Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1920)

JT IS not in mj' power, nor in the power of any manager, to "make" a motion picture star or a stage star. We can only set promising people in your way. If you like them, you do the rest. vy ci Screen Success lyiR. LASKY is the partner and associate of Adolpli Zukor, in the m largest assemblage of motion picture enterprises in the world and he is and always has been the one more closely allied with the production end of these concerns. He has been a photoplay 'maker since the industry's earliest years. He has endured all its vicisssi , tudes. and has enjoyed a multitude of its triumphs. A considerable percentage of the whole number of screen stars is in his employ and most of these have actually attained their celebrity" in some Jne of tile Zukor-Lasky studios. connection I feel free to tell one of my own experiences. I think I can without any injustice to the young woman in question, give her name, so that you will all" know exactly what I am talking about. Not a great many months ago I was so profoundly impressed by the magnetism, the natural dramatic qualifications and the charm of an adopted daughter of Gus Edwards, in vaudeville, that I considered her a great and immediate possibility in motion pictures. In vaudeville she had already made a national success under the quaint name, "Cuddles." She was known from coast to coast, in every place where people patronized the high class two-a-day. Transferred to the screen as Lila Lee she was given the best, in stories, direction, support and international exploitation, that my institution afforded. And yet something was lacking. What was it? I knew of nothing more that could be done for Lila Lee from the , manager's viewpoints My Director-General, Mr. DeMille, could offer no more than the very best that he had already supplied. I had a very frank talk with her. I told her, as I have told you, that stars were neither born nor made, but were selected and discovered by the sovereign public. I told her that I liked her work, and that I beh'eved in her as I had always believed in her. I advised her to buckle down and work hard, playing every part that was given her, being content with her roles whether they were star parts or merely support. Being a sensible little girl, she saw that this was the right thing, and the only thing, and she became one of the hardest workers in the Hollywood studio, neglecting no opportunity to learn, to acquire experience, to add to her knowledge of make-up, characterization, or dramatic interpretation. This was a very fine thing, a very big and brainy' thing for a little giri still in her teens to do— a giri, you must remember, who had been a great feature in one field, and for whom manv a manager, whatever her success or failure with me had been, would still produce on her demand that coveted stellar crown. As I say, she grimly stuck to it, and by and by Mr. DeMille assigned her to the plaintive little part of 'Tweeny, the maid, in "Male and Female." Her remarkable performance in that part has won recognition that few stars have ever had; I think Lila Lee has found the reward of her patience and perseverance. I know that that performance has answered my wondering and perplexity concerning her. NLY a few of the many good young inema actresses attain genuine stardom. In a general way, every star traverses the same path, and it is the route of hard work. There is no picture lummary today, male or female, whose name has simply been hung up in the electric sky, without years of preparation. ■yo MARY PICKFORD, ever since she 1 left short dresses, life has been nothing but exhausting labor, or else quiet secluded preparation for more exhausting labor. The golden hours of indolence, and the memorable delights of long summer vacations that are youth's gifts to every American girl, the exciting pleasure of living even awhile from society and social rounds, Mary Pickford has never known. THE public has erratic momentary whims, but in the long run it never makes a mistake; the star who endures from year to year only does so because he or she deserves to endure. POSSESSING honest ambition, the girl, or the boy, should seek a place in some good stock company, and be willing, for an indefinite period, to do anything that comes to hand or may be assigned. J, HERE is a glamour, a very spirit of romance, about a beautiful young girl which no boy, however handsome, stalwart and capable, can ever have. A beautiful, spirited girl incarnates youth and its ideals to young and old alike, to women as well as men. She possesses a certain faculty of enchantment because of the very fact that she is just a girl. On the other hand, let me cite the case of a man interested in the production of motion pictures who has persistently put forth a beautiful young woman, in star parts, who has not so far manifested any of the dramatic or magnetic qualities which alone can draw the championship of the great picture audience. This man, an enterprismg producer, is sincere in his belief that the young woman is an actress of ability; she, upon her part is hard-working, and equally sincere in her desire to 'do everything which makes for success. But so far she has never manifested the magnetic spark that wins' and so the great directors who have labored upon her pieces and her fine stories and elaborate exploitation, have been as nothing. The public has remained cold and silent, and the young woman is not a star no matter how enthusiastically the advertisements and the electric signs may assure her that she is one. She may yet arrive, but if she does, it will be on merit, and not on the mere deliberate determination of herself or her manager. Charies Ray, one of the great stellar triumphs of the hour, is a product of years of hard work in all sorts of rol,es, and of intense study and preparation. The same is true of Wallace Reid. It is easy, now, for young men all over the country to view these successful young men and opine that things have "Come easy" to them. On my word of honor, let me tell you that both of them are products of year after year of labor — pl.us the ultimate good luck of public selection. I may cite the very well ■ known example of the greatest woman star the screen has ever known, Mary Pickford. And in so doing, let me say that there are very few men or women, of any age, who have so thoroughly immersed themselves in their chosen work. To Mary Pickford, ever since she left short dresses, life has been nothing but exhausting labor, or else quiet secluded preparation for more exhausting labor. The golden hours of indolence, and the memorable delights of long summer vacations that are youth's gift to every American girl, the exciting pleasure of living even awhile for society and social rounds, Mary Pickford has never known. Idolized, feted — yes, but she has always had before her the tremendous problem of maintaining her place in the mind of a public eager for new sensations and new objects of admiration. She is the hardest worker I have ever known on the screen. I know of no young woman, whatever her hopes and dreams, who would have followed the hard path of success as unflinchingly. "Being a star" is not the total or even the beginning of artistic success as we are beginning to count it in picture terms. .'\n am v-nrf>,,, fi,. f « i^'^'*^" merely to be "a star" is not ^.'orthy the time or effort of any young person. Real screen success is no longer counted in terms of billboard advertising electric signs of freak "personality stories" in the periodicals and newspapers. Screen success lies in being an actor, or an actress, who can simulate life, and the depiction of life bv painting writing, or personal mimicry, is an art won only by hard labor. Many an actress on the stage-young, magnetic earnest, charming-has come to the studios only to find that the camera does not like her. Many a pretty face, to use the (Contimied on page 131)