Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

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46 Pat's Awakening Pat now does the odd jobs around his home, and is seen repairing a broken wall. trenchment. Most of all, we discussed the necessity of fighting back. "Every man has. to strike off a couple of years with red ink. There must be a time of facing facts, of readjustment. The gain in knowledge is worth the cost. I just 'went Hollywood !" His chuckle mocked the phrase which a few foolish stars have used to publicize their misfortunes and lack of balance, but the sting of truth, a ruthless self-diagnosis, showed in his remarks. "At first glance, it looks as if the show-offs know their stuff, that spending is the only way to make money. It used to be more necessary than it seems to be now. Buddy Rogers and the other kids live more economically than leading men would have dared, a few years ago. "Apparently, the spender won, but only for a time. "Because of his nonchalance, the spender often gets better roles and more salary. But when the slump comes, or the changes inevitable in the uncertain show business, the miser is sitting pretty. You can't live on cars and credit for long. The plugger has money to tide him over. Eventually the financial status of each is nosed about, and the producer sees the miser's merit. "I have been both, and I know! "After I had been out for a year, it occurred to me to wonder if the reason for the bad break might possibly be found in myself, to stop blaming it on conditions. When anybody's career has done a tailspin, and he reaches the point of wondering if the fault lies in himself, he is on the first step of the upward climb again. This change of viewpoint means a truer outlook. "Every person should now and then get away from things, even if only for a while in the country. In semisolitude, you clean out the cobwebs and quiet down, and learn to know yourself. That acquaintance usually shows that change in some form would benefit you. "I saw what a fool I had been and, more clearly, my job in life. I had been broke often, before I was married, and had worked at odd things to tide over dull theatrical seasons, never worrying. But here I had a wife and three kids. I had failed. With youth and will, couldn't I start over? "A man is never licked until he admits he is. I had been a nut. I hadn't meant the flattery and kidding. I understood why they had lost confidence in me. I would show some grit and prove that I wasn't an idiot, nor a weakling. First, I went into rigorous training and took off twenty-five pounds. "There wasn't anything in Hollywood for me, so I went to New York, to start over again on the stage. I had been in the show business almost all my life. I got on a cheap vaudeville circuit — seven shows a day. Henry Duffy had once said that if he put on a certain play, he wanted me for it. Hearing he was going to do it, I wired, and he advised me to hustle home. I got here a day too late. "But Freddie Schuessler, casting director for United Artists, and an old friend, began plugging for me for 'Alibi.' Nobody else could see me, until the director, Roland West, liked the way I went about the tests. Freddie said West wanted me. We talked salary. I said, 'Freddie, write your own ticket. I want to work. It will please him, too, if you can cut cost.' So I accepted his offer — half the salary I had received before the slump." Painstaking study partly ironed out his brogue, which had been so thick you could cut it. Experience, both on stage and' screen, again proved his value. No stripling could have played that role, yet he had to have youth. There is a new trend toward such parts of contrast, which only the seasoned actor can portray. Not many, however, look as young as this new O'Malley. Next he had to practice the brogue again for Richard Arlen's prize-fight story, "The Man I Love." Pat has ditched the tall headgear. He will work for anybody, for any money they want to pay him. Conditions matter little. He's through with feeding pride. Instead, he wants to be certain of feeding his children in the future. "I've got three of the smartest rascals in the world. Everybody knows the O'Malley kids. Lillian and I have been in the theater almost all our lives. Naturally, they are born actresses. They will do something worth while. No matter how low we were, they were always shined from the tops of their red heads to their toes. They shall have the best. Not only material things, but health, education, knowledge of values, a constructive bringing up." Pat recalled an incident of his own childhood as an added incentive to provide for Sheila, Mary Kathleen, and Eileen. When he was fourteen, there was a strike at the mines. Poverty stalked the village. They had Continued on page 112 here