Close Up (Oct 1920 - Sep 1923)

15 giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim ' RSONALITI ' in min mi in iiiiniiiiiiic WHY BE AN EXTRA? Claire Windsor, She Waited — and Worried — and Won! “I worked for a menial's hire, Only to learn dismayed That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have paid.” Jessie B. Rittenhouse thus bemoans the lack of real effort and indomitable purpose in early endeavors, seeing at the end that all comes to him who has vision. Napoleon said something about there being a brigadier’s baton in every corporal’s sack. But a great many wise and successful persons have said similar things, and the majority of us get the idea in our heads that such lines are the bunk and that the best course to follow is the line of least resistance. This story proves that our conviction itself is the thing that might properly be termed bunk. It is the story of a girl who refused to see in a $7.50 check the final course of her efforts in shadowland, and it is told for the benefit of the great majority of you girls who lug your makeup boxes out in the morning and back at night with an indifference born of lost hope. Lois Weber, premier woman director, is a woman with great executive ability and the mind to make decisions that will stand. She found herself in a situation not quite a year ago which called for a decision being made quickly. Paramount had signed a contract with her which called for four lavish productions, and at the last moment before starting on the initial picture of the series she was confronted with the loss of her leading lady who had left town. It was the morning of the first date on the shooting schedule, and all hands were assembled in a stage of the Brunton studio. “I’ll not stop at this last minute to spend several days or weeks hunting for another,” she declared. “I’m going to comb this lot and find one ready to work.” With characteristic thoroughness, Miss Weber “combed” the lot. By noon she had sent one of her assistants to make engagements with a number of promising young cinema aspirants elsewhere, but she was still hunting. Deciding that the studio cafeteria at noon wasn’t a bad place to look, Miss Weber went there, and, while eating lunch, looked ’em over. Result was that Miss Weber invited one of the girls eating in the cafeteria to come to her table and join her. Girl’s name was Ola Cronk; was working extra in a Holubar picture, and had never done anything but extra work. “You’re a perfect type of blonde American girl,” said the famous director. “I don’t see how you’ve escaped getting some sort of a chance.” Final result: The girl’s name is now Claire Windsor, and after playing the lead through the picture, “To Please One Woman,” she pleased Miss Weber so well that she now has a five-year contract to appear in Lois Weber productions. “I’ve always been sufficiently in earnest to have had plenty of crying spells over my luck,” says the new leading lady, “but I honestly think it’s better to cry than to laugh the way some girls do. No matter how consistently unlucky I was, I never got indifferent enough to feel that perhaps I had no claim on success.” “ — any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have paid.” Jinks Harris, the iron-fisted cowpuncher of filmdom, who has been playing heavies on the LK-O lot, left this beautiful burg to join Henry McRae in Canada, where he will remain for several months. * * -T Frank Mayo is finishing, “The Throwback”. — Sounds as if he found a horse show. * * * Belts are the only thing nowadays that have plenty of “give” and no “take.” * * * Now that the ladies are in politics we’ve got no chance for an argument — we call them ladies because we’re gentlemen. * * * Bill Russell, went to see Fanchon and Marco if anybody wants to know. I asked Bill how he liked the show, he said: “The girls sure had beautiful eyes”. — “Say Bill how ao you get the ‘eyes’ stuff ?” GERTRUDE STEVENS Ingenue When you go away On your vacation And forget your camera You decide then That you can’t get Good pictures anyway. HINT — Never take vanishing cream to the studio, it’s sure to uphold its name. * * * Mr. Nazimova, who is temperamentally dissatisfied with New York stores, sent back to Los Angeles for a pair of $30 golf stockings. Here’s a new idea, Mr. Press Agent. * * * Mildred Moore got a good write-up after investing in the Spirit of the Poppy, that is typographically speaking. * * * “Life Below the First Floor” is getting to be a modern drama. * * * Owen Moore says that love gives you a far-away look. It does. The farther away the better. * * * The hardest thing in the world to do is to eat corn beef and cabbage in the cafeteria on the Vitagraph Lot, especially if you have a stiff neck. William Duncan will supply more cognent information on this subject than we can. * * * Lasky is making, “His Friend and His Wife”. — Ten to one he lost his friend and not his wife. PLEASE PATRONIZ E— W HO ADVERTIS E— I N “CLOSE-UP”