The Sins of Hollywood ()

■ 38 THE GREAT LETTY 4 edy director did not know it—to get even a bit in the big pictures, but always she had been turned away. So she decided to use her wit—and her Patiently she waited till one evening the op- portunity came when she could meet the Great One —the wonderful director of master pictures. The introduction was simple and brief. To Letty it was an event upon which She determined to capitalize. The Great One gave her but a passing notice. But Letty was patient as ever. She bided her good time. There was but another step. The Great One needed a girl to play the role of a woman member of a gang of thieves. With the aid of a booking agent, she succeeded in selling herself—her services m —to the Great One for his big masterpiece—a pic- ture that has been called the equal of anything Grif- fith ever Letty's work made an impression. She knew how to be hard—-to play the embittered woman. She was wise but—it had cost something and the hardness in the picture was not all acting. By degrees she began to appear at places the Great One frequented—just as if by accident. By the same slow process she practised the wiles she had learned from her two teachers^—the assistant director and the great director—and soon she began to see progress. Slowly, but none the less surely, she broke down the Great One's reserve, and then- Step by step she builded the foundation for her success. She intrieued the Great One- shame she permitted him to come to her in the great silences of the whispering night; and in the pink tinted hours of the dawn she bade him begone lest someone learn of their illicit love.