Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1920 - Feb 1921)

How to Begin at the Top 59 Some half hundred moons have waxed and waned, and the scene now shifts to Universal City, where Carmel Myers has signed a three-year contract to star, after a flyer in musical comedy in New York. She seems the same exquisite girl — but she must be some older. Nineteen, probably. But she is just as delightful, though perhaps a trifle more reserved than in her high-school days. "Hello, Carmel ! I haven't seen you for a long, long time." "Why, hello, Teddy ! Years and years !" Then she glanced nervously around. "Mr. Hertzman, I'm not late for my interview, am I ? You said some one was going to be here." "You're talking to him," laughed the impresario of publicity. 'Teddy ! Why, are you That started an avalanche of questions, and it looked as if the interview had been snowed under, despite the fact that she was now the Thespian, and I was the writer. But finally I steered around to the subject of her sojourn in New York. "I was there only about a year," she told me. "You know, I've always wanted to go on the stage, so when my first contract with Universal expired I decided to try it. It's wonderful, but I am so disappointed to find that I can't play in pictures and behind the footlights at the same time," she sighed. "It's physically impossible. "Do you know the thing that impressed me most? The California complexion. The girls from the West Continued on page 84 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy iiiii iiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiriiiiii^i'iiiiiiiiiiiiniiiniiiiniiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiii How to Begin at the Top Dorothy Dickson has done it —but it was hard work, just the same. By Caroline Bell Photo by Old Masters [iiiiiii!!!ii;:iii!ii; iiii'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiw^ LOTS of girls dream of becoming a motion-picture star, or at least a leading lady, overnight ; few of them do it. Dorothy Dickson has, though, in the new George Fitzmaurice production, "Money Mad," but, though she didn't have to climb the ladder which leads from extra to player of small parts to player of large ones, and so on up, she did have to climb first the ladder that leads to the top of another profession — that of the dancer. It all began some years ago in Chicago, when she gave up some of the engagements that keep most society girls busy, and devoted that part of her time to teaching a dancing class at a social-settlement house. Then things began to happen very fast; her people lost their money, the dance craze descended on the country with amazing force, and her friends began to say: "Dorothy, why don't you and Carl Hyson dance in public? You're lots better than heaps of professionals." So they did. They began by dancing at Rector's, one of Chicago's famous restaurants. They danced at some of the hotels. Then they went to New York and danced at the big hotels there. Presently they went on the stage, and Dorothy Dickson began to be known as one of the most charming personalities of the theater, one of its most talented dancers. She was one of the successes of "The Royal Vagabond," a musical comedy that ran on forever, and her appearance on the Century Roof, a favorite -resort of New Yorkers, was much heralded. But what about the movies ? She'd been asked to consider them more than once, but had always had a contract that forbade it. Then along came just the moment when she was free for a while, and just the right offer, from Mr. Fitzmaurice —to be featured in "Money Mad" — and that's all there is to the story.