Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

20 Carefree Charlie Charlie pitches right in and helps build his new home. afraid, though they did not mean to let him go through with it. "You're yellow !" some one cried. "And you want to become a star ! You're afraid, that's what's the matter ! You're yellow!" Charlie lost control of his arms and legs and rushed from one of his tormentors to another. He hardly knew, what he was doing. He wanted to say so much he' could hardly speak at all. "I'm yellow, am I? Oh, so I'm yellow, am I?" he' yelled. "All right! I'll show you! I'll let you see' whether I am or not ! I'll fall down into the water ! I'll do it ! I'll do it ! I'll show you !" Charlie mounted the rail at the end of the pier, and was quite willing to risk his neck. From such a height he would have splashed through the mud clear to China. Only when the troupe explained their joke, was Charlie drawn away from his perilous perch, though even then somewhat reluctantly. This naive daring of his won admiration, nevertheless. In case you believe Charlie is a Don Quixote, glance at his clear-headed side. It was about four years ago that Mrs. Farrell paid her first visit to her son. Charlie's sister, Ruth, also appeared. "You know, Charlie," said Mrs. Farrell one evening, "you should give up trying any more for the movies. You've been out here a year, and what have you done? Nothing but extra work. Come back with me, and your father will place you in something." Mrs. Farrell, as you can guess, regarded business as more lucrative than a high fling at art. To Charlie this proposal must have sounded as tempt ing as if his mother had asked him to smash his cornet. He got up from his sprawling position, walked about the room with one hand at the back of his head, the other in his pocket, a perplexed look on his face. Drawing a deep breath, as if his answer was going to wake the world, he replied : "No, I'm not going back with you. You see, mother, it's like this : If I went East now, and later on saw any of my chums playing leads, I'd say, Tf I had stayed in Hollywood I might have got a break, eventually.' You see, I'd feel mad at myself for leaving, mad at you for persuading me, and mad at every one else." Failing to get her screen-struck son to think better of his decision, Mrs. Farrell, with much maternal advice, returned East, leaving Charlie once again alone. "Now remember, son, as soon as you get fed up with the movies come home," were her last words at the station. "No," her dutiful but obstinate boy replied. "I'll get somewhere yet." But Mrs. Farrell let that go in one ear and out of the other. The train started and Charlie, hands deep He has an honest, straightforward way that wins everybody. in his pockets, slouched his way back to Hollywood and uncertainty. Charlie has a reticence about him which invariably strikes me as being a self-consciousness left over from his adolescent days, Though I imagine he thinks deeply, he is never free with his opinions. He has always been like that. Yet for all his adolescent manners, there is something very substantial about Charlie Farrell. He has a straightforward, honest way that wins him respect. Just before he his break in things were very slack. His chum was going East for a holiday. Charlie was homesick. Mrs. Farrell, as if guessing his thoughts, sent him money to buy a round-trip ticket. Nine movie sons out of ten would have spent all that money, even if they did not use it for its intended purpose. Not Charlie. He sent it back to his mother, although he had pracContinued on page 116 got "Sandy,