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40 IT TOOK NINE TAILORS '
companies had pooled their interests and formed a trust for the purposes of stabilizing the business and controlling the rental price of films. No other companies were to be allowed to make motion pictures.
This squeeze play left important film companies like Fox, IMP (later to be known as Universal Pictures), Keystone, and others out in the cold. But none of these companies intended to be driven out of business, regardless of the trust's powerful legal position, so a free-for-all fight started.
The independents, driven to cover by court injunctions, began shooting their pictures in hide-out lofts or on location in the suburbs of New York. Some of them fled to California, Mexico, and even Cuba. When court orders failed to stop them from making their pictures, the trust hired private detectives to hunt down the outlaws, gain entrance to their temporary studios, and smash their camera equipment. Pitched battles often ensued, with the actors joining in. Sometime the trust's detectives would win and sometime they would be put to flight.
My actor friend explained that he had been working on location in Staten Island when the strong-arm squad of the trust had closed in on them. The whole company joined in the battle, saved the camera, and drove off the so-called detectives. Next day they finished the picture in a new location.
I wondered why he should risk his neck over somebody else's battle. With nine picture companies in the trust, why run the risk of a black eye by working for one of the independents?
"Because," he explained, "some of the independents pay actors ten dollars a day."
Ten dollars a day! That was really a mad expenditure of money. I began looking for work with the independents and soon was playing parts for World Films, IMP, Metro, and others.
One time we went way out on Long Island, halfway to Montauk Point, to shoot on a makeshift outdoor stage. When the company left New York, it was a fine, clear day; but by the time we reached our destination, a gale was whipping in off the ocean.