Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1924)

Cm^OTlONPICTURl Photograph by Evans, L. A. CTURf? i Phijtos;iaph by C. Heighlmi >'• iin.c Photograph by Doiiakl Biddle Keyes Boulevard. Naturally, the future looked very rosy for Nell at the time. But shortly after the picture was completed, the studios closed down and Hollywood faced a long period of inactivity. Nell went to the Studio Club as secretary. One thing is certain, life is anything but dull for her there, as anyone who has endea\-ored to keep an eye on twenty movie-struck girls at one time, will testify. Madge Wiley won a beauty contest in Spokane, ^\'ashington, c o m i n g to Hollywood from there. She did extra work for some time, but her ambition was to become a scenario writer, and she left the screen to study this branch of studio work. She has become one of the most capable "script clerks" in Hollywood. A "script clerk," I may explain, sits at the director's side, takes down the action of each scene as it is filmed, noting in detail what each player wears, so that all shots will match. As an example, if Our Hero strolls thru the draw^ ing-room and out into the garden in a grey tweed suit, the script clerk sees to it that he still wears the same suit when the garden scenes are taken. Hats, gloves, shoes, even the position of the handkerchief in a coat-pocket — all are her responsibility. INIadge will probably be a successful scenarist some day. She is learning photoplay construction in the only place where it can be truly learned — the motionpicture studio. There is Julia Heron, Charlotte Woods above, at the left, is no longer a girl-Merton. She is happy in her secretaryship to Perley Poore Sheehan. Directly above is Julia Heron, the technical director for James Cruze. Above, at the right, is Lillian Frances Russell, secretary to Bernard McConville, scenario editor at Universal Cit y — and below is Madge Wiley, the winner of a beauty contest — who is recognized as one of the most capable of '"script clerks" Photograi^h L. A. technical director for James Cruze. J\liss Heron entered pictures in the earlier days of the profession and gave up acting several years ago.She"ll tell you laughingly that she doesn't regret it a bit. Her position requires a great deal of research work, for she must see that the costumes, customs and manners of any period depicted in a Cruze picture are correct in detail. James Cruze, as you ■ — ^' • probably know, is one of ^^' the most prominent motion-picture directors ; "The Covered ^^ agon" being one of his recent successes. Little Charlotte W^oods reversed the order of things by entering the motionpicture studios as a stenographer, later becoming an actress. Her story reads like a fairy tale, up to a certain point. Charlotte was bending patiently over her typewriter one day. out at the Thomas H. Ince studios, when Mr. Ince himself, strolling thru the offices, spied her. He walked right over to her and said : " Y o u n g lady, how would you like to play a second lead with Charles Ray in his next picture? You're just the type we've been looking for." (This was several years ago, when Ray was still an Ince star.) Naturally. Charlotte nearly passed out with excitement. Scores of girls besieging the casting-office for the role, while she, without effort, had it offered to her! ^^'ell — she played the part, that of the country girl in "His Mother's Boy," {Continued on page 86) 37 PAG f