Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1928)

Milli on By y Then you can't afford to miss mals and high finance "Quo Vadis" hadn't proved much of a financial success. The last of the $500 in gold that Madera paid me in Mexico had dwindled down into nothin' an' at the finish of the " Quo Vadis " picture, which, as I wrote, never was finished, I found myself the proud owner of one horse, a red an' white bull that nobodj' wanted, an' owin' Mike Cunyan $135. I reasoned to myself that there was somethin' wrong with those birds who said there was millions in the movin' picture game. Mebbe they knew what they was a-talkin' about but I hadn't seen none of 'em get very far yet. I figured by this time that we was usin' the wrong kind of animals. They all was too small. If there was millions to be made in makin' movin' pictures I reckoned we'd better begettin' rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, elephants an' try for it in that way. I thought they'd look a heap more like a million than a few ornery wolves an' a coupla Oklahoma bulls an' a buffalo too old to be on speakin' terms with any of his three former wives, that we'd been a-usin'. With this in mind I wrote a letter to Colonel Selig in Chicago an' told him if there was a job makin' pictures with some real big live stock in it to count me in, but so far as ordinary Oklahoma stock was concerned I was through. ABOUT a week later I got a letter from Chicago tellin' me about a picture to be made in Florida where they was a-goin' to have all kinds of big animals includin' lions, tigers, an' elephants an' that they could use me at once. I was told to report to my old director friend, "Dad" Turner, in Jacksonville, Florida. Boardin' my cow pony, "Old Blue," and the yearlin' colt which I claimed although I couldn't have shown a bill of sale for "I grabs Mr. Leopard by the tail, gives him a yank an' swings him clear. I don't know how many fellers have experienced the sensation of havin' a full grown and hungry leopard by the tail, an' at the same time tryin' to figure out some way of lettin' him go. I'm here to inform any inquirin' gent that it ain't so funny" it, on a friend's ranch, I journeyed south. On the way I stopped in Memphis and Atlanta to see a coupla friends an' finally reached Jacksonville, an' found my old friend, " Dad " Turner. With him as members of his cast was Kathryn Williams, as leadin' lady; Charles Clary, Bill Mong an' a young English feller who could almost out-London my old friend A. B. Chatsworth McCauley, w-ho it will be remembered was the feller I wrote about in the last chapter, an' who directed or tried to direct the " Quo Vadis " that came to such a bad end. DAD" TURNER will be remembered by Photoplay readers as the director who made the picture where I was hired to bulldog the buffalo. Of course, "Dad "always thought that I throwed the buft'alo on the level an' I suppose he learned for the first time in Photoplay that the old boy slipped on the movin' picture salt an' mica snow an' almost throwed himself. "Dad" told me that he was a-goin' to make two pictures — one, "Back to the Primitive," an' the other, "Lost in the Jungle." He said he could use me in both, but especially needed me for the one about "Lost in the Jungle." He sure made my heart glad when he said that the jungle picture was a-goin' to have lions an' tigers an' a elephant. Here, says I, to myself is my great chance. I'm at last with the big animals an' the big money. It's more'n likely I'll have my million an' mebbe a little more in a few weeks an' can take it back to El Paso County, Texas, as I promised my mother. "Dad" said that he'd hired a feller known to the circus world as Big Otto, who owned a animal show. Big Otto, I may say, is still a-livin' an' still got a animal show. His good lookin' daughter is married to a young feller named Furness, one of the owners of the Continental an' a lot of other hotels 'round Los Angeles an' San Francisco. The director went on to explain as how they was a-goin' to make this picture with wild animals runnin' loose in the jungle an' it was my job to sit on a horse or somethin' with a Winchester an' a good six shooter close by, an' be ready to head off an' shoot any lion, tiger or elephant that got fresh with the leadin' lady. Am I shootin' 'em by the head or by the day I asked an' finally "Dad" agreed that in view of the peculiar job I had, I was to be paid $25.00 a day. He said _. — -— T-^ the job would last quite a few weeks 3 -'id" '"■'' that if in the end nobody got '" hurted there would also be a nice bonus that would set me on my way for the million in fine shape. BEFORE makin' "Lost in the Jungle" "Dad" said they was agoin' to make a picture called " Back to the Primitive" with Kathryn Williams a-playin' the leadin' lady an' Charles Clary an' this English gent doin' the scenes as leadin' man an' heavy an' Bill Mong a-playin' the girl's father. An' he said besides usin' me in another way he allowed to let me play the girl's brother. That sort of swelled me up. That night in the hotel a man seein' my big Stetson hat an' high [ CONTINUED ON PAGE 82 ] 71