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Show Sj LOUIS JOSEPH VANC I ( Continued From our Last iwun I The man I've got in mind to direct di-rect you In your fir.-.t picture. Mrs Lee; "that Is. if u - a n get hold ot Barrv. You couldn't do better, but his Hftlary's ee-normous. I'll glvo him a ring and find out for you.' There's no hurry. Mr. Summer-lad Summer-lad Remember Mr. Lontalne hasn't taken the first step toward forming a company yet." "Well. but I'd hate to have you lose a chance. Barry's a wonder Even Griffith takes a back sea; when Barry N'olan picks up th megaphone." mega-phone." Ixmtalno Interposed a question or technical nature, and as Summer-lad Summer-lad answered him at length. Lu-clnda's Lu-clnda's attention wandered, she began be-gan to think more about the speaker, speak-er, less abOut what he was Faying t nd nlably a most satisfying creature, crea-ture, at least to look at Bending over the table, his face glowing as he illustrated his meaning with an animated plav of hands; though his words were all for Lontaine. Sum-merlad's Sum-merlad's consciousness was constant to Luclnda; his quick eyes were for-BVer for-BVer seeking hers . . . Hard hit and making no secret of Not that it mattered., more than for the good it did one's self-esteem I O lie rcBpecuuiiy u iuiu by a personably young man whom) one found agreeable. Vanity had been sorely sprung by Bellamy's' sacrifices of his wife's love to his appetite ap-petite for flirting with women of cheap emotions Neither had Daube-ney's Daube-ney's devotion meant n great deal, being something too familiar through old acquaintance not to "be misprized. It had needed some new conquest as this to make Luclnda think well of herself again this at least proved hei charms not yet passee. Luclnda Inclined to approve the stv!c In which Summerlad maintained himself The bungalow, secluded In i wide and well-kept ground', might j have served as the warm-weather retreat re-treat of a grand duke. I Bv merely turning hr head she j could look out through an open casement case-ment to a lawn where moonlight like liquid silver slept between mysterious, mysteri-ous, dense masses of purple shadow Th hreath of the night wns bland ami fragrant In Chicago the thermometer ther-mometer had shivered in the neighborhood neigh-borhood of zero New York, according accord-ing to telegraphic news was digging out from under a snowfall second only to that of Its legendary blizzard. ' I want to purr." Luclnda confessed, finding Summerlad's eyes upon her ' I am enslaved by California." "I must make the most of these moments, then. Presently we'll both be busy, you in especial far too bUBJ to give mo many e.enlngs like this" "I'm not at all afraid of being doom- ed to ennui through any lack of In genuity on our part. "If I'm not mistaken, that a a dare " "It's as you care to take it " He accepted with a smile the smiling gage of her eyes. They understood un-derstood eac'n other perfectly When It was time to return to the Alexandria. Summerlad Insisted on driving them home himself. Luclnda fell asleep that night to dream of coursing a wlll-o's-the-wlsi) through a land whose painted Illusion Illu-sion failed and faded aa she fled, till in the end there was no more beauty, only ttic bare grin of the desert say-age say-age and Implacable. She started awake with her husbands hus-bands name trembling on her lips. JCVIII The room the Lontaines occupied In j the Alexandria adjoined Luclnda's and 1 while she was lazing over breakfast Fanny tapped on the communicating door and drifted In. en negligee, with la clgaret and an alrv nonchalance od-I od-I dly at war with a problematic shadow ! that lurked In her ej es. "My amiable firm husband " she announced. " has charged me to arrange ar-range for an audience at your convenience." con-venience." "As soon as you like," Luclnda 1 a 1 1 g h f d . 'This morning Harry has waked, up his his poor dear head more than usually addled with gorgeous schemes, and says he wants to consult you-What you-What he reallv wants is your unconditional uncon-ditional approval of everything he has to propose. So do be wise as well as kind" "I 11 try," Luclnda promised. Considered In the light of this seml-serlous seml-serlous warning, all that Lontaine Jiad I to lay before her seemed almost disappointingly dis-appointingly conservative. "I've been thinking it over alii night." he assured Luclnda serious-j lv as she and Fanny settled to give him attention, "and it seems to me I ought to let you know more specifically specifi-cally what you're letting ourself in for, before I ask ou to hold yourself your-self pledged " "That sounds suspiciously like preparation for letting me down 'please .ion t think that." There wa- 'a convincing glint of alarm In Lontaine's look Never more en thusiastic more sure of anything than 1 am of your eventual success. But it's going to mean hard work for both of us." "I shan't mind hard work. Luclnda Lu-clnda replied "As for disappoint-! disappoint-! ments. I don't expect much, so I can't he very hard hit if everything doesn't turn out as happily as one might wish." "If that spirit won t win for us. nothing will." Tntalne declared. Vow for a tentative program . . . j fnir first step, naturally, will be to incorporate. And sine- ii to be the fashion on this side, and out-corporate out-corporate name will serve as a trademark. trade-mark. I venture to suggest 'Linda Lee. Inc. " One name Is as good as another, don t you think?" Good. Call that settled Then as to finances My study of American! -tudio conditions h'is satisfied -mcj that production costs this side are; normally excessive The average cost of a well-made picture today is between elghlv and a hundred and twenty thousand too much by half.". "Mr. Culp's ecretar told me Alma Daley'H pictures cost between hundred and fifty and two hundred-thousand hundred-thousand each." "If so, Ben Culn Is throwing money away through Ignorance or bad management or Indifference. "But say a picture costs us fifty thousand; Its gross earnings. the tlrst vcor, should be two hundred and fifty "thousand. We ought to turn out not less than four pictures a year, which will mean at least four hundred and fifty thousand clear profit prof-it to be split up between the star, the executive, and the capitalists." U sounds like a fairy tale." "It Is a fairy tale come true In real life Nothing else could account for the present-duy tribe of mot Ion-1 picture millionaires They hava Imagination enough to seo cheap amusement for the masses in what) most Intelligent people. a dozen, years ago, considered merely a mechanical me-chanical ourloeity. So ihey invested their small savings, these petty tradesmen and barnstorming actors. 1 in the ventur that high flnanca scorned, and the boom found themi securely In the saddle. That's why j the public gets so much perfunctory and stupid stuff thrown at It today " "But our pictures aren't going to bo In that class arc they?" "Rather not! We're going to go at "I venture to suggest Linda Lee, Inc." this thing in an Intelligent way We'll pick a good staff, select our stories with care, get the best men to write our scenarios, and gather round us a group of actors, Uko those who have made the Continental Conti-nental cinema what it is today, more Interested in their work than in themselves, willing to take their chances of scoring In fine ensemble acting Instead of Insistent that every picture shall be distorted to throw a 'so-caiiea star into prominence, isven i I In America such sincere artists exist i and we'll find and bring them to-. to-. gether and prove that cinema pro- ductlon con be an art as well as a, j monej -grubbing scheme." "Bravo! bravo!" Fanny interpolat-' 1 ed. "Hark to the dear man' Now If, only he'll perform one-half as brave- j ly as he promises !" I Lontalne flushed a little but paid; no other heed "To get back to the question of capitalization .... Arbitrarily Ar-bitrarily setting fifty thousand as a fair production cost, we'll want at least .1 hnnflred and flftv thrtns.inrl tn begin with." 1 "But surely we won't need a hundred thousand margin for safctv ?" "Not for safety for economy When we finish our first picture It j will be a matter of six months at i least before It can be exhibited. Meantime, we can't afford either to disband our companj or hold it to- i fewer in luicuess. uuajm start our second picture the day after i j wo finish the flrsti Thus we will i waste no gestures And allowing! ! three months to each, we should havel I our second and third ready by the tlmo the first Is released. Do you follow fol-low me, Mrs. DruceT" "I think you're quite right. You said yesterdav you had some people ready to furnish the necessary capi-l tal?" ' In half an hour I can find half a dozen who'd jump at the chance." lontalne replied without a quiver "The question I I o we want to take them In" Is it necessary? Is It good huslness"" "Can we avoid that"" "Simply enough, If you care to lake the risk I'll confess I'm not financially finan-cially in a position to invest In the! business myself But If you shouldi decide to hack yourself, use your own j mone to finance Linda Lee. Inc. you would ultimately receive two-thirds of the profits Instead of the one you'd! be entitled to ns the star. And no outsider would have anything to say about the way we conduct our own 1 business " "I don't think I care about that," I Luclnda observed thoughtfuUv. "But' It does appeal to me, the Idea thatj If I use my own money nobody hut myself can suffer if we're making a mistake, if we don't make a suc-' suc-' cess." j Then you will find the capital' : yourself. Mrs". Druce?" "I think 1 can manage it without ! much trouble." 1 Lontalne sighed rjuletly and relaxed- The contented glow of last ' night crept back Into his eyes. Hoi I produced his clgaret-case, and began i ! to smoke in luxurious puffs. ..I 11 t... m l-i , L- In 1 Ilia V l Vli ju a iimvn a day or two, for preliminary expenses." ex-penses." The. brlnev up a question." Lu-cinds Lu-cinds confessed. 1 You see, my checks will be signed Luclnda Druce. and I don't like to risk my Incognita as' Linda Iee." "Nothing to fret about." Lontaino declared. "Simply make your checks payable to me I'll open an account with a local bank In my name first,! and transfer It to the acount of Linda Lee (Inc.) as soon as we incorporate in-corporate " (Continued In Our Next Issue) |