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k ¥,
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c/ oin the Movies
and
See the World!
Nick Stuart ZH'd — and Has — and How!
By Dorothy Manners
BACK in the dark ages B. M. (before Movietone) when I myself was an actress on the Fox lot, there was a kid around named Nick Prata who had a smile the tooth-paste people should have sued him for. He was somewhere around inhislate teens at the time, and if there's anything in that slogan, "The face with the smile wins," Nick was destined for big things from the start. He was employed in odd jobs around the studio. Whatever happened to come up. For a while he worked in the casting department and then they put him out on the sets as script clerk or some other run-around job.
He was so doggone agreeable about everything. He didn't seem to care what they gave him to do as long as he was permitted to stick around and absorb the movie atmosphere. He was crazy about Tom Mix and
50
used to hang around his sets as much as possible, watching the tough Westerner shoot 'em up and down. Now and then some director noticed him and said something about his good camera-face, but nothing ever came of it until : One day, when he was busy about his job as thirteenth assistant to Raoul Walsh on "What Price Glory," they sent for him over in the casting office to make a test. For the movies. "Hot dog," said Nick, or something like that. "What's the matter?" inquired Walsh, who probably noticed him for the first time. "They want me to take a test," yelled Nick. Mr. Walsh was slightly peeved. He seemed to think that there were enough kids hanging around as actors without making a good thirteenth assistant into one. But he let him go. Even if he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about his movie career. "When you come back," he ordered from his megaphoned throne, "check out those extra people and tell them to be back at nine o'clock tomorrow."
He Never Game Back
D ut Nick never came back ! Somebody else
*-* had to tell the extras to return at nine,
for not long after that fateful test the young
Mr. Prata became the equally young Mr.
Stuart who was featured in "Cradle-Snatchers,"
"The News Parade" and lately "The River Pirate."
Now, some of the thirteenth assistants are hopping
around for Nick and watching him shoot 'em up ! It just
goes to show something or other. You can't keep a good
kid down, I guess is the correct sentiment. The day I
lunched with him in the Fox cafe we reminisced about
when I was a leading lady and he had run his legs off
doing odd jobs on my sets. Now I was over in the
capacity of presenting him to his public. There ought to
be some sort of moral in that, too. He was wearing a tan
shirt opened at the throat, a shock of naturally curly black
hair and his famous and likable grin. The open shirt
was put on solely for the purposes of the final shots of
"The River Pirate," being taken that day, but the hair
and the smile were just part of Nick's natural get-up.
{Continued on page 116)