The Life and Adventures of Carl Laemmle (1931)

132 CARL LAEMMLE had constantly to be prepared. Every movement of the Trust had to be watched. If it was threatening, forces had to be deployed to meet it; if it was unguarded, it had to be put to immediate advantage. Laemmle, that is to say, had simultaneously to attend to the organisation of a producing company and the disorganisation of a Trust, either of which occupations would have been ample employment for any man. Further, his work as an Independent producer was carried on in a stifling atmosphere of suspicion, and, as we have seen, hampered by tactics of hooliganism. What would in any case have been an exacting task was embarrassed at every turn by the conditions of its undertaking. Not only was it exceedingly difficult to come by the necessary apparatus of the trade, it was equally difficult to induce players to take the risk of cutting loose from what was supposed to be Trust protection. In the early stages of IMP production, 19 10, Laemmle wanted to engage Costello, then an idol of the screen. An emissary called on the favourite, who was scrubbing a horse in the barn. No; he was afraid that it would be impossible for Mr. Laemmle to secure his services, since the Vitagraph people were paying him a prohibitive salary, namely seventy-five dollars a week. The agent, he learnt, was authorised to offer twice that sum. Costello stopped whistling, and stared incredulously at the caller. He was as