Before "The Perfect Flapper" was released, stories began to circulate that First National Studios would close down their facilities in California and move to New York; the east still being the center of the cinematic world's finances, California still largely the center of production. There were still many production facilities in the east, and the investors--still wary of a young art form that could prove to be a passing fad--wanted to keep close to their investments. The March 1st Screen Mirror of New York noted: “If reports reaching the East from Hollywood are accurate, the flaming youth girl will become 'a New Yorker' before very long. First National officials are planning to bring most of their production units to New York.” It was more than just a rumor, though in the end the studio stayed where it was. | Colleen as photographed by Grenbeaux for "The Perfect Flapper." From the Jeff Codori Collection. |
Even with the release of "Painted People," there was still a buzz around "Flaming Youth." The rumpus created by the film, and the questions the film raised about women in society in general did not subside. In the Los Angeles Times of January 20th it was reported that "The Flapper has found a defender in John Francis Dillon, the well-known actor and director of 'Flaming Youth.' She is not, according to Dillon, the brainless, overdressed vixen that she has been pictured to be, but is a symbol of our times."
The flapper, previously seen as a threat to society, suddenly underwent a comic transformation. When you cannot understand a thing, one might argue, you make fun f it. Most thought Colleen's performance was a burlesque of the modern flapper, and so the flapper became a subject of humor, the serious issue swept aside. Flappers in films became one-note depictions, and eventually they became a fashion statement.
By the end of her career, Colleen had played relatively few flapper roles, her husband and studio wishing to distribute those roles between others so that the public did not quickly tire of a successful formula. However, with the passage of time it was those flapper roles she had become most closely associated with.
Even with all the attention paid to her new flapper persona, a good deal of attention was still paid to her ethnic roots: The January 23rd Los Angeles Times ran a piece entitled “She Couldn’t Keep Down Her Irish Blood,” a story concerning the making of “April Showers”:
“The piquant Colleen plays the role of a rather tomboyish little Irish girl of plain but honest parents; her sweetheart, Kenneth Harlan, is the son of a policeman and the atmosphere of the picture therefore is one of the middle-class life in the East Side of New York. “Miss Moore lives her parts at home as well as before the camera and in practicing before her grandmother, Mm. Mary Kelly, she finally drew fire from that saint of the household. “’Colleen me child,’ said Grandmother Kelly, ‘It’s all very well to act like a little hoyden and be rough and tomboyish—but there’s too much of that sort on the screen, me dear. Remember, not all the Irish men are policemen and not all the Irish women are washwomen; there are quite a few ladies and gentlemen on the ould sod, and while all of them can fight, some of them also have arrived in the courts of kings and queens. You don’t have to be any wilder because you’re supposed to be Irish.’ “’All right, grandmother,’ humbly agreed Colleen, ‘but it’s hard for me not to let myself go—being Irish.’" |
The story touches on several aspects of the Colleen Moore mythology: her ethnicity (her Irish-ness) when in fact she was half Irish, half Scottish, and born in Michigan. It mentions her tomboy nature, which she did have, and calls her piquant, attributing them to her Irish background. These sorts of stories perpetuated her character’s popularity, and no doubt John McCormick’s hand was at work behind the scenes keeping the mythology alive: the public wanted a youthful, firecracker Colleen Moore.
Betty Bronson as Peter Pan. |
The February 13th Kansas City Star ran a story reporting Barrie’s “Peter Pan” was coming to the screen and that Colleen was among three people being considered for the part of Pan… besides her, the other two in the running were Pauline Gordon and Betty Compson (Note: this is the name I have in my notes. Betty Bronson eventually played the part; I do not know if the article was wrong, my transcription was wrong or if actress Betty Compson really was on of the three, and Bronson beat them all out). Given that it was Peter Pan, as noted by Colleen in "Silent Star" that inspired her to take up acting, it would have been interesting to see her in the part. The March 3rd in the Times (no other info given in this clipping found in the Colleen Moore Scrapbooks) addressed Moore’s performance in "Painted People," saying the movie is a series of close-ups of Colleen, “but the whole story is told on her swiftly changing and mobile face, and she has so many of these will-o-the-wisp moods that to me she is endlessly delightful.” Further on: “Amazing child htis (sic) Colleen! But while she may if she wishes make a tremendous name for herself in comedy, I feel that she has a talent of yet a higher order—a whimsical humor, a delicate joyousness that should find expression on the screen in a quite new element.
“I had rather seen Colleen play ‘Peter Pan...’ than anybody in the world. Why, indeed, look further for a Peter Pan?”