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WhyC
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THIS article deals with heresy. I might as well make that quite plain at the beginning because you would find it out sooner or later, anyhow.
I cannot get teary over the poor extras.
There! It is out. And I can take a deep breath and proceed. For it is true that I cannot scare up a single tear over them. Not one. For a long time this has weighed upon my conscience and 1 have felt that I should confess all — and see what happened.
For nearly every writer who has written about Hollywood — particularly those who have come here for short visits and then have gone back East to indite their impressions — have paused for a moment to drip a few brinies over the "real tragedy cf Hollywood, the people standing in line before the casting offices."
So many of these tears have been shed in the public prints. So many sob stories have appeared about the poor extras. So many success stories have been written about young men and women who struggled and agonized and starved in extra work and then rose to stardom, swiftly, overnight, after years of waiting. So many weary platitudes have been pronounced to the effect that it is persistence and determination, the ability to hang on in the face of disappointment, which wins out in the end. I have written lots of 'em myself. And comparatively little has been said about the innate talent and ability which must be there before all this persistence can be of any use to the struggler.
30
They Have Pity Aplenty And How They
By HELEN LOUISE WALKER
Selling Thin Sobs
'HE result of all this is that the extras and bit players are making capital of their poverty and going about, emitting great fat wet sobs over their own plights.
They simply exude pathos. And take the attitude that work should be given them because of their pathetic condition.
I, being privileged, and having no ambition to act in pictures, have gone inside those inner sanctums where casting directors sit. Those remote, seldom-seen, much-maligned and sought-after beings.
At the top is a large body of extras enacting a scene in "Noah's Ark." Above at left is an outdoor casting office for "The Tide of Empire," where extras were handled on the spot. At left is Fred Datig, casting director at Famous Players-Lasky studios, passing on some applicants. Below is a close-up of the portable casting office which was used in handling extras for "The Tide of Empire"