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Show How I Broke Into Tk Movies CozihLby " Herman By RICHARD BARTHELMESS T NTO this Universe, and Why 1 not knowing Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing; And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I knew not Whither, willy-nilly blowing." blow-ing." Life, to me, is something like that. Omar "hits" me quite often. Somehow Some-how we humans do things In spite of ourselves. In the shuffle of existence exist-ence we sort of find our niches "willy-nilly." My father died when I was one year old. My mother, faced with the necessity of supporting herself and her baby, took to the stage. As I grew to boyhood my education educa-tion became a problem and thus when my mother went on tour she sent me to military school. During vacations I sometimes appeared on the stage, but not with the stage in my mind as a serious future. Then came college days Trinity, Hartford, Conn. where I took part In amateur theatricals. One day a film company from New York came to a nearby village on location. I was impressed with their work ; but still my original purpose to enter business upon leaving college remained. re-mained. Then came another vacation period pe-riod and rather than remain idle I secured work at ten dollars a day as an extra In "Gloria's Romance," which starred Billie Burke. Then followed more extra work in a production pro-duction of "Romeo and Juliet," followed fol-lowed by a lull rather unwelcome at this time. My mother, Caroline Harris, was a dear friend of Nazimova in fact it was my mother who taught Nazi- f'-'Vv Richard Barthelmess. mova to speak English when that wonderful Russian actress first came to America. Nazimova was about to start the production of "War Brides," under the direction of Herbert Brenon. They had been seeking for weeks for a young man to play the role of the younger son, Arno. While plans for "War Brides" were going on I was getting terribly discouraged. 1 had spent weeks making the usual rounds of the Fort Lee and New York studios and had about made up my mind that there was no room for me In motion picture work. I suddenly decided to sign up for a navai training cruise to tide me over the summer. I had always loved the sea and this seemed like an opportunity op-portunity to do something before going go-ing back to Trinity college for my senior year. On the evening when I was to depart de-part on the cruise Fate smiled ironically iron-ically and decided to alter my life. A telephone call came from Nazimova Nazi-mova asking me to see her at the hotel. I was engaged for the role of Arno in "War Brides," and that was the beginning. I never returned to Trinity! I was not yet twenty-one when this turning point ln my life occurred, oc-curred, but had the call come the next day I would have been away on the cruise and probably become a second-rate business man at the end of my college days. After "War Brides," came several leading roles with Marguerite Clark followed by some great "breaks" In David Wark Griffith productions, culminating in "Broken Blossoms" and "Way Down East." Then out of clear skies came the talking pictures. I appeared In "Weary River," "Drag" both dialogue dia-logue films, and It Is to talking pictures pic-tures that I look for that eventful greatest role of my career. |
