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STUDIO DIRECTORY
107
Biographical Sketch
ANY way you look at it there is at least a grave difference between an undertaker and a motion picture director. Eventually, of course, the twain must meet, but in this instance the undertaker and the director are one and the same. It might be said of Richard Wallace that he has risen from the grave to the heights, for he started as an embalmer, and his latest picture achievement was the direction of the Sam E. Rork production starring Will Rogers in "A Texas Steer."
Wallace took up embalming when he decided to forego a career as an M. D., which professions are much closer allied than those of director and embalmer. Born and educated in Sacramento, Cal., he completed his education as a medical student in Chicago, but quit before graduation to go into the undertaking business in Los Angeles, which he considered the ideal spot.
But he found that business was slow in the southern clime of the Golden State. Motion pictures were a much more live subject with greater opportunities, so he joined the Mack Sennett-Keystone Company as jack-of-all trades. Directing looked like the best bet to. him, so he started to learn everything that led up to it. He soon established himself as one of the best editors in the business.
From editing he went to the business of writing, and he clicked right off the reel with "The Connecticut Yankee," as a result of which he was signed up by Fox and given the chance to direct. His first assignment was a two-reeler and he proved conclusively what he could do if given bigger things. He was not long in getting them and his services were much in demand.
Contracts followed with Universal, Hal Roach, Warner Bros, and First National. After his success with Mabel Normand in "Raggedy Rose," he was asked to direct Corinne Griffith in "Syncopating Sue," and by boxoffice checkup this was acclaimed one of her best pictures. "McFadden's Flats" and "The Poor Nut" for First National placed him in the front rank of directors, with the result that Sam E. Rork signed him to direct Will Rogers in "A Texas Steer."
RICHARD WALLACE
Director of
"A TEXAS STEER" "AMERICAN BEAUTY"
"THE POOR NUT" "McFADDEN'S FLATS"
FIRST NATIONAL PICTURES