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Show II Lingering Around tKe Lasky Lot to See How Circus 1 RAYMOND 1 HATTOH I BY A. H. GIEBLER, . H "jP ATTENDED a circus and a ball last H B week. That is. 1 almost attended H j tlio circus. I was perfectly willing H j to attend, and had my 'Tour bits," H which is Los Angclosc for r.U cents, 'all I read, hut no one would sell mc"a . H ticket or tako my money. ' H i Can you imagine a circus that H j wouldn't tako money? And, stranger H 1 still, can you imagine people setting H Paid to go to a circus? That's the kind H , of :l circus this one was. B ! The big lent was chock full of pcopic, H ' who were earning real money Just by ! tilting there 'and laughing at a clown H , and bugging their eyes out at a man ! who rode around tlio ring and did all NI sorts of stunts on a spotted pony. M t course, this all happened in movlc- , land. Where clso could It happen? H : I ran Into the circus kind o' accl-H accl-H dentally. I was on my way to the H Lasky studio, where I had been In-1 In-1 vtcd to "come out and loaf around H and watcli us mako movie3," by cno Fa' Kenneth McGaftcy, a sor;t of mogul in I ; the editorial ofiiccs of the studio. M There is a vacant lot just across Vino street from the I-asky plunt that 13, jfl It is usually vacant. Looked Like Today, however, It I Real Thing. was cluttered ' uP c H with wagons, cages, U tents and other clrcusy-looking para- H phcrnalia. There was a. big tent and W .several small ones, and banners -wltn DB pictures of beautiful ladles and bearded H ladles and fat ladies, and snako charm- WmV crs and Bosco wild boys. J Of course, I knew perfectly well that mm ono can hardly bellcvo anything, one sees around a picture studio, but this H looked llko the real thing so real that H I had figured up how much I was golhg mm to spend on popcorn and renewed a vow IB made years ago never to' try to locate ffl i pea under a walnut shell, and was all mkn ready to tako things in by the tlmo X was half way across the street. B As soon as I got clear .across, iho IB street, though. I saw a man on a. plat-Ifl plat-Ifl form talking to the people in the "tent B i through a megaphone, and another man B grinding awa'y at a camera, and knev 9H the whole thing for the whlted scp-B scp-B ulcher It was a moving picture "set." IB npHE man on the platform was DIES DI-ES rector Donald Crlsp. The rider of N ! tho epottcd pony was FrcdNstone.- who u'as once a performer In a circus Ucloro Bh no became ramoua as tlio Scarecrow In BB "The Wizard of Oz." and later In nuny IB musical comedies, including his. latest mm Q,t. "Chin Chin." The clown wai Dun IS Crlmralna, tho idol of all circus luvera IB - of a decade ago. They were working IK out a scene for a play called "Unaor tlio Iw T'op," the story of which was VDven In I ft and around tho life of an old-time 111 . wagon show. , ffBfl - I stood around thero with a hundred HI other small boys and girls ranging in HI age from U to GO, and watched the fun. k nl , Tho whole side of the tent was open, WbWl ani1 we sot nlrrost as good a view as Hi If d,tl lllc people in the tent.' This did not vll If tallsf y one smalt boy In the crowd, 111 H howtver. Vang, "Them follw," ho said, pointing to tho I IB .people on tho benches, "get paid, and I H on lop of tha they get peanuts and I WM popcorn to eat and pink lemonade to IB, dilnk free for nothinV 1 nave oftcn wondered why the movie I ySf people didn't use volunteer in' much or III' . the work where ex- 111 Why Extras tras arc needed. BBH Are Notijsed. "t a ca in IBB point. It would till lf have been no trouble at all to have ljvUl llllcd the tent of tho circus to over- U H flowing with people of the. neighborhood, ijjltnt I would have willingly occupied a .seat, llllaiH myself. It could. not require great jnfjH degree of histrionic talent or skill to VIDOR cat peanuts and drink nice pink lemon-ado lemon-ado and register having a good time at a clrcus.l The question was aithwercd lor me right then and there, whili 1 was thinking think-ing about 1L , A llro department came down the 3trcet, and the outsldo audience, lnclud- . Ing myself, melted away. It would be easy enough to got volunteers vol-unteers for circus audience? and things liko that in tho movies, but it would be impossible to got them to stay long enough. Big scenes are not made In a hurry. Sometimes it takes hours ai" preparation and rehearsals, and your volunteers would probably pack themselves up ana go homo after they had ence scon all thero was to be seen, or acsert in a body when somo couner attraction, such as a house on lire, Cevolopcd. THE fact that tho director might not be satisfied with Fhootlng the scene once, but might want to take It lrom thin angle and that angle, would not appeal to them very ctrongly unless lht I.I 1 rtlnlr ......... in.,? nwiu bt-miJb oiiik uiuuu. a3 long as they were wanted.. .Looking at a thing even as fascinating as a clr-cust clr-cust gets monotonous at times. But 1 would have chosen the" circus rather than tho ball; because there was no lemonade or pop corn at tho oall, and it was Indoors, in cne of the big glafis stages of the stiiJlo across tno street from tho circus. It was a clear day, end the well-known well-known California sunshina was putting In somo of its best licks. Out in tno street, where the sun's layy came down direct, it was warm enough, but In tne studio the shafts of sunshines stopped at the glass roof and rested awhile, ana then came on down wltn renewed vigor. In. other words, It was hot In there. The ball was not held on tho same day as the circus. The circuj occurred in the afternoon, but the ball began In thf morning. I got to tbo ball at 11 a. m., and it had been going on for some time, and went on for a long Fred Stone on tlmo afterward. Spotted Horse Dld CrlsP' th0 t samo director that had engineered tho circus, was at tho throttle on tho ballroom stun. A movie director has to bo a versatile sort of person, I can tell you; ono day a circus, the next day a ball, and the next something else, and he's got to knew all about all of them. Fred Stone, tho man who lode the spotted horso in tho circus, was the featured fea-tured player in the ball scene, but it vas for a different play, a screen adaptation adap-tation of the stage play, 'Johnny, Gel "b our Gun." There wcro about a hundred people at tho ball, and the floor was painted and waxed until It looked like a big 5 : T BRYANT WASHBURN and FLORENCE V1DOR yellow mirror and gave back a perfect l erection of the dancers as they moved about to tho strains of the orchestra that was placed up in a little oalcony ot ill'.- end of tho room, jn VERY one of the guests, at the ball was dressed up llko Astor's horse, the men with spike-tall coats at.d tho ladies with tho low-cue gowns or high society and everything. It looked just exactly liko a scene from tho movies. I don't know how long. ..Mr. Crisp had worked with tho people or how often ho had made them rehearse, but thlngu wcro going nice and.smootn, and If 1 had known hem 1 could not havo picked out the professionals In that well-trained bunch of extras. Thero was quito a number of profci-sionals profci-sionals in tho set, too. It came pretty closo to being an all-star ball. In addition ad-dition to Fred Stone, thero wero "bun-shlnc" "bun-shlnc" Mary Anderson, Hart Hoxic, who used to bo a cowboy before ho became an actor; Gardner Hunting, Sylvia A3ii-land, A3ii-land, James Cruzc, 2s"Ino Bryson, InJ Huntley, Mamie Keiso, Noah Berry, Casson Ferguson, Raymond Ilatlon.who was the wicksd villain of the piece, and lltllo Dorothy Stone, tho star's lL'-year-old daughter, who was all dressed up to rcpicsent a celebrated French dancer and was having tho time of her youn hfe. After a lot of regular ballroom stuff wlure people moved around to tho music mu-sic of the orchestra and registered bc-ing bc-ing ut a swell' function, they got ready for tho big moment of the scene. Crisp told tho people how to stand here and there in apparent unstudied positions so as to Giving Scene leave the room the Once-Over. c,car in thc m,dalc and open at thc end. Then Jie got upon a high platform and looked at tho scene from this angio and that, and gave mora orders. He told a lady with a yellow dress to go over by the side door, and Instructed Instruct-ed a dignified looking guest with a lux-N urlant black beard to stand so that his whiskers would get In thc picture; made a little extra girl happy by say ing, "The young lady with tho dark blue dicss will please go over near the seat by thc second door," because the little extra girl know then that the director di-rector Knew sho was there, that she was important enough to be noticed and that iho position he gave her would make her register in thc picture, all of which means a lot to a little extra girl; told a lady wearing a silver cloth costume cos-tume to get further bajck In thc crowd, and finally all was fixed. Crisp spoke to Henry Kalonl, who, to tho best of my knowlcdgo Is thc only Japant-Fe Camera man in thc movies, and tsked him if he was ready. . Henry salo. ho was, and Crisp cried "Action! Camera!'' and thc big sccno was on. Casson Ferguson, waltzed down tho lonjr stretch of tho ballroom floor, held up his hand and mado an announcement. announce-ment. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I will present to you Mile (something1 or other), the celebrated French dancer, and .uJr. Burnham." THEN a couple danced out to thc middle mid-dle of tho lioor and Mr. Burnham wa3 Fred Stone and tho Mile, was Doro-tny, Doro-tny, who looked very much grown-up with her hair on top of her head and wcarir.g' a regular grown-up dancer's costume and Stone danced! Xcvcr since he set the country wild with his antics in thc "Wizard of Oz," or later in "Jack o' laiici n' ani ". iyn Chin" was such a danco seen. It was a mixture of buck and wing, the clodhopper, clod-hopper, tho Arkansaw traveler threshing thresh-ing out Turkey in the Straw and a roustabout on a Mississippi River steamboat deck. lie lifted hla little partner clear from the floor, ho flung her from arm to arm, and then In t.e flnalc grahLcd her up and held her yJofi in his arms The camera stopped and a burst or genuine applause came from thc ballroom ball-room guests, and then Stone, to show them what a good fellow he Is, did some really truly fancy stepping, and Little Dorothy, a true daughter of her tal-end tal-end daddy, kept pace with him. Reader. you aro going to hear from littlo Dorothy Stono somo day. Vou arc going to sec her name in blazing electric elec-tric lights in front of many theaters, becauso sho's "got tho stuff," thc divine di-vine afflatus, "thc goods," or whatever it Js that makes artists. Maybe she inherits her talent from Frccj, and maybe may-be not, but tho child has a simplicity of manner and an appeal that will make her great as an entertainer If she follows fol-lows tho profession" of her father. Thc ball was not over, but, not being one of the paid guests, I did not have to stick around, and so 1 went away went looking and rubbering here and there in thc big plant. Lasky's is a tremendous place. It Is the least lmprcsslvo of all thc big studios from an ar-AlmOSt ar-AlmOSt Ruined chitcctural stand- a Good Scene. 1olnt- but ono oC tho most important from a standpoint of production. The main studios at Sunsot boulevard and Vino street in Hollywood occupy an entire block and Just across Argylo street on the cast arc thc Douglas Fairbanks Fair-banks studios, that cover an cqual.'y large upacc of ground. While I lingered at the ball most of the other companies loaded themselves up and went away on location and I missed seeing any of them. Wandering around in the maze of utages and sets that cover every inch of the ground I saw nn ocean liner that had been used in a wreck of somo kind, with a lifeboat life-boat in a drled-up ocean alongside of it; found a complete printing olllcc where newspapers that are shown on the screen In the development of plots arc prepared by having columns taken out . of them and cleverly constructed copy inserted in nhtlr place. Then I got lost and wandered around until 1 heard strains of music. When I turned a corner I found myself in the ballroom set, and the wrong end of the act at thau Luckily they wero not shooting. A few minutes later or earlier I would have made my debut In the movies and spoiled a sccncl |