Movie mirror. (1935)

MOVIE MIRROR Hollywood's Hidden Past ( Continued from page 61) of domestic dramas, “Don't Change Your Husband.” “It was a more or less popular impres¬ sion around Hollywood that I was slightly mad, anyway,” laughed my host. “Thanks to the interviewers and columnists, my reputation was a very fiery affair. But when I signed the comparatively un¬ known Gloria and engaged the cleverest designers, hairdressers and others to remodel her looks and personality, I believe this was the peak of my folly in the eyes of my assistants, though they didn’t voice their disapproval.” Gloria was not launched with great press agentry. DeMille had decided to allow the public to discover his newest star and sound their own drums of ap¬ proval. The reception of that first pic¬ ture was all he had expected. The svelte Gloria was an over-night sensation. Her second picture, “For Better, For Worse,” only added fuel to the bonfire of her pop¬ ularity. Then came, perhaps, the biggest personal success of Gloria’s career, “Male and Female.” Not only was this one of the outstanding successes in DeMille’s long list of hits, but it established as stars Gloria, Thomas Meighan, Bebe Daniels and Lila Lee. DeMille continued: IN the first place, we embarked upon a very pretentious location trip, one of the first of many jaunts for authentic at¬ mosphere the business was to know. Our destination, on a private yacht, was Santa Cruz Island and we carried several crates of wild animals. “The water was very rough, and I shall never forget the first love scenes be¬ tween Tommy and Gloria. The ship was rocking about as if it would sink any moment. Green water was breaking over the bow — but it was no greener than the faces of the two make-believe lovers. Gloria and Tommy were so seasick they could hardly keep their feet to gaze into one another’s eyes for the camera. (While I couldn’t use that scene, I printed it just for fun — it’s the only pea-green love scene ever made ! ) At the end of the scene, Gloria collapsed on a bale of hay we were carrying for the donkey. At her side, rolled and moaned Hattie, Gloria’s hair dresser. Unknown to me, the gila mon¬ sters had escaped from their cage and when I turned to look at Gloria, I saw this amazing sight : there, on the bale of hay, the most popular woman star of the screen, her moaning, colored maid and two sea-sick gila monsters lay side by side — all too sick to care. “There were no doubles or stand-ins in those days,” reflected DeMille. “The play¬ ers did all the tricks reflected on the screen — at least in my pictures. Gloria and Tommy actually worked with wild animals in this and many other films and that is how I came to know the great personal courage of Gloria Swanson. She is not physically afraid of the devil or the deep. The only other woman I’ve ever known with the physical courage of Gloria was Leatrice Joy who once worked in a scene with two untamed tigers. They were supposed to be lying next to her throne during the scene but one of them became enraged by the blinding lights of the set and, breaking his bounds, made a savage leap for the camera stand. We finally placed him in chains and I looked, with horror in my heart, to see if Leatrice was still alive. There she sat on her throne, arranging the folds of her dress against the side of the other tiger!” The terrific success of “Male and Fe¬ male” heralded the arrival of the first truly “all star cast.” Later, however, C. B. topped this when he put Wally Reid, Gloria Swanson, Bebe Daniels, Wanda Hawley, Elliot Dexter, Monte Blue, Ag¬ nes Ayres and Theodore Roberts in the cast of “The Affairs of Anatole.” The pic¬ ture made independent stars of them all and, for years, these were the greatest names in Hollywood history. When Wally Reid died in January, 1922, his death was a national calamity. It was about this time that Famous Players-Lasky merged with the giant theater and releasing company, Paramount. Other stars (some, like Valentino, with whom C. B. never worked) were brought into the company. With Gloria advancing to independent stardom in Elinor Glyn's stories, follow¬ ing the “bath-tub cycle,” the whole world waited for the “Chief” to find another stel¬ lar personality to feature in his pictures. A beautiful girl named Agnes Ayres, who had made an impression in “For¬ bidden Fruit,” starred for three years and the next big DeMille discovery was Lea¬ trice Joy. Leatrice, then the wife of John Gilbert, had scored in a DeMille picture, “Sat¬ urday Night,” and he believed that a great future was in store for her if he could only make her loosen up. Leatrice had a habit of tightening, in front of the camera. A naturally reserved girl, she was eager to succeed and the very pros¬ pect of failure in her big chance caused her to freeze. “I was grooming Leatrice for the im¬ portant role of the girl in ‘Manslaughter,’ my next important feature,” said De¬ Mille, “though I was afraid to tell her the news for fear it would make her more self-conscious.” „ D UT as the picture went on, C. B. real■LD ized that he needed a club with which to smash her reserve, some ruthless method that would break the shell of fear about her. One night, after they had worked very hard on an emotional scene in which Leatrice found herself unable to relax, DeMille released the company and or¬ dered her to come to. his office. He pro¬ ceeded to tear into her with all the act¬ ing ability at his command. He stormed at her incompetency, he pointed with scorn at her lack of emotional sincerity and finally told her that he was going to have to get another actress to take her place. Leatrice broke down, as DeMille ex¬ presses it, “magnificently.” He sat in his chair watching, as by stages, she be¬ came worried and then hysterical. Sud¬ denly she threw herself on the floor and began sobbing violently. C. B. waited un¬ til her emotion was well established, then he coolly handed her a mirror, saying, “Look at yourself ! Look at your dis¬ torted face — your hair — your body ! Look ! That’s what I want in that scene !” The company was recalled, the scene was made. Leatrice Joy had become an emotional actress, in one grim lesson. “Manslaughter” was a huge success and launched her on a career of popularity. The story behind DeMille’s switch from the sex-dramas of the Gloria Swanson era into the cycle of religious spectacles start¬ ing with “The Ten Commandments” is an interesting one. Mr. DeMille said : “Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and one or two other stars were the great box-office attractions Paramount had at the time and they got to the point where they demanded (and justly) sums of money for their services which were impossible for the company to pay. Mr. Zukor and Mr. Lasky were much disturbed over the star situation which threatened to give the star virtual control of the business. I told them I was confident I could produce a series of pictures which would equal the gross income of the famous PickfordFairbanks films, with unknowms in the leading roles. This, I explained, would require extra expenditure for fine stories and production, but even fifty per cent more for material w'ould not come near equaling the saving in the stars’ salaries. After much discussion, they advised me to go ahead with the series, wffiich I have already mentioned — ‘Don’t Change Your Husband,’ ‘Male and Female,’ Why Change Your Wife?’ and ‘Manslaughter.’ THE box-office success of these films brought about an avalanche of similar products from other studios and I real¬ ized that, once more, it w’as time for a complete change. This gave me the chance I had been waiting for for years, the opportunity to do the first great re¬ ligious spectacle. There wras general be¬ lief throughout the industry that religious pictures were not commercial and were not box-office. “After some effort, I convinced my as¬ sociates that I could make a picture on a religious theme that wrould draw more people into the theater than any picture ever made. Nowt, I make no claims to being an infallible prophet (I once pre¬ dicted to a room-mate at school that the ‘horseless carriage’ wxmld never become a success!) but in this matter of religious pictures I was positive.” To DeMille, the artist, it may not have been a gamble to invest a million and a half dollars in “The Ten Commandments,” but to the studio heads, it must have been a most courageous business move. To them, it most certainly must have been doubtful that the undertaking would be successful. And it w^as imperative that it be a success. Mary and Doug had al¬ ready left Paramount to form their United Artists Company; Valentino was at sw'ordspoints over his contract salary. There were rumors that Gloria Swanson had refused a salary of $17,000 a week so that she might produce her own pictures independently. When DeMille lifted his megaphone on 70