ing for the director 'Griffith.' When Douglas Fairbanks came to California, our manager, 'John Emerson,' wanted to find him a film to play in, and picked out a piece I had written, saying: 'I shall put this young actor into it.' The director Griffith answered him: This piece cannot be filmed, for its comic points are too hard to grasp in silent acting — people will not put up with going to the cinema in order to read the titles!! But the manager insisted on going on with the piece, and half of it was in titles. When the director Griffith saw it, he said mockingly: 'What is this farce? Put it on the shelf!' And so it was. Some months later, the Roxy cinema in New York had booked a film, but it did not arrive on time; the owners despaired, and at last decided to take my piece down off the shelf, and the management put it on with apologies to the audience, informing them that when the promised film arrived my piece would be cut off. But no sooner had half of it been shown than the whole house rang with laughter and merriment, and it proved a great success. The next day the critics said: 'The cinema has come out of its age — biting, witty criticism has reached the screen.' I wrote hundreds and hundreds of films after that and earned a great deal of money; I took five thousand dollars for each story, and I never spent more than three days writing one. The play that won me wide fame is 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.' I wrote it as a joke, because I was once traveling by train to California with a young woman named Lorelei — who became the heroine of the piece — and all the way we exchanged talk,

and I took many of her ideas and wrote a long chapter for amusement and fun and sent it to her gentleman friend in New York. As it happened, he was a journalist, and he proposed that

it be published in some magazine — and so it was. Now the words 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' have entered the Oxford dictionary of quotations, and I fancy, too, that they have been added to the popular legends of America. I shall not forget that I am a brunette, small of body — my height is 149 centimeters — and every article of clothing must be made to my own measure, which is one of the annoying things, but of no great weight; what matters

to me now is my work. And now I beg your pardon: I must get back to writing my new play, called 'Cock-a-Doodle Daisy,' with 'Charlie MacArthur,' with Helen Hayes to act in it. Remember, dear reader, that if you do not work, you die — 'that is my motto.' Envy no one because he is rich, for riches do no good. I tried it once, and that was the end of it.

Semelflex Slippers

What you long for... after a day of effort and work:

your comfortable armchair,

your favorite newspaper,

and

Semelflex slippers,

of wool and synthetic sponge —

light and comfortable, they take away fatigue.

Sold at: Gebran Metni — Rue Weygand