much to make eyebrows famous as Bob Fitzsimmons did to teach us the locality of the solar plexus.
- It remained for Jane Novak to bring into the limelight the chin.
The idea of a chin that is beautiful, expressive and appealing was originated by Jane Novak, so far as motion pictures are concerned.
There is something about Jane Novak’s chin that is wholly original.
Had she lived a few thousand years ago, her adorers would have written sonnets to her chin. You know the kind I mean.
If you will think for a moment about Miss Novak, you will recall that chin. When it quivers delicately, uncontrollably, you experience a rush of warm sympathy for which any leading woman should be grateful.
When it curls a bit and exhibits a whole flock of dancing little dimples, it provokes a smile — tempered by a tear.
And when it freezes stark with terror — remember in “River’s End” — it can express more horror and make your hair feel more stand-on-endish than most tragediennes can convey to you with their whole faces and hands.
It is a very useful chin — and usually chins are about as useless as a hatpin would be to a bobbed haired girl.
It was rather interesting to me to discover, in discussing her with several Hollywood authorities, that she has a marvelous reputation as a business woman and that she is one of the two highest priced leading women in pictures in the west. Colleen Moore is the other.
That is partly of course because a lot of good leading women are now mediocre stars.
But the fact remains that Miss Novak and little Colleen — now playing for Goldwyn in Rupert Hughes’ productions — have boosted the weekly pay check into the four figure class, and that such money is paid not only for ability but for popularity.
I myself feel her charm. But I cannot quite understand it. Sitting across the luncheon table from her I tried to analyze it, to discover the why and wherefore of her success.
She is medium tall, with a slim, girlish figure that adapts itself well to the straight-cut, heavy tweeds she affects. Her eyes are a rather light blue — Swedish blue — and not at all out of the ordinary, save perhaps for their expression, which is unusually sweet and placid. Her hair is a nondescript blonde. Her mouth is pretty and very expressive. But altogether she is the sort of a person you wouldn’t notice in a crowd. And yet — and yet —
All the time your reason is establishing that very thing, her gentle, pervasive charm is seeping into your brain like the pale scent of narcissus. She registers in your brain not flashily, but deeply, so that you have no trouble in calling her distinctly to mind.
“How long have you been in pictures?” I asked her, as we admired Alice Lake’s chic new gray frock across the aisle.
“Eight years. Isn’t this salad great?” said Jane.
Probably that is the only time on record that an actress being interviewed ever admired a salad that wasn’t supposed to be concocted by her lily white hands. It was great. Thick slices of very ripe, red tomatoes, sandwiched with thick slices of pineapple and melted together with thousand island dressing.
“Eight years,” Miss Novak was musing, “goodness, how things have changed! You see, I was born and brought up in St. Louis and when I got through high school, I had an aunt that was interested in the pictures. She brought me out to California to get in — and I did.
“I began with the old Kalem, playing anything that came along. After a while I was promoted to leading lady. Why, I was leading woman in an old Kalem company when Harold Lloyd and Roy Stewart alternated in the principal parts — when Harold was the star in a comedy, Roy Stewart played villain or character man or heavy stuff. When Roy had the big part in a western, Harold played grandfathers and juveniles. I was the leading lady either way it went.
“The first real hit I ever made was in ‘The Eyes of the World.’
“Since then I’ve done a lot of pictures with Bill Hart, and feature productions. I just finished ‘The Rosary’ for Selig and now I’m to be starred in Chester Bennett productions. We’re going to do outdoor things entirely.
“And I’ve only worn an evening gown in a picture twice in five years.”
Aside from her screen reputation, Miss Novak’s chief claim to fame has been the frequency with which her engagement to William S. Hart has been announced. When the papers are shy a picture for Monday morning, they publish a pretty one of Jane Novak, above the rumor that she and Bill are going to be married soon.
Miss Novak doesn’t talk about it, and while there is the greatest friendship between the two, close friends at present state that they don’t believe there will be any wedding bells in that direction for some time to come.
She has been married and divorced — her husband’s name was Frank Newburg and she has a baby daughter four years old. She lives with her sister — Eva [Eva Novak] — in a pretty Hollywood home.
Altogether she is a hard working, well read, normal, well behaved young woman.
And then — there’s that Chin.
—
Although they are great friends, neither anticipates wedding bells for a long time
Illustrating the Chin
—
—
When the newspapers are shy a picture of a pretty woman Monday mornings they run one of Jane Novak above the rumor that she and Bill Hart are to be married soon
Collection: Photoplay Magazine, January 1922