The New Movie Magazine (Dec 1929-May 1930)

REMINISCENCES As Told by BESSIE LOVE to Ruth Biery attempt to imitate her; learn from her. How manymiles, how many years we could save ourselves if we would only take advantage of our own yards instead of trying to jump the fence to reach those which seem more important because they are remote from us! IT never is easy for a newcomer to become chummy with those in the movies. In those days it was even more difficult. They had their own clique — these pioneers of stardom. I was an outsider. They were not particularly over-elated to see a new one come among them. I don't blame them. It was like a big family. Papa Griffith had adopted another youngster. The first adopted did not rejoice when he added a High School youngster. They were kind and polite but they did not fold me unto their bosoms. I did nothing to cross the bridge so automatically erected between us. I had received this advice: "Don't become intimate with those for whom you are working. It is bad business." A certain director, whose name is now forgotten, invited me to dinner. It might have been my opportunity to cross that indefinite barrier between politeness and real acquaintance, but I refused it. If I took the hospitality and the next day something went wrong with the picture, how could I talk about it? It took a long time for me to learn that there is a middle-ground for those who work together. Today, if my present director asked me to his house for dinner, I'd go, but I'd not let it interfere with anything I might want to say the next day. Comradeship, not intimacy, is the secret of successful business relations. Therefore, I was a lonesome youngster, I was meeting them all — these destined-to-be leaders in the great industry, but I was really getting little from the acquaintance. r REMEMBER one day, when Norma Talmadge 1 was having trouble on a picture. She was scrapping with her fine, spirited determination; when she dashed over to me. "Remember this ! You are just beginning in pictures," she exclaimed. "You have a long time to live. Never give tip a fight. No matter how big you become, no matter who you are. never stop fighting. You will recall this day sometime; remember what I have told you." There came a time when I was not to remember enough and then a day when I did remember to mv own advantage. I shall always be grateful to Norma for taking time during a very heated moment to advise the little newcomer. That indefinite, semi-lonely feeling which was gradually creeping upon me showed, I suppose, that I was really becoming interested in this new, strange business. There were other signs, also. TV/fONEY! I used to insist upon carrying all of the ten dollars in change in my pocketbook. I had never had so much money in my life. Anything that gave it to me — well, it was worthy of interest. When we found that I was really to remain at the studio, when the publicity which naturally came to any find of D. W.'s continued to heap itself upon me, we I was a lonesome youngster," says Bessie Love. "I was meeting all the stars of the future in those early days — the destined-to-be leaders in the great industry — but I was getting little from the acquaintance." decided I must live closer. We rented a tiny bungalow dii-ectly back of the Triangle studio. We bought furniture for it. Here was a definite thrill. Picking out furniture and paying for it from my very own earnings. I had slept in a double bed with my mother. Now we chose twin beds. Somehow those Win beds stand out as milestones in my progress. When I saw them unloaded at our door, I felt that life began to develop a definite ambition. Silly. But all of us have had little things like that which mean specific moments of progress to us. Then, my first trip to Mack Sennett's. I have tried to show that where D. W. Griffith hung his hat in those days was the focus-point of the industry. On the home lot I might be just the youngest stepchild but on foreign lots I came from 79