The Picture Show Annual (1931)

I 72 ghastly farce. Why the dickens did I ever tell O'Donald I'd do this? The old publicity hound, he didn't say anything about making a sort of serial job of it—thought it was just-to judge the finalists. Has he got any more stunts up his sleeve, I wonder ? " He had. The next move was the stars' signatures as witnesses to the contracts that were signed there and then upon the stage. Carita Crayford thoroughly enjoyed herself. She loved to be in the public eye, and she smiled at Jack Rayner Smith until the boy was almost dizzy. Afterwards there was a " little party " given by the management. Peter Thome, after five minutes, excused himself and fled. Carita; radiant in her tight-fitting golden frock, was the centre of a circle of the wealthiest men there—she had an unerring nose for gold. Myra and Jack Rayner Smith found themselves left out in the cold with a glass of champagne each, while all round them went on discussions of studio and theatre topics, intimate and technical. I'm feeling as bubbly inside as this champagne," said Myra. " Are you feeling excited ? " They were sitting together on two of the four chairs in the room. The rest of the party were sitting on the floor, or standing round in groups. Jack s eyes left the group of which Carita was the centre, and rested on the girl's eager young face. " Why, yes," he said ; but his tone held little emotion. " Do you think we shall ever be as wonderful as Peter Thome and Carita Crayford ? I can't imagine it." " It'll be hard work," answered the boy, " but I don't see why we shouldn't be." " You might, but I'm awfully afraid," she said. ' We've only six months definitely settled. And suppose we're dreadful failures." " You're an awful pessimist, aren't you ? I'm not a bit scared of beginning. I've got a feeling that it s going to be easy. I've got ajsort of—of creative urge " (he had got the words from a fan magazine interview with a soulful star) '* that I know won't let me down. It's going to be wonderful. And Miss Crayford's wonderful, too," he added, in a burst of champagne-inspired admiration and confidence. " I'm going to work like the dickens, and if I don't put Peter Thome in the shade, it won't be because I haven't ..ried. Here's to this time six months.' The next week was occupied in a round of photo- graphers, tailors, modistes, hosiers, hatters, milliners, manicurists, and Myra and Jack had very little spare time. In the evening they were usually taken to a talking picture, during the course of which O'Donald, the publicity man, pointed out what was to be emulated or avoided in the various performances. The chief faults were imperfect diction and over stressing ; but there were innumerable others that Myra did her best to grasp. " Jack, I'm funking it even more than .ever," she confided one evening as they were going home together in a taxi into which O'Donald had pushed them, glad to finish his evening's work. They were staying the week at a well-known hotel, which was better publicity, the firm decided, than an obscurer one. Jack's hand closed over hers. " Poor kid," he said, smiling at her in the chasing shadows. If only I had your confidence and courage," she went on. Picture Show Annual " You'll forget it when you begin," Jack tried to comfort her. " I'm afraid I wasn't born to be an actress. I was born just to be—to be " " Loved," cut in Jack, and putting his free arm round her shoulders, kissed her. It was quite a long and ardent kiss, for Jack had not been a cinema frequenter for three years without picking up a few of the finer points in the art. Myra did not resist because she found it rather pleasant, and presently he let her go, a little disappointed by her passivity. His next words startled her. " Yes, you were born to be loved, but I can't imagine you loving anyone very hard—you're too placid." She removed her head from his shoulder. " Oh, is that so, Mr. Rayner Smith," she observed. " And what makes you come to that conclusion ? " " Oh, I don't know. Just—er—general impression, Miss Lumley." They were smiling at each other again. And you are a great lover, Mr. Smith, I suppose ? " " Well, I think I could become one in time," admitted Jack modestly. The following day they started work at the studio, and soon Myra found that her life was going to be even harder than she had imagined, also that being Peter Thome's protegee did not mean a thing to her, nor yet to Peter Thome, who, after sending round to her the first day, conveniently forgot her. She and Jack were both given crowd work in Carita Crayford's picture, much to their disappointment, for they had expected a small part at least. All their spaie time they spent on the set watching the others. Myra arranged to take singing lessons, elocution lessons, de- portment and dancing lessons, and German lessons, and found that although the company encouraged her they did not offer to help pay. Ten pounds per week was the contract ; ten pounds they paid, and not a penny more, so after paying her various tutors, Myra found herself with about three pounds a week to live on, of which a furnished bed-sitting-room (with breakfast) near the studio took thirty shillings. Jack had a room on the floor below. Both were fur- nished with a bed, which the landlady, for some incompre- hensible reason, alluded to as a divan, a table, two chairs (rickety), and a rug the size of a table mat that skidded about on the shiny oilcloth, whose pattern of roses and ribbon on a brown ground changed, in Myra's room, into tremulous diamonds enclosing a mixed posy of debatable flowers on a greenish ground, just near the bed, where the original order had given out and the landlady had fallen a victim to the lure of a cheap remnant. Their surroundings did not depress them ; they would come home from the studio at night and eat odd meals of tinned soup, or sausages, or kippers, or bacon and eggs, cooked over the gas ring and washed down with tea or coffee, while they cheerfully talked over the doings of the day. Myra was more than half in love with Jack, while Jack's vanity was agreeably warmed by her interest in him. And in the unconventional studio atmosphere where it seemed only natural for everyone to have a violent fancy for someone else they were thrown together by their entrance into it, and what was merely a mutual liking they mistook for a deeper affection. They