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Show How I Broke Into The Movies czXLby " Herman By NORMA SHEARER NOW that I look back upon it, 1 guess it was just a dogged determination de-termination that got me my first chance in motion pictures. 1 often think how strange It seems to me now, in the light of everything I know about the industry, indus-try, for my sister and me to have set out from our home in Canada to Invade the picture business. We did not know a soul in New York, we had no pull and no friends in the industry. In fact, we knew nothing of the Inner workings of a booking office until after we had been in New York for several weeks and had made the rounds of the studios again and again. On one of our pilgrimages we discovered dis-covered a kindly soul who told us we should get an agent and gave us the address of a good booker. Athole, my sister, and I were filled with new hope and we gleefully bounded into that drab office to be met by a sad-eyed young man'seated at a littered desk. He asked us what we wanted, with the air of one who already knew our answer and feared the worst. We told him emphatically that we wanted to go Into the movies. He looked at us pitifully. "Oh, must you go into the movies?" he asked. Our . , N Norma Shearer. ardor dampened not one whit, we explained that we really must. He gave us a long talk, begging us to turn back, but we were not to be turned, and more to get rid of us than anything else he sent us to a studio where twelve girls were needed need-ed for a few days' work in a college comedy. Thinking that the jobs were set for us, we reported at the studio the next day to find out that there were fifty girls waiting. Out of these twelve were to be chosen. The assistant director came out of his office and began looking us over. He chose eleven girls, and I was not among them. I coughed very louc'ly and shuffled my feet. The sound attracted his ear and his eye followed. I had brought myself my-self to his notice, and he said, "You'll do. The rest are not needed. need-ed. The twelve of you report for work tomorrow morning." My sister was not chosen, but I went back later In the afternoon and we persuaded him that thirteen girls would be better than twelve, that thirteen was really a lucky number, and he consented to let Athole work, too. And that is how I happened to do my first day's work. But breaking Into the movies Is not like walking into a room, for It's easier to get In than stay in. Weeks passed and no work came, but that one day's work gave us at least the right to say that we had picture experience experi-ence and we at last got other days' extra work. Athole dropped out of the game to get married, and I went the rest of the way alone. Extra work led to bits, bits to small parts and small parts to larger ones. By the time I was playing parts I was noticed on the coast and got a contract with the old Mayer studios. When the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer merger was effected my contract was carried over, and I have been with this company com-pany ever since. Among my recent pictures are "Smiling Through," with Frederic i March and Leslie Howard and "Strange Interlude" with Chirk Gable, Ga-ble, Ralph Morgan and Maureen O'Sullivan. |