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GETTING THE GIRL 145
everything I wanted. I don't blame them. I demanded more money, approval of scripts, star billing, only four pictures a year, and a few other incidentals. I didn't expect to get all that, but I tried.
When Zukor and Lasky turned me down on everything, I was in a mood to fight, so I decided to go on a strike. Within a week my wife and I were aboard the S.S. Paris bound for France; I was going to show Mr. Zukor and Mr. Lasky that I didn't need their job. Unfortunately, they didn't need me as badly as I needed a job— and they knew it.
On the first day out of New York I began to worry. Perhaps I had been unreasonable. If I had stayed in Hollywood, I might have run into Lasky or Zukor on the golf course and arrived at a friendly understanding. After all, my salary had reached $2,000 a week, and an actor can afford to play very bad parts for that kind of money. All the way across I hoped for a wireless message from Zukor or Lasky offering some sort of a compromise.
When we landed at Cherbourg I rather expected my father's homeland to give me a triumphal reception. But nobody paid any attention to me; nobody even knew me. The porters heard me speaking French, assumed that I would not tip them as well as the American tourists, and tried to avoid carrying our luggage. I was very discouraged.
When we arrived at the railroad station in Paris, I had one small moment of triumph. Three newspaper movie critics were there to interview me. At first I thought that they might have heard some news from Hollywood— that rumors had reached France of impending disaster to Paramount because Menjou was on strike. But that was not the case. They were there strictly in line of duty.
They assured me that I was the greatest actor in American movies; for was I not a Frenchman and were not Frenchmen the finest actors in the world? Where, by the way, had I received my early training? Perhaps in some small theater in the provinces?
I explained that I was not a Frenchman. I was an American,