We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
JUST AN OLD MEANIE 103
When Paramount discovered that I was now getting $500 a week, the producers immediately realized that I must be a better actor than they had supposed, so I was called for a part in Bella Donna, a superspecial picture in which it was preparing to launch its latest star, Pola Negri. Pola had scored a hit in Passion, a German film, and had immediately been imported to improve the blood stream of American movies. She was so full of temperament that she kept Paramount Studio in a constant state of jitters for five years. The number, intensity, and high social status of her amours set a record even for Hollywood. During the short span of her American picture career the columnists included among her many fiances such notables as Charles Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, John Gilbert, Ricardo Cortez, and the Mdivani brothers.
Pola may have been responsible for the popularity of what Hollywood calls "the fighting romance"— a love story in which boy and girl meet, immediately detest each other, fight bitterly for eight reels, and then suddenly end up in each other's arms. Pola's battles with her boy friends were some of the most spectacular ever waged. In one historic clash of temperaments between Pola and Chaplin, Pola climaxed the stormy scene by fainting gracefully on a bearskin rug. While others rushed for water to resuscitate her, Chaplin refused to be outdone and fainted dramatically at her side. Pola was so infuriated that she immediately broke off their engagement.
Bella Donna was adapted from the famous Robert Hichens novel and had a so-called all-star cast including Conway Tearle, Conrad Nagel, Claude King, and Lois Wilson. During the shooting Pola insisted that no one who was not connected with the picture be allowed on the set. This was a privilege extended only to topflight stars, and Pola meant everyone to understand that she was as big as any American star. But one day the famous Ring Lardner visited the studio and was allowed to go on the stage despite the "no visitors" sign. When Pola saw this stranger, she glared at him and pointed an accusing finger.