Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

Can You Break Into the Movies? The second of two articles which answer, from every angle, the above question. The first, published last month, told what you need by way of equipment before attempting to "break into" the movies. This article tells you what you will find on reaching Hollywood, what to avoid, and what you must do to eet a foothold there. By Helen Christine Bennett SOME day New York and Los Angeles are going to have a fight to the finish, the stakes being the reputation of standing as the first city of fakers, bunko steerers and swindlers in general. Whichever city wins, the other will run a close second. So if you have packed your trunk and are waiting for this article to come to the Mecca of moviedom, come prepared to look out for yourself. Look out for anybody who promises you "training" for motion pictures with a job at the end. No one can guarantee you a job. Nobody at this time can give you any training that the studios will respect. All producers and directors issue warnings to keep away from all schools profess , ing to teach "movie acting." ^ Now none of that money you have determined to venture ought to be wasted — so avoid all such schools and all offers of instruction. Girls and young men come to Hollywood and promptly join a "school" — there are a number of them right near the studios — confident that being on the spot these schools mean something worth while. After a time they go away, their purses lighter and their hearts heavier. Give yourself a fair chance. One of the first things you will hear is that you must know how to make up, that you cannot get a job unless you know how to make up. It certainly is wise to learn this first, so take five dollars of your money and offer it to some girl or man work ing as an extra. For that sum, which represents a day's work in the studio, any experienced actor can teach you to make up in an hour. If you feel it is worth it, pay double. That is a safe, sane, and legitimate way of spending money. And insist upon paying your way. One of the most important questions is where to live. Los Angeles is a great crab of a city, sprawling out in all directions. I had supposed that all I had to do in Hollywood was to skip lightly from one studio to another, but when I arrived I found to my great surprise that even when studios were in or near Hollywood they were anywhere from one to five miles apart and that many of them were away off, on sides of the city remote from Hollywood. Streetcar lines do not run direct to the studios, and one needs to be a good walker. In and about Hollywood, however, are the majority of the studios, although quite a You probably won't be able to hire Lila Lee to instruct you in making up, but you can find some one who will do it for a small fee. large group is located at Culver City, some miles away. For real convenience the most practical plan is to live in the city itself, and rooms are undoubtedly cheaper there, but because Hollywood is the place where you meet folks in the profession, and like attracts like, most newcomers at least prefer to locate in Hollywood. This is a half hour's ride from the center of the city and is a charming and delightful place in which to live. They tell me that Los Angeles has been frightfully overcrowded, but ever since I have been here there has been no difficulty in securing a decent place in which to live with a rental far lower than anything I have known in the East for similar accommodations. What is known as the Studio Club is the headquarters for the girls who come to Hollywood. This is a branch of the Young Women's Christian Association and operates on the same linesx^as other branches except that ' it is restricted to girls working in some capacity in motion-picture companies. The Studio Club has a fine large house, but it can shelter only twenty girls and offer table board to only about that number more. As it always has a waiting list of from thirty to forty applicants there is little hope of a girl securing accommodations there. But she can get a list of approved and investigated rooming and boarding houses which will help her to find a resting place. The manager of the club and several directors estimated that board and room would cost fifteen dollars a week, this to include laundry. Get yourself established then and set out to find work. From this point on the directions apply to young men as well as to girls. The first thing to do is to go into Los Angeles and register at the Motion Picture Producers' Service Bureau, which is a kind of exchange maintained by twenty-odd companies for the supplying of extras and types for small parts. It seems one must do this, but, between you and me, it is of very little use. For the same casting director v/ho told me to insist that one must sign there added hastily: "Of course there are so many who do register that it doesn't count for much, although we do send there in emergencies and get girls and men from there. But if a girl comes to an office and sees a casting director he may be impressed by her, and naturally she secures preference over a girl who is merely a name on a list."^ So register and expect nothing, and then get on you/