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FEBRUARY 1925
Pictures and PichjreOuer
21
We stopped, went inside, and were lucky enough to find at this place and at :t ridiculous price a marvellous period copy of Anne of Cleves by Holbein. There are only two originals extant and this is one of them. All the others were burned in the collection at Windsor Castle at the time of the fire there. Our copy is almost quite priceless. We were ,(s gleeful as small children would be if, digging one day on some small insignificant beach they should suddenly happen upon the treasure of Captain Kidd !
Also, in this same shop, I saw a mar**■ vellous saddle tree of the thirteenth century, all .hand-carved ivory with the coat of arms of the Scaligeri family. But they wanted too much money for that, and with much sorrow and much regret I decided that I couldn't buy it. 1 believe I shall regret my prudence rather than be pleased at it.
Of course that shop in Siena lost us more time and I had to pay for the pleasure by seeking out the unknown quantity of a garage by the reluctant light of a moon all but unavailing struggling with the rain.
The next morning:, early, we left our rather ambiguous quarters, got the car and drove straight, and without mishap, to the Excelsior Hotel in Rome.
When we arrived there we just rested.
We were tired from the long journey,
The Roman cattle-iruirkets, with
their hustle and queer types and
customs interested Rudy
keenly.
Count Cine, Secretan ol the Unione
We had dinner and talked about pictures, art, that sort of thing. Naturally
they were tremendously interested in
how we do thing* in America, and asked innumerable questions about
studio production, tin scenario end of
it all, the star system, the exhibitor,
cameras, everything. They were also
interested m my own career, and OHCC
again I told the story of my beginning
with its subsequent falls and rises. A great many falls, too !
restive feet The < li« k of th< i son ra,
the vernacular of the studio world, even though in a language I had never heard it in, made my blood tingle and my
palms neb. I felt like turning right
about face ami rushing hack to An , shouting, " 1 .un ready! I am ready! Let's gO '"
On my way back from the full survey, Hani Jannings was there and we
bad sonic pictures taken with him and
with Commendatore Ambrosio who owns the film company, and who pro
A photo taken on one of the " Quo Vadis " sets in Ambrosio studios. Emit Jannings and Commendatore Ambrosio, the producer of " Cabiria," are seen with the Valentinos.
— %
the hotel was comfortable and we reclined through most of the afternoon, having both luncheon and tea served in our rooms.
In the evening I had dinner at the hotel with Baron Fassini, who was very much interested in motion pictures years ago, before the ones who are interested in them now had made them what they are.
Ijaron Fassini was formerly President of the Unione Cinematografica, Italiana. With Baron Fassini was
We mad* a date to go the next day to see the Quo Vadis sets, and so, this morning, we went to Fassini's apartment in the Palazzo Titoni, where he has the first floor. Mussolini, by the way, lives on the second floor and they are great friends.
Count Cine came for us and we drove over to the Villa Borghesc where most of their big open-air sets are made. Their studios are too small to contain the sets they need for big productions. They were shooting some scenes when we arrived and the sets were very lovely. I saw some of the big mob scenes made and really, it made by mouth water ! I felt as they say an old-time actor feels when, after a long period of inactivity, he gets the smell of greasepaint in his nostrils again. Or as a race horse feels when the smooth run of the track is once again under his
duced Cabiria and later merged with the Unione.
We met Mrs. Jannings, who speaks excellent English. Jannings does not speak English. Not one word of it. He was born in America, but was taken to Berlin when only six. His wife is English, and notwithstanding that he speaks German and I not one word of it, we got along famously.
Everything we wanted to say to one another we managed to say and be mutually and perfectly understood. Everyone was surprised at our fluent conversation and the interchange of ideas, theories, ipinions and questions.
After we had had the pictures taken we went all over the sets with Jannings. Then we went and had luncheon. The Commendatore Ambrosio, Mr. and Mrs. Jannings, the two directors who are directing Quo Vadis, Signor Jacobi and Gabriele d'Annunzio, son of the famous romancer and poet.
Among other things that took place during this conversation between Jannings and I w-as Jannings asking me if $2,000 a week, was a good price for a character actor in America. I said, " Between $2,000 and $2,500, they are fair figures and a good man ought to get about that."