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E
WIFE
THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 18, 1937.
It is a strange problem, A development of modern
Civilisation,
VERSUS But It is Very Real
SCREEN SHADOWS
VERY time I have written about Yet when she mentions that Har- wives versus secretaries I have low, Crawford, Shearer, Dietrich or been accused of making things one of a dozen other lilies of the tough-or easy for the secretary, field are appearing in their latest according to the sex of the reader. pictures, he kicks the radio across I haven't meant to. I like wives the room, grabs his hat and yelps, and secretaries and husbands, and "Let's go!" belong to the Square Deal party, even when curves predominate.
Now all these stars, and a multi- tude besides, may have been born and talented, but they beautiful have to work at it.
But it has been brought to my at- tention of late that a greater menace to the home is the glamour They have to spend hours in the girl, the passion flower of the hands of hair-dressers, dentists, cinema screen. Well, in a measure plastic surgeons, masseuses, train-
ers and make-up experts. this is perfectly true.
It is very difficult for the aver- age married woman to compete with ladies of the screen.
When, after a hard day's work making the Little Home liveable, calming the baby or wrangling with the tradesmen, she goes to the near- est cinema to relax, it must be something of a blow to her to re- gard her husband's rapt expression as he leans back in his seat and watches Miss Harlow escort her well-known lines across his view.
And it's not only the average wo- For she has certain basic funda- which many a man with a house to keep who suf- mental things for fers by comparison with the Holly- glamour girl would gladly exchang
Garden of Girls. It's the her mess of caviared pottage. wood
* * leisure class lady, too, who can af- masseuse and ford an expensive manicurist.
Why?
Because the attraction of the screen star for the average man, rich or poor, does not lie primarily in her appearance.
It's because he doesn't know her Because and probably never will. he hasn't seen her in the early he has no morning, and because idea what she'd reply to a given question.
All men know these things about their wives..
*
*
If you feel you may suffer by com- parison in the eyes of the man who takes you to the cinema, you haven't much to worry about. For shadows are a form of cake-you can't have your cake and eat it too.
And the wife in the audience is bread, and without bread we can- not live.
Also bread can be sweetened by honey and jam and brown sugar. They can't call their souls their
·So sweeten the bread by all own, much less their faces and their
means-laughter and tolerance, and figures.
If the
· the lady who goes to
a trip to the beauty parlour and an attention to the daily dozen-but movies with her husband had to do
don't wish that you could turn into all this in order to buck up competi-
It is one of life's little ironies the Hollywood eclair. tion, she wouldn't have ten minutes
small over for heating the baby's bottle that a woman who lives on and dusting the furniture-to say budget, who has to weigh the cost nothing of sewing buttons on her of every household item, must some-
times
cinema come away from a husband's shirts.
feeling that she wished she'd gone. alone; that Joe hadn't been with her.
Now the real fans of the Holly- wood, female star are the women.
They-emulate. They wear copies of star clothes and star make-up and star hair-cuts and sometimes it's all right and more often it's all wrong.
Another thing which is a poser is the fact that when the missus pret- ties herself to go forth and regard Clark Gable, Robert Taylor, Errol Flynn or Ronnie Colman, her lord
But you have to hand it to them. and master-groans and cries: "Must we go out again to-night? Why They know what they're up against can't we say home with the papers
or they seem to think they and the radio?”
THE
know.
WORLD GOES BY By "ULYSSES ”
T that the only British ly
from the after
Inawerapers banned in Italy a the gallant airmen pursued
few weeks ago were those describ- ing how Italians were being thrown out of windows by enraged Basque men and women.
which those
of the civilian population who had managed to struggle into the fields outside, the town, and ripped them to pieces with, machine-gun fire. were horrified, with,
Joe was always partial to blondes, and she was very blonde, quite na- fifteen years ago. turally, ten or
But she isn't‘any more.
And so, what was Joe thinking as Garbo smiled slowly at him from the screen? -
✔
Sure, she's right. Joe was pro-
she bably thinking just what thought he was,
When, a day or so later, she tries a new hair style, it is pretty brutal to have him look up from the paper and say, "Do I see anything dif- what's up with you?
ferent?
It's time for
a
spot of Beehive Brandy
Oh, sure, your hair! It looks After
terrible! Who do you think you are
Garbo?
Wives- have colds in their heads. Screen stars don't on the screen. Or if they do, the colds are comic and not disfiguring.
Wivesweep when things go wrong. So do screen stars, but they Il Duce, who was making heroic Most people
on the valour of his one fancies some slight trace of weep: beautifully ke speeches troops, was distinctly upset, it ap-reason. But not so others. pears.
One
Before
the daily round
that
thankless task"
Before
the
shoot
After
Wives are pretty busy when their who, appropriately enough, is a husbands return from work; they Continuing my policy of concilia-member of the Savage Club, has can't stand in attitudes of admira- tion with the Fascist Grand Coun- written a letter to a London news-tion while their faces light up with
love and rapture. cil, announced in this column ear paper, part of which runs:
"In these days
Screen of logical view-
stars can turn on. that Her in the week, I wish to deny the
points, the destruction of civilians light for a gentleman who, in real offending reports.
First of all, there are obviously is in order. I personally think it is life, may be as pleasing, to them as both salutary and suitable. It a good dose of poison ivy. But all no Italians in Spain. And if you are
a Spaniard and gives the common people a sense of the audience sees is the love light. Listen, wives and sweethearts of you haven't got an Italia in your responsibility and broadens the out- house, how can you throw him out look of the survivors on world af-the men in the audience:-
Glamour- is expensive and takes of your window?
"If the nerves of the populace eternal vigilance. Fortunate women under fire cannot Musso- Moreover, having read
stand it, then who are not cinema stars may the lint's speeches, we know that Ita-surrender relieves the situation at achieve it by hard work, personal lians are the most beautiful, cour-once and the best man wins. After maids and wealth. But it doesn't ageous, gallant and splendid people all, a logical step in the direction endure.or in the world.
That's got you.
And who would like to throw one of the most beautiful, courageous and gallant people in the world
out of a window?
fairs.
of human progress."
Film stars, achieve it and en- If you agree with the writer, Ihance it because it's their stock-in- wish you would climb up Lion Rock trade, their audience appeal, their
box-office necessity. and then jump over.
*
#
Well, anyway, not out of a very Forethought
high window.
Towards Human Progress
You may remember, my children, that the Spanish town of Guernica recently destroyed scientifical-
*
One of the most frenzied appeals I have read for a long time is an advertisement in a London news- paper for bread. It says with supurb pessimism:
"If there should be another WAR there may be a shortage of BREAD "Build up your stamina NOW”
They work at And it costs them a lot. It costs them time which is priceless and money,which i is anything you want to believe it. It costs them privacy—and often happiness,
02
The shadows on the screen are shadows, lovely shadows, romantic, breath-catching.
But the wife in the audience is superior to these if she but knew it.
game
BEEHIVE BRANDY
Sole, Agents.
•
GILMAN & CO., LTD. Gloucester Arcade Tel. 80986