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[GM°TION PICTURE
\"Vl I MAGAZINE L
Photograph (above) by Witzel and (below) © Mack Sennett
And so Louise Fazenda above and Marie Prevost at the bottom of the page came onto the lot; fell into the water; were butted by goats and chased by bears and became finished artists
"All I have ever learned since," she told me, "was to tone it down. But I never have had to learn how to register the emotions I was trying to get into my acting."
But of course, as Sennett himself reminded me, they are not all Gloria Swansons.
This big shaggy Irishman has an almost uncanny eye for screen genius.
He told me how he happened to find Gloria.
Someone had given her a letter, by virtue of which she was admitted to the lot.
Sennett has a very fine little office building in the studio ; but he always transacts all his business in the rubbing-room attached to his Turkish bath.
When you visit him, you have the choice between sitting on a three-legged stool leather rubbing table.
On this particular day, he had forgotten all about the fact that a girl named Gloria
or
was waiting to meet him.
"I happened to look out of the window," said Sennett, "and I saw this girl coming up the walk. Just the minute I saw her, I knew she was going to be somebody big in the screen world.
"I forgot the people I was talking to and hurried out to eet a eood look at her.
"She is going to be a big star," said Sennett of Alice Day (above). He also thinks Ray Griffith has the best idea of dramatic values of anyone he ever knew. Gloria Swanson, Sennett says, he knew would be somebody big in the film world when he saw her coming up the path in search of a job
When Charlie Chaplin came to the lot everyone said Sennett had picked a Jemon. . . . And Mabel Normand, with her gorgeous sense of humor, had a hard time learning the technique of screen acting
"I remember that, without even introducing myself, I went up and shook hands with her and said, T am glad to meet you, I dont know what your name is but you are going to be a big screen star.' "Gloria was so astonished that she backed off and demanded 'How do you know I am ?'
"And that is just what I couldn't tell her. I just knew she had it."
It cannot honestly be said that Sennett was equally perspicuous in regard to Charlie Chapin.. According to his own story, the great Charlie had a pretty rough time when he first went to the Sennett lot.
Sennett had seen him in a vaudeville sketch in a second-rate theater in Los Angeles and had offered him a job at the staggering salary of $60.00 per week
When they got him out on the "lot," however, everybody decided that, for once, Mack had picked a lemon.
At that time, the technique of comedies demanded speed. Ford Sterling was the leading funny man on the screen.
In that day, for instance, if a comedian had a gag about a glass of water, he would (Continued on page 90)
Photograph by Donald Biddle Keyes