Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1920 - Feb 1921)

32 Romances of Famous Film Folk hadn't ! Supposing he had decided to stay at home and study his shorthand like a good boy. But suddenly he felt a wild, thrilling desire to do something devilish. So he went to the dramatic school, feeling like a fish out of water, of course, as he stood about in corners and watched those clever young people chatting and laughing and getting ready to rehearse. Somebody came over and asked him if he wanted to join the night classes. He blushed and shuffled his feet and said he didn't think he could do anything, though deep down in his heart, he confesses now, there sprang up in his heart at that very moment a daring desire to be an actor. Then somebody insisted, partly as a lark. When Charlie saw he was being kidded he squared his shoulders and looked the somebody in the eye and said; "All right," he would. And he did. And somehow he managed to make a hit in the very first part he played, too. But right there he met with opposition. His father wanted him to be a business man, not an actor. However, Charlie persuaded him to let him attend dramatic school for three months, during vacation preceding his last year in high school, promising he'd give up if he didn't land some sort of a dramatic job at the end of that time. The end of the quarter drew near, and Charlie hadn't done anything. So he quit and went back to his typewriter and bookkeeping. That is, he went back ostensibly. But he kept on at dramatic school, too, on the quiet. His father found out about it one day, and, instead of raving and tearing up the earth, he behaved like a sensible man, went down to see the dramatic-school teacher, and asked him if he thought Charlie would ever make good as an actor. Yes, the teacher said, he thought that if Charlie kept on that he would some day be earning as high as fifty or sixty dollars a week — if he worked hard. That satisfied Charlie's father, and he let him stay on. During this time Charlie was earning a little by playing in pictures or in small parts at the theaters. The Rays' home in Beverly Hills "Gee!" exclaimed Bryant Washburn, that bright June morning, his eyes sparkling as they should under the circumstances. "Gee! What a pretty girl!" That was the way the romance began which ended in the marriage of Bryant Washburn and Mabel Chidester — who, by the way, are now on what they call their wedding trip, although they've been married some years. The story of their love affair is just as interesting and charming as that of the Rays. Miss Kingsley will tell about it in the December PICTURE-PLAY. And right here is where the love interest begins to come in, because right here Clara Grant appears. One afternoon the door opened and in stepped a very pretty girl. Charlie sort of gasped when he saw her, and his Adam's apple worked up and down. He was in the midst of rehearsal, and he bit a word right in two. She glanced up and saw him, too, and then he saw she had rather mocking blue eyes and a laughing mouth. So he set his teeth tight together and went on playing his role. But out of the corners of his eyes he watched her, and he saw that she entered one of the dancing classes. "I thought she was a little bit of loveliness right then," explained Charlie with an embarrassed little grin as he found himself talking about romance, "but I was awfully bashful in those days, and I simply wouldn't force my attentions on her. Besides, I was awfully poor," lie went on quietly, "so I figured, what was the use of trying to get acquainted with such a radiant creature? But I admit I did want to know her very, very much." He was in the dramatic class and she was in the dancing class, and so he would just catch a glimpse of her coming and going. But it is proof of his depth of feeling and tenacity of purpose that he never did forget her, though he didn't see her again for four long years. For it was about that time he left to go into an Arizona stock company, and after that into small-time vaudeville with Chester Conklin, Chester playing an Irish comedian and Charlie a German comedian. He was working and struggling so hard in those days that he didn't think about much else, girls least of all. But whenever he thought of the dramatic school there came into his mind the vision of a light-footed girl, who danced and who had mocking blue eyes and a laughing mouth, and he wondered in a vague sort of way if he'd ever see her again.