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44
Pictures and P/c/wepue"
AUGUST 1924
your high-water mark and start running downhill : and it's the hardest thing in the world to stage a good come-back. As a matter of fact I don't mind confessing that I do prefer the stage to the screen."
" You think it's a better artistic medium? "
" Medium of what ? " he asked.
" Art."
" What's Art?" he answered.
" It's a thing that most actors and actresses talk about in connection with their work — particularly in connection with their more unsuccessful work."
" A sort of substitute for dollars, I suppose. This is a blinding new thought. I must ask my wife about it some time. All I can say is that there is far more thrill in stage work. That's why I prefer it."
" We will now," I said, " proceed to a confession of your crimes. Tell me about the films you have made."
" \Y/ell," he .said, " I suppose I've * "spoiled as much good celluloid as anybody. I blame Ethel Barrymore for it all. I had been playing opposite her in ' Mid-Channel ' for two years on the stage when some film producer signed her to make The Nightingale in 1916. Ethel was green to pictures, in spite of her famous brothers, and insisted on having a man as green as herself to play opposite her. So she picked on me. She said she knew I, couldn't steal the picture if I tried. Tt wasn't such a frost as it might have been — anyway, other parts followed thick and fast. Some work I did for Herbert Brenon in The Fall of 'The Romanoffs seemed to make a pretty good impression, and got me jobs with all sorts of important stars."
" Confess them " I interrupted.
" I was with Marguerite Clark in Hclcne of the North, with Mary Piekford in Stella Maris, Constance
Talmadge in The Virtuous Vamp and
Tii'o Weeks, Marion Davies in April
Folly, and Anita Stewart in The Mind
The Paint Girl. Then I played in two
versions of The Common
Laiv, first with Clara
Kimball Young, and then
six years later
with Corinnc
Griffith."
" What about the time you were with Selznick?"
" That was a splendid time. They gave me the sort of stories I like best — strong drama, with plenty of action and no end of thrills. I made Marooned Hearts there, and
ft '
i
^^^^.■
r
\
*
i
Above: On location
with Frank Lloyd
(left) and Norma
Talmadge for
" Ashes of
Vengeance."
Left: Conzeay
and Constance
, aW fc^ujfl Talmadge " A
Dangerous
Maid."
Below: In
" The Referee."
Society Snobs, which I wrote myself, The Fighter. Shadozcs of the Sea, and several others." I could never re\f/l(F'm^^^r member a time when you were out of a job. I seem to have seen your name outside picture-houses all my life," I said. " Yes you have," said Conway." I've been busy. I don't mind confessing that. I went on from Selznick to First National without a pause, and played opposite to Norma Talmage in The Eternal Flame and Ashes of Vengeance."
" I suppose, then, it was your experience of monkey glands in Black Oxen that led you to have your mole removed?" T remarked.
" The reason for the removal of that mole " said Conway, " is evident on the face of it. Must you go? Can't you really stay a little longer? Good-bye." As T walked down the garden path he called to me to stop.
' 1 haven't confessed yet what I've got in the bureau " he called. I went back to the house — but I shan't loll you what was in that confession.