Those Gish Girls, EACH IS MORE ALLURING Than the Other (1919)
Those Gish Girls, EACH IS MORE ALLURING Than the Other (1919)
Those Gish Girls
EACH IS MORE ALLURING Than the Other
By Charles Frederick Carter
Paramount and Artcraft Press Books – May, June 1919
Both are fond of motoring and drive their own cars Both love music and while Lillian is a great reader, Dorothy, the famous Paramount Star, is a tennis devotee and lover of out-door sports.
DOROTHY GISH, the Paramount star whose latest starring vehicle, “I’ll Get Him Yet,” is announced, says she is everything a girl should not be. It is dreadfully impolite to contradict a lady, I know ; but such an outrageous calumny as this simply cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. Possibly she may have meant that she was not at all like her sister Lillian. If she did, why did she not say so and thus avoid needless controversy ? For it is undeniable that Dorothy Gish is not at all like Lillian Gish. Neither is Lillian like Dorothy. Both are as different from each other as—as—well, temperamentally, each sister is the antithesis of the other. Whatever admirable attributes you may discover in one you need not look for in the other.
Dorothy can, and when so disposed does, out-talk Bill Bryan ; Lillian speaks only when spoken to. Lillian is what Edmund Sparkler was wont to apostrophise as “A girl with no big godd nonsense about her”; Dorothy is full of the—er—you know who. Lillian is deep and demure ; Dorothy has a well developed bump of original humor and is as effervescent as a bottle of champagne, if it is permissible to mention the horrid stuff in these bone dry days.
Lillian reads and reads, and after that she reads some more ; Dorothy works off her surplus nervous energy in tennis and other outdoor sports and in entertaining visitors. Lillian is partial to a certain blue and ivory chaise lounge ; Dorothy has never yet been still long enough to find out what such an article of furniture was made for. Both girls are extremely fond of motoring. Both like to drive their own cars. When Lillian drives she bowls serenely along, affording the passengers ample time to view the scenery; when Dorothy is at the wheel it takes two men to see her go by ; one to say “here she comes,” the other to say “there she goes.”
Both are equally fond of music. Lillian has taken the trouble to become a good pianist ; Dorothy is an expert at changing talking machine records. The interesting thing about all this, the point on which the whole difficulty hinges, is that, according to Dorothy, Lillian Gish is the very most wonderful girl that ever lived ; and that, according to Lillian, Dorothy Gish is the very most wonderful girl that ever lived. Many a night these sisters have sat up to feel proud of each other. When it comes to appearances the sisters bear a marked family resemblance.
Both are pronounced blondes, with blue eyes and a wealth of golden hair. Both have small mouths with Cupid’s bow lips and even white teeth. Not to dwell on details, they are both as pretty as a picture book. Lillian the elder, is 23 years old. She has a lithe, willowy figure, for she is 5 feet 6 inches and weighs but 117 pounds. Dorothy, two years younger, is two inches shorter than her sister, but weighs 130 pounds seven ounces, although she says she weighs 130 pounds and a half. Dorothy does exaggerate so! Possibly you might recognize Lillian if you were to meet her off the screen ; but you wouldn’t know Dorothy, never in the world. What!
That radiant blonde with the luxuriant golden tresses the swarthy, black haired disturber in “Hearts of the World”? Considering the bobbed off black tresses Dorothy wears in that and other pictures incredulity is pardonable. But the irrepressible Dorothy has contrived to achieve stellar honors in a series of Paramount pictures. If there ever has been anything so charmingly idyllic in all the history of the screen as the relation between D. W. Griffith and the Gish girls I have never heard of it. Griffith has been both the Cheeryble brothers in one to the Gish sisters ; also a father to them. They have requited him with an affectionate esteem, a loyal devotion to his interests only too rare in these sordid, selfish times.
Dorothy Gish, Famous Paramount Star, Returns to Comedy in Delightful Picture, “I’ll Get Him Yet” As Heroine of Charming Story.
She Becomes Head of a Railroad Corporation and Finds Happiness in the Fires of Love and Jealousy. TO avoid too much income tax, Susy’s fond papa has transferred the Standard Railroads Corporation into her name. To the consternation of all concerned, she insists upon running the works. Susy finds her job complicated with two gentlemen who wish to marry her, and with the troubles of Riviera, a town where the throughcars, by her orders, go whooping through without even hesitating. Among Susy’s lovers is Harold Packard, a wealthy young dilettante and her fat and solemn attorney, Hamilton, not to mention the superintendent of the road. She signs her orders “S. F. Jones,” later corrupted into “Skinflint Jones.” And oh, how Riviera hates S. F. Jones, the monster who will not let the through-cars stop.
Packard cannot imagine how Susy could possibly overlook him and as he happens also to own a newspaper, he sends for the star reporter to tip him of? to his probable engagement. Susy comes across the copy of the premature notice of this engagement ; her heart freezes toward Packard, but she finds a sudden and glowing interest in the reporter. Their chance acquaintance blossoms into a love affair and the reporter, Scoop McCreedy, goes with faltering footsteps to see Father. He throws Scoop bodily out and calls him a fortune hunter. Scoop’s pride hurt, he tells Susy it is goodbye forever both to her and to all the other rich girls in the world. But Susy is a young woman of determination. She takes the love trail and fairly drags the offended young swain to the altar. She promises that she will ever touch a single cent of her father’s money, but neglects to mention that she happens to have a few millions of her own. They go to live in a honey-moon cottage. By the irony of fate, it is in Riviera where the cars won’t stop. She dares not reveal her connection with the railroad to her husband and has a terrible time struggling with the problem of getting along on his salary—especially as the revengeful Packard proceeds to fire him. Out of work, he is glad to accept the offer of the Riviera Board of Trade to start a paper roasting the wicked railroad. Finally they appoint a committee to go to the railroad and tell them what Riviera thinks of them all — particularly S. F. Jones—“Skinflint” as Scoop has dubbed him in his paper. Susy is asked to be one of the committee.
She cannot find a way to wriggle out so she has to go with the delegation and make fiery speeches denouncing her own superintendent and S. F. Jones—which is herself. In the middle of her speech, in stalks Packard. Susy drags him into an inner office. The sight of his bride dragging out Packard fills Scoop with jealousy. The bewildered superintendent comes to the cottage the next day to find out what she really wants done about stopping the cars and Scoop all but catches him there. Susy sneaks the superintendent hastily out of the house and goes to meet him at the corner. Scoop follows and finds her talking with a strange man behind a sign board. Infuriated with jealousy he warns her that he is going to kill her, himself, and the strange men and everybody else. Then poor Susy’s complications really begin. Her lawyer conies to see her on business ; she hides him in a closet ; Packard comes on a love quest ; she pokes him in a closet ; the superintendent comes again ; she sticks him under a sofa. There they stay while she entertains the jealous hubby and assuages his suspicions. Her various callers come out of hiding just as Scoop unexpectedly returns with his gun prepared to clean out the whole outfit. It looks like a fine chance for a murder or a divorce or something worse. The upshot of the whole thing is that Susy humbly confesses that she is “Skinflint Jones” ; she owns the railroad, the newspaper (which she has gotten away from Packard) about half the town, and everything. Scoop finally decides to forgive his wife for having five or ten millions and true love is rewarded.
“I’LL GET HIM YET”
The Cast
- Susy Faraday Jones, alias Skinflint Jones Dorothy Gish
- Bradford Warrington Jones, her father George Fawcett
- Scoop McCreedy, a newspaper man Richard Barthelmess
- Harold Packard, a rich young dilettante Ralph Graves
- Robert E. Hamilton, Susy’s legal adviser Edward Peil
- William R. Craig, Superintendent of Susy’s railroad Porter Strong
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