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Show I Girl Plays with a Lion I a. H. Giebler's Latest Story--- j BREAKING INTO THE MOVIES LL of the gold represented by my snug little bank account which I had won . V In the movies seemed as r dross, and tho modicum of glory I had achieved was as tinkling brass and f " sounding cymbals, when- that Madame had brought to the studio to sup-that sup-that madam had brought to the studio to support sup-port me In tho series of Jungle, pictures she was going to make. Tho animals were housed Just behind my dressing room, and every tlmo "Old Baldy," tho Hon, would roar he really did not roar, only growled when ho was hungry but whenever when-ever he did it, I Jumped a foot. I was teased unmercifully by all the other people of the studio. Myra said she was not afraid of tho lion, and she walked right into his cgc. but when Mr Baldy got up and tartcd toward her she made one of the quickest quick-est exits of her career and almost swallowed a hairpin she had in her mouth at tho tlmo. If I had known aa much about animal films , as I know now, 1 would not have been one-half one-half us badly frightened as I was, for the players, with all the seeming realism, do not come In very close contact with the animals except when the are tame and safe I Our first Jungle play was tho story of tho daughter of an explorer, who quarreled with her lover and went far, far Into the wilds of Africa New Jersey, not fifty miles from New York City with her father's expedition. She gets lost from the camp and Is stalked I a lion. She climbs a tree and has to roost there Ukfl a chicken until the lover, who had followed her "unbeknownst," as one of the property men said, shoots tho lion. And scene 64 shows their Interesting family of three children chil-dren playing around on tho rug made from tho lion skin. , That was the way the scenario read, but whon Merton got through with assembling tho film after the picture was finished, that scene came first, with dnddy telling tho children the story of the llonskln rug and how he caved mother from the savoge beast. I had the outest costume In that play, top boots and a corduroy skirt and Jacket, and one of those pith helmets and a long veil, without which no movie explorer's daughter is ever eompltte. I did not have to act with the Hon very much. "Wren I got lost I am shown running here and there in the woods, wringing my hands and looking scared. Then thero Is a scene showing M ui uvu einrimnn iiom me rnouin 01 a Cave. J1 That scene was taken five miles away from where the other action of the play was staged, .j, because there was no ea nearer than that. 1 Tho lion scents me and starts to walk. II come face to face with him once. Thero were three keepers closer to him than I was, but l 1 had no trouble In registering fear. Karl said . he cculd hear my teeth rattle. W After that a succession of scenes showing me M runnlnr through the Jungle then Baldy, the H lion, kplng after me then a cut back to camp H where I am mlased then more lion more me j more lion more me for about a hundred feet of film. Baldy was in his cag mumbling a H Juicy bone when most of my scenes wm H limed, with the exception of the one where we H close up. H Then 1 had to shin up a tree. There was really more danger in climbing that tree than B frnm the lion, and poor Lo Molne, the camera H man, fell off a platform where he was perched H to film me sleeping In the tree, and dislocated H bis f-l-.oulder and was lata up for two weeks. H Baldy was really a most engaging lion, and 9 one day when one of the trainers had Imbibed too freely and was found In the cage using him for a pillow, I lost most of tho fear 1 had for hlM with the exception of the natural antipathy that 1 always did and always will have for animals ani-mals of all kinds. We did not finish the Explorer's Daughter picture 11 r st , however. The man who owned the beai which was named Genevieve, and was quite notable among performing animals told Madame that Genevieve had a vaudeville engagement en-gagement to fill, and that he could only stay a week longer. So we stopped the Hon picture and got busy with tho bear story I wa- a frontiersman's wife In this film and Karl writ, a hardy trapper with a leather coat and a cconskin cap, with the tall falling gracefully grace-fully over his left ear. He looked for all the wrld like the pictures of La y Crockett In the rchool histories. i am all alone In our cabin in the Northwest Karl Is out hunting for game. Our little child is playing out In the clearing In front of tho cabin. I am washing dishes, and I look occasionally occa-sionally to see that the child Is safe. Then tho villain comes in the proverbial scoundrel with the curling mustacho and riding boots. I do not l"ve this man, but ho tells mo wonderful stories of fine life In tho great cities and sneers at our poor household things anil lells me I will never ha e to soli my hands with dLrhwatcr, or mako coonskln caps for m husband hus-band If I will go with him. I have a vision of tho great city and sigh a few times, and almost wish things might be different. And thn 1 spurn him and I go to the window to look after "Elaine." my child. Horrors! She has strayed far away, and Genevieve, the bear, Is between her and tho safety of the cabin I grab the rifle from the stag horns over tho door, and the villain, with true cunning, takes it from mo and begs for l.o privilege of shooting tho bear. But. once the gur is in his hands, he demands that I run away with him as pavmcnt or he will not save the baby. Oh. how they did work up that situation. There I am In the cabin pleading for m baby's life with the cruel monster, with h!s sneering mnstachlos, driving his bargain Scenes of us scenes of the baby, little innocent thlrg. playing with a flower scenes of Genevieve, Gene-vieve, the bear, nosing around, getting closei nnd closer to tho child. Finally mother love conquers. 1 promise tt g- away with him. The villain tho mildest of men In real llf and awfully henpecked by his wife, who did no allow him to smoko or do anything wlckcd-"human.'' wlckcd-"human.'' so he said made mo promise wltl upheld hands, and seeing the family Bible which occupied an honored place on tno tabl of our frontier home, he made me swear by it. They could not find a Bible around the studl for this scene, and had to use Madamc'6 Frenc cook book. I swear on the cook book the vil lam i i ii ls iuk tu" tfui ui mo wuhwh Duns and Genevieve keels over, dead. I rush out of the cat In and grab the baby to my breast and beg to be allowed to take her with me. "No. no," he says, in big letters thrown on tho screen, "In tho life you will lead with me the child of that Ignorant clod (meaning Karl) can have no place!" But Just as I am packing my things, in stalks ".loe," the half-brccd. This was the first and on'y time I hao ever known of a half-breed being anything else but a lllain, but in this play "Joe" was a good Indian. tells of having shot the bear from a nearby near-by hilltop; the villain's cartridge had failed to explode and I em saved! The villain, foiled, slinks away, snd "Joe," a young actor, and the worst ono I think I ever knew goes out to drag tho bear into the cabin. We had lots of fun with the animal pictures efter all. We would always take plenty of "eats" along in tho nutomomVs, and would have a regular picnic at lunch time. The only accident we had at all happened to Karl Fisher, when he thought he knew more about leopards tban the trainers. |
