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XIII "ONE ROMANTIC NIGHT"
It is difficult to realize the size of the catastrophe resulting from the sudden production of talking pictures, even of pictures with "sound effects," as many of them were, at first. Some of them really talked — better, or worse, than others. No matter; every picture theatre in New York, and most of them on the road, were presently being "wired for sound." All the millions (possibly billions) of dollars' worth of silent pictures, shrunk in value at a ghastly rate. The Eastern Hemisphere, the only market for them presently, was comparatively unimportant. Hundreds of pictures were useless; picture players found themselves "out of a job." Stars began to pale and disappear.
On the other hand, ill as was the wind, it dispensed benefits. Stage players out of employment found market for their trained speech. Their feet warmed the way to Hollywood. A good many were already there. As the months passed, the screen showed more of the old familiar faces. Broadway to the rescue. Even the great succumbed. George Arliss, master of diction, joined the procession, Ruth Chatterton — eventually, Lillian.
Not willingly. She still believed in the silent film. She had objected even to the lip movement, the simulated speech insisted upon by the directors. To her, the perfect picture must be pure pantomime — with music — appropriate music, as in "Broken Blossoms." It would never be
that, now. Beautiful Evelyn Hope was dead. There is no
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