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Up the Milky Way to Stardom
17
sistant property man, going up in time to the position of property man. The only difference between this job and that of truck driver was that I now did my moving by hand.
My next promotion brought me the glory of being in charge of the property room. But the Mexican jumping bean had nothing on me. I only stayed in this place for a little while, and then became an assistant director. It did not take me long to learn why the assistant director is called the "goat." Everything is feed to him. If the sets are not ready in time or an extra shows up late or the director's breakfast does not set well, the assistant is responsible. He is just naturally blamed for anything and everything.
i I could have endured this all right, as I was pretty good on quick-notice alibis, but the job entailed too much real work. Being assistant director ate into my time, so I decided to take a fling at the assistant camera man's job. This was more to my liking. I invested my life's savings in a motionpicture camera and dashed into the studio one morning all ready to be recognized as a full-fledged camera man.
So much for my titles. They did not always cover my work. While serving as assistant director I volunteered to double in a stunt for the leading man, and from that time on I was
As J. Wallingford Speed, author of this
"autobiographical solo."
regularly elected for that work. Regardless of what my current title might be, when a stunt had to be pulled off for a picture I was the dare-devil chosen. I wonder now how I ,came through some of my experiences alive. I was just kid enough at the time to feel kind of good about doing something that another fellow was afraid to tackle, and I was too young to reason out the risks I was taking. I went ahead and flirted with death for a small salary while some snappy leading man got all the credit on the screen.
One day, Sherwood MacDonald, who was then directing Jackie Saunders, asked me if I would do a jump from a bridge for his picture. I said sure, and thought no more of the matter, assuming that the bridge was an ordinary under-sized affair such as is common in Los Angeles parks.
When we got out to Hollenbeck Park, MacDonald pointed to a bridge which arched the lake, and said: "There it is. Get up there at the highest point and dope out your jump while we get the cameras set."
I nearly fainted. The bridge looked a thousand feet tall to me. I don't know a thing about high diving, and you know that a dive like that is a serious matter. It was too late to back down, so I started up the bridge, feeling like a man on his way to the electric chair. '" \ "All right, Cullen. Let's go," MacDonald yelled. I shot out from , the bridge, teeth set and eyes closed. Three or four years later \ I hit the water. When I came up, the director was all smiles. ) Continued on page 100