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THE LOW SPOT
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Classes A, B, and C. The A’s were the Famous Players in Famous Plays, the B’s trained film actors with a reputation, the C’s obscure players interpreting hack scenarios. Mary Pickford was long in Class B, though she did not know that until many years later. Eventually, as players like her gained following and reputation, he intended to drop Class A altogether. A few months of actual experience had confirmed his opinion that actors and directors trained in the business itself would eventually hold the heights of Shadowland. The great stars of the “legitimate” were educated and set in another kind of technique. Gesture, posture, and expression which seemed natural behind the footlights appeared strained and forced on the screen. In The Good Little Devil, for example, the film version used the exceptionally able company which enacted the spoken original. I saw that old film recently, and Mary Pickford was the only one that I believed. Further, the stage stars generally looked upon the screen only as a rich pot-boiler for slack seasons. They did not put into it their last ounce of energy and interest, as did the regular moving-picture people to whom it was the sole career.
So the scale of his business had increased; but not its resources. Virtually, Zukor had nothing to support this structure except his own little fortune, the profits from those early road shows. Queen Elizabeth and Zenda, and that abnormal credit of his with the banks. In the modern moving-picture business one must wait long for his