Modern Screen (Dec 1931 - Nov 1932 (assorted issues))

Modern Screen that the interpretation of the law has been extended to include children under six months of age, because the carbon lights, which were in general use until recently, were considered injurious to the eyes. Since the incandescent lamps are being used at all studios, we allow very young children to work under them. We believe that a child will suffer no injury from them in the brief time that it is allowed to work." Mr. Thomas told of the first child to work under the new law. The baby was but a few weeks old and the company went, with its players and equipment, to the child's home to make the scenes. "I went along," Mr. Thomas said, "to see that the law was observed to the letter. The director wanted the baby to reach out for a sword and was quite upset when it refused to take direction." When William Wellman was making Barbara Stanwyck's "Night Nurse" for Warner Brothers, he needed a hospital nursery with many tiny babies. Remember the scene — where Barbara was on duty in the maternity ward ? Real nurses were engaged to work in the scenes with the babies. The scene was set, cameras and lights arranged, and the actors rehearsed with dolls while I tests were made. When everything was j ready the real babies were put into the baskets. Several cameras recorded the scenes from different angles and scenes were secured that can be used for many I pictures in the future. By doing this the studio saved money and the Board of Education was made very happy. A STANDARD wage scale, made by the Board, is paid to babies under six months of age. A baby less than thirty days old receives $75 for a day's work; between the ages of one and two months, the baby is paid $50 a day and babies from two to six months of age receive $25 a day. "We purposely made the price high for the very young babies to discourage the producers from using them," Mr. Thomas told me. "But if they want them badly enough they seem to be willing to pay any price." But don't let this easy-sounding money encourage you mothers with small children to bring them to Hollywood. The Central Casting Bureau, through which all children are engaged for screen work, reports that out of I thousands of children registered with it, very few are ever called for work. Rarely is a child genius found in the extra ranks. Jackie Searl made his way up from them. He was registered for extra work when he was four years old. I But he is one out of thousands and he has exceptional talent. A tiny baby in a recent Carole Lombard picture was really two babies. The director ordered two babies so that he could rehearse with one and photograph the other. They both appeared in the finished picture, although you thought it was the same baby all the time. Lloyd Corrigan, the director, insisted upon having boy babies because he said girl babies embarrassed him. Rachel I Smith, the Paramount school teacher, I and Mel Ballerino, one of the casting directors, had a difficult time finding two boy babies the same age and size and who looked enough alike to double for each other. They were five weeks old, so they received $50 a day. Their names were Ray Stockton and Robert Claybaugh. J N "Life Begins," with Loretta Young A and Eric Linden, fifteen or twenty babies appear. Some of these babies were just forty-eight hours old when they were brought to the studio and every precaution was taken to see that nothing happened to any of them. Five trained nurses accompanied them from the hospital to the studio, a special nursery was built on the stage and the correct _ temperature maintained while the babies were there. Two babies were used in "A Woman Commands," to make the scenes with Pola Negri. Only one appeared in the picture. They were dressed alike and when one cried they used the other one. They both cried so much, however, that Paul Stein, the director, declared his assistant very inefficient to have hired babies that cried ! The day before a baby is needed the studio sends a limousine with a nurse and studio official (usually one of the casting directors) to the baby's home. They take the baby and its mother or nurse to the Board of Education offices, where the baby is given a thorough physical examination by a doctor. If the doctor pronounces the baby physically fit, Mr. Thomas then issues a permit for it to work. This permit is good for only forty-eight hours. After the examination the baby is taken home. The following morning, after being notified by telephone that the studio car is on the way, the mother and baby are called for and taken to the studio — always by a nurse and studio official. The baby is placed in the studio nursery and prepared for its work. It must be dressed according to the part it is to play and a drop of castor oil is placed in each of its eyes. This oil forms a film over the baby's eyes and prevents any possibility of injury from the bright lights. This nursery, where the baby is cared for, is completely equipped and the studio school teacher, who is also a welfare worker, remains with the baby every minute that it is inside the studio gates. If the teacher is busy with other children, or engaged in the schoolroom, the Board sends out an extra welfare worker or a nurse. TP HE baby is allowed, under its permit, to remain in the studio only two hours in one day, and is allowed to work only twenty minutes in one day, in two ten-minute periods. It may remain under the lights only thirty seconds at one time. Everything is made ready on the set before the baby is called and every precaution is taken to protect the child from noise, lights, draughts or other injury. No visitors and only the actors who actually appear in the scene are allowed on a set where a tiny baby is working. The minute its work is finished, the baby is taken home, accom a new magazine! brim full of STORIES ILLUSTRATIONS GAMES PUZZLES PICTURES TO COLOR Give her (or him) a joyful little surprise! Get the very first issue today — at a Kresge Store or Kress Store. Ask for — CHILDREN'S MAGAZINE 10c= 107