The Motion Picture Studio Insider (1935)

April, 1917 Motion Picture Stjo’c Insider 4° MANY ARE CALLED ( Continued from page 25) for them, actual pictures that are tiiher shooting or to be shot. We go over these scenes with them, show them how we feel the scenes should be played and then let them take the scenes home with them to study and practice until the lime set for the test. When they come back, our makeup department prepares them, the costume department takes a hand if necessary and then on an actual motion picture stage with lights, cam¬ eras and everything, thev are rehearsed. We spend four or five hours with them if need be, until we feel they are ready to do their best before the camera. Then the scene is played and shot as if it were actual entertainment in produc¬ tion. “But why don’t you come to the set this afternoon and see for yourself just how it is done?” We accepted his invitation and found that a special set had been built for a boy singer who was to be tested. Son¬ ny Arlington, aged ten, was to be given his first chance for fame and fortune. A woodland nook had been contrived in one corner of Sound Stage 11. He was to enact scenes from the play “Penrod.” Lighting experts, the best in the studio, labored to see that every phase of the boy’s features showed to best advantage. Director Simon, with his assistant, “Speed” Margolies, rehearsed the boy and his vis-a-vis Wister Clark in their parts. Each bit of “business” was tried again and again, seeking the best effect. Director of photography John Mescall, who functioned in that capacity on “Show Boat” and who is now film¬ ing “The Road Back,” with his assist¬ ant, William Dodds and their operat¬ ing cameraman, John Hickson, maneu¬ vered the cameras with as much care as if the greatest star were being photo¬ graphed. Hours passed, arduous hours, before Director Simon was satisfied and said, “Roll ’em,” but when it was over we recognized the truth of his assertion that once a subject was chosen for a test, nothing was spared to make that test favorable in every way to the sub¬ ject. Director Simon estimated that it cost Universal between $500.00 and $800.00 to make each screen test, so it is no wonder that great care is exercis¬ ed in choosing those to be tested. “We use about 3000 feet of film, tak¬ ing them from all angles, long shots, middle shots and closeups. This foot¬ age is cut to about 1000 feet, which comprises the test reel. “This is run for the studio executives, Charles Rogers, Val Paul and Rufus LeMaire, and they decide whether the person should be put under contract. It thus signed up, their schooling begins. “We have no actual stock school that the youngsters must attend except that of voice. Each student must attend Madame Koppell’s School of Voice and it is not only the tyros who go, either. Many of our featured players and our stars attend her classes regularly to Pictured above are a few of the players discovered by the New Universal, who are now being groomed for stardom. Top to bottom they are: LAURIE DOUGLAS, SCOTT KOLK, LYNN GILBERT, LAR¬ RY BLAKE, MARTHA O’DRISCOLL, and ROBERT WHITNEY. improve their enunc ation and diction, but instead of a stock school for actors, we put youngsters through actual ex¬ perience. In every picture where their type can possibly be used, they function as ex¬ tras and as they become more experi¬ enced, they get a line or two to speak, always coming under the tutelage of our capable and experienced directors. Thus in one year these young contract players may act in as many as twenty or thirty different pictures, always un¬ der actual production conditions. We feel that the best way to learn to act is to act, and therefore we give these young people all the acting to do that we possibly can. Those that show especial promise naturally get larger and larger parts, until finally they are full fledged fea¬ ture players. Further experience is given all of them by allowing them to play in bits opposite the newcomers be¬ ing tested. In all these ways, then, the youngsters get the benefit of actual ex¬ perience under real production condi¬ tions, and we believe that no academic course in acting would do nearly as well. Of course special cases demand spec¬ ial attention. Those with certain quali¬ ties require one kind of practice and consideration. Those with others, a different kind, but our method has been successful for us. I need only to men¬ tion Deanna Durbin, who in a very short time has become a star in her own right. Others whom we have de¬ veloped in the same way and about whom I believe you will hear a great deal in months to come are Martha O’Driscoll, Lynn Gilbert, Bob Dalton, Scott Kolk, Bob Whitney and Larry Blake.” This exemplifies the policy of New Universal, which as one executive in that studio expressed it, is “gambling its shirt” on comedy and youth, and rushing to stardom any one who shows promise at all. As examples of this policy the aforesaid executive pointed out that for comedy it was hard to beat “My Man Godfrey.” As for youth, in “Three Smart Girls” Universal took three absolutely inexperienced players, Deanna Durbin, previously mentioned, who had just turned fourteen, Nan Grey, sixteen, and Barbara Reid, eigh¬ teen, and built a picture around them. Public acclaim proved the success of the policy. How rapid the rise to star¬ dom can be under this New LIniversal method is evident when you consider the case of Polly Rowles, who was test¬ ed and signed up by them three days after she arrived in Hollywood. Six weeks later, she sat in a theater and saw herself as the leading woman in ( Continued on page 51)