Paramount Pep (1923)

PARAMOUNT PEP 13 Fog Bound WITH MATTY COHEN (Long Island Studio) We were on location down at Palm Beach, Fla., when it happened. The star of our picture was Miss Dorothy Dalton, the director Irvin Willat. Mr. Willat was showing a little pickaninny how to fish — and broke the kid’s pole. The boss took one look at the youngster’s overcast face, and immediately sent into town for a new fishing outfit. The boss asked the kid how he liked his gift, and here’s what followed. The Kid : It sure is fine, suh. Willat: Is that all? The Kid: Well — it — it’s pretty fine. Willat: Is that all you think of it? The Kid : I sh’d of said pretty damn fine, suh. Willat: That all? The Kid : Missah Willat, suh, there ain't nuthin’ better ’n pretty damn fine ! Herb Mercer, our property man, is a great lover of those little round peppermints with the hole in the center, and always has plenty of ’em on hand. One morning we were taking some water shots on a speed boat called the “Crawler.” We were crawling along at about fifty — when we struck a sand bar. There was much excitement, but our noble property man remained calm through it all. Art Reed, our second cameraman, remarked on Herb’s coolness. “Say Herb,” he asked, “weren’t you afraid of drowning?” “I should say not,” answered Herb, “I had a pocket full of Life-savers.” Let me introduce — George (Butch) Merkle, gentleman grip and philosopher. We were seated on cypress roots, knee deep in the mucky swamps, eating our lunch, when for no reason at all Butch began to “philosophize.” With one eye on his lunch and the other on the boys, Butch remarked dramatically, “The lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine!” Bob Levison, our Scenic Artist, giggled. “Your what?” Bob asked. “My liquor,” shouted Butch. We were working in a large orange grove, when a young colored chap applied to Otto Brower for a job; Otto, by the way, being our assistant director. The colored boy, after extolling his virtues, told Otto that he was the possessor of a violin, a banjo, a saxophone, a trombone and a square pinanner. “That’s very nice,” said Otto, “but tell me, do you play them all?” “No, suh; I don't,” was the reply. This amused Otto, who asked, “Then why collect all those instruments?” The colored boy rolled his eyes ecstatically and sighed, “Suh! I’se musically inclined!” We take this means of thanking Miss Dalton for the wonderful dinner-dance she gave us the night before our departure for home and the “Zukor lot.” Beginning with a real southern dinner with all the well-known trimmings and winding up with a marvelous dance orchestra, our beautiful and talented star left nothing undone to make the night a perfect one. And when the orchestra appropriately played “Three o’Clock in the Morning,” Miss Dalton saw to it that there were plenty of cars to take us back to our hotel in comfort. Laskyville Villains No. 8. Joseph Henabery Here we are making a villain out of Mr. Jo Henabery, and I suppose he’ll never speak to us again, and it’s all on account of this fellow Clarence Ellsworth, who draws the pretty pictures for our Laskyville Villains. This morning we had lots of villainous things to tell about Mr. Victor H. Cark, who is now Mr. Lasky’s assistant at the Coast, and was once the head of the Long Island Studio, but we have to let that go till next time because the ultimatum was given that there will be no more pictures until Joseph Henabery’ s is drawn. What can a fellow do when dealing with temperamental artists like Clarence Ellsworth and Vincent Trotta? To come back to the villainous Joseph Henabery, there’s not a thing villainous about him! He’s one of these easy-going-knowing-what-hewants-and-getting-it fellows, and he’s n_ver cranky and he’s never hollering and we can’t give him any wild press agent talk, because there’s none of it around him. He did play “Abraham Lincoln” once in the “Birth of a Nation,” but that’s not a Paramount Picture, so how can we talk about that? He did just finish “Sixty Cents an Hour” and in it fired Walter Hiers a few times, and every time he fired him he hired him over at a hirer (?) price, so where’s the gain there? Take it from Clarence Ellsworth, then, that “Jo Henabery is a fine fellow,” and gol-derned if the cartoonist doesn't stick to it ! — M. B. Explaining the Works It is only natural that this young lady who plays the role of Angela in “Hollywood,” James Cruze’s production, would be curious about the inside works of the studio camera and is here being shown such by Carl Brown, James Cruze’s cameraman.