Picture Progress, November, 1916

Eat and Keep Well:
The Suggestions from a Famous Photoplay Star

One of the chief reasons for the never-failing charm of Marguerite Clark is the fact that the little Famous Players-Paramount star never suffers from indisposition. She is always at her very best every moment that she is before the camera, and can put into her delightful interpretations of the many roles which she has played every atom of her strength and grace.>

No matter how gifted a star might be, if she were not in the very best of health her work would soon reflect the fact in lack of charm, in listlessness and in general ineffectiveness. When operatic stars are in the least bit indisposed they refuse to sing, because they know that the voice will react at once to their condition. In the same way the searching eye of the motion picture camera will detect the slightest sign of ill-health - it detects even laziness - and so it is of primal importance to the players to guard carefully against all illness.

In the mind of Marguerite Clark, it is not enough for a player to exercise regularly, as she has done for several years. It is also necessary to give serious thought to one's diet. Miss Clark believes that nine-tenths of our bodily ills originate in the digestive apparatus, and that these are caused by overloading the department of the interior. She carefully declares that a carefully selected diet, if prepared for consumption with equal care, will prove the greatest possible agency for the prevention of illness.

The accompanying picture shows Miss Clark completing a short repast while in the country taking scenes for a photoplay. Had we arrived just a little sooner we would have had an opportunity of inspecting the ingredients of the meal. But Miss Clark is very accommodating and she does not in the least mind telling us what they were.

In the first place there was no meat of any kind. It was a warm day and the little star does not believe in eating meat on hot days. For that matter, she is almost vegetarian - or vegetarienne - eating practically no meat all year round. Vegetables and fruit are the chief articles of her diet. In this particular case, there were carrots, beans and peas, with the almost indispensable cup of tea. In Miss Clark's opinion iced drinks are not good for one, and even in the hottest weather she prefers her hot tea at noon rather than any of the numerous iced beverages which tickle the palates of less discerning individuals.

When the little star knows that she is to be away on an all-day trip in search of locations for scenes, she takes fresh vegetables and a complete camping outfit from home and prepares her own luncheon with the aid of her maid and chauffeur rather than chance having to dine at some place of debatable quality wherever the fortunes of camera work happened to deposit her at the noon hour.

Miss Clark prides herself on the fact that she has never held up a production because of poor health, and that she is almost immune from colds. She explains this by the frugality of her repasts, claiming that instead of wasting her internal energy on the digesting of an over-surplus of food, she reserves it for combating colds and other disorders which get a much stronger hold upon those who over-eat.

So strongly does Miss Clark believe in this theory of light eating that she frequently fasts during an entire day when she is not actually working at the studio. Instead of making her days of leisure the excuse for heavy meals, as the vast majority of us frequently are prone to do, Miss Clark takes the opportunity to give her digestive organs a rest as well as her muscles.

The life and work of a photoplay star requires the sacrifice of many of the pleasures which the average person believes to be a part of the life of a successful photoplayer. So if you would be a second Marguerite Clark - and if you are feminine and at all impressionable you probably long to be - and if you wish to become a star do not fill yourself full of indigestibles whenever the opportunity affords itself.

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