Photoplay (Apr - Sep 1918)

46 Photoplay Magazine my art. So I've just been kind of instructin' her in the various modes and tenses of expression that I've put my rope on since I've been in the profession. Nobody never taught me. It just came natural." I'nlawful as it may seem, that's exactly what he was doin'. I happened to find it out a day or so later. I was kind of browsin' around the studio one mornin' when I heard voices comin' from behind a set in the corner. It was Tim and the lady structural iron worker. "Now try that expression of Uttermost Despair,' " he was sayin'. "No, drop that chin a little lower and cock that left eye up a bit. Now wipe your forehead with the back of your hand, and sigh. There, that ain't so bad. "Now let's try that 'Haughty Disdain.' Stick out your chest. Wait a minilte, don't overdo it. Now protrude out your lower lip, put your head to one side, and glare. No, you fall down on that glare. It's like this, see. I know it's hard to get a glare like that, but once you get it there ain't nobody can take it away from you." Takin' a good grip on my windpipe so I wouldn't laugh, I took a peek. There was old Tim and Jessie Willard makin' faces at each other in the lookin' glass. If that dame was pinin' to express herself she sure was goin' the limit. The man that built that glass certainly did earn his money. I didn't feel no call to butt in until some time later. You see, I figured that neither one of them had sense enough to hurt the other, but I reckoned without my hostages, as the fellow says. One mornin' I found out that Tim and Miss Nesta Sprightly, yep, that's the nom de cinema she took, had gone and exchanged presents. He'd give her an ankle watch, and she'd give him a Pomeranian pup. When she first appeared on the lot with that ankle watch, it excited some comment, not to say vulgar badinage. She had on one of them short dresses like my little sister used to wear. That watch was in just the first place that your eye naturally found. You couldn't miss it. She was what you might call the sinecure of all eyes. If she made a holy show you ought to have seen Tim when he came out takin' that Pomeranian for a promenade. It was an ill favored little beast with the cocksure manners of a director. Tim had the decency to blush as he led that pup around. You could see by the look of agony on his face that he was tryin' to express "Nonchalance" but his face wasn't equal to the job. Right there and then I felt so outraged that I decided to lope in and take a hand in the game. I'd knowed Tim when he was a real forty-five caliber man and I didn't propose to let no extra woman turn him into a governess for a flivver pup. So I appealed to Tessie Truelove who can do most anything with Tim when she has a mind to amuse herself. "Tessie," says I, "that man has got to be saved. Next thing he'll be wearin' store clothes and gettin' shaved. Then his usefulness as a bad actor will be gone. This Sprightly dame ain't got sense enough to be amused at herself. She's got him clear locoed." 'What', that one with the 19 10 tonneau and the tractor walk, and the $1.98 hair?" asks Tessie. "Leave it to me. Slim. If I couldn't cut her out I'd go back to civilian life." Say, the next few days was worth while. It was some battle but Tessie had all the strategy. The very first afternoon she had Tim escortin' her to lunch. Right in the middle of his pork and beans, he suddenly gives a startled jump and nearly bit his knife in two. "Oreat Goldiad, Tessie, I forgot," he says. 'Hope you'll excuse me." 'Where are you goin?" Tessie demanded. "Why I clear forgot that it's time to take that pup out for his walk," explained Tim. "It would be awful to neglect the poor little devil." "Tim, you're breakin' my heart," wailed Tessie. "Right here you got to decide between me and that pup. Tim jld teeterin' down the line on his high heels, peelcin' at the extras out of the laughin', so he takes it "Oh, hell, madam," apologized Tim. "I never did think much of the beast anyhow." So down he sits and finishes his beans, and barked at half a dozen ears of corn, and inhaled a few stewed prunes, and finished off with one-fourth pie. By the time the waiter passed the toothpicks he wras almost his old calm self again. But Miss Nesta Sprightly couldn't be ditched in any such fashion. She prepared for battle by takin' up another notch in her ankle watch, and sailed right in. For the first time in his life poor Tim had a surplus of popularity. This little intrigue was what you might call a triangle, because you got to consider the pup. If Tim went galivantin' with Nesta, Tessie would take the hide off him