Photoplay Magazine – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

They Were Their Own Favorite Stars…(Photoplay Magazine, 1937)

An interesting little excerpt from a much longer article revealed that the Windsors preferred gazing at their own newsreel footage for thirty minutes each night rather than gawk at the current movie offerings of the day:

From their 16mm films of themselves, extra prints were made and rushed to England, where the Duke and Duchess of Kent and other friends and admirers of the exiled ex-king devoured them from time to time.

If you would like to read the longer article, click here.

Greta Garbo in the Dream Factory
(Photoplay Magazine, 1930)

A juicy nine page article about the meteoric rise of Greta Garbo (B. Greta Lovisa Gustafsson: 1905 – 1990) in European films, her arrival in California, the contracts signed, and an account of her earliest Hollywood films.

Flight Officer Lawrence Olivier
(Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

When the actor Lawrence Olivier (1907 – 1989) first heard that a state of war existed between Britain and Germany, he was enjoying the breezes off the shore of Southern California in a sailboat skippered by Hollywood’s heir expectant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and it was to Fairbanks that the attached letter was addressed. When this letter was written, Olivier was posted to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm where he gained the understanding that aeronautics was an acquired taste, and one that he simply could not cultivate. In his book International Stars at War, author James Wise noted that Flight Officer Olivier would soon be judged incompetent by the Royal Navy and released for other duties more in line with his abilities (like writing this highly self-conscious letter to his Hollywood friend).

Fairbanks, on the other hand, played an important roll in the U.S. Navy and by the war’s end was sporting a chest-full of ribbons.

Elsa Schiaparelli Recommends…(Photoplay Magazine, 1936)

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890 – 1973), Paris’ leading fashion authority of the 1930s tells how to dress inexpensively and yet look smart as a star.:

Cheap jewelery should never be worn unless it happens to be something that you positively know suits you. Pearls, including cheap ones, are always in good taste.

Women can learn from men and improve their ‘chic’. A man wouldn’t think of wearing a tight shoe or one that didn’t harmonize with his suit.

Howard Hughs and HELL’S ANGELS
(Photoplay Magazine, 1930)

The Thrilling, romantic story of how Howard Hughes, the millionaire kid, who tossed fortunes into the making of Hell’s Angels

The editors of Photoplay, like many in the Hollywood community between the years 1927 through 1930, were extremely curious about wunderkind Howard Hughes (1905 – 1976) and the wildly expensive film he was directing that never seemed able to reach a state of completion, Hell’s Angels. This article, by Bogart Rogers, makes clear that by the time the film was released, production costs had soared beyond the four million dollar range (although some contemporary sources believe it was a few hundred thousand south of that number)- and most infamously, four aviators had been killed during the filming. This article sums-up the Hollywood career of Howard Hughes up to 1930 and seeks to separate some of the falsehoods that circulated about the boy-director.

Hollywood Star Condemns the Draft
(Photoplay Magazine, 1917)

The silent film actor J. Warren Kerrigan (1882 – 1947; played in such films as Captain Blood, Samson and Delilah and The Covered Wagon) was singled out for ridicule following a poorly conceived remark that all artists should be exempted from military service. The editors of Photoplay Magazine counter-attacked with a short list of the creative souls who have served regardless of their talents to entertain or provoke thought.

Apparently getting skewered in the press had no effect on him; he still wouldn’t register for the draft for another thirteen months.

Errol Flynn: Defender of Hollywood Morality
(Photoplay Magazine, 1937)

A sly little grin must have come to the lips of the editors of Photoplay when they asked Hollywood’s reigning scandal-monger, Errol Flynn (1909 – 1959), to write a small treatise concerning Hollywood morals – and he accepted their offer. Flynn sharpened his pencil and scribbled the following lighthearted defense of Hollywood hedonism; contradicting himself at several points, he opined that Hollywood was not much different than any other neighborhood – and actors are always good because they’re too closely monitored to do bad – and if you don’t believe that, then you should know that the acting trade brings out in all who heed the call a certain character trait that makes any monogamy highly unlikely.

European Praise for American Silent Comedies
(Photoplay Magazine, 1931)

Written at a time when it was widely recognized that the silent film era had finally run it’s course and talking pictures were here to stay, the film critic for the Sunday Express (London) stepped up to the plate and heaped praise on the Hollywood film colony for having produced such an abundance of sorely-needed comedies which allowed Europe to get through some difficult times:

While German films were steeped in menacing morbidity and Russian films wallowed in psychopathic horrors; while Swedish film producers turned to Calvinistic frigidities, and Britain floundered in apologetic ineptitude…Hollywood’s unfailing stream of fun and high spirits has kept the lamp of optimism burning in Europe.

The Best Years of Our Lives
(Photoplay Magazine, 1947)

The post-World War II film The Best Years of our lives (1947) is attached herein, reviewed by the senior editor of Photoplay:

Of all the films released since August 1945 it best dramatizes the problems of men returning from war and of their families to whom they return…It eloquently preaches the need for veterans to do their share in the adjustment between home and soldier and between employer and returning worker. It eloquently preaches against the ugly attempts of the few to incite in these chaotic days race and religious hatreds. And it eloquently preaches the truth that physical disability need not cripple a man’s soul or his opportunities.

Jean Harlow, Star
(Photoplay Magazine, 1931)

When this interview appeared on the newsstands, Jean Harlow (1911 – 1937) had fifteen credits under her belt (most of them short films) and only six years left until she would assume room temperature as a result of kidney failure. Written by the PHOTOPLAY reporter Leonard Hall (who would like us to believe that he was a Hollywood studio psychiatrist), this is a light and breezy two page interview conducted at the New Yorker Hotel at a time when that establishment appealed to Hollywood Royalty.

Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.

Gahndi and American Movies
(Photoplay Magazine, 1937)

Roving Photoplay correspondent Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. traveled far afield to Yerovila Jail in Poona in order to ask the incarcerated Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948) a question of an entirely trivial nature:

What is your favorite American movie?

Movie Night in the Worker’s Paradise
(Photoplay, 1937)

Saturday night in Stalin’s Moscow: so much to do! If you wanted to take your date to a Russian movie you could go to Battleship Potemkin, or you could take her to Battleship Potemkin, or to Battleship Potemkin! On the other hand, you might choose a foreign movie that was approved by the all-knowing Soviet apparatchik, and in that case the two of you would see a Charlie Chaplin movie – and we’ll give you one guess as to which one he liked.

Click here if you want to know what films Hitler liked.

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS
(Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

The attached article is essentially a behind the scenes look at the making of Walt Disney’s 1938 triumph Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:

• He employed 569 people who worked all day and frequently all night to finish it.

•The film took three and half years to make and cost $1,500,000.00.

•He concocted 1500 different paints to give it unmatched color.

•He spent $70,000.00 developing a brand new camera to give it depth.

•He threw away four times the drawings he made and the film he shot.

•He made over 2,000,000 separate drawings…

Although Disney’s wife, Lilian, was said to have remarked, No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture, the movie generated more box office receipts than any other film in 1938.

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS
(Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

The attached article is essentially a behind the scenes look at the making of Walt Disney’s 1938 triumph Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:

Although Disney’s wife, Lilian, was said to have remarked, No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture, the movie generated more box office receipts than any other film in 1938.

Converted Film Haters
(Photoplay Magazine, 1920)

Tin Pan Alley songster (and later Hollywood musical composer) Howard Dietz (1896-1983) penned this verse for Vanity Fair in celebration of the persuasive charm of film:

We used to sneer at movies; they were vulgar

To our aesthetic, cultured sort of mind;

Amusement for the lowbrows or people who had no brows…

Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith.

Gloria Swanson: Hollywood Diva
(Photoplay Magazine, 1930)

A segment from a slightly longer 1930 profile covering the high-life and Hollywood career of La Belle Swanson. Written by actor and theater producer Harry Lang (1894 – 1953), the article concentrates on her triumphs during her lean years, her assorted marriages and her healthy fashion obsessions.

Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York nightclubs of 1937.

Realistic Training for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
(Photoplay Magazine, 1931)

Prior to reading this PHOTOPLAY article we were convinced that Oliver Stone’s Vietnam war film, PLATOON (1986) was the first production of it’s kind to actually take the effort to school all cast and extras as to the horrors of war; however it seems that this unique distinction goes to All Quiet on the Western Front.

In this interview the seven leading cast members discuss how the making of that movie disturbed each of them in profound ways:

We went into that picture a group of average wise-cracking fellows. We didn’t come out that way…

A small notice has been added that announced that the movie had been banned in Austria.

A 1929 review of the book can be read here

Edith Head on Paris Frocks
(Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

A telegraph from Hollywood costume designer Edith Head (1897 – 1981) to the editorial offices of PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE listing various highlights of the 1938 Paris fashion scene. Not surprisingly, it reads like a telegram:

Paris says:

• Long waistlines, short flared skirts, fitted bodices, tweeds combines with velvet, warm colors…

• Hair up in pompadours piles of curls and fringe bangs.

• Braid and embroidery galore lace and ribbon trimmings loads of jewelry mostly massive.

• Skirts here short and not too many pleats more slim skirts with slight flare.

The great Hollywood modiste wrote in this odd, Tarzan-english for half a page, but by the end one is able to envision the feminine Paris of the late Thirties.

Click here to read about physical perfection during the Golden Age of Hollywood.