Dad

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.

The talented son of a famous star paints a portrait, in pen and ink, of his celebrated father

• EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of a series of articles about film stars, written and illustrated by the versatile Douglas (junior) Fairbanks. Vanity Fair has known him since his tricycle days, and is happy to verify in these articles what it has always known—namely, that be combines an inherited taste for acting, on the stage and the screen, with an eager talent for caricature and prose.

• Being an actor primarily, he is a series of masks. . . . lie is constantly on edge. He is terrifically anxious that people around him he highly entertained, but that he himself be a little more highly entertained than they. He loves to prove his agility to those who entirely believe in it already.

One is completely overwhelmed by the force of his personality. He plays on that talent, lie radiates good will to all around him and his humour (though, alas, it is not always good) is delivered in a way that makes him seem a wit. He has long fits of depression; and it is at these times that he is most charming.

He is a man of great ego but little conceit; a man to whom success comes easily, but failure hard. Success is to him a habit and he is intolerant of reverses. He cannot endure being crossed, and it is hard for him to forgive a direct or personal slight. He can never quite concentrate on other people's troubles, although he is sincerely sorry for them, and always ready with consolation. He is a generous man to those whom he likes.

• He is ambitious to a fault, and an untiring worker. He can debate with equal energy on either side of any argument—not from insincerity, hut for the love of matching wits.

He never reads a long hook through. When he is unprepared to answer a question, he evades it in a breezy manner that, for some reason, leaves one satisfied. He is at once a poor and a great business man. He is bored with flatterers hut loves flattery. He is proud of his friends' accomplishments hut prouder of his own. He can "sell" one on any idea, due to his own enthusiasm.

The four most important factors in his life are his work, his home, his play and his love of travel. He adores perfumes. He loves to sleep, and takes a nap every afternoon. One can always tell when he is tired because he invariably starts to rub his right eye vigorously with the outside of his hand. He loves all kinds of new games, and never gives up until he has mastered them. Practically every bone in both of his hands has been broken on account of this ardour.

• He will go to any extreme to carry out a practical joke. He would give up any one or all three meals for a game of golf. On the links he almost invariably loses his temper, breaks his clubs on his knee and throws them to the four winds with mumbled curses.

He is extremely fond of Spanish foods. He eats with a manner that, although it may lack restraint, inspires the onlooker with an admiration for its gusto. When talking he is, at times, somewhat inarticulate, with a tendency to lisping born of carelessness. He takes a feverish interest in his wardrobe and is an authority on styles for men. He walks with a great deal of swagger and bravado. One of his chief worries is the possibility of baldness. He tries any new system that promises some improvement. He has never had a drink in his life, yet he smokes incessantly.

He himself is neither responsible nor thorough hut he is wise enough to surround himself with others who are. He is extraordinarily curious about everything. He has a passion for knowing things. He is a mild authority on almost everything. He loves animals. He is exceedingly self-conscious and easily embarrassed. He loathes any sort of demonstrativeness or show of emotion. He contends that he is totally devoid of sentiment and yet he is at heart a sentimentalist. He is ashamed of it. He is the perfect host.

His nature is such that he doesn't think he is, nor does he pretend to he a great father, but somehow or other ... he is.