The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

Ruth Roland Blanche Sweet Wide World Bessie Love Betty Blythe Lillian Gish Perhaps better than any of the others these two pictures demonstrate the tragedy of stardom in the cinema city. A child star can fade as rapidly as a grown-up. You do not have to be more than a youngster yourself to remember Baby Peggy. She was Jackie Cooper and Shirley Temple rolled into one. The key to every city in America was hers. Now, only a few years later, she is vaudeville, and trying a comeback in pictures. the company, due to the fact that every person is an experienced motion picture 'trouper,' as well as enabling these who have given so much to the industry in the past to earn a living in the only business with which they are familiar. "We request the Board of Directors of the Academy to communicate with the various producing companies with a view to obtaining for us as individual Assistant Directors the necessary authorization to directly call any of the people named on the attached list (and others of the same classification who may by reason of circumstances be added from time to time by the Section) for 'extra' and special 'bit' work which their past experience or present characteristics would enable them to handle satisfactorily in preference to any other person or group, all other qualifications being equal." Perhaps the most outstanding name on this remarkable list is that of Clara Kimball Young. It was just nineteen years ago this past October that a motion picture magazine announced the winners in a "Great Artist Contest" which it had conducted to determine who were the most popular male and female stars of the screen. AND — Clara Kimball Young led all in the women with a grand total of 442,340 votes. Her nearest rival was that great star, America's sweetheart, Mary Pickford. But Mary was 4,670 votes behind Clara. And far down the list behind Miss Young were such names as Anita Stewart, Blanche Sweet, Norma Talmadge, Ethel Clayton, Pearl White, Mabel Normand, Anna Q. Nilsson, Ruth Roland and Lillian Gish. Even that magnificent star, Norma Talmadge was 326,580 votes behind Miss Young. I ask you, was Miss Young a star? Seventh on the list was Florence Lawrence, with a total of 188,975 votes. But she, like Miss Young, has been tossed about by the ill-fortunes of the picture business and is on the list that asks even "extra" work. Eleventh in the contest was Florence Turner. She also is on the old-timers "extra" list of the assistant directors, although she scored heavily over many of the biggest names even of today with a popular vote of 151,965. Bessie Eyton and Flora Finch were also among the first one hundred in the contest, and they are struggling with the mob for a day's work; glad to break into their only profession rubbing elbows with the kids through the "extra" ranks. Among the men who were honored in that contest nineteen years ago was a player named Harry Meyers. He received thousands more votes than did such stars as Owen Moore, the beloved Wallace Reid, Henry Walthall and even that matinee idol, Harold Lockwood. But today Harry is listed with the other 206 old-timers as wanting "extra" work, and the assistant directors are fighting to help him gain the privilege of swallowing his pride, of forgetting his days of stardom and going to work for seven dollars and fifty cents a day — gladly. Here is the complete list as compiled by the Assistant Directors and presented to the Academy : Jean Archer, Frank Alexander, Chris Allen, Rose Cade Amos, Rollie Asher, Sylvia Ashton, Eddie Baker, Bobby Barbara, Bob Barnes, Jay Belasco, Alice Belcher, Eddie Benaudy, Edward Allen Biby. Betty Blythe, Marjorie Bonner, Joe Bordeau, Ed Brady, Teddy Brooks, Edmund Burns, Neal Burns, Robert Cain, Mary Carr and children, Louise Carver, Helene Chadwick, Kathleen Chambers, Edith Clark, Fred Clay, Lillian Clays, Mabel Coleman, Buck Connors, Constance Cornelius, Nell Craig, Frank Crane, Grace Cunard, Sid D'Albrook, Joe De Grasse, Jim Donnelly, Charles Dunbar, Bud Duncan, Harry Dunkison, Bobby Dunn, Jimmy Dunn, Irene Duval, Bill Dyer, Neely Edwards, Billy Elmer, Madge Erwin, Bessie Eyton, Elinor Fair, Jim Farley, Maude Fealy, Flora Finch, Art Flavin, Francis Ford, Art Foster, Billy Franey, Bill Franz, Charles French, Dave Friedman, Ray Gallagher, Pauline Garon, Laura George, Charlie Gibbon, Helen Gibson, Bill Gittinger, J. W. Goodwin, Mr. Grooney, Kit Guard, Creighton Hale, Ella Hall, Oscar Hall, Ray Haneford, James Harrison, Mark Harrison, {Please turn to page 53) The New Movie Magazine, March, 1935 23