The Photo-Play Journal (Jul 1919-Feb 1921)

22 Photo-Play Journal La Roc que was Mabel Normand's leading man in Gotdwin pictures Brummel about 'him ; he is too clean-cut for that sort of thing. "I firmly believe that the actor should study dress with as much care as the actress,"' he said. "There is a middle ground between slovenliness and over-dressing, which the actor should find. When you realize that thousands of young men in small towns must depend upon the movie to iearn what's what, you will understand the responsibility of the actor in this respect. Clothes make the man in the movies more than in real life, and perhaps because I have tried to discover how to dress myself for straight roles — something far more difficult than dressing for character parts — I have succeeded in looking like the romantic heroes I sometimes play." Clothes are hardly a hobby with La Rocque. They are part of his business. But he has a hobby, portrait painting, a natural hobby, developed from a natural talent. He finds that toying with a brush and paint box is the best sort of relaxation for the man who is under a strain. He has never had the time to do much original work, but he enjoys nothing better than to develop from a photograph a living likeness in colors. Rod writes, too. Recently, he told me, he completed several scenarios that are to be produced in the near future. "They'll probably be under way before the end of the summer," he added, "and I'm to have a chance to play in them — to play the kind of parts I've been waiting for. Too frequently, you know, the leading man is but a foil for some lovely star, and he never is called upon to do anything but look pleasant. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything more about this just now, but it's a little too far ahead anyway. After I finish 'The Memento' for Vitagraph, I'm to play the lead opposite June Caprice in 'The Hidden Path,' a new Burton Rod La Rocque with King picture, and then, I hope, I'll have a chance to play in some of my own stories. "No!" he answered to my interruption. "I don't think I'm quite ready to sign a long-term contract with any company just yet. I'd rather continue as I have been, playing with a different director and different players in each picture. You've no idea what a player can learn in that way. Each picture adds to my own too small store of knowledge" — here I disagreed with him — "the results of years of others' experience. And besides I'm free now to return to stage whenever I wish, — and don't forget this : no player who has been behind the footlights can leave the stage entirely for the screen." A man's friends are probably the best reporters of a man's life. Rod La Rocque's friends "in the profession'' are his best press agents. They regard him as no lucky happenstance, no "made star." He is one of those who have worked hard to win a footing in public approval and who have succeeded. They point, too, to La Rocque's habit of looking upon his mother as the proper partner of his success. As one of them expressed the idea : "Rod is different about himself. It's hard to make him talk about anything more than the simple facts of his career in the movies and on the stage. You might be able to excuse him for a little egotism when you realize that he has played everything from a man of eighty to a leading man opposite a dozen of the best known female stars. But Rod isn't that sort at all. He has his eye on a still higher rung on the ladder. He understands his own relation to life in general and you won't find one whit too much of self-esteem in his make-up.'' Which ought to be sufficient reference for any man. Cor Griffith in a scene from Vitagraph's "The Garter Girl"