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CAME THE REVOLUTION 193
dummy piano, and off scene a very fine concert pianist actually played while I synchronized my movements to the music. Victor wrote a song for the picture called Delphine that I actually sang in the picture. They had not yet learned how to dub in substitute singing voices.
I played my part with a French accent, and occasionally I would speak French. But whenever I did there was always some action to indicate what I was saying so that the audience would not be confused. I might say to my butler, "Albert, le chapeau," and Albert would hand me my hat, or, "Albert, la valise" and the action would show that I was asking for my valise. It was really a French lesson right off page one of an elementary grammar.
We finished the picture only a month or so before the expiration date of my contract. I kept expecting the studio to call me and make some sort of an offer, but all I got was silence. My contract expired on May 24, 1929, and still no word. I thought the studio was waiting to see how the critics liked the new picture. My wife and I packed and went to New York for the opening on June 29 at the Paramount Theater.
The reviews were excellent. The critics seemed amazed and delighted to discover that I could talk, not only in one language but in two. Even such conservative papers as the New York Times and the Herald Tribune agreed that I was one silent star that need not worry about continuing in talkies.
But Paramount was still silent. It was buying stage stars very cheaply, so it had decided that if it waited long enough, it could get me back at a reduced salary. I decided to take a trip to France and loaf for a while. The market was climbing every day, and I was getting rich anyway, so why worry about a job in the movies?
My wife and I sailed on the S.S. He de France, which was a very lucky thing for me, because it resulted in the most lucrative picture contract I ever made. On the first day out of New York I met two Frenchmen on the ship— Emil Nathan and Marco de Gastine. They had just arranged for the shipment of complete sound equipment from the United States and were going to pro