Vamps & Shiekers

Vamps & Shiekers

They Rank Their Admirers by the Grosses

Somebody ought to give Harry Leon Wilson, author of Merton of the Movies, a year's subscription to Movie Weekly. It runs a delightful page entitled Where Fan Meets Fan -Shiekers a page wherein inarticulate Mertons and Beulah Baxters yet unsung contribute shy accounts of their personal encounters with their idols.

In general these encounters seem to have taken place at "personal appearances" of the aforesaid idols. But even a glimpse at a "personal appearance" is enough to leave an indelible impression on a worshiping heart.

Take Theda Bara, for example, " When she came out on the stage," writes Helen M. Foster in Movie Weekly, "I said to my friend that surely could not be Theda." The friend said nothing, apparently -he knew his place. But it was Theda after all -the rogue! "She asked how many wanted her to keep on playing the Vampire role. [Tremendous applause.] She then asked how many wanted her to play the good girl part. [The same applause again.] "Confusing for Theda," we should say. But Miss Foster has a more definite opinion. " I do hope she keeps on in the Vampire role, for she is the greatest Vampire the screen has known. She is so dainty and sweet and her voice is music to my ears."

Then there's someone named M. Merton Fernandez, who thus describes Mae Murray:

"I found her as cute and lovely as on the screen, but much more beautiful, for the deep violet of her eyes, the gold of her hair and the rose petal softness of her skin are impossible to perceive on the silver sheet." Imagine!

Others describe their favorites -Olga Petrova, "dignified but not ritzy" -Lew Cody, "a highly polished gentleman and a lovely person to meet" "petite little Jackie Saunders," etc. A college girl bought a liberty bond from Mary Pickford - "a thrill that comes but once in a life time." A waitress in a tearoom who waited on Eugene O'Brien had him write his name in her Spanish book which "It is useless to say, I shall never sell."

And the shades of Don Juan and Cleopatra and all other historic fascinators, looking on, confess themselves beaten. One look of their eyes might captivate a paltry dozen of admirers -but the modern movie hero or movie heroine ranks his or her adorers by the gross.