The Capital Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page 18

The Sun Tan Vogue Again Hits Film Capital Movie Stars Woo Sun Rays As Wa Days Arrive-Swimming Popular Diversion Among Actresses '3 4,. TlkX k. -v I I "OTt' Jlr jf Above is none other than the rollicking It" (IP. NJisV II Crawtord is one of JW WT Joan Blondcll whose secret ambition is II II Hollywood's most ardent sun -gr to give up the comedy roles for which CiJ rtfr 'l'f, worshippers and has one of jm I she has become famous and become a fC. CT' 1 JL the finest private plunges in jg3r I dramatic actress.

The size of the box lLT dZ'V. the screen capital. J' office receipts for her comedies, how- tMjF j4 L. 1 M0m jJCtej-j-j af ever, indicate she may be compelled to postpone realization of her ambition. Joan Blondell Reveals Secret Desire Is To Forsake Comedy Roles For Drama Inviting waters must be overlooked when three pretty young actresses, such as pictured here, grace the nearby rocks in cjuest of a summer tan.

They are, left to right, Grace Bradley, Ann Sheridan and Toby Wing as they appeared at Catalina island. By Linda Lane SUN TAN will be the rule again this summerl This fact came to light when Joan Crawford, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, greeted her guests, recently, in a smart suit of navy crepe, and a coat of sun tan that forecasts deep-toned complexions for the coming months! According to the star, the tan was acquired at home, rather than at the beach. Daily sun baths, starting at 15 minutes and gradually increasing in length, is responsible for the even, golden-brown coloring. "Most girls make the mistake of trying to get IV all at one sitting," she explained. "This results in uncomfortable burns.

Taken gradually, any skin is capable of gaining and retaining a sun tan." Joan started this fad several years ago. Due to continuous work last summer she lacked the opportunity for acquiring the desired, shade but she plans to get this season's sun tan early 1 The candid cameraman caught Joan in an afternoon in her beautiful swimming pool in the back yard of her famous Brentwood Height? home. Her favorite sport, she rarely misses a day through the summer months. Absent from the screen for more than six months, Miss Crawford is now appearing in "The Gorgeous Hussy," a historical romance of early American and the star's first large scale costume vehicle, ELIZABETH RUSSELL comes from an odd sorority set against the background of America's largest city. Us members are among the world's most beautiful women, and they move about in the shadow of New York's Empire State building, Rockerfcller Center and Radio City.

They arc the professional photographer'? models, whose calling is a product of an ultra modem world, and from whose ranks in recent months have been enlisted many potential motion picture stars, among them Miss Russell. She brings with her to Hollywood a knowledge of camera angles, smart attire, and positions of the body which are pleasing to the eye. In other words Miss Russell has already been tutored in many of the subjects which are a part of the education of every competent movie actress. Blond and patrician, Miss Russell has another quality which may or may not result from her training as a photographer's model, but which is indispensable in the often-timea trying pursuit of motion picture acting. It is a sense of humor and an unfailing perspective.

She is quite convinced that Miss Russell is not another Carole Lombard or Marlene Dietrich not just yet anyway and her limitations, which she invariably JUST by way of proving that he is just as good a business man as he is a singer and an actor, Al Jolson bought the rights to a New York stage play about six years ago and turned around and sold them to Warner Brothers for a neat profit. Al pocketed the money and eventually spent it; the studio made the picture, which was successful, and everybody was happy. But probably the happiest person connected with this film, which turned out to be what is known in screen parlance as a "star finder" and a "history maker," was an unknown little actress that the studio Imported in Hollywood to play the same role she had created on the New York stage. Her name was Joan Blondell. Joan was given a property trunk as her first cradle for her father, Eddie Blondell, not only was a well-known comedian on the vaudeville stage, but his family travelled and played in the act with him.

By the time Joan was able to walk out on the stage, she, too, Was playing a part No talk about the wolf, nor discussions of ways and means for keeping him from the door, was ever heard in the early life of Joan. Tiny fur coats, the most expensive dolls, and trips to Paris were her lot. Up to the time Joan was seven, each of her birthdays was celebrated in a different country; then up to and including her twenty-second birthday, each was spent in a different city, since the successful Blondell troupe toured America, Europe and Australia, keeping always on the move. When Joan was 17, her family settled in Santa Monica long enough for her to attend high school, where, she admits, she was anything but a belle. Caring little for clothes, she was something of a tnm-boy.

So it is the more strange that, a couple of years later, Joan, with her sister Gloria, opened a little gown shop across the street from a junior college in Denton, Tex. The venture failed for, running into one of the few streaks of bad luck that Joan Blondell has ever had, she learned shortly after opening the shop that a new order had been passed, decreeing that all of the prospective school-girl customers must henceforth wear uniforms! DECIDING then to go on being an actress, Joan ran away from home and joined a Dallas stock company. Her reason for leaving her family, however, was just the opposite from that usually given by aspiring actresses. There was no parental opposition; instead, Joan wished to go out "on her own," in order to earve out her own career without trading on the family name, which had long been famous In theatrical circles. Moreover, she wished greater opportunity to play really dramatic roles than the family vau-'eville act afforded.

The turning point since it seems that there must always be a turning point, In a success story to Joan's career came when she got a minor role in "Penny Arcade," the play that Jolson bought A some-what mousey-looking girl with enormous blue eyes and light brown hair, Joan came west to appear In the film version, later released as "Sinner's Holiday," and despite her nondescript annea-ance, scored so effectively that she was given a long contract and cast immediately In another of what proved to be a long series of outstanding, wise-cracking, robust roles. AS SOON as Joan had signed her first long term contract, her first move was to establish herself in a real home. She adores domesticity with the fierce love of a globe-trotter tired out, and each house in which she has lived during her six years in Hollywood has become a clever combination of beauty and comfort. Joan sees to that by supervising the furnishing and decoration herself. Now that she is the mother of little Norman Scott Barnes, Joan has also amazed her friends and fans by proving that she is one of the best mamas in all Hollywood.

Joan is fully as slangy in real life as the characters she portrays so often on the screen. Yet she can astound interviewers by talking at length on a variety of subjects, in beautiful, vivid English that shows deep thought, wide reading, and a carefully assimilated vocabulary. Lately, (friends date the change identically with the time she began going with Dick Powell) Joan has shown an unusual interest in clothes, and has become a joy to the Warner Brothers designer, Orry-Kelly, for her new found ability to wear them smartly. Previously, Joan could hardly be begged or brow-beaten into showing up' for fittings; "Oh, you make it, and I'll wear it you know what to do," she would say carelessly, and then disappear for a couple of days trout fishing just before the beginning of a picture. But now all that is changed.

Joan's personal wardrobe has taken on such smartness and beauty that her friends can hardly believt their eyes when Joan appears at a dance gowned in the latest mode, cleverly selected. Joan's present ambition is to give up her rollicking comedy characterizations, and establish herself as one of the foremost dramatic actresses of the screen. But from the way her fans stand in line outside the box-office to see the films in which she now appears, it looks as if it might be some time before she is allowed to make that change. BECAUSE few persons even in Hollywood pro. nounce the names of the stars correctly, pronouncing "gazetteer," listing the names of the leading players, was added to the research department of the various major studios.

Do you pronounce Claudette Colbert's name the way it is spelled? If you do, you are wrong. It should be pronounced Cole-bair with the accent on the second syllable. Do you pronounce Marlene Dietrich's first name Marleen? It should be pronounced Mar-lay-na, with the accent on the second syllable. While a person following the French and German pronunciations of the Colbert and Dietrich names would be correct, the error of following national pronunciations is illustrated by two other listed names, also French and German. These are Virginia Weidler, the child actress who has just been elevated to stardom for her work in "Girl of the Ozarks," and George Bar-bier, who has just signed a new long term contract Virginia Weidler's family has changed the pronunciation from Viedler after the German manner to Wideler, as English speaking people would naturally pronounce It.

Bnrhier's French namehas also been biographic dictionary lists it as Bar-beer, with the accent on the final syllable. A popular newcomer to the screen is beautiful Elizabeth Russell, the former New York model, who was signed recently for an important role in a forthcoming production. discovers and corrects before her director gets around to them, have a most engaging way of provoking laughter, which wells up in her like an overflow of good spirits, which It nndoubt-adly Is. IN LESS than a month, Count Andre Tolstoy, man without a country, will cease to exist. Receiving his final naturaliiation papers, the great grand nephew of the Russian writer will become plain Andre Tolstoy of Hollywood citi-an of the United States.

And an will end An Vladivostok they crossed to China and were die-. armed at the border. Penetrating the interior in groups, they were fed and cared for by roving Chinese brigands, who regarded them as brothers. One bandit chief suggested they join his band, promising wealth from pillage. Two of Tolstoy's friends accepted.

Now, he said, they are living in luxury In Paris. He and a friend left the others and journeyed 700 miles on foot to an interior town, arriving without shoes, hungry, and in rags. Later Tolstoy joined the forces of the war lord, Chang Tze Lin, as machine gunner instructor. And there he absorbed much of the knowledge of China that Paramount is now paying for in his capacity of technical advisor. Although he'd like to go back to Russia for a visit "just to see what is happening there now" he has no desire to live there again.

"I'm an American now," he says. "This is my home from now en." he haa no sympathy for foreigners who make their living in this country without becoming citizens. Acting as technical adviser on Paramount's "Chinese Gold," starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll, Tolstoy remembers nothing of his famfMia great grand uncle. Count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, nor of, the big house at Yasna Polneva, where as a child he was frequently taken to visit. Son of a former high ranking officer of the imperial navy, he was 16 when he joined the White Russian forces in the counter rebellion of Overwhelmed by the Bolshevik tide, the Kolchnk troops embarked on one of the most remarkable military feata of the World War the retreat serosa froien Siberia to Vladivostok.

IT REGAN with a half million men and took nearly two years. leaa than 25,000 survivors, fagged, gaunt and starving, arrived. From other chapter in one of the most colorful sonal histories to be found In the picture capital. Exile from his nntive land, wanderer, survivor of the famous "ice-retreat" of the Kolchak army croaa Siberia, Tolstoy arrived In thia country, almost destitute. Since then he has found a place In the picture Industry, married, built himself a home, haa become thoroughly Americanized.

Only 86, mild-mannered, with a small brown mustache and but a trace of hts native accent, PA6I FOUR I.