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Show j Breaking Into the Movies I By A. H. Giebler j After our experience with the sell'- styled teacher of moving picture acting, who wanted Myra Jones and me to pose as instructors in his school, we applied ' at two or three more places unsuccessfu lly, then we went home to talk things over. Wo had started out very bravely after stating in our declaration of independence inde-pendence that we would not be extras any longer, but would search until we got places in one of the studios as regu lar players at a stated salary. ; We did not feel so ".brash," to quote Myra, after the experiences we had. I complained that my feet were hurting from all the walking we. had done. Myra said : "My fect not only ache, but they are getting awfully cold on this 'regular proposition. 1 vote wc Keep on being extras. There Is an clement t of bread and butter In It that appeals very $ strongly to inc." t 1 said I was will in?. ? "Wo will pick up a Job wherever we can, as wo did before," Myra continued, "and aomo sweet day a director will be so struck by the j superb acting of two extra girls In some mob 'j scene or other .that ho will stop the camera, 3 take us by our little hands and lead us to the manager's ofllce and stand there with tears or i Joy In his cyc3 while wo sign our names to a J long-time contract." Fortune plays peculiar tricks. As long as we searched for regular engagements we could not find them, and a day after wc decided that being extras was pretty fine for u,s. the very Ihlng wo wanted fell Into our laps. Mr. Brooks, who gavo Myra and mo our first a parts in tho picture of the oil ,man's wife who wanted to got into society and who lost his place as director because of the r.corganiza-f r.corganiza-f tlon of tho company, had become head dlrec-5 dlrec-5 tor In a now concern that was making films 8 starring well known stage players. I Karl Fisher, who seemed to know In advance ?! of Its happening everything that was going on In tho movie world, got us places In the new company. f "Wo called at the studio with Karl, and Mr. Brooks introduced us to the manager, and In an hour wa wore full fledged players, with a r dressing room, makeup outfits and best of nil, c regular salaries of ?40 a week. Oh! "What affluence, what wealth, that amount seemed to us! A regular stage player of International rcp- atatlon was to head tho company In a play that was to be started at once. Karl was to have tho heavy, or villain's part, Myra was to 4 play second lead, an adventuress, and I was to bo Ingenue. v' Wo started rehearsing the Interior scenes i lhal afternoon. Mr. Brooks read tho scenario I to us and asked us for suggestions. No one , had any to make, as tho manager was present, a but after he was gone there was a perfect buzz '.' of criticism and comment, most of It against tho play, which was tho hackneyed plot of tho old Southern family Impoverished by tho war and tho young girl who recoups tho family for-I for-I tunes and puts now colonial columns on tho old I, Virginia mansion. The celebrated regular stago star was a i woman of 50, and so "up stage'' that cveryono hated her. She considered tho movicB far bo-lnw bo-lnw her said thoy were a low form of art. She : smoked cigarettes and had temperamental fits ;J In her dressing room that disrupted tho wholo t utiirlln fnr hoili-H nt n time. This woman had a big reputation on the regular reg-ular stago, and with the aid of her make-up box could have played the part of tho young I Southern girl very well. :1 Before the camera It was a different thing, ' Sho could not use tho same make-up as on tho speaking" stago, and without It sho waa bad. Close-ups of her wore Impossible. Every little wrinkle was shown up and sho had plonty of ;: them. ' I had two parts In the play: one where I was a maid to Myra, as tho adventuress, and an-' an-' other whero I was tho sister of tho star. In tho "maid" part I was not allowed to face tho camera, and tho audience novcr" saw any-? any-? thing but my back. This was dono to conceal i tho fact that tho players had to double In tho I :' picture. mi I asked Mr. Brooks why they did that, and ho I is said that they had to pay tho star so much Bal- u ary they couldn't afford to engage a full cast I ;! for tho other parts. i? I llkud my part of tho "sister." I was sup-I sup-I .'j posed to bo a hoyden and had lots of "cutting I ' Up" to do. I ", Karl, as tho villain, was with mo In most of I 'i the scenes. His part, besides being a "heavy" I one, was poor. Myra said all ho had to do was I j. to follow mo around with a "He-means-no-I 15 good-to-our-NollIo" look on his face, and that's H ' about all thcro was to 1L H . The leading man's part was poor, too. Ho H had to wear a pair of top boots and carry a H , riding crop in his hands. H The whole thing was what Is known as "old H ; stuff," stale and unreal. There wasn't but one H - fat part in tho play that of the star. Tho cn-H cn-H ' tire play was designed to keep her beforo tho camera aB much as possible. H Mr. Brooks and I got to bo great friends. H :' "This is an awful thing," I said to him one day when wo wero working on ono of tho i scenes. H ? "I know it," he replied. "The old man," H , tncanlns tho manager, "wrote this play himself H A-hen ho was putting on legitimate productions. . U died, of course, but It Is his pot, and now H jj that he is a movie producer ho dug this lemon up and rehashed it for tho screen. Ho thinks the star's name will make it go. but that wom-H wom-H ; n couldn't mako anything go. She's good in 'WM " speaking parts. I have seen hor do Borne mag-H mag-H ' nincent work. She can take an audience and 'M, hold it in hand and mako it Jump through a mm ' ,l00D, but ncre snoS pot n0 volce' and ner ,dca of supplying tho deficiency Is to pantomime. ;jH ! Hh waves her hands and arms around some-'H some-'H lhne awful." . I asked him if ho thought it would bo a suc- 'K "No, it will not be a .success, but thoro arc so iHif ' ,nan" Jnovio plays made that tho worst kind of Dl things go. This will limp along; people will go jgffii' 10 tho theaters showing It becauflo of the star's name, and tho next night they will go to see another. The great number of films produced keeps the people from realizing how bad somo of then? are." There was n painful Incident connected with the filming of one of the scones, a stairway In the old Southern home. The star was supposed to run up the stairs In answer to one of the servants who has discovered the hidden papers In an old desk on the second floor, Mr. Brooks rehearsed the llrst action of the scene where the excited sorvant rushes out of a room on the upper floor and calls to the star to corao up and sco that tho papers have boon found. "Now, Miss ," lie said to the star, "you run upstairs." Tho slur walked to tho stairway and proceeded pro-ceeded up them In a stately manner. "That won't do." cried Brookrj, "you must go up In a hurry." Sho camo down and tried It over. She tried to hurry and only succeeded In lumbering Brooks was a most excitable man. Whllo directing di-recting he would "bawl" a player out somothlng terrible in a scene, and then come around and apologize afterwards. Now ho tore his hair. "My heavens," he shouted to the star when sho was half way up. "Run skip along you are a young glil, not a freight elevator," Tho woman stopped and came down again. If a look could kill, Brooks would havo died on the spot. Then the star forgot her dignity, forgot her up-stageiicss, everything, and burst out crying cry-ing She could no more have tripped up the stairs than she could have flown up them. She wns an old woman. She know this, of course, but now sho knew that we all knew it. All her triumphs of the regular stage was naught here. She stood berorc us an old woman, suffering the greatest hurt that can come to a worker In a profession whore youth counts for so much to have tho secret of her years uncovered. Wo all felt sorry for her, and Myra, who heretofore had' always rcforrcd to her as "that cat,'' ran up and put her arms around her and called her "Tou poor kid, you." Mr. Brooks rearranged tho action of the piece so that tho paper finding scenes could be donb on the first floor for tho star's especial benefit. That wan the first and only picture tho great star appeared in. She went back to the regular stage, whore she Is still scoring triumphs, and she Is ono of tho bitterest opponents the movies have today. The stairway Incident did not lead to tho gayoty of llfo around the studio. Tho star, who had never liked any of us, hated us all tho more for finding out that age had taken tho sprlghtllncss of youth from hor legs. As Brooks predicted, the play did not set the trado papers that rovlowed It spoke of the Inability In-ability of the star to adapt herself to tho now art, but very kindly said nothing about her age. Tho reviewer mentioned tho otlior members mem-bers of the cast as doing fairly well, and wound up with this: "Thcro was ono player in tho film whooo namo did not appear in the oast, and whosa faco, for somo unknown reason, was never seen, who put tho only touch of humor, and tho only real human touch of any kind In the picture. pic-ture. In a scene where tho vampire, a woman of 40 (Myra), makes up to attract and win tho hero away from the star, tills player, tho maid, never faced tho camera for an instant, but sho registered to good advantage. "Whon Bho combed tho vampire's hair she lifted a strand and said as plain as speech with her left shoulder. 'This Is dyed;' when sho handed tho vamp a box of rouge she tapped her cheek and threw back her shoulders, signifying youth, then she slumped forward like an old woman, and the audlenco read her meaning to tho Utter. "This girl Is a thorough mistress of pantomime, panto-mime, and wc expect to hear moro of her very soon. She acted with her shoulders, hands, her feet, hor nock, her hips, with every part of her body that was movable, and we know sho must havo regretted the inability to wriggle her oars." Oh, how my heart swelled with pride over that, my first "Notice!" For tho lltllo girl whose namo did not appear in tho cast, and whoso face was never seen for the very good reason that Bho had to appear In other scenes as the sister of tho Southern girl was me, little mo! |
