Celebrities Dine

High in Montmartre, one Frisco le Negre presides as the epitome of sinewy darkness over white folks' revels. His wide infectious smile brims with the elements of primeval mirth. Last week he welcomed many a world-famous guest to Mitchell's, a noted Parisian variant of the blackamoor nightclubs of Harlem, New York City.

A taxi whose driver shrilly squawked his little bulb horn whizzed up to the door. Out stepped the returning U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Alexander Pollock Moore, onetime husband of the late Lillian Russell. Mr. Moore was welcomed with acclaim. From his native Pittsburgh to Madrid he is known as a good fellow cast in the Gargantuan mold.

Mlle. Cecile Sorel, since the death of Bernhardt perhaps the most celebrated of French actresses, whirled up in another taxi. To her intimates she confided that "Tiger" Clemenceau had just read aloud to her a play which he has written to immortalize her life:

"C'est merveilleuse! C'est toute pour moi, mes amis. . . . But he has locked it up with his will. Que voulez-vous? He refuses to let it be produced while he lives. . . . Ah! The most wonderful old man in France! . . .He said to me: 'I have had the most beautiful love affairs it ever befell any man to experience. That is why when I am in the country I insist that not even important telegrams be forwarded to me. Before I die I must have a little quiet to remember my happy youth.''

Mlle. Sorel behaved herself.

Then in strode Rudolph Valentino, languorous Don of the cinemas, accompanying well-known "Laura Gould." They seated themselves and before long the assembly became notably more convivial. Mr. Valentino was reported in despatches to have achieved a state of mind in which it occurred to him to quaff a mixture of champagne and beer.

"A Turkish debutante," one Mile. Nina Matar, performed what she termed "La Charleston Constantinopolitaine"

Captain Ernest Ingram, famed divorced husband of the widow of Enrico Caruso, dashed out upon the floor and gave vent to a "Scotch Highland Charleston."

Finally Black Frisco persuaded Georges Carpentier and Rudolph Valentino to contest the finals of what had by then become a Charleston contest.

While they cavorted, an onlooker expressed surprise that famed cinema actress Mae Murray had not arrived from Berlin coincidentally with Valentino. M. Carpentier took up the cry: "Are you engaged to Mae, Rudolph?"

For answer Mr. Valentino walked over to Mrs. Gould "with a firm and dignified step," and spun her out upon the floor in a Brazilian maxixe. As dawn broke, Frisco awarded him first prize in the Charleston contest.

Finally those who tottered to Les Halles (the public markets) for breakfast, drank a farewell toast in steaming peasant soup to M. Carpentier, "georgeous Orchid Man." He had announced his intention of sailing within the next few days to fulfill a cinema contract in California.