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J\re Actors Like Other
Men?
Ray Jones
By Gladys Hall
John Boles
Says
No
ARE actors as other men? John Boles says "NO."
/\ The golden-voiced John began life by studying
/ % medicine. He deserted the amphitheater of surgery JL. JL for the foothghts of musical comedy and became known as a singer, gallant and romantic — but a singer, first and foremost.
He will probably end life wearing the laurels of a dramatic actor — plus a Voice.
John is fortified two ways. He can sing — and he can look. A rare combination. With the release of "Resurrection" he will also prove that he can act. I know, because I've watched him on the sets. In the role of Dmitri he has his first big screen opportunity to prove his dramatic talent as well as his vocal range.
John and I discussed the problem of actors versus Other Men. How wide is the gap between them? How much chance have they for a common meeting ground? Are they brothers under their skins — or not?
John says NOT.
For actors are not like other men. They work with their hearts and, sometimes, with their heads. Business men work with their heads and, sometimes, with their hearts.
Actors are seldom curious about other men. Other men are always curious about actors.
Actors are seldom patronizing in their attitude toward business men. Business men are seldom anything else but patronizing in their attitude toward the actor.
You seldom hear an actor probing a manufacturer as to the best and most efficient methods of turning out soaps or textiles. You will always hear a manufacturer asking an actor questions about his work which, to the manufacturer, is not work.
48
My Work Is Play to Him
THAT," said John, "is the real point of difference between the actor and other men. What is work to the actor is play to the other fellow. I have had doctors, lawyers, ministers, bankers, tradesmen, all kinds and varieties of men look at my exhausted person, after, very likely, some twenty hours of toil under the lights, and say. "Gosh, it must be fun!""
Not so very long ago, John reminded me, actors were strolling vagabonds, avoided, feared, entirely set apart. They moved, a race apart from their fellow-men. Nice girls did not manyactors. If they did, they were cut off without the proverbial shilling. Actors were not received into the homes of the Best People save as exhibitions, living Punches and Judys. Hollywood has changed much of this. Actors themselves have changed. And in no way have they so certainly demonstrated their change as in their attitude toward being on the screen rather than on the stage.
"Almost every actor," John said, "who comes to Hollywood from Broadway, stock or vaudeville, will speak first of all. with a mighty sigh of relief, of the fact that he can now have a home of his own. A place where he can go nights, spend his Sunday*. Where he can have his books, his wife and children and friends. A place to relax rather than the winding road, the one-night jump, the hotel bedroom or the temporary apartment.
It goes to show that actors are not gypsies at heart. Perhaps they never were. Perhaps they were gypsies only by compulsion, loving their work enough to endure being set apart for the sake of it.
"For actors do love their work. They love it more. I believe. {Continued on page 104)