Hollywood Saga (1939)

HOLLYWOOD SAGA could offer. With absolutely no experience in the field they were entering, with no technical knowledge of pictures and practically no political knowledge of the situation, and with cash limited to twenty thousand dollars, they calmly set out to tie into true-lovers’ knots the tentacles of an octopus which felt perfectly at home in his cave and had a war chest of sixty million dollars per annum. I have since wondered whether a little more knowledge would have deterred them. I am inclined to think not. Youth they had to a pronounced degree, and energy — ye gods! what energy! To this day my brother is a human dynamo which never seems to rim down, as anyone can testify who has ever worked with him on a big production; the impossible attracts him as honey, high in the tree, attracts a bear. It is this quality which made him such a valuable leader both in technic and technology in those fighting early days. It was quite characteristic of him then, in 1913, that once he was committed to motion pictures they became, overnight, the most important form of art in the world; somewhat crude perhaps, but that was exactly why the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company had been formed. It took Moses forty years to lead his people out of the wilderness; well — just watch how long it would take the Lasky Company to lead motion pictures to the Promised Land. By the time the company was fully organized Cecil had seen several more pictures and was beginning to talk as an expert. As Director-General of the new concern, he was to have absolute charge of the studio, when they got a studio, and was to be personally responsible for all the company’s pictures, when the company began to make pictures. His word on all matters of production was to have the absolute finality of a czar’s ukase. These important matters being 42