Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1919)

Miss Young donned overalls to help fix the place she bought her father and mother stock company was one of the finest structures in the place, and yet it was only a low, rambling, one-story frame building. The furnishings, however, were of the very best and the entertainment offered was high-class, with able artists presenting such bills as "Way Down East," "The Little Minister," etc. It is interesting to note that the admission price scale was from $1.00 to $10.00. Stock engagements in Tonopah, Nev., and Seattle, Wash., followed the engagement in Goldfields, and then Miss Young came East, to be rebuffed repeatedly in the booking offices where she applied for work and was always told that "We want older people and people of reputation." By dint of much persistence, however, Miss Young secured a small part in a musical show called "The Skylark," and in this show was introduced to Broadway. Next came an engagement in vaudeville, with a dramatic sketch, and then some more stock, this time in Philadelphia with the Orpheum Players at the Chestnut Street opera house, where she played the leads for a number of months. It was from this stock engagement in Philadelphia that. Miss Young came to the Vitagraph Company of America to begin the motion picture career which has proved such a great success. Her first engagement was as a member of the Vitagraph Company's permanent producing company, for all big producers had permanent organizations in those days. Her salary was $25.00 per week, just $50.00 per week less than had been her salary in Philadelphia, but Miss Young was glad to accept it, for it meant fifty-two weeks' work per year with no transient hotel bills to pay and no costumes to buy, for picture companies in those earlier days were wont to supply all necessary costumes from a <T\ common wardrobe. 056 "Cardinal Wolsey," an early photoplay version of "Richelieu," was the first picture in which Miss Young appeared, playing the part of Anne Boleyn. When she left the Vitagraph Company three and one-half years later she was signing the pay-roll for $150.00 per week, and the foundation had been laid for the tremendous success which she has since achieved as an individual star in the motion picture industry. Today Miss Young's income from her motion picture work exceeds half a million dollars a year — and the statement is made with full knowledge that the public likes to believe that fancy salary figures quoted are invariably the result of a press-agent's pipe dream. It must be remembered, however, that Miss Young is more than a motion picture star. She is one of the few women in the profession who, single-handed and alone, produce and distribute their own pictures. Hers is the last word in the selection of plays, selection of cast, ^selection of director, and the manner in which the finished product shall reach the ultimate "consumer," the' public. Clara Kimball Young works hard— but she plays hard, too, taking to her recreation all of that enthusiasm which has contributed so much to her success in a business way. Wherever she is, whether it be New York or Los Angeles, she lives like the first lady of the land. Her apartment in New York" is a connoisseur's dream in antique furniture, wonderful rugs, priceless laces and the art works of the old masters. Her more temporary quarters in Los Angeles are always the best that money can buy. Miss Young's photoplay productions, almost ^without exception, have been ones in which beautiful gowns have played a prominent part. Not long ago, indeed, Miss Young was quoted as having said that during the six (Continued on page 104)