Lads and Lassies of Laughter (1926) — Part I 🇺🇸
We know just every single thing about the beaus and belles of the movie dramas — who are their favorite poets, where and how they live, and how many times married if any, and if not, why not. If we crave more details, all we have to do is to read the ads in the magazines. There we read heart-searching accounts of the kind of cars they prefer, their most ardent sentiments regarding this or that cold cream, and their passionate preferences in perfumes.
And all the while there is an army of youngsters who are being sadly neglected by the publicists, but whose motto might well be, "I care not who makes their dramas, so I make them laugh!"
Maybe you would like to know about that cutie you saw with Charley Chase last night; or about that good-looking youngster who made love to Mabel Normand in her last picture. That's just what I am here to tell you. So gather round, children, and we will do a little explaining and search-lighting.
Not that any of these children are likely to become Chaplins or Normands, because the present-day comedy business doesn't run to the development of eccentric types. But you will hear a lot about some of them in future, quite likely in dramas, as comedy is a wonderful training for any screen career, because it teaches the player to put points over keenly and quickly.
Take that clever Alice Day, for instance. There's a sweet little youngster who is going to crowd a lot of the tear-teasers among the dramatic actresses right off the screen.
Yet, on the other hand, Alice, who has a special comedy talent, may be heard of later on playing high comedy — a phase to which our screen comedy already has a tendency.
Alice has blue eyes and is one of the few girls still back in the horse-and-buggy period, with her long, curly hair. You are bound to love Alice the minute you meet her, and you know right away that you could confide all your troubles to her and that if she could help you she would. She goes little to cafes and other public places, and her associates are mostly high-school girls and boys.
The little comedienne was born in Pueblo, Colorado, and her father is a building contractor who came to Los Angeles during the real estate boom in 1922. Alice at once entered, high school, and, having finished, she trotted about the studios with her sister, Marceline, asking for work. It didn't take them long to obtain it, and Alice had played extras only six months when she was cast for the second lead in Fox's "Temple of Venus." Her next work was as the eldest daughter of Norma Talmadge in "Secrets," a part which admirably suited Alice's quaint, old-fashioned personality. In this role Mack Sennett first saw her while searching for a leading lady for Harry Langdon, his new star.
Alice played Harry Langdon's leading lady for one year. being then launched as a comedienne in her own two-reel comedies. Her first comedy, "Tee for Two," was warmly accepted by the critics and the fans, and Miss Day was hailed as a comedy find.
Alice can play slapstick comedy, and make it appear accidental! That is a gift. But more than that, she can play slapstick comedy without appearing in the least coarse.
Then there is Ruth Taylor, who was recently signed as leading lady to Ben Turpin. Much more is required of comediennes than used to be, since the action is more carefully planned. Moreover, the picture comedienne is no longer merely the goat for funny situations; she starts a good many of the complications. Ruth, who is cute and blond, is always brilliantly adequate, they say, to every situation.
Ruth is one of the little Cinderellas of the movies. She was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but her parents moved to Portland, Oregon, when Ruth was three years old. Her father became one of Portland's prominent business men.
The comedienne attended the Portland Heights School, graduating from Lincoln High in that city in 1922, when her family moved to Los Angeles. Having had some training in dancing and dramatics, Ruth was ambitious to enter motion-picture work. After a time she obtained extra work at Universal City, followed by some comedy roles at the Fox studio. An ingenue part in "The Bridge of Sighs" at Warners' in 1924 helped give her a start along the road to fame. Now Mack Sennett has signed her to a five-year contract.
Ruth may establish a distinctive type, it is said. She is that rare individual, a blond vamp. Usually, vamps are dark, you know, but Ruth has the naughty twinkle in her blue eyes that usually goes with dark orbs.
While it is hard to make anybody outside pictures believe that a blond vamp in comedies likes to read, Ruth really does. Her favorite recreations are books, horseback riding and dancing.
Martha Sleeper lives up to anything but her last name. She is beautiful, talented, brilliant. She writes as well as acts, and is a dancer of unusual ability. Lately, she has taken a notion to write scenarios, and the Hal Roach Studio folks are, altogether, mighty proud of her.
Martha was born in Forest Bluff, Illinois, on June 24, 1910, which makes her, as you can see, only sixteen years old now.
At ten to twelve years of age, she danced in Carnegie Hall, at the Metropolitan Opera House, and elsewhere in New York. Her pantomimic ability as a child was remarkable, and when a tiny tot, she used to amuse her family by imitating players she saw.
Her mother was an actress before she married William B. Sleeper, who lately passed away, and who was a Montana rancher and one-time congressman. Martha was deeply devoted to her father, and her grief at his death was deepened by the fact that he died while Martha and her mother were on their first trip back to New York since she had left there to go into pictures. Martha's mother was not only an actress, but also a painter of no mean ability.
Martha left New York for pictures when she was thirteen, signing with Hal Roach. She is regarded as an excellent eccentric type, somewhat similar to Louise Fazenda, in spite of being a very pretty girl. She loves playing character roles.
The little actress does a tremendous amount of work daily, including writing, besides several hours a day spent at outdoor sports when she is not working in a picture. She is a fine horsewoman, and likes tennis and golf. She does four hours a day of actual school work also.
A very interesting and picturesque figure is Mildred Yorba, daughter of Alonzo Yorba, owner of one of the old historic ranches at Fullerton, near Los Angeles, and scion of an ancient Spanish family of California. The Yorbas were among the. first Spanish settlers in California, and received a grant from the King of Spain of all land from San Diego to Alhambra, and from the foothills to the ocean. That was in the eighteenth century. They are now principally ranchers and holders of oil lands.
Mildred is an ambitious girl. Having finished high school, she decided that she would like to be a lawyer. She looked about her, saw to what lengths some of the formerly wealthy Spanish families had been reduced by poverty through carelessness and ignorance of business, and made up her mind to help them by becoming an attorney and aiding them in the law courts and as adviser in business matters.
She took up a law course, finishing last March after studying hard for four years. She will take her law examinations this fall. She is a brunette and one of the prettiest girls at the Roach studios, where she has been playing a part with Monty Banks in "Attaboy." This is her first work in pictures, and if she passes her law examinations, and becomes a Portia, it may be her last.
Another mighty pretty girl at the Roach studios is Virginia Bradford, leading woman in "Attaboy." She went to high school in Los Angeles along with Alice and Marceline Day. who are still Virginia's chums. All three started in pictures at the same time.
Virginia is a great-great-great — or thereabouts — grand-daughter of Massachusetts' first governor, William Bradford. She is auburn-haired and pretty. She began in stock at Universal, playing in Westerns for two years, after which she went to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under contract. She was borrowed from the latter studio to play with Banks.
When Leola Rose, Mildred Yorba, and Jeanette Loff are all on the Roach lot, you would think, judging from the look of their motor cars, that there was a bankers' convention afoot! All three are rich and have almost enough cars to match their various gowns. Indeed, the day I met Leola, she was wearing a mauve and golden-brown dress, and her car was mauve and golden brown, too!
Leola Rose is the daughter of one of Los Angeles' leading financiers, and is prominent socially. She did not think of entering pictures until one night at a dinner party, when somebody connected with pictures kidded her, telling her she ought to work in films. She called his bluff.
Nobody thought this pampered child of wealth would stick it out more than one day, especially as she was called on as an extra, to do all sorts of stunts. But she took it all gamely, and now seems headed for success. She worked in "Attaboy" with Banks.
Jeannette Loff is a society girl, too. She is a petite blonde, and she played a small part in Banks' picture, after which Cecil DeMille gave her a chance in several films.
It would never do to leave the Roach studio without telling you something about the new find, "Scooter" Lowry, now four years old, who has joined "Our Gang."
Scooter first gained fame a whole year ago, at a big benefit performance conducted by Gus Edwards. His "gag" was to come toddling out onto the stage between numbers, during numbers, or at any old time he desired, and do anything he felt like doing, usually funny little dances. When Hal Roach was in New York a few months ago, on business, Gus Edwards arranged that Scooter should go out to the Roach office and meet the producer. Scooter explained to Mr. Roach that, being four years old, it was high time he had a job with "Our Gang," and Mr. Roach fully agreed with him.
Scooter is a kid who believes he can whip anybody twice his size. The "Our Gang" players taught him that he cannot, but he still believes he can try. He is a good dancer, mimic, and fighter, and will give away a pocket knife and a black eye in the same breath.
Wesley Barry being all grown up and married, some kid had to fall heir to his freckles, and it begins to look as though Junior Ceghlan is that kid. You have seen him in Marshall Neilan's pictures, "Mike" and "Skyrocket," and mayhap with Leatrice Joy in "The Poverty of Riches."
When Junior was three years old, his parents took him to Hollywood, with no intention of entering him in pictures. Doctor Coghlan established a practice in Hollywood, where Junior's engaging grin, freckles, and mop of yellow hair drew everybody's attention to him. Finally, his mother decided, after everybody told her that her son should be in pictures, to register him at the studios. His first real part was with Leatrice Joy in the picture mentioned above. Afterward he played not only in the Neilan pictures, but in "Cause for Divorce," "Bobbed Hair," "Garrison's Finish," "The Fourth Musketeer," and "The Road to Yesterday." He so pleased Mr. DeMille in the latter film that he was signed for his stock company.
Out at Universal is a pretty girl who is reaching out to stardom. Dorothy Gulliver is her name. She hails from Salt Lake City.
Not long ago, she made up her mind she was going into pictures. And to make up your mind about a thing like that in Salt Lake City requires imagination as well as courage. But her success came away ahead of her own schedule. Through the pages of the Salt Lake City Telegram, Dorothy was chosen to represent her city in a beauty contest to be held by an Eastern company. While she was awaiting word to come East, a Universal camera man and director, traveling in connection with producing Reginald Denny's "California Straight Ahead," stopped in Salt Lake City to make screen tests of local girls. By good luck and the mistake of a society editor. Dorothy took the test. A few weeks later, she was given a contract with Universal.
Though it has been only a year since the pretty eighteen-year-old Salt Lake City girl came to Hollywood, she has established herself as a promising screen player. She has played leads with Arthur Lake and Jack Hoxie, and is at present being featured with George Lewis [George J. Lewis] in The Collegians, a series of ten two-reel stories of college life. [Transcriber's Note: More than 40 two-reelers of this series were produced from 1926 to 1929]
[Editor's Note. — In the November Picture-Play Miss Kingsley will continue her chatty cataloguing of the boys and girls in comedies.]
Alice Day, dainty and charming, is a far cry from the rough-and-tumble comedy girl of yesterday.
Photo by: George Frederic Cannons (1897–1972)
Ruth Hiatt, of the Sennett forces, is another dainty beauty you will recognize.
Photo by: George Frederic Cannons (1897–1972)
Martha Sleeper's talent and beauty distinctly belie her last name. She's only sixteen, too, and Hal Roach is proud of her.
"Scooter" Lowry, who has joined ''Our Gang."
Leola Rose is a rich girl who finds comedies to her liking. She has a mauve-and-brown motor car, one of several, and could never play "a woman of no importance."
Photo by: Mandeville
Jeannette Loff, another of Hal Roach's garden of girls, is a recruit from society and the finishing school.
Photo by: Melbourne Spurr (1888–1964)
Junior Coghlan has fallen heir to Wesley Barry's freckles, and displays much talent of his own.
Photo by: William E. Thomas (1895–1961)
Dorothy Gulliver, who may have inspired Universal to announce "Gulliver's Travels," is playing in The Collegians, a comedy series.
Photo by: Roman Freulich (1898–1974)
Virginia Bradford is descended from the first Governor of Massachusetts, if you please, and is leading woman for Monty Banks in "Attaboy" — which is no descent at all!
Photo by: George Frederic Cannons (1897–1972)
Collection: Picture Play Magazine, October 1926