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.
20: The Grand Duchess and the Waiter
LASKY decided to make The Grand Duchess and the Waiter my first top-starring part; Florence Vidor was cast as the duchess. I knew it was the greatest part I had ever had and I was in there hitting the line like a sophomore trying for his college letter. I even suggested to the art department the sort of sets that should be used in the picture. Edward Steichen, the famous photographer, whom I had met during my flight from Paramount, had shot many interiors of the Regina Hotel in Paris. Since most of the picture took place in an old-fashioned Paris hotel, I supplied the art director with a set of these Steichen photographs. He practically duplicated the lobby of the Regina as well as the rooms I had occupied in the hotel.
I must have been the busiest actor in Hollywood in those days. I stuck my nose into everything— the writing, the costuming, the production. I wanted to be sure that I landed about five smash pictures in a row and I worked like a dog. They couldn't get me on the sets too early or keep me too late if it would help make the pictures better. I was the original eager beaver.
After my return from Paris until the end of that year I did five pictures, which left very little time for anything else. When we were shooting, I had to get up at six-thirty in order to be at the studio by eight; we never quit work until six p.m., and often it was much later. In order to keep up this pace I had to get to bed by ten o'clock every night. Somehow I missed all those wild Hollywood parties that people like to believe movie actors enjoy;
149