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96 IT TOOK NINE TAILORS
know, when his rushes were shown, that he was a potential gold mine. But he was still worried because of his experience at Metro. And for a time it looked as though he had cause to be. We were almost finished with the picture and nobody at Paramount had even hinted that he liked Valentino.
Finally I suggested to him that, if Paramount dropped him, I would like an option on him for thirty days. He thought I was joking, but I was very serious. I told him that, if I could find a suitable story, I knew I could raise enough money to make a picture. So he finally gave me a thirty-day option on his services. I had visions of owning the hottest star Hollywood had ever seen. But Paramount finally exercised its option, and I was left with nothing but a piece of paper.
The Sheik was a bombshell. It proved that the sensation Valentino had created in The Four Horsemen was no fluke. He was what the female fans had been waiting for. In six months he was an international riot— the most colossal, fantastic character the moving-picture world had ever known.
I was still working in The Sheik when Sol Wurtzel called me to do a western at Fox. Although my last three pictures had been with three of the outstanding stars in the business, I could not afford to be choosy. Even if I had to ride a horse and wear a tengallon hat, my motto was "Keep Working."
So after The Sheik I played in my first and only western picture, with Buck Jones. The title was The Fast Mail. There has never been such a jinx picture as that one. First the leading woman was injured in a powder explosion. Then, in a big fire scene, Buck Jones was severely burned when a prop man grabbed a pail of gasoline, thinking it was water, and threw it on the fire.
I was a slinky heavy in the picture, but the scenario writer must have written the part for the "Iron Man." I had to get socked by Jones and knocked through a window. Then I was supposed to have a fight with him on top of a moving train and get knocked off. At that I balked, so they had to get a double for the stunt.