The Photo-Play Journal (Jan-Jun 1919)

June, igig PHOTO-PLAY JOURNAL 49 My Dear Madame Petrova : What do you think of the gossip who goes around telling people scandal about the players? I have often met people of this type and I have just as often wished I could annihilate them, not so much for the pain they cause to the stars themselves as to the persons who love and admire them. I know myself how it feels to have a fallen idol. I know how it feels to be disillusioned and to have my rosy dreams proven just nightmares. I have "extraed" in several studios and sometimes I have been disappointed in the actors and actresses, but I don't go telling other people all that I see and hear. Why do some people like to disillusion we movie fans? Can't the gossips leave us to our dreams and to our weaving of fancies? Does it give them any satisfaction to inform us that "Miss Movie Star" wears a wig or that her teeth did not originate from her own gums, or that "Mr. Actor" beats his wife and goes out to cabarets every night till 2 A. M.? Won't you tell me what you really think about these gossips? — Helen Kent, New York. P. S. — I saw you at Keith's Riverside Theatre recently and I should very much like to know the name of the play from which you recited that scene. Has it ever been made into a picture? I should think it would make a wonderful film. H.K. My Dear Miss Kent : My opinion of the gossip who indulges in fantastic stories of other people is that he is of so little importance himself that he is obliged to make a bid for popularity by affecting to be on intimate terms with those who are. Wherever you find a person whose sole aim in life seems to lie in the direction of discussing the real or fancied affairs of his fellows, there you may be sure is a person like unto a reed shaken by the wind, a person of no moral stability, a person who will discuss your affairs with the same glibness — if you have any, or invent them, if you haven't — with the first kindred soul who happens to come his way. I'm not so sure that the person who listens to scandal is not as much if not more to blame than the person who repeats it, for if the listener refused to be interested the gossip would be robbed of his only object in retailing his nasty little pieces of misinformation. Speaking of idols and of the fall thereof, you must remember when speaking of them in connection with the screen that these same idols are very human and living people after all, subject to the same temptations as anyone else. And if occasionally the clay feet of the god or the false coiffeur of the goddess becomes apparent it would be well to consider that the message that the god conveys is the important thing rather than the god himself. If loyalty and love are real, genuine, no amount of tattle-tales are going to disillusion the lover. They will make him or her, the more loyal, the more staunch, the quicker to fight the battles of their absent hero who is not there to answer for or defend himself. To be discussed and criticised is one of the inevitable penalties of all forms of success, and the only weapon of any service lies in the hands, or rather in the heads, of those who, instead of wishing to tear down and deface the idol, desire rather to place him upon a still more exalted altar, and that weapon is the weapon of a deaf ear. The play of which you speak is "The Shulamite," by Claude and Alice Askew, who were the authors of the novel of the same name. I played the title role in the North of England and in South Africa. I do not think that it has ever been filmed, although, as you say, it should make an excellent picture play. My Dear Madame Petrova : What is your opinion on the use of very young children in the films? Don't you think that it is terrible to make poor little mites, who ought to be EDITOR'S NOTE— This most interesting department, which Madame Petrova contributes exclusively to PHOTO-PLAY JOURNAL, is a permanent feature of this magazine, and ive are proud of the honor of being able to present such interesting opinions and viewpoints of such a remarkable lady genius regularly. Madame Petrova welcomes letters upon all subjects pertaining to the cinema art, and she personally reads all which are addressed to her in care of PHOTO-PLAY JOURNAL. in bed or playing with their toys, work for their living? Every time I see a child under twelve on the screen or on the stage I want to jump up in my seat and publicly denounce those who are responsible. There is such a long time for work after they have grown up that it seems to me that childhood should be respected. I shudder to think of little children in the environment of the studio Mme. Olga Petrova or the stage, what sort of influences they must be liable to. I shall be glad if you will answer this letter in "For You and For Me," as I am sure that I am voicing the thoughts of a great many people on this matter. — Mrs. Dugan, Washington, D. C. My Dear Mrs. Dugan : I am afraid that I cannot altogether agree with you. Of all the stage and screen children with whom I have been brought personally into contact, I have never known one who did not look upon its "work" as a wonderful game to be played on a still more wonderful holiday. Working for their living never seems to enter their tiny heads, and if they are able to augment the family exchequer with the reward for playing a game I don't think that should be held particularly against them or their parents. I know of one small boy — his name is Freddie Verdi — who, through his screen efforts, was able to set his father up in a bran new barber shop at a time when ill fortune had brought him very low. Freddie Verdi is seven years old. He is very bright for his age and has assimilated more education than many of his elders possess. He has an excellent business head, too, for such a youngster, and in return for the help afforded to Verdi, Senior Freddie shows a sensible interest in his position as partner in the business. Now from his share in the proceeds of the barber shop, together with what his mother has managed to save from his salary, Mrs. Verdi has hopes of making Freddie a doctor one of these days. To be a doctor seems to be the height of his ambition. Now don't think I am advocating the engaging of children in theatrical pursuits to the exclusion of their right and proper share of sleep, recreation and education, but I have often wondered whether being sent out to play in the gutter and incidentally to learn life's secrets from gutter-snipe companions is any better way to bring up a child than the surroundings of the stage or the studio. You see I have often, myself, on numerous occasions, in my search for types among the congested side streets of New York, selected mites from just such environment as I describe, and I do not think they did anything but benefit by the temporary exchange from the gutter to the studio. There are arguments to be urged against children on the stage or screen, of course, no state of affairs is Utopian, but I think that the advantages of the one as a rule more than discount the disadvantages of the other. Dear Miss Petrova : I have heard on several occasions that you are by way of being a very astute amateur lawyer. Now, of course, you don't know me from Adam, and there's no earthly reason why you should pay any attention to my letter, particularly as you have more personal and interesting things to occupy your mind. However, I am taking the bull by the horns and taking a chance that you will answer it. In the first place, I haven't much opinion of lawyers, and in the second place, I don't want to let myself in for a huge fee for legal services until I know if I stand any chance of winning. The situation is this : I was engaged by Mr. "Blank" as assistant camera-man about three years ago. I accepted a very small salary, as I was very anxious to become a camera-man, and I didn't know one end of a camera from another, but I did know that Mr. "Blank" was one of the best directors in the business and that his cameraman was a knockout. I intended to keep my eyes open and learn — and I did — so much so that after I had been with Mr. "Blank" a year he made me head camera-man in place of Mr. , who went over to France. Mr. "Blank" made me sign a letter, promising to stay with him for three more years at a salary of seventy-five dollars a week the first year, one hundred dollars a week the second year and one hundred and twenty-five dollars a week the third year. He was to guarantee me fifty weeks' work in each year. According to that letter I have a little more than a year yet to run, and I am offered a contract guaranteeing me fifty-two weeks a year at one hundred and seventy-five dollars a week by one of the best firms in the business. Now, what I want to know is this : Is that letter binding and can Mr. "Blank" sue me if I leave him or injunct me from working for someone else? I don't see that it's fair or equitable to bind me to accept fifty dollars a week less than someone else is wiling to pay me. I must be worth it, and I ought to get it. What do you advise? —Mr. X. Dear Mr. X : Of course you have long before this received my personal answer to your letter, which I am printing in "For You and For Me," eliminating your name and address, as it seems to me to open an argument that may with variations occur to many beside yourself. The first thing that comes to my mind in reading a communication like yours is a quotation from Mr. William Shakespeare's, "As You Like It"— "Blow, Blow thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude." If I were in Mr. "Blank's" place and had any idea that you were dissatisfied with your association with me, you could not sever that association (Continued on page 54)