Lillian Gish Says “Goodby” to Girlish Innocence – By Dan Thomas (Santa Cruz Evening News, 1930)

 

Lillian Gish Says “Goodby” to Girlish Innocence – By Dan Thomas (Santa Cruz Evening News, 1930)

  • Santa Cruz Evening News, Volume 45, Number 48, 10 January 1930
  • Lillian Gish Says “Goodby” to Girlish Innocence
  • By Dan Thomas (NEA Service Writer)

Hollywood, Calif., Jan. 10. – When “The Swan” is released, which time is not far off now, you will see a brand new Lillian Gish.

Lillian Gish – 1930

As pictures have advanced, so has Lillian about 25 years. About two years ago when the actress told me that she had given no thought to the day when she would be through in pictures because she was just getting started, I thought she was kidding me. But maybe she was right after all. At least now is starting on a new phase of her career. The naive, innocent woman of yesterday is gone. In her place is a modern girl who knows life from A to Z and boldly displays that knowledge. It required a lot of thought on Miss Gish’s part before she finally made up her mind to change her characterization, however. “When I thought about making a change, I considered that everything of note which I have done has been the result of the characterizations with which I have been associated for the last 15 years,” she declares. “But the world has changed and so has its conception of the meaning of innocence. We now are prone to observe the stark realities with more understanding than ever before. The girl who yesterday was a chaste flower cowering from the assaults of a brute, is now a courageous young thing quite able to take care of herself in any emergency. Knowing this, I concluded that it would mean professional suicide for me to continue a time-worn form of expression. It was inevitable that I should make a change and that the change should be one in keeping with the time.”

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