Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1920)

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Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section "Picked Out for a Part! 77 ^5 A secret of success learned outside of the studio By Doris Lane The aircctor raged and fiimcii while all was at a staiHlstill in our curiur of the studio. "I told you." he bellowed at his assistant, "that you couldn't find a Rirl to look the part! Too small a part for a 'reKular' and too big for an 'extra girl' who hasn't the manner to carry it oft. But we must find one and above all she must look and dress the part." I was one of the "extras" 'he spoke of. Day after day I liung about the studio yard, hoping for a chance to work even as part of a crowd in the l)ackground of a scene. It was hard and uncertain a gamble at best but I loved it ; and prayed for a chance at bigger things. I had been doing more extra work lately ; I was encouraged. Still I wasn't sure that the reason was w<hat A n ti e Kearney thought it was. But to get back to my story. After the director had almost torn his hair out over tlie holding up of that scene, his assistant walked over to the group of extras. He looked us over again, very criti cally. SvuUlenly he beckoned to me. Then he turned to the director, pointed me out, and asked, "Why not try her? At least she knows a thing or two about clothes. She knows how to dress the part!" So they tried me out ; and they gave me that part. My cliance ha I come ! For so long I had been entirely owrlooki-d. an \ tlien just a part of a crowd. At la?t I was picked out of it. Still I couldn't know that I liid made good. But after that scene was finished, the director called to me, "Oh! I say, there; let me have your name please My fir.st thought was, and mv second thought was was right!" How well 1 irMiu ml I met her asiim i end of a particiil.i 1 1\ many when no extra wdik had been given me at the studio 1 was walking slowly away. A stylishly dressed woman came out of a door a few steps ahead of me. I hardly glanced at her. "One of the 'leads,' " I thought. And I was sick of the sight of the "favored sisters." Then we nut, and I gazed straight into the face of — Anne Kearney ! When last I saw her, she was still wearing hair ribbons, and we were going to tlie same school in the east. We were so intimate in those days; and with the years we had drifted apart. By her appearance, she had evidently risen mu<h higher in the world than I. Nothing would do but that I nivist go with her to her favorite place for dinner where we could talk. The first part of our talk was all of the old days. Almost every other sentence began with, "Do you remember ?" And tlien we came down to present day topics. She asked. "Have you been working at the studio?" And I had to adnrt. ruefully, "Not very much." So I told her my ptory. "Of course," she said thoughtfully, "extra work is an opening to bigger tilings." And then 1 confessed how little extra work I had been allowed ti do; how it seemed that the directors always overlooked me. She had been studying me as I talked, and at length she said, "I think I kn-iw part of the trouble maybe the reason why you are overlooked. There's a Rood deal in dr S3, you know." "But I can't nfTord expensive things!" ''It isn't price I'm thinking of," she said, "but what you wear. It is so easy to wear things that bring out any bad points which you may have, and conceal all your good ones. Clothes, to he right, must be expressive, and expressive of you who wear them. Now, I can think of several fh'ngs. "In selecting the right clothes, there are many considerations. Among them are the color of your hair, your eyes, your complexion ; your figure : your ace : your temperament. Now. you are rather retiring than assertive; you iiave blonde but not very brilliant hair, a clear complexion and blue-gray eyes. Yet you are wearing an almost orange-yellow dress; there's a lot of red trinuning on your hat, and you wear a wide sash of gray. Don't think I am trying to ho nasty, dear, but tiicre are wrong lilies in your dress, too. That costume would become some woman, but on you the effect Is dull and lifeless. You force yourself into the background. way, I took that later.) I found that I need not give more than two liours a week to thfascinating, simple lessons. And soon, at home, I was designing my own clothes things that were most elTcctive and expressive of me. that made my best points conspicuous. So I forced myself out of the background : and, as I have told you, I got my chance at last. I'm on the high road now; and I feel that I owe it all to Anud Kearney. . w£is given my 'I have made pood ;" "Anne ivear.iey till' evening on which niiiiiy years! At the ur:iging day one of YOr, too, can leani, in your leisure hours at home, to design and make original dresses, hats and wraps for yourself, to express your personality, conceal whatever defects you may have, and bring out strongly all your points of beauty. You will have fine and stylish clothes whicli suit your individual needs. And you can have .several dresses of this sort for what one would cost you in a fashionable shop. As only one e.^ample of Fashion Academy graduates who have made designing their profession is Mrs. A. C. Kleist. Three months after graduation she was earning ."SI J.J a week as a freelance designer, and incidentally she designed costumes for Lady DuffGordon (Lucile). Yet when ^e began she was "Now I'm going to design you a dress noth an absolute novice She is only one of many ing extraordinary, but just what you should others who are eciually successful. wear. I'll have it ready in two days. And irnaiiinr, i<-.,io,.,v io „„i,„„i j„ ^tlfe'"".L!fe's^'^;Tini^l;t^ '%Zne'^R l^^J^ ^^^^c^J^Z' "^iZ! ^^^r/:' T^e ham ens " suggestions of Fashion Academy teachers ard in She wouldn't listen to thanks hut on the demand by manufacturers. Fashion waf Lme""she toM me her o^n\\o.y—bZ he '""^iZT^^r Zl^fr' ''^u''''r J"!' had advanced from sewing on dresses in tl, Z'^^lX'r th"S Avenut S " """" property room to designing costumes for the i o. "stars." Designing that was the secret of it. You can take these courses for professional I had never thought of tlie importance of these or for your own private uses. Y'ou will be things. assured of charming and original s-ty'es in your Two days later, in the little frock of Anne's dresses and hats, if, instead of buying things designing, with the retrimmed hat, I appeared that every third woman is likely to wear, you at the s'tudio. The director eyed us all criti design vour own. Besides, your dresses and hats cally and picked out the lucky ones for the „ill be made more beautifully, no doubt than da.y. I was one of them! Best of all at the ^nv you have been able to afford at the tremen end of the day he told me to come back to j,^,,^ j^es that have prevailed for the past few morrow. rears A few days later I went to see Anne Kearney and to a-k her how I might learn more of the FIND OUT about these courses in Coslum-; art of dress. She laughed. Design, Fattern-drafting and Dressmaking. Mil "I meant to tell you before," she said. "Not linery Design, and Fashion Illustration to-day. only can you acquire the theory of design for Fashion Academy will send vou FREE a beauti yourseir, but you will easily and pleasantly f„i Art Booklet containing information about the learn to make your own things at a small cost. home-studv courses. Simply fill out the couiion You can learn costume and millinery design or send a post-card asking for Illustrate.! ing as I did in your spare time at home T>„„irio* oni o »• in from three to four months. I studied with g""^ ^01 2. Send immediately for this a view to professional work, and it wasn't long Booklet and you will also receive .nformatlou before I was where I am to-day." "l^",^^ "m"Z'ng FRI'-E OFFEK. Write to "Yes," I broke in, "but you were a dress "'iJ' • maker before you took that course. And I don't ''"•'Yoi need ^ repiie<i. "Tiiafs FasHlon Acadcmv, IllC. the beauty of Fa.'<hion Academy courses : they're ' so very simple and yet so thorough that the ln?Fn<:t '^7th ^trpct Ni>w YnrL Ti'mt veriest novice can understand them and become •'"^ i^abl o/lll otrLtt, i^LV, I orK v^lty. expert. I don't mean to say you should make a profession of it you have different ambi tions hut for you to know what you should t. .oiir/»x «r.iT»T.-Mi t wear, and how to make it cheaply for yourself l AbUiu.N Al..\ut.M\, inc. why, it would be invaluable to you to any 103 East 57th Street. New York Cltv. woman!" "Yes, I know," I said, "but the expense?" Please send me your FREE Illustrated Book "•Expen.se!' that word never applies to jpt 2012, containing information about cosFashion Academy courses. Whv. in one season, , , , , , , , , you would easily save the price of the course """^ and millinery design and fashion illuslrasevcral times. Now', my dear, just you write tion. to Fashion Academy, in New York for information about their home-study courses." I took her advice — -thank goodness! My Name "extra" work was getting to be more regular now, so I was able to enroll with Fashion Academy for their course in Costume Design .\ 'dress and Dressmaking. But it was hard to choos between that and others of their courses. The Millinery Design tempted me. (And, by the Whoii you wrlie lo a'.lvcrtlsers plvpiie ni.'nlion rilOTOri.AY XI.\GA7,INK.