Behind her Benda Mask, is Miss Swanson just a good business woman from the middle-west?
Gloria Swanson wears an amazing wig in Zaza. Everyone protested about it—but Gloria liked it. Hadn't she been told, by Elinor Glyn and others, that she is reminiscent of Sarah Bernhardt?
Can a girl be herself with the world looking on? How can a screen star be sure she isn't kidding herself as well as her audience? When, in other words, to get right down to cases, does Gloria Swanson stop doing her stuff and begin being Gloria?
The answers to these questions will not be found here. The Swanson Clubs of the country might hold a national convention and decide it once and for all, except that it's really immaterial to them as long as Gloria wears a new coiffure in every picture.
So far, Miss Swanson has risen to the occasion. And in Zaza she does it again. According to the records, Zaza was French, and as far as we know, never wintered in the Fijis. With superb disregard, Gloria, or Gloria's hairdresser, has given Zaza, for some of her big scenes, a wondrous wig with a sparkling spangle suspended from each curl. Nazimova wore something like it in "Salome." It's an Aubrey Beardsley nightmare. Gloria glittered—diamond "Z's" around her neck, "Z's" in spangles on her arms, "Z" patches on chin and cheeks. There were no two ways about it—she was playing Zaza.
Does
Gloria
Believe It
Herself?
Gloria and her destined-to-be-celebrated wig, as they appear in Zaza opposite H. B. Warner.
