Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1922)

Instead of occupying de luxe mahogany offices, Miss Eddy and Miss Carol hold their production conferences over the tea table or in their apartment kitchen. The realization of their dream is one of those real life film romances THE GIRL PICTURE MAGNATES By yoan yordan EVERY morning you may pick up your paper and read the cold, rather dry little news notes in the drama column. Notes stating such unadorned facts as that Constance Talmadge has started work on her new production, "East Is West." Allan Dwan is directing the big tournament scenes in "Robin Hood," Douglas Fairbanks' latest. Virginia Valli is to play the leading role in "The Village Blacksmith" for Fox. Routine. Stereotyped. Business-like. But every now and then you may lift the veil from the cold black and white structure and find behind it romance, thrills, drama, dreams come true. The very story of success or failure. The epitome of the fight for the good things of the world, for the achievement of ambitious dreams. The other day, for example, I picked up the paper over my morning orange juice and read that Robertson-Cole was to release a series of Ray Carol Productions, starring Helen Jerome Eddy. Simple enough. But as I sat musing over it, the real story of that thing came to me and gave me a terrific kick, because I realized that things like it are going on in Hollywood every day, and we overlook them in the hurry and hard work of our lives. It is a very clean, sweet, fine story of two girls who through sheer endeavor and optimism made their dreams come true. About six or seven years ago these two girls came to Hollywood — separately, neither dreaming of the other's existence. They were both very young, very inexperienced, quite poor, but in the motion picture world they had seen the field for the things they wanted to do. One of them — Helen Jerome Eddy — wanted to be a great actress, some day perhaps a motion picture star. The other one — Ray Carol — wanted to write, to be a successful scenarioist, to have a hand in the thrilling game of making pictures. Seldom have human beings had more clear-cut ambitions than these two. The first girl came from a sheltered home, with the background of considerable education and breeding. She had sincerity, some The story of two brave girls who have cast themselves upon the perilous sea of screen production with their own company measure of serene and girlish loveliness, and, above all, infinite patience. The other girl came from every sort of dire poverty, from intense struggle, from the clamorous, clashing birthpangs of an immigrant family transplanted from European countries to fight for its very existence in the promised land of America. Italian and Russian blood mingled in her veins. She had seven brothers and sisters younger than she, all needing her help and support, and her education was a precious and wonderful thing snatched in night hours, in spare moments, yet very complete and clear for that very reason. But ambition in seething floods she did have, the capacityto work and the power to dream dreams and see visions. Her spirit was indomitable. Three or four years ago, when they had separately climbed the first hard steps, Helen Jerome Eddy and Ray Carol Kapleau, that is her real name, met. It was one of those friendships that form at sight. And it is a friendship that I hold up with glee to prove that women are capable of fine and unselfish devotion to each other. Coming as they did from the very opposite poles of life, they found mutual ideals, ambitions, congenial characteristics that cemented their first liking. They took a little bungalow, a very little bungalow, and decided to stick together for a while in fighting this motion picture battle of success. There they shared the cooking, the marketing, the housework and the expenses. Whoever was working paid the bills, and the other one did the housework. Sometimes things were pretty tough sledding, sometimes they struck a smooth and easy stretch on the road. Helen Jerome Eddy became a well known name in pictures, a name associated with well done character roles, with sweet and wholesome womanhood. Ray Carol sold some fairly successful scenarios, and some work to magazines of a high literary calibre. But whether the barometer was up or {Concluded on page 111) 23