The New Movie Magazine (Dec 1929-May 1930)

■I HMHBB»i^^^^^^^^™™ of the Hollywood Motion Picture Favorites I dropped the tray ; I tripped because my skirt wrapped around my legs. It was awful. When my whole family came to see the picture, my mother, grandmother, my aunt and uncle, Walter Howey, had to stay for three shows before all of them saw me. I guess they must have blinked at the wrong time. Afterwards my aunt said, 'Did you see Colleen walk across the stage? Why she's a genius.' Later I worked at the Fine Arts studio in Hollywood, when Bobby Harron was making a picture with Mildred Harris as his country sweetheart ; I played the vamp and took him away from her." Then came "The Hoosier Romance" in which she played "Little Orphan Annie" with Eugenie Besserer and Tom Santschi. Colleen worked with many stars as leading lady before she got a solid foothold for herself; Charley Ray, in "The Busher" was supported by Jack Gilbert and Colleen ; and the real plum is that Colleen played leading lady for John Barrymore in "The Lotus Eaters," a picture made in Florida. Colleen says, "I think my best experience was at Christie's in comedies. In comedies you do everything; leading ladies just look pretty and stand about. Bit playing teaches you drama ; you only have a few feet to put your stuff over in and you have to do it quickly and well.'* NORMA TALMADGE, who classes among those who have had the longest popularity in films, was a rather shy and awkward extra girl at the old Vitagraph Brooklyn studio, if we can believe those who knew her at the time. Her first bit, after some amount of extra work, was to kiss a young man with both their heads under a camera cloth; a horse was to lift the cloth with his teeth ; he had the name role, "The Four Footed Pest." When the cloth came off, Norma's head was turned with its back to the camera. The first really important bit for Norma was with Maurice Costello in "The Tale of Two Cities." She rode to the gallows with Sidney Carton, played by Costello, and comforted him as he died. At this time, Rex Ingram and Antonio Moreno, destined to gain distinction later, were doing their bits around the lot. "I developed a capacity for hard work in those days ; that is my secret of success, if I have any," says Norma. Constance Talmadge, younger than Norma, did extra and bit work in her turn. She did not gain fame as quickly as Norma. It was at the old Fine Arts studio in Hollywood that Constance got her chance. Strangely enough, her appearance was not in the medium of comedy that was to be her later fame, but as the Mountain Girlin "Intolerance/' Perhaps you can recall the perilous and hectic drive of the young girl in the open chariot, lashing the racing steeds in a mad flight. Lillian Gish worked with her younger sister, Dorothy, for Biograph, and later with D. W. Griffith. Previous to Five years ago Mary Brian was trying to get a start after her debut in "Peter Pan." At the right as the ingenue interest of "The Enchanted Hill" with Jack Holt. Lillian and Dorothy Gish had a long stage career before they went into pictures under D. W. Griffith's direction. Above, Mrs. Gish is holding Dorothy in her arms and Lillian by the hand in a road company melodrama now completely forgotten. this screen work as extra and in bits, she had done stage work from the age of six. In the same studio at that time. Alma Rubens was making her first steps toward fame. Bessie Love, too. was getting a footing: Bill Hart used to borrow them all for his leading ladies, one after another. Bessie Love made her first hit in "The Aryan," with Bill Hart. Bessie, too, suffered from the ill effects of early stardom. Her career slumped and it was not finally re-established in a big way until the talkies gave her a chance in "The Broadway Melody." ANOTHER Hart find was John Gilbert. He had played an extra in "Hell's Hinges," and Hart selected him against the late Tom Ince's wishes to play his younger brother in "The Apostle of Vengeance." Hart and Gilbert had to work in (Continued on page 98) 80