Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1919 - Feb 1920)

36 Their Wedded Life sketch a little later, out in Seattle, that he learned the full meaning of the word tragedy. Sitting on an end of the orchestra piano he was singing to a girl dangling on the other end a ditty entitled "Oh, You Beautiful Doll !" when his voice cracked and he couldn't sing another note. In a hoarse, terrible whisper he said: "Finish it!" The girl thought it was an improvised bit of comedy, and broke into a peal of laughter. For an instant Ray sat, horror-stricken, helpless, then picked her up and ran off the stage with her. Off-stage, he faced a blank, black future, voiceless, dumb. He saw himself selling shoe laces on a street corner, a friendless old age, the poor-house, a pauper's grave. And in the face of this tragedy his singing partner stood laughing. The movies were then very new and he did not think of a refuge in the voiceless drama. He thought only of blight and black ruin. Right glad he was beat it back to the Virginia farm, and it was while resting there that he went into pro fessional baseball, pitching with the Petersburg team. He was known as "Whispering Al." Then one day his voice came back, husky and nasal — those Ray traditions were broken they stayed broken. Perversely enough, it was not until his voice came back fully — for speaking, but never a sound for singing —that he went into pictures. He has worked before and behind and before the camera, first acting, then directing and then acting again ; with most of the big producing companies, in all sorts of plays, with all sorts of players. When you see him at home he looks like a parlor ornament, with his good-looking face and slim-waisted figure, his slim hands and shy manner. But scratch through his shyness and you will find a regular fellow, an all-round outdoor sportsman who plays everything but golf — he hasn't the patience to worry that silly little ball out of a hole and send it over a bunker with a crooked stick when he could pitch it so much farther by hand ; a good storyteller with a wonderful sense of humor; and I fancy a fairly long-headed business man, for he figures on about three more years in pictures and after that — well, just a sort of everyday citizen's life with an office and business, but a voice ! The very peculiarity of it was one of those half-welcome boons known as blessings in disguise. He was telling a funny story to an aunt when she said, "What a voice for a Hebrew character !" And next thing he was back on the stage doing Hebrew stunts. Once mum ii in mini i mm mnmmm miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiii imiiiii urn n i urn ■■inn 1 umini mm mniiiim mini i mi mil n Film Observations By Vara Macbeth Jones "Photoplay writing quickly taught," does not my yearn How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, ing quell, When film recollections bring them to view ; For now*I need instruction that teaches how to sell! The robber's den, cabaret, battlefields, death traps, Prisons, and train wrecks ; these are but a few ! which he modestly announces as "investments." Evidently he is salting down part of his million a year — ■ that minimum honorarium in the movies — in barrels in the cellar of his bungalow. But in any big moment in a production, if Albert Ray doesn't seem quite serious enough, all his director need do is say — "Seattle!" "I think," said pa, "that star we saw Puts on such silly airs." "It's well she puts them on," said ma, "For little else she wears!" A little "vamping" now and then Is relished by the best of men ! The world is so filled with movie screens, I'm sure we should all be as happy as queens ! Among the fellows in our set, Brown's most popular, by far; For he knows a chap — who knows a chap — Who knows a movie star !