you see! Points to correct: posture, walk, standing, sitting and what you do with those big hands! Avoid "bobbing for apples" when you mean to nod; frowning, squinting, fluttering the eyelashes, grinning, staring and so on through all MY bad habits. Then voice training (by yourself), and how to smile. (By this point, you will find you have less to smile about than you thought, but DO it).
If you survived I, Chapter II is clothes, and you do NOT know all about that, either. Even if you do, his check-lists are worth memorizing, for what goes with what, and then, the hair. Please read and believe. His charts are good, too, telling how to fit your hair style to your face . . . and its obvious faults. But don't waste your time looking for Chart C, on Fantasy Hair-do; they left it out, and probably wisely.
Chapter IV gets into cosmetic surgery; ears flattened, nose reshaped, face lifted, scars removed and bags under the eyes corrected. He insists, however, that PROFESSIONAL impersonators do not go in for breast enlargement by implant or hormones. And then, the big job of hair removal; seven methods are listed, with the merits of each. Followed by a discourse on how to make your own falsies; tricks never before published! I can see they'll work, too . . . even the address for materials. And SO on, down to what to do with that
embarrassing bulge, and those varicose veins.
Chapter V hits the make-up, with Roberts' customary thoroughness. Chart D sorts you out on skin color and what goes with yours; there is also much good advice on the art of "contouring" away your weak points. He doesn't miss much, either; even I, who started making up at least 40 years age, had plenty to learn. (But habit dies hard, and I need to read Pudgy three more times to get Theda Bara out of my technique.)
From here on, it's down-hill, unless you really ARE serious about stage work; costumes, acts, agents, unions and comedy are not for most of us. Chapter IX on "From Amateur to Professional" is very well put, and full of warnings; the rest is how the real winners got where they are, how to get a job and a little code of ethics which would be a credit to the engineering profession.
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