Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1920)

A Genial Crab After an absence of two years House Peters returns to the screen. T By GENE COPELAND IHEY say that I'm a hard man to get along with." Thus casually spoke the man — he of the imposing mien, sitting opposite me on the steps outside his dressing room — and proceeded to puff away on a perfecto as nonchalantly as you please. "The truth of the matter is," he said smilingly, "that's a reputation I enjoy among certain of the picture folk — so I have heard," he added parenthetically. "As a small boy my family thought so too because I preferred adventure to school books with the result that they sent me to sea to get the adventure that I wanted and the discipline they wanted me to have. And since having grown up I still retain the faculty for believing in what I want. Many directors I have known don't believe in allowing the actor to exercise his intelligence. I have clashed with some who were more interested in how their puttees looked than in either actor or story. "But please," he said most humbly, "say that the actor is not always to blame. Some directors want to L treat you as if you were an inexperienced and aspiring I blonde ingenue. And when a fellow's done everything from singing a comic song to an eloquent soliloquy in 'Henry of Navarre,' who has played in everything from domestic comedy to a character like 'The Squaw Man' — when he's been through the mill, in other words, and been able to get by,— well, he wants a chance that's all!" he concluded earnestly at the same time rising and changing the smoking jacket he was wearing for his frock coat and incidentally discarding the cigar for his pipe. And there was nothing in the manner of the tall, very tall man with the Duke of Wellington nose and bold blue eyes who stood before me that suggested affectedness or crass unreasonableness. In fact he seemed to be altogether normal and sound. I had encountered House Peters during his luncheon hour in a serious, but affable, mood which was quite natural, for he, like most Antipodeans, takes his work and himself seriously. Though he has an original and perhaps startling precept to which he adheres tenaciously. He believes in an actor staying away from theatres. He thinks that his point of view becomes too artificial by constantly seeing himself or others upon screen and stage; and believes rather in moving in social circles outside the theatrical atmosphere and studying life and human emotions and expressions from everyday people. So upon arriving in Hollywood a few weeks ago after an absence of two years from the screen and during which time he has been playing the lead about the east in a Brady shov; he did not attempt to find a home in the mecca of the movie people but took a real Italian villa down by the sea. There is a wonderful swimming pool on the grounds in which he keeps his goldfish as both he and small son take their early morning dips in the sea. His wife is not a professional. Chiefly I suppose, because House says there is not room in one family for two professional people. Belo-w — scene from " Love, Honor and Obey, the photodrama that brings him back to the films. Mary Alden is the -woman. 5 He believes an actor should vary his medium, that he learns much in both branches of dramatic activity. And the benefit applies to the pocketbook as well as to the actor's art. For IMr. Peters' experience was that his salary went up from $150 to $750 upon returning to the stage after making his first picture which was "The Bishop's Carriage" with Mary Pickford. And perchance the whirlwind rate at which things fly along the cinematographical horizon has swept from your memory Mr. Peters' various endeavors, it may be well to mention that his most notable film success was "The Girl of the Golden 'West" for Lasky a few years ago; also "The Great Divide." He has also worked — in days gone by — at Universal which he nowdoubtless relegates with the days of onenight stands in small eastern towns in such plays as "East Lynne." In the present picture in which he is being starred and which is called "Love, Honor and Obey," Mary Alden is playing the part of the wife and 'Vincent Serrano and Sam Sothern are supporting. With this distinguished cast Mr. Peters will be re-introduced to the screen but as a star, not as a leading man. And indeed it is a pleasure to welcome him back. 57