The Sunday Oregonian., December 04, 1921, SECTION FOUR, Page 5, Image 63

I
THE SUNDAY OR EGO XI AN, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 4, 1921
GLORIA SWANSON BELIEVES IN
EARLY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
Movie Star Busy Making Purchases for Holiday Season and Hopes to
Finish New Film Before Vacation Time Is On.
GLORIA SWA.SO. A."D SOME OF HER PURCHASES
ONE of the events of the year
among the motion picture peo
ple at Hollywood, Cal.. Is Christ
mas. And no one outdoes Gloria
Swanson In the efforts to spread the
plrlt of happiness and good will on
tht day. It must pay to advertise In
Hollywood, for Gloria certainly seems
to have "done her Christmas shop
ping early." She hopes to finish her
new picture, "Beyond the Rocks,"
from an original story by Elinor Glyn,
the notel English novelist, by the
holidays.
praying silently. In my veins the
blood seemed alternately fire and ice.
I was not fearful of singing, but of
my ability to show In a single first
performance all that I could do. And
among the tests I had to meet was the
singing of the companion role to the
great Caruso.
Three hours the opera lasted; after
the first few minutes of it. the worst
tangs passed. Then from beyond in
the great gulf of the auditorium that
looks from the stage like a black
abyss, applause began to ring. It In
creased as the performance grew;
after the acts there were many cur
tain calls, those following its final
fall being the most prolonged of all.
Then people came to my dressing
room to tell me kindly that I had won
a place In opera.
To have become a star in one night,
without ever having sung a small
role, meant to work unceasingly to
hold the place I had made. Other big
roles were given me, and to be learned
without pause for rest even in sum
mer. Halevy'g "La Julve," In which
I sang again with Caruso, was re
vived for me; then Weber's "Oberon,"
and the title part of Verdi's "Alda."
Meanwhile I appeared in perform
ances in other places than New York
with the company from the Metropol
itan, and, as time passed, by way of
holiday sang In my own concerts In
many cities. It Is a busy life and an
absorbed one In absorbing work.
The small path led me to the great
highway which I now travel, very
thankful to God for having given me
a voice thankful, too, for the little
things that have brought me a chance
to do the big ones, and I hope that he
will give me the strength to continue
the success and widen the way that
has been started, which means con
stant hard work and application, for
to one like myself, who Is never sat
isfied; this task Is endless.
Million Tourists See Great Parks.
WASHINGTON. D. C More than a
million persons visited the 19 national
parks this year and most of them
came In their motor cars. The world's
greatest travelers In ages gone by,
have never had such a chance to see
the world as the average person In
America has today.
HISTORY OF UNITED STATES
TO BE FILM UNDERTAKING
Justice Davies to Head New. York Committee Supervising Work for
Picture in That State.
JUSTICE JOHN R. DAVIES has
consented to head the New York
state committee of a nation-wide
organisation, composed of noted edu
cators and men of finance, who will
supervise the filming of the history
of the United States, its industries
and resources in every state of the
union. Statesmen and public officials,
as well as such organizations aa
chambers of commerce, boards of
trade, tourist associations and Indus
trial corporations, It Is expected, will
assist In the movement.
The Harry Levey service corpora
tion will produce the pictures with a
competent staff. Films will be re
leased through the exchanges of the
National Non-Theatrical Motion Pic
tures, Inc.
In an Interview recently Judge Da-
vies said of the new movement:
"Every patriotic and sincere Amer
ican is against the Idea of censor
ship. It goes against the grain to
have some one constantly spying on
our movements to tell us that we can
do this or cannot do that. Yet those
who believe In clean, wholesome en
tertainment realise that censorship
provides an unsatisfactory yet seem
ingly needed check on conditions as
they exist In the motion picture
world today.
Remedy Is Provided.
"The only remedy which seems to
present Itself for the unpleasant ele
ment now prevailing on the screen Is
to do something constructive In the
way of providing better , pictures.
Americans know practically nothing
of their own history, their own in
dustries and their own men of affairs
as compared to Europeans. Many of
our greatest men remain in obscurity
because nothing Is done to keep In
terest in them alive.
"Americans should take a more
personal Interest In their own great
men, their own industries and their
own history. I know of no way
which will accomplish this- more ef
fectively than a series of films such
as Mr. Levey will release.
States to Be Organised.
"The series of films will oover food
production and conservation of our
products. It will advocate agricul
tural preparedness, standardization
of farms, and the colonization of un
occupied fertile and productive lands,
also a policy of conservation of tim
ber and forest reserves, oil and coal
fields and metalliferous deposits, as
well as promoting and developing our
waterpower and natural resources.
"Each state will have its separate
and distinct organization under the
direction of a competent man and
will be affiliated with the parent or
ganization, who will conduct an edu
cational nation-wide campaign for
the state."
common notion that these insects arc
young grasshoppers is Incorrect.
! Professor Philip Garman, assistant
entomologist of the Connecticul agri
cultural experiment station, has made
I a study of this Insect and is the first
to discover and describe the egg
. stage.
He found that the curious frothy
balls are made by Immature sucking
Insects of the family cercopidae, com
monly known as "frog-hoppers."
They are closely allied to leaf-hoppers,
but their life story has not been
told until now.
The Insect is found to do injury to
grass; there Is one brood each year:
the eggs are laid late in the summer
and fall in the sheath of grass stems
two or three Inches from the ground.
The egg stage lasts from 281 to 233
days and they hatch late In May.
The spittle glands of the adults are
Indicated by yellow spots on the ab
domen. By taking In air and expell
ing It under a stick substance, a froth
is made which soon surrounds the In
sect. Moults take place within the
froth until the hopper is able to fly.
The froth protects the Insect from
parasitic enemies.
FROTH PROTECTS INSECT
Connecticut Entomologist Finds
Habits of Litttle Known Pest.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. Probably
everyone who has walked through
meadows In early summer has noticed
masses of froth on grass stems and
wondered at them. Various fanciful
names have been given them, such as
"snake-spit and frog-spit." A few
possibly have examined the "froth"
and found in it an Insect. Few others
than entomologists know Just what
species Is responsible for it. The
SINGERS URGED NOT TO WAIT
TOO LONG FOR UNATTAINABLE
Rosa Ponselle Recounts How She Became Opera Star in One Night;
Hard Work Required to Attain Goal.
BY ROSA PONSELLE.
(All rights reserved by the United Fea
ture Syndicate. Reproduction prohib
ited.) IF a young girl has a singing voice,
the sooner she can prove It to the
world the better. By this I do
not mean a forcing of her gifts upon
public attention, but a practical turn
ing to account of her abilities In her
own small world. Some whom I have
met seem to think that wonderful
chances are held for them In the out
side world, If they could only reach It.
In reality a good beginning was per
haps awaiting them at their own
doors, but which was overlooked in a
desire only for something big.
No two singers are likely to find
opportunities exactly alike. The
chances of the one are entirely dif
ferent from the chances of the other.
My experience has been not to wait
and long for the unattainable, but to
do the thing that presents Itself, no
matter how humble, and to do It with
all my might.
If my father had been successful In
his business I might not have learned
this truth so early. As It was, at 13
I had to begin to earn my own living.
At school I had sung At home I had
ung with my brother and sister;
when I was very small It had de
lighted me to.be selected as a mem
ber of the children's choir at church.
Those things had made my best joy
In life, first because of the pure de
light of singing, second because of
the pleasure it appeared to give my
listeners.
SIS a Week Offered.
So when the call to work came. I
went to the nearest likely place that
I could get It, a moving picture the
ater In Merlden, Conn., my birthplace.
I was only 13 then; no course of train
ing had been given me, for we could
not afford It. The only things I knew
to sing that day to the manager were
hymns. And I sang them, one after
the other, shutting my eyes as I did
It. When I opened them I saw that
his were full of tears. That settled
It. My hymns and his tears brought
me the prom'se of untold wealth. He
offered me 115 a week to sing be
tween the showing of pictures at his
theater, not hymns, but songs. Con
sequently I started home at once to
learn some.
In those beginnings there was no
romance to tell of the sudden discov
ery of my voice by a musical author
ity. That was to come later. I had
to earn my bread ,and sang to an ex
ceedingly practical man whose heart
was touched not by arias or the kind
of songs that he knew better still,
but by simple hymns, old as the eter
nal hills. If he had known that I
was but 13 Instead of the 16 years
that I appeared, he would likely have
given me no engagement.
It all appeared a very practical
and every-day proceeding, such as
might have happened in any hamlet.
But In reality It meant that my feet
were turned into a path which would
one day lead me to the goal of every
singing artist, the Metropolitan Op
tra house In New York.
Before that happiest jf days came,
I had a long way to travel The next
step was to accept the offer of a rival
moving picture theater that gave
somewhat more for my vocal serv
ices. Then came my Journey away
from home that I never left before.
I sang alone In New Haven, then
joined my sister Carmela.
Vaudeville Enitncrmrnt Taken.
Presently Carmela and I determined
to try our fortunes In New York,
where 1 was destined to become a
dramatic prima donna. 1 was still a
long way from fhat opera house, how
ever, l.'.oi hi of which hud not yet
entered , Into my brightest visions.
We took a vaudeville engagement.
Always Carmela and I remained In
separable. Slightly older than I, she
assumed an air of motherly protec
tion that must to observers have
proved amusing in one so young.
From those vaudeville appearances
I learned things of worth; ease of
movement on the stage, to modulate
my voice to the demands of a theater,
and above all else I had confirmed
the knowledge that a girl who sings
with genuine sincerity, straight from
the heart, touches the big heart of
the American public. I learned, too,
some of the elements of acting.
To me, though, acting has never
proved a stumbling block, perhaps
because of my Italian ancestry and
natural-born desire to express my
self In action. As a little thing I
loved to play scenes with my small
brsther and sister. If they were dis
inclined. 1 went ahead alone. A big
tree in the yard made my proscenium
arch and scenery; if a cat chased a
butterfly across the green grass cov
ering: my stage, my fancy made her
a tiger in pursuit or a ralry, and both
became part of my drama.
All imaginative children, as we well
know, love to act. It Is the conser
vative training of tradition that kills
It, and at the age of growing up,
when constant reminder is, "You must
do this," or "You must not do that,
for what will people say?" That
course arouses a feeling of restraint
and self-consciousness in a child, and
proves the worst bar to sell-expres-Bl'on.
Value of Acting Seen.
Fortunately, I had not that kind
of training dinned into me. For
tunately, too, In viewing many screen
pictures in the theaters where I sang,
and expressed as they were in panto
mime, the value of action became
more than ever impressed upon my
mind. In vaudeville that knowledge
grew, for the expression of my own
individuality to the public meant part
of the very notes and words of my
songs.
I am not at all ashamed of my be-
ginnlngs before I entered into op
eratic life; to be ashamed of them
would be false pride, which has no
! place In any genuine heart. Those
were the things that my little world
gave me to do, and by doing them I
achieved to something greater.
By degrees I reached a day which.
If I were a fatalist, I would call my
day of destiny. Mention of it has
been widely published. I mean the
one on which William Thorner, whom
I asked to teach me, immediately
predicted that in six months I would
be singing at the Metropolitan. No
word's can picture the happiness that
such a prospect brought to me and
my sister.
Carmela from tnen on, and for
some years following my operatic de
but, devoted her whole life to me and
my career, forgetting the lovely voice
that she had in her own throat, a
voice whose beauty audiences have
since enthusiastically acknowledged
To say that I worked, once I be
gan my lessons, would be to put it
far too mildly. Hours daily I spent
In my teacher's studio; lessons fol
lowed each other almost continu
ously; every bit of vocal knowl
edge I could gather I absorbed as
sand drinks up dew. Presently things
began to follow one another in diz
zying succession. Mr. Caruso heard
me sine and said kind things; Mr
Gattl-Cazazza heard me and engaged ',
me as dramatic soprano, the youngest
on record at the Metropolitan. And
then, as final, crowning wonder of
them all, came my debut there as
Leonora In Verdi's "La Forza del Des-
L1UU, C I II IU CBV.V LU1 IMC, I
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On the wonder night Carmela, of 1 1
course, went with me. w e knew the
test ahead and kept an outward calm.
STAR OF "MICKRY" FAME
RETIBSS IS "MOLLY O."
Mabel Xormand.
Mabel Normand returns to the
screen after an absence of many
months In '"Molly O," which
will come to the Columbia the-
ter next week. Mack sennett,
reator of "Mickey," Miss Nor- f
land's great success, produced
cr
ma
this DlCturp. in whirh Mabel Ik
seen In a role which fits her
admirably.
"Molly O" Is not only a com
edy. It has an entertaining plot,
some splendid characterisations,
humor, pathos and romance. It
is a Cinderella sort of story,
told in new and delightful vein.
TODAY
SECOND
BIG WEEK
STARTS
TOMORROW
WITH CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCES DAILY
Canada's Elevators Gain.
MONTREAL. Que. In 1912 there
was a total of 2319 elevators of all
descriptions in Canada with a total
storage capacity of 127,224,550 bush
els. Now there are 3855 elevators
with a capacity of 231,213,620 bushels.
The number pf country elevators in
1912 was 2272, with a storage capacity
of 70,883,850 bushels. These have In
creased to 3789, with a storage ca
pacity of 129,013,620. The elevators
at Fort William and Port Arthur
alone handle 54,685,000 bushels.
Charles Ray Concedes His
Love for Stage.
"I Should Like to Play Charartrr
Parts," He Tells Reporter la Chicago.
STARS of the films who have had
stage experience seldom lose
their love for the footlights,
though few are so candid about it as
Charles Ray. To a reporter In Chi
cago the other day as he passed
through on his way to New. York.
Charles made a frank confession. It
was this:
"I should like to play character
parts on the stage. Nothing to those
matinee Idol parts I wouldn't want
to do them. I'd like to play on the
stage and in a studio, too not do pic
tures exclusively."
Not a few actors of the stage treat
the films superciliously. One was
quoted recently as saying work in the
pictures was looked upon as a sort
of holiday with pay, but that the real
love was for the stage. Ray doesn't
feel that way about It. He has often
said the art of the cinema is poten
tially so great that only the fringe
of Its possibilities has yet been
touched.
"The fascination of work in the
theater," said Ray recently, "Is In the
inmediate pleasure of feeling re
sponse from those for whom It Is done.
The sound of applause Is dear to the
heart of the actor. But the absence
of that Is more than balanced by the
tokens I get by mall from the vastly
greater public I am able to entertain
through the medium of the screen."
Incidentally, Charles Ray receives
so many thousand letters from admir
ers that he has to employ secretaries
to handle his mall Mar.y of his let
ters irt from parents telltng him that
they send their children to see a Ray
picture without question; the name Is
sufficient.
"No," continued the young star, "no
amount of success on the stage could
make me feel superior to the films or
the world-wide public that have given
me so splendidly of their afrectlon
But I'd like to try my mettle again
on the stage. That's natural. Isn't It?
And If I succeeded It would be largely
due to what I've learned from the
screen."
WOMEN RIOT IN LANDTAG
Sneeze Powder and Gas Bombs
Thrown In Chamber.
BERLIN. (By the Associated
Press.) Women communist members
of the Prussian landtag, angered by
cheating during a vote, threw sneeze
powder and bombs containing foul
smelllng gases In the chamber. After
wards they lit pipes and cigarettes
and blew smoke clouds into the faeo
of the prseldent of the landtag, who
had ordered the members to cease
smoking. When the president at
tempted to speak he was greeted with
cries ot "coward!" and "liar!" An
effort to suppress the agitation on
the part of the women failed.
The anger of the women was
aroused during a vote on a statute
outlining the landtag's business pro
cedure, sixty-four ballots had been
taken, all of which were padded. The
statute was passed.
SHOWS START 11 A. M., 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 P. M.
WHAT PORTLAND
CRITICS SAY OF
THE "QUEEN OF SHEBA'
"The 'Quern of Shrba' Is a splendid production
Spectacular and dramatic, based on the legend of Kins
Solomon and the Quern of Sheba." Don Skene, Ore.
gonlan.
"The 'Queen of Sheba' la a mammoth undertaking
the production la a spectacle with such setting aa has
seldom been approached in picture making." E. C.
Brow nicy, Oregon Journal,
"The 'Quern of Sheba' la far from mediocre. It la
bis; and spectacular. Based on the legend of the
Queen of Sheba'a visit to the court of Kins; Solomon,
It humanises the wise kins; and gives us In Betty
Blythe, whose coatumea. If the truth be told, leave
little to I the imagination, a queen more beautiful,
more queenly than any queen ever was." Fred L.
Bqslt, Portland News.
AND THEY ARE RIGHT TOO SEE
I
SBBBsl BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBSVS BBBBBBBSlV 'l 1.1 Issff '' SBBBBBBBBBsfl
IsssssssnssnssW
H Br
5000 Actors
872 Scenes
50 Camels
500 Horses
A MASSIVE VIVID LOVE ROMANCE OF THE
WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN LAID
AMIDST SUCH STUPENDOUS SETTINGS THAT
MERE WORDS ARE TOO MEAGER TO DESCRIBE
THEIR GORGEOUSNESS. YOU HAVE EYES, SEE
FOR YOURSELF THIS.SPECTACULAR OFFERING
THAT HAS SET ALL PORTLAND TALKING.
SPECIAL MUSIC
BY THE
BLUE MOUSE
SYMPHONIC
ORCHESTRA
Leo Bryant
Conductor
The Big Thrilling
and Blood-Stirring
CHARIOT RACES
EVENINGS, 50c, 75c MATINEES, 35c, 50c, 75c
'CHILDREN (ANY TIME), 20c
These prices include war tax.
JOHN HAMRICtCSi
neiK
THEATRE
ELEVENTH AND WASHINGTON
- .
mm
Ar.t
We are particularly proud to offr this splendid eight
act feature at popular prices, and personally indorse
it as one of the finest poductions that we have ever
shown.
Majestic Theater.
lllfDirection
Direction of Jensen and yon Herberg
m iiiTW,prwTyw