The Motion Picture Director (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

16 THE MOTION PICTURE DIRECTOR February was to give them the best in the way of education and surroundings that I could procure for them, plus home life in their tender years, and their mother’s own care, love and attention. I was not entirely confident of screen success, and I did not know for sure that I could, in pictures, do what I hoped to do for my two girls. But I had thought it over carefully, and decided to try. I have never been sorry. The girls are growing older. Now, having attained a degree of success in my work, and a degree of experience and insight into the screen as a career, I can bring not only the point of view of the actress to bear, but also that of the mother whose girls will some day seek careers of their own, I know the mother’s fears. Knowing, too, the spirit of independence in the kiddies, I have decided not to try to raise them in the way I was raised, but to prepare them for whatever may come in this lively age of ours, not only by giving them the best cultural advantage possible, but by aiding and abetting their natural wish for independence. They’re now in Switzerland, adding finishing touches to their preparatory education, and learning for the first time what it is to do without their mother. I’m now in Hollywood, trying to learn to do without them. And deep down in my heart, 1 have a feeling that my lesson is the harder to learn! A thing that has impressed me during my travels — not that portion of them abroad, but in our own dear homeland — is the fact that Hollywood and New York no longer stand apart from the rest of the country. The radio, the motion picture, the printed word, the transportation facilities have lit the fires under the melting pot. The city dweller and the country dweller are fusing in temperament; the small townsman and the about-town-folk of the great cities are thinking alike. These things, of course, apply with greatest force to the new generation, and that is why, with bewildering rapidity, some of the older generation are losing perspective. As a motion picture actress familiar with the supposedly sophisticated and ultramodern life of Hollywood, I’m amazed to find that I am nearly as far behind the generation to which my children belong as some dear friends of mine are in their home in a country town in the east. Emotionally, I’m sometimes at war with the new conditions; intellectually, I’m not, for I perceive that these times are wonderful ones, that our young folk are wonderful young folk, and that if there is a bit of chaos, it is because of the lack of adjustment. The children go too far in seeking independence; the parents put too much pressure on the reins. It is because we who have children, though our own childhood isn’t so terribly far distant, are far behind the generation into which our children are growing. We contributed to the bringing about of a degree of independence and equality with men, of our women-folk. We, in fact, created the environment that is shaping the much-talked-of new generation, and we tend to sit back and contemplate our work with a bit of fear, simply because it has grown beyond us. It would seem that we must be educated, that we must take forward steps, that we must strive to understand our children and their problems rather than striving to make them understand our own, unless we are quite, quite sure that we understand the problems which, far beyond any control that parents can exercise, confront the new generation. The fact that country and city have been brought closer together by a process of amalagamation of thought brings the career of a film star and that of a wife and mother nearer to each other. More girls who sincerely feel and respond to the urge for artistic expression through the shadow-stage medium, are going to attempt the film career. More women whose marital barques have been upset by death or unhappiness are going to turn to the screen instead of to second marriages or millinery. As happily married women seek independent careers (and that is one of the newest and most rapidly growing customs of our times that has come to my attention), more and more of these will turn to motion pictures as well as to other artistic careers. And I wish to say here that if such women have children, there is no reason why they cannot give those children proper mother love, care and personal attention while pursuing screen success. If success does come, the children inevitably will be benefited. The picture actress does keep very busy, when success comes her way — and yet there is plenty of time, ordinarily, to keep in touch with children as a mother should. If her own mother, the children’s grandmother, is there, so much the better; that was an advantage I enjoyed. The “atmosphere” of Hollywood as it concerns the children of professional folk, is just as much one of the home as any, except, perhaps, for a little note of artistic enthusiasm that enters it everywhere. The note of artistic enthusiasm I mention is healthy rather than otherwise. Bringing my theory home again, for the sake of illustration : I do not believe that my profession, my study of the screen art, or friends from the studios introduced into my home socially, in any way adversely affected the welfare of my children. At the same time, we were kept alive mentally by that enthusiasm I have mentioned, brought into our home by those contacts. There was none of that, “Oh, dear — another dead, weary old day past — nothing to do until tomorrow!” attitude. I was vitally and constantly interested in my work, and the children to a certain degree shared my enthusiasm. They were brought up with an attitude of interest toward work, in general, that, I think, will go along with them into whatever careers they may elect to follow. Another important point in connection with their moulding in the environment of a screen actress’ home — they will never invest the idea of a career in pictures, on the stage, or in any other line of endeavor, with false glamour. To them any sort of art will appear simply a very interesting, absorbing kind of work. They have studied the screen with me, and if any phase of their environment has tended to make them precocious, it is that. But the development they were given in that way is along the lines of close, accurate observation and criticism. It was balanced by physical development and outdoor sport of the healthiest sort, and I believe that the result will be faculties of quick, accurate judgment; of self-criticism as well as criticism of others, and a well-balanced healthy temperament. Living in the picture atmosphere, we probably saw no greater number of pictures within any given period of time, than the average family does. But for my own sake as well as that of the children, I was careful to analyze, within their hearing, the pictures we did see. Insofar as I was able, I separated for them the true from the false, the real from the actual, the good from the bad. “Why did so-and-so do such-and-such a thing, mamma?” was a question frequently asked. There might be a perfectly logical reason I could explain to them. Or, if it was one of those slips of the artist in mirroring life, often to be found in the best of films, I would blame it on the person I thought responsible. “That, Jane dear,” I’d say, “is the continuity writer’s idea of what she’d do. We don’t think so, do we? But you see, he may have been in a very great hurry when he wrote the scene, or he may not have been able to imagine what the scene would look like when it was complete.” Then we’d decide what “she” should have done under those circumstances, instead of doing what she did. We may have been right or we may have been wrong. But whichever it was, I was in position to give things the sort of interpretation, in general, that I wished, in accordance with my ideas of what was good for my little ladies. I have tried, also, to give them an impression similar to my own of the motion picture in its general aspects. They have a respect for the institution that is similar to my respect ; I think they are proud of their mother for what she has been able to accomplish, proud of her association with the motion picture industry, and proud of the industry itself. (Continued on Page 64)