Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Aug 1919)

“Have the ^ouji cooled a wont scald Denton," Mr. (Ileason had directed, when he was ])reparing for this scene. “Tip the plate a little. ( iladys, so a few drops will trickle down his coat-sleeve." But Gladys, with the naturalness that characterizes all her work, let the plate choose its own anj.i;le and bestowed a i^eneroiis helping over Dent(jn's arm. “Oh, dont mind me," the bathed one laughed, when the camera had stopped grinding. “I’d really just as lief have it outside as in." “Must we eat it, Mr. Gleason?" a fastidious boarder inquired, giving the sou]) a disdainful glance that .sent the color up to his face in a becoming rosy flush. “Of course you must, and if you enjoy it you may have a second i)late — off stage, tho, for this isn’t that kind of a hr )a r d i 11 g h ou se . ’ ’ When we had partaken of dinner presumably to our entire satisfaction, the dishes were changed and, presto ! we were just finishing breakfast. What a saving of time and energy’ it would be if Mr. Gleason could pattern the scheme and introduce it into real life! Over our eggs we were discussing the hap])enings of the previous evening." when Miss Riggs’ savings had been quietly’ transferred from her stocking — which, I must hasten to explain, was at that moment reposing in the depths of her trunk — while she was down in the parlor exhibiting a cut-glass bowl she had pro(.hred at a gfeat bargain. Of course, all the evidence pointed to little Beth as the culfirit. 'I'he next day’ — next in our work, T mean, for it really hapjiened between the evening and morning meals — found us ])iling into Beth’s little attic-room in the wake of Mrs. Ganiji, who thought she, in turn, was in the wake of the stolen money. Being a hard-hearted set of boarders, we gazed with icy contem|)t at ])oor little Beth as Mrs. Gamj) threatened her with the House of Correction. When 1 a.sked Casting Director Frank Loomis, who came u]) to watch the attic scene, what had become of all the little extras who shared honors with me in “The .Sixteenth Wife,” he informed me that most of them had done what many of their ancestors did before them, married, while others had been lured to the out-loud theater. (W’ho, W'HO, I ask V'ou again in caps, can live on ambition alone?) Tho 1 missed the old faces, my' hours of making u[) were lightened by' four very' jiretty young women who '-hared the dressing-room with me and regaled with a discussion of the woes of a film career---and then, of course, there was Mother Dixon. “It’s the first day I’ve worked in over a month,” one of them volunteered. “.Same here," another added. “.\nd just wait until I tell you what haiiiiened to me. I had two calls during that time, and both days T was uj) on the roof hanging out some clothes. I haven’t washed a thing since, and every time a laundry wagon passes the house 1 get a sick headache.” But up from the dressing-room and back to the set where the parlor was awaiting us! We had adjourned here after the e\ening meal. .Some were sitting over in a corner gossiping, while I was trying by the light of a haughty' gas jet to read an ancient Saturday Evenincf Post. .\nd then iMrs. Gamp aj)peared and insisted u])on singing to us. Jfvidently we had had a few samiiles of Mrs. Gamp’s entertainment in a previous existence. Anyway, we registered pleasure to her face and annoy'ance to her generous back. “bine, Jessie,” ^liss Leslie called, with a clap of her hands, the minute the scene was ended. “Miss Leslie thinks y’ou’re good,” Mr. Glea.son passed the word on. “Now dont go by that,” Miss Stevens laughed. “No matter how rotten I was, that dear child would think I was fine. It’s her perfectly lovely loyal disposition.” I had noticed that Miss Leslie took a keen interest in every scene, whether she was in it or not. Her cheery word of praise floated down the studio to principal and extra alike. She was genuinely pleased when any’ one put over a good “bit.” “This is my pet,” she said to me one day, with her arm twined affectionately around Miss Stevens’ neck. “Jessie was at the studio when I first started in pictures— not here, but with another company— and she used to fight all my battles; didn’t you, Jessie?” “Of course I did. I’d fight the battles of any young girl who was trying to get to the to]). The girls are all .so lovely to me. W hen one has — well, gone a part of the journey ahead, one is inclined to feel a little lonesome, but the girls always see to it that I am not without attention.” “I wonder why,” commented Denton Vane, who happened to be passing. “It must be hard to be pleasant to any one with y’our disposition.” Every’ morning the general cry led by Miss Leslie was, “Any letter from Billy today ?” Billy is Miss Stevens’ son, a y’oung lieutenant “over there,” and his letters are public jiroperty at the studio. And, speaking of letters. Miss Leslie’s favorites are not the proposals from the grown-up men fans, but the appealing, often sadly misspelled missives from the kiddies all over the world. She is such a genuine youngster herself — and she is always herself, with no attempt to imitate any one else on the screen — that she can appreciate the point of view’ of the eager little writer.s — and she always answers them. “One of my’ treasured jios.sessions is a tiny little handkerchief — the ten-cent store variety’ — that a little tot sent me ‘with all my lube.’ “ The Extra Girl Invades a Mimic Boarding-House (Continued front page S7) little so it MOTION PICTl'Rh; CI.ASSIC Gossip From the Pacific Coast By I'ritzi Uemont Los .V.xTjK.LF.s, C.M.. (Special) — Now’ that the flu scare is over, all our theaters have put on new duds and decorated their buttonholes with buds, and arc looking for silver coin in floods. It’s been a hard pull. Funny side of the condition was shown in electric signs over the theaters. One bore the words, “.Ml dressed uj) and no place to go.’’ and another said, “W’e will open on Monday — MAYBIL” Many meetings were held by theater owners, sj)ecial committees waited on the City’ Council and Health Officer Powers, all to no avail. The Metro studios closed down , for six weeks, but Bert Lytell is back, honorably discharged from an officers’ training school at Waco, Tex. He will hibernate on his ranch at Na[)a for a fortnight, then resume work. It is planned to have ten conifianies listening to the camera’s happy chirj) before the new ' y'ear is out of its swaddling clothes. ; Mine. Nazimova is doing “The Red Lan j tern.” Edwin Carewe, formerly Harold , Lockwood’s director, is now' directing Viola Dana. It was a curious trick of fate that bereft Viola of her husband : director and Mr. Carewe of his star, and i the new amalgamation promises big I things, rising, phoenix-like, out of its ashes and sorrows. Ince companies have been working steadily. Dorothy Dalton shot one of her biggest scenes in Judge Hauser’s .Sujierior Court room. This w’as during the enforcement of health ordinances, y'et one hundred and fifty people were i gathered in the courtroom. Of course, j this is much better than building up an ' expensive .set and has the added value ; of authenticity’. This is one of Miss Dalton’s highly' emotional scenes, and a ’ large crowd of spectators endeavored to , gain entrance to the courtroom, the aforesaid one hundred and fifty jiersons ' being members of the cast, producers i and sujiers. By the way, Dorothy is mighty jiroud of her Boston terriers, which resemble those little glass paperweight “dawgs” w'ith the “diamond” eyes. “Roxie Jane” has won six ribbons and is descended from famous I'.nglish stock, and her daughter, “Honey Blossom,” is to be entered in a number of g shows this siu’ing, at which Miss Dalton is quite confident of walking off with first honors. Enid Bennett has done another desert romance. While out among the cactus jialms. Director Fred Niblo came across .. a skeleton, and the camera-man got a |j good picture of “the quick and the dead.”Quick is right — everybody’ says it’s wonderful the w'ay Mr. Niblo rushed into the directing game and put out a fine product. Maybe Enid isn’t just crazy about her big husband! One of the big workers out here is Harold Percival, art director for Incc. Did you ever happen to think what it means to design sets for every play put on in a big studio? ( Sixty)