f How Marcelle s Movie Ambitions Inspired
W Her to Ditch Rich Capt. Cohn, Even
Though He Gave Her
That $300,000
Necklace
WATCHFUL WAITING
Amiable Caricature of Capt. Jeffer*on
Davis Cohn, Millionaire Turfman,
Shown Here Gazing at the Lovely
Face of His Wife and Perhaps
Wondering What the Outcome of Her
Divorce Suit Will Be.
By C. DE VIDAL HUNT.
PARIS. '
SUREFIRE recipe for a modernistic
.divorce.suitrtaka.ii _.muciucen
sored and luxury-loving and un
deniably beautiful Patiijan society
wife who has turned actress; mix with
one very rich and broad-minded hus
band; stir briskly in the French courts,
and serve—on the front pages—piping
hot.
Something like this has happened in
the surprising legal action of lovely
Marcello Favrel-Chantal, singer and
cinema star, against Captain Jefferson
Davis Cohn, millionaire turfman and
namesake of the President of the Con
federate States of America.
“If Marcelle goes on with it,” re
marked Captain Cohn to me on a note
of sadness, “it will mean the end of
thirteen years of friendship, com
panionship and married life.” But-—
Marcelle, beaming, thrust a packet into
iny hands. “Oh, never mind my hus
band,” she exclaimed. “Just take these
photographs and tell Hollywood I’m on
my way !”
The scene, I should explain, was the
Cohns’ magnificent suburban estate at
Auteuil, a princely establishment
thickly populated with liveried flunkies „
and so ornate that it might be mistaken
for a movie set. And, inasmuch as the
movies form a sort of theme song for
the Cohns’ domestic jangle, let me sum
up Marcello’s connection with them.
In the first place, when l referred to
her as “much-censpred,” 1 .was indulg
ing in no social or artistic disparage
ment, Her status among members of
the aesthetic and patrician sets of Paris
Is secure. But followers of the news
nay recollect that about a year ago,
.. “HOLLYWOOD,
HERE I COME!”
An Exquisite Close-Up of Marcelle
Favrel Chantel (Mrs. Jefferson Cohn),
french Songstress and Cinema Star,
Sparkling with Animation Over the
Thought of Possible Screen Triumphs
^ in the U. S. A.
considerable hullabaloo was stirred up
in London when it was proposed to ex
hibit publicly a feature picture, “The
Queen’s Necklace,” in which Marcelle
was starred. The British censor, al
ways a hard person to suit, took one
look at a sample print and nearly
fainted. He offered his official opinion
that certain scenes were “unfit far
display” to English men and women.
Pressed for his reasons, he gave them
crisply.
Two sequences In the film depicted
the branding and flogging of the
Countess Jeanne de la Motte, an his
torical personage who lived in the days
of the ill-starred Marie Antoinette, and
who tried to spare that monarch in
dignity at the hands of the Revolution
ists by impersonating her. For this
deception the Countess was scourged
and seared on the breast before a
howling nrob.
Marcelle "Felt OhSo Hurt
Such scenes, decreed the British
censor, while they might be to the
taste of other nations, wore calculated
to soil the sight of true Britons. So
"Out!” he accordingly ordered. Mar
eelle Cohn was deeply hurt by his
action. Had she not done some of her
most stirring acting for "The Queen's
Necklace”? Had not pots of money
been spent on the production? And,
most vital of all, had she not got her
husband’s financial backing and
personal sanction only after pro
longed pleading? He was heartily
opposed to a screen career for her,
but had finally given
in, on condition that
she make one movie
and call it quits.
Such broad
mindedness in a
husband has al
ways graced the acts of Jefferson
r Cohn. A case in point was his
statement to the press when he
and his first wife parted. She was a
daughter of Horatio Bottomley,
the London financier, who later
came to great grief through his
financial manipulations.
"1 tan see no valid reason why di
vorce should cause hard feeling be
tween husband and wife,” said Captain
Cohn. Then, “My wife and I have
been happy together. Now, just be
cause we are going to separate, what
earthly reason is there why we should
cherish animosity toward each other?”
It was this rather remarkable credo
that won for Captain Cohn the nick
name of “The Broad-Minded Hubby.”
It is not only mentally that the Cap
tain merits the expansive adjective; in
all his relations with his friends, and
wives, he has manifested a prodigal
generosity. A couple of years ago, the
noted sportsman had made a phenom
enal killing at the race track. He was
elated. That evening he said to Mar
celle: "Dear, I’ve had a lot of luck with
the ponies lately. I’d like to give you
a really good birthday gift Now what
would you like? Some diamonds?
Half a dozen motor cars? A racing
stable of your own? Or a chateau?”
Mrs. Cohn thought this over a little.
'Then she said: “Jefferson, I'd like to
own the Maria Theresa string of
pearls.” Now even to a doting hus
band worth millions this was lather a
tall request, for the necklace Mrs.
Cohn, referred to is a string of 196
pink stones. Each is as big as .the
average oxheart cherry and weighs six
carats. For more than three centuries
the pearls have been the pride of tfie
House of Hapsburg.
Two yards long and of incredible
beauty, the necklace was valued at
$300,000. Expert lapidaries have de
clared it to be second only to thHt
owned by Mate. Jacques Balsan (Con
suelo Vanderbilt), once the possession
of Catherine the Great of Russia.
The Maria Theresa jewels, in ad
dition to their rich historical back
ground and perfect matching, have an
other, more melancholy interest. In
"The Coumeii in Priaon,” a Telling Shot
from “The Queen’* Necklace,” Showing
Marcello Behind Bara.
SO VERY
TENDER
“The Count©**
and Her
Sweetheart," Scene from the Film Breathing the Spirit of Death'
les* Love—hlarcelle and Her Very Handsome Leading Man. She Hac
Such a Lovely Time Making Thi* Film That She Want* to Mak<
More—and—More—Even if It Means Giving Up Society , and *
Millionaire Husband.
NOT FOR THE BRITISH
The Much-Di*cu***d Flogging Scene
from the Photoplay, "The Queen'*
Necklace,” Financed by Capt, Cohn,
with Hi* Wife Starred. She'* Shown
in the Character of Countess tie la
Motte, Scourged and Branded During
the Days of "The Terror," in France.
Exhibition of the Picture in London
wa» Banned by the Censor.
1921. when the outcast Emperor
Charles of Austria-Hungary wanted to
buy an airplane to execute the cO«p
d'etat of re-seizing the throne, he sold
the necklace. Since then it had lain
in the safe of a Paris jeweler.’:-.
It is instructive to note at this point
that Mareelle Cohn may have had an
other reason than mere pride of owner
-hip in getting the gems. Successful on
the concert stage, she had long and
secretly cherished that dream of so
many a young matron—she desired to
become a movie star of the first mag
nitude, Especially she wished to film
the life of the Countess Jeanne do la
Motte, one of "The Terror’s” tragic
heroines. She knew that "The Queen’s
Necklace” would make splendid screen
material with the "fattest” of part* for
herself. And friends had suggested
that she' herself- Tpsemtrlcd G tori a
Swanson. What could be more ap
propriate to the story than a really
rega! necklace?
The Captain A u Mind-Reader ’
Probably Captain Cohn, not being a
mind-reader, did not sense the hi.
tnonic hook-up in his wife's thoughts
between the pearls and her ambitions.
Good-naturedly he told her he would
buy them for her. He was as good as
his word. It's true that, at one period
of his career as a sportsman, he sold
the jewels. But, following a most suc
cessful session at the race track, he
promptly bought them back. Then he
placed them aroupd Marcelle's white
throat.
Captain Cohn wasn’t awfully pleased
when his wife confided to him her de
a i ic ucwrae
the Nancy Carroll
of France. Anglo
Saxons of the
upper class don’t
usually relish the
thought of their
women folks
strutting v up and
down before a
camera.. But the
Captain's wish to
POWDERED CURLS
At Right: Exquisite
Camera-Study, from
Marcelle Cohn’a Own
Album, a Personal
Gift to Mr. Hunt, of
Herself as the Countess
in “The Queen's
Necklace.”
C©p3rt£&t, 1930. leteraatlooai Feature Sarrije, lac., Grta* Britain Rjghu Rested.
scu Marcolle pleaded finally over
powered his sense of the reticence*.
He gave in. But,” he warned, ‘‘I hope,
Bear, this will be your only movie. It's
all right to make one just for fun. But
you don’t want to keep on doing it,
now do you
Whatever mental reservations Mar
celie may have cherished, you may be
sure sho jumped at the chance to do
"The Queen’s Necklace.” At groat «•
P< tue it was filmed, and created a sen
ration in .France. The government
'•blessed” it as a worthy historical
document. President Doumergue chose
it for exhibition before a New Year
party for school children, and for
months it filled a Boulevard theatre.
Then came the little brush with the
British censor already described.
Perhaps because of. or in spite of,
this incident Mrs. Cohn's cinematic am
bitions seemed to swell instead of sub
-iding. She made another feature, a
French all-talkie,“ Toute Sa Vie” (‘‘411
Her Life”), in which she was supported
by Fernard Fabre, well-known leading
man- It, too, was successful. Doubt
less by this time she was firmly con
1 vinecd that the silverscreen noeded her.
And 1 dare say that her conviction be
gan. to get on the Captain’s nerves.
Strange irony, that “The Queen’s
Necklace” and Marcello's own should
have pointed the path toward her talkie
success-—and in the direction of pos
sible domestic disaster! At any rate—
“I would give up wealth, social
prestige, almost any material advantage
for a place in tho movie sun,” Marcelle
told me. (This was just after she had
i aptured the stellar role in “The
Queen’s Necklace.” Pola Negri had
originally been considered for the part,
but temperamental difference* between
her and the director had caused her to
leave the cast.)
Later when 1 presented myself at
the Cohn chateau, Mrs. Cohn and my
self dropped into shop talk. For
screen purposes she had adopted the
DUBIOUS GAZR
This Photo of Cost. Coha
RereeU tha Sad Expraaaioa
That Flitted Acroaa Hi*
Faca Whan HU Wifa,
Marcella, Announcad that Sha
Preferred Her Art—and Divorea—•
to Domestically Uneventful Bliss.
pseudonym of Chantal—“It sounds
better than Cohn,'’ Nervously the Cap
tain paced up and down, obviouely
bored and worried. “All right, all
right,1' he exclaimed euddenly. “Chat
ter all you like about Hollywood. But
not a sou of mine will ever go again
into a cinema venture." Marcella
smiled in a pacific manner. Soon I
left.
Realistic Love Scenes Impress
Critics agree that, while she may not
tie the extremely ingenue type most in
iavor with directors, Marcelle Favrel
thantal is a real beauty and a most
skilful actress. Particularly imprea
sive to the French amusement-loving
public were her scenes of impassioned
love, portrayed with a handsome,
young leading man of almost ethereal
good looks. (A “still” from the gelatin
giving an excellent idea of his appear
ance is reproduced below.)
Studio employes and visitors who
watched the filming of the scenario,
and even listened in on rehearsals, de
clare that Marcelle gave a performance,
playing opposite this youth, that would
be the despair of a Duse, so exceed
ingly realistic was it. Inspired by her
art. the hero also surpassed himself in
portraying the raptures and despairs
of the Great Emotion.
Captain Cohn, who, despite his fine
physical trim and military bearing, is
close to sixty, is torn between fuming
and genuine sorrow at Marcelle’s am
bitions. “I reasoned with her,” he told
me. “I pointed out that her health
is not too good. All in vain. Dear
me! It’s most sad.”
But to Marcelle, as sha leaps from
peak to peak in her new-found career,
it’s not as bad as all that. “Tell Holly
wood I’m on my way,” is her decisive,
exultant summary.