Paramount and Artcraft Press Books (1918)

DOROTHY GISH Dainty Paramount Star Has Superb Starring Vehicle in ^^BOOTS^^ A Paramount Story Dealing with the Menace of Bolshevism Miss Gish Discusses Her New Characterization the Original of Which She Met in London During the War, and Who was Known as **Bootsie.’* The character of “Boots,” in which Dorothy Gish will be seen at the theatre next actually lives, instead of being just a picture girl. Dorothy says that when she was in London during the war she saw this little slavey and watched her closely. “She made my heart ache,” she said, “because she was abused from morning until night by an old wretch of a landlady who seemed to think her chief form of amusement was to keep this little girl breaking her back over some kind of work. I used to feel so sorry for her that my sister Lillian and I would do things to draw the old landlady away so we could cheer up “Boatsie,” as she was called in that place. We did not stay there, but often went in because a woman we used in pictures was boarding there. It was not far from where we stopped. “I haven’t taken all of ‘Boatsie’s’ character for this part because sometimes she neglected little things like washing her face. It was not her fault so much as it was the landlady’s, because the old rapscallion wouldn’t let her have time enough off to breathe. ‘Boatsie’ was really my inspiration for the part, and it fit in so well with Miss Pittman’s story that I used all of her that I could. The rest is just me, I guess.” “Boots” gets her name in the picture because she is employed to do general housework and also to blacken the shoes of the boarders. .The story deals with the Bolshevist menace which now threatens the peace of Europe, if not the entire world. The acquisition of Miss Gish as star by Paramount adds another name to the brilliant list of new stars announced for appearance in Paramount and Artcraft productions which are now being released, including Fred Stone, John Barrymore, Ethel Clayton, Ernest Truex, Shirley Mason, Bryant Washburn and Lila Lee. The young star, who is an Ohioan by birth, and is just twenty years old, has been identified with the stage and screen since 1902 when, at the age of four, she made her debut before the footlights. Like so many of the greatest stars of motion pictures she began her screen career with the old Biograph Company, her first appearance being in the Biograph production, “The Mountain Rat.” Her association with the production of Mr. Griffith, thus formed at the outset of her career in photoplays, has continued unbroken to this day. With him she went to the Reliance-Majestic, where she appeared in “Old Heidelberg” and other productions. When Mr. Griffith formed Fine Arts, Miss Gish became one of the most popular stars of that organization, notable among her productions being “Atta Boy’s Last Race,” “Stage Struck,” “The Little Yank,” “Children of the Feud,” “The Failure” and “That Colby Girl,” When Mr. Griffith projected “The Birth of a Nation” it was natural that he should choose Miss Gish for an important role. Her work was an outstanding feature of that production and earned for her a place in the affections of the millions of picture-lovers throughout the United States and Canada. Later she achieved equal success in the second big Griffith special production, “Intolerance,” while 'her wonderful characterization in the role of the charming little French grisette in “Hearts of the World,” is making the impression it so richly deserves in the large centers where the production is now being shown. “Battling Jane,” the first Paramount picture in which the “Little Disturber,” as she is known from her rendering of that role in “Hearts of the World,” is a comedv drama by Arnold Bernot, and affords Miss Gish a remarkably good vehicle for the expression of her individual art. Her second picture was “The Hun Within,” a Paramount-Artcraft special with a practically allstar cast, including George Fawcett and others as well known. Then came “The Hope Chest,” which now is followed by “Boots.” 3