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MONTAGUE OR CAPULET 65
On the other hand, if we were feeling flush and wanted to dine in style, we went to Pete Anselmo's cafe at Forty-ninth Street and Seventh Avenue. Here we could get a five-course tabled'hote dinner, including wine, for sixty-five cents— and if we were quick on the getaway, no tip.
In those days there were no agents for bit players, so every man was on his own. It was dog eat dog. We had to get acquainted with the casting directors and rustle our own jobs. We would always try to call every studio about five o'clock in the evening and learn what would be shooting the next day. If they were casting a ballroom scene, we would show up in evening attire. If it were a street scene, we would wear street clothes. But sometimes we would discover that the picture was one in which we had already worked, in which case the director would pass us by because he didn't want the same faces to show on the screen again. This was always a sad blow, because it meant a day wasted and no pay.
But there was one fellow who used to fool the directors regularly, so that sometimes he would appear as an extra three or four times in one picture. His name was Lillybridge and he had formerly been a protean or quick-change artist in vaudeville. Lilly always carried several disguises in his pockets— like a comedy detective. When a director would shake his head and say, "Sorry, we used you yesterday in this picture/' Lilly would duck into the crowd of extras and show up a moment later wearing a goatee and thick tortoise-shell spectacles. Next day he would do the same thing by switching to a mustache and pince-nez. He also showed his wife how to make her dinner dresses so that by undoing a couple of snaps they became decollete and she was in an evening gown. Between them they must have accumulated a steady $100 a week, which in those days was big money.
At this stage of my career one of my main problems was clothes. I always tried to save up a few dollars to add to my wardrobe, for that was one way to get the best jobs. Whenever I saw