Picture-Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

as Dice of Destiny which her work was bad. Her chance, she felt, was gone. She had been invited to a dinner at the Coconut Grove, but was so unhappy that she couldn't go. She cried. There was a knock on the door. Lupe Velez and a friend had come to find out why she wasn't at the party. The friend was a producer with M.-G.-M. Yes, he promised her a test next day. And that caused the company to borrow her for leads with Chaney and Gilbert. Their pictures in the papers attracted producers' attention to Anita Page and Ann Christy. Anita had received unfortunate publicity through a contract with a film company that failed. After the debacle of that enterprise, she was stranded in Los Angeles, sobbing over the newspaper stories. But a studio executive thought her photograph attractive and called her. Ann Christy's opportunity came when Harold Lloyd was struck by her photo in a newspaper. Equally of chance was the choice of Barbara Kent as Harold's leading lady. She expected only a good time at a certain party — not that Harold would be there, consider her particularly pretty, and engage her. After many gray years, with Merna Kennedy was seen prancing in musical comedy by Charlie Chaplin. William Haines talked back to a producer and revealed a new side of himself. would write, asking when her pictures would appear, or remarking that she really should learn to ride. Sensitive, little Mary of the mercurial gifts had no business astride a broncho. The horses frightened her, and she was too busy holding on to act. Called into the general manager's office, she feared that her option was not to be taken up. Von Stroheim was there. He looked at her so critically, and asked so sharply, "What makes you think you are an actress?" that she began to sob. But next day, while she waited in her dressing room, heartbroken, she was informed that her wistfulness had won a role for her in "Merry-Go-Round." A lachrymose shower also won Josephine Dunn a role, after nine months of idleness, of being told she wasn't the type. Selected for the Paramount school, taken West after graduation, and her option allowed to lapse, failure after all that ballyhooing was doubly bitter. Didn't everybody want this role with M.-G.-M., the prettier and more self-confident girls? Discouraged, she went out. Forlorn, she posed for the test. She was too tired to care ; she would quit and support the family by office work. With what grand hopes had they joined her, the day before Paramount let her out ! The tears welled. She scarcely heard the director. The role was just that brow-beaten sort. When they chose her, quick thought warned her not to admit that her dejection had been real. Let them think she could act. She would prove it ! "The Foreign Legion," in which Mary Nolan played, had been shelved for a while. She was up for no roles. When Metro-Goldwyn asked to see a test. Universal, despite her request to the contrary, sent the print of that film, in one-night shows in small towns, Lon Chaney found himself in Los Angeles, broke. He thought the five-dollar-aday job that he got at the Universal studio a mere filler, but it was an important event for Lon. Nerve never lost anybody anything. Discouraged, William Haines was about to give up, when Harry Cohn, .of Columbia, questioned his pugilistic ability. "This guy is a fighter," he remarked, in describing a role. Bill blew up. "Not the type!" he shouted. "That's all you birds can say. You can't visualize. To the dickens with you all !" He started to stalk out, but Cohn grinned and admitted Bill could act rambunctious. Likewise, the hour in which he bolstered his courage to '"put over an act" was a redletter day for Glenn Tryon. He was looking things over in filmdom. The vista was not pleasing. The test Hal Roach had Laura La Plante's desire for new slippers helped her to succeed.