Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

90 How Players Safeguard Their Though accidents sometimes happen, everything possible is done to prevent the players from becoming ill or suffering injury while at work. By Myrtle Gebhart YOU read of accidents in which stunt men, doubling for the stars, suffer injuries, but you seldom bear of a featured actor being hurt or even indisposed. Rarely is a production held up because of the illness of a principal. The main reason for this is that the majority of the actors have good health and strong constitutions to begin with. If they hadn't, they would never have been able to withstand the hardships which at various times during their careers they have had to endure. And they keep their health, or most of them do, by a certain amount of exercise and a common-sense diet. A sickly person would not last very long in the movies. For even the featured players, though they do not take the risks run by the trained stuntnthletes, imperil their health by water scenes, by performing the less hazardous thrills that cannot be faked, and in various other ways necessary to their work. Kleig eyes are common ailments and so far no practicable method of eliminating the ultra-violet ray from the lights — which causes the temporary blindness — has been found. All a player can do when so afflicted is to bandage his eyes and live in darkness until the pain subsides. Often a drop of olive oil in each eye before facing the big sun arcs serves to, ward off the strain. Some, with more pigmentation in their eyes, are exceptionally susceptible to Kleig eyes. It is curious that so few of the girls are annoyed with colds, in view of the fact that practically all of them at one time or another have to enact night scenes out of doors and often clad in gossamer chiffon evening gowns. Frequently, garden moonlight parties are filmed on outdoor sets and such productions, destined for spring release, are usually taken during the winter months. And, while the cold of the East is unknown in the West, the nights are far from warm, with the chilly fog seeping down in a mist from the hills. When such scenes are being taken, big iron stoves are placed at the edge of the set. About them, wrapped in heavy coats, the girls huddle cozily until called. The more important players usually wait in their motors — or, if the set is on the studio's open stage, in their dressing rooms — until the last moment. Water scenes are always dreaded. In the kindest of climes, they are unpleasant, and immersion even in heated studio tanks for an hour or two causes a great When Lois Wilson sprained her wrist during the stampede scene in "North of 36," Ernst Torrence rendered first aid with thekit that accompanies every movie company on location. deal of discomfort. And ocean sequences are reasons why some players wonder that so many fans want to be movie stars. Several of the comedians, who more often have to do water stuff, coat their bodies with grease and oil and wear woolen underclothing to avoid taking cold. Because of numerous accidents in the past growing out of the extras' desire to work regardless of the risk, and their insistence that they were expert at aquaticsports when perhaps they could not swim a stroke, tests now are made of applicants for such work. De Mi lie had a difficult time selecting the girls for the "Feet of Clay" aquaplane episode, keeping in mind the twin necessities of beautiful faces and figures and familiarity with water sports. During the preliminary tests it was discovered that a number, eager to play in the picture, had claimed to be good swimmers when in reality their lives would have been endangered had they been permitted to participate in the scene. In addition to these thorough tests, which now are insisted upon by most of the directors when such sequences are included in pictures, lifeguards are stationed just outside the camera range. Similar tests are made for riding and steeplechase scenes, not only that the most skillful may be chosen but that no foolish young people, with thoughts of an opportunity overbalancing common sense, may be allowed to risk their lives unnecessarily. Working with animals is dreaded by all of the players, though as a rule the ferocious jungle beasts, under the guidance of experienced trainers, appear only in the long shots, more tractable animals being used for close-ups. Even so, however, there is danger, because the best-humored citizen of the menagerie is likely to be blinded and bewildered by the lights and run amok. The most hazardous animal scenes recently filmed were for a Sennett comedy, in which Madleine Hurlock permitted a tiger to follow her around and to stand upon the train of her gown as she walked about the room. The set was inclosed in a high iron cage. One surly beast, annoyed by the lights, performed his scene perfectly through rehearsals, then, as it was "being filmed, turned, snarling savagely, and made a dash for the cameras. Trainers warded him off with whips just as he was .about to leap over the barricade of chairs and boxes which served as semiprotection to the director and camera men. . [Continued on page 107