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Louis Mayer rented space for his studio at the Selig Zoo
in Los Angeles. The zoo was the stronghold of wild -w -—
animals trained for pictures. All day long, while the actors
were silent on the movie stages, the animals roared their
disapproval in their cages.
Norma Shearer and I worked until midnight one night, then started together for our dressing rooms. It was dark and seemed very quiet.
Sitting in the doorway of my room was a lion. I let out a screech you could have heard in Pomona and— Norma at my heels— ran back toward the set. I found a man there and tried to tell him about it, but my teeth were chattering so I could hardly get out the words.
He was the night watchman. He put his head back and gave me a big laugh. "He wouldn't bite you, missy."
"He's a lion, isn't he? Lions bite, don't they?"
"He ain't got no teeth to bite with, missy."
"He's got claws, though."
"They're clipped. Don't go bein' afraid, ladies. At night when all the picture people are gone and there's nothing for the animals to be scared of, we give them the run of the place— they'd have the run of it all the time if you folks wasn't clutterin' it up."
Louis B. chose the Selig Zoo because it was the cheapest place in town. That lion gave him the idea of his Leo trademark. In those days Mr. Mayer drove around in a secondhand Ford. One day I asked him why he didn't have a better car. He took me over to a window in his office and pointed down at a long shed. "See those cars down there?" he said. "Pretty, aren't they?"
They sure were. I wished I had one.
"Yes, and I've seen too many of them, belonging to directors and stars, taken out of there by the finance company. I'm going to use my Ford until I can afford to buy three Cadillacs— for cash."
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