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Show J CharRay' Off the Screen M ; tjt tpjE SPRINGTIME CHARLEY TTT'RN'e: TO IT IS A SERIOUS THING TO SIGN A NEW S liN ixlb fct-KHNUliAlL, CHARLbY lUS TO CONTRACT EVEN IF THERE ARE MIL- ; ART RATHER THAN LOVE. LIONS IN IT. I Is lie always as serious as lie looks M la these pictures? No, dear girls, be I , is not! But Charles Ray has just I signed a new contract to star with the ; Triangle-Ince-Kay Bee company, aud, I being a young man with a level head K'v for business, he is not taking achnncc ft on getting the worst of the bargain. I : Twenty-four years of determined ef- I fort" to win out, years filled with more I work than play, have tended to give It Bay a determined expression. His own iff story of his rise to fame is intcrest- ll ing, & lift "Early in life I secretly decided to III become an actor. About the same time my father determined to make a business man of me. He sent me to a commeicial school, and at intervals I attended the classes. Most of the time, though, I was suping at the stock theater, the-ater, this, of course, being unknown to my family. It Is hard to lead a double dou-ble life in a small town, and the discovery dis-covery of mine stirred up a tremendous tremen-dous row. I was stubborn, father firm, but we finally compromised. If I could prove that I had acting ability father promised to give his consent to a stage career. " 'Showing father' proved to be a big order My connection with stage work for several mouths consisted in acting as water boy and usher and once in awhile playing super. But I stuck and finally got a small part, and the opening night my family sat in the front row to see what happened. After the show father gave me permission per-mission to go on with acting and for some years after dug down in his pocket to finance me. & "I did pretty mucli of everything on the speaking stage without startling the world, and when I took up screen work I bejan to think that it was to be the same story. But 'The Cowaid gave me my chance, and the public recognition I won bas repaid me for all the years I plugged along" |