Picture-Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

90 Hollywood's Dark-horse Comedian him, you do not see in him any of that intense heaviness of purpose that sometimes pervades the studio atmosphere— that terrible desire to achieve some artistic embellishment in a picture while at the same time keeping a weather eye on the treasury. MacLean talks about his plans more with the naive ebullience of a real-estate salesman. He has something' of the sunshiny sweep of a land developer. If it were raining pitch, and were gloomy as the Styx, I think that 1 should always have the feeling, when 1 met him, that it was a bright daw How well and popularly he is known as a star to the great majority of the public is not important. He has made good laughable pictures ever since "The Hottentot." Every feature since that, such as "Going Up,"' "The Yankee Consul,*' "Never Say Die." and "Introduce Me," he has clone independently. He has worked in somewhat secluded studios, where the so-called "povertyrow" features are not an unknown quantity, and where it is difficult as a rule to quest him out. because his habitat is off the beaten track, and because, when he is working, he works verv swiftly. I have been acquainted with MacLean for quite a long while, but I must confess that I do not see him frequently. One seldom encounters him in the usual haunts of the hlmers. He is not a gadabout whom one meets at every Sixty Club party, or even convocation of the gay and giddy, on Tuesday nights.' at Cocoanut Grove, or on Friday nights at the Montmartre. He goes to these places occasionally with his wife and a party of friends, but when he is busy, he religiously adheres to a strict discipline. My acquaintance with him, I believe, dates back to that time, about ten years ago, when he was appearing on the stage in a stock theater in Los Angeles — when he was having his ups and downs in popularity because of a certain self -consciousness, which has alwavs been characteristic of his personality, and which he seems to overcome best in comedy. I will say. too, that he has always interested me. He is a good conversationalist and has verv sound opinions, particularly about acting. His talk, a's a rule, is light, healthy, breezy and rapid, with an occasional emphasis on clean, broad humor. Most of what he says is serious. Yet he is what you would call an excellent mixer, and knows a large majority of the people in Hollywood, even if he does not go about with them to any great extent. His life — that is, the real part of it — has always been aloof. The beginning of MacLean's success as a comedian dates back to the film, "Twenty-three-and-a-half Hours' Leave." made shortly after the close of the war. He suffered a slump subsequently, but this was reallv his first big picture. Before that, he had been a leading man in the films, playing opposite Mary Pickford, Dorothy Gish, Enid Bennett, and various other stars. He had a fine stage training before he ever came to the cinema, for he attended Sargent's school and studied very earnestly while there, and made his stage debut in the lead opposite Maude Adams in a curtain-raiser, by Sir James Barrie, called "Rosalind." It was during this period on the stage that he married. His wife had also attended Sargent's, and their romance has always had the steadiness of a beacon gleam in Hollywood. Though he had had a brief fling at the stage previously, it was really his work in the graduating play at Sargent's that won him the recognition of the footlight producers. The graduating exercises were attended by all the leading celebrities of the New York stage. Douglas Fairbanks, at that time not so famous, was one of the audience. The production was a costume play by VV. S. Gilbert, and MacLean had to appear in a pair of green tights, wear a sword, and otherwise array himself in a way that usually proves disconcerting to the young amateur. The majority of the students were not altogether at ease when they got into this fancy rigging. Even the practice that they had had in the dress rehearsals did not altogether eliminate their tendency to trip over their swords. And their embarrassment was greatly increased by the presence of a brilliant audience. Not so MacLean. His foresight had been working, and he had come provided for the occasion. Tust as soon as he had been assigned the part in the play he had gone out and procured a costume — and wore it continuously. The other students had laughed at him and thought it an affectation, but he had kept doggedly on in spite of their kidding. Naturally, he had the laugh on them at the performance. He had lived in those green tights for so long that he was not in the least conscious of his appearance, and no unexpected idiosyncracy that a sword might display could baffle him. He got over in great shape, and ic was only a few days later that Miss Adams sent for him. MacLean has always been painstaking, and to that must be attributed his success. He never leaves loopholes, and thus he insures a smoothly running production, and one good for laughs. Each picture that he makes is previewed half a dozen or even a dozen times in the small theaters around Los Angeles, and MacLean and his corps of assistants go to the utmost length to find audiences that are not "wised up" by having seen a lot of other previews. Certain of the scenes in his pictures he takes in two different ways. One has a lot of comedy business in it, and the other is played straight, with action instead. If the comedy business is slow when it is shown to the tryout audience, MacLean cuts it out and throws in the action before the final screening. But he photographs both versions at the start, to save time' and money. Every picture that he makes also has a big touch of hokum in it somewhere. He has what almost amounts to a superstition about this. The runaway auto in "The Yankee Consul" and the snowball stunt in "Introduce Me" are typical of this fancy of his. Even in his newest picture, "Seven Keys to Baldpate." which is more of a straight comedy, he includes another similar bit of hokum. MacLean has always been noted for taking suggestions wherever he can find them. Even the minor employees on his sets are encouraged to give him hints on how to make scenes better, and he pays a bonus whenever any of these are acceptable. One stage carpenter who works for him gets quite a good-sized extra> stipend, it is said, during the making of his pictures, because he is rather clever at offering tips for gags. MacLean also has a remarkably loyal and efficient organization, which has been, in a very large measure, responsible for his success, and he has always exhibited a desire to keep them together. About the only prominent person who has left his company permanently, in the past few years, is Raymond Griffith, who assisted him rather importantly in "Going LTp" and one or two other pictures, but who is now being starred himself bv Lasky. It may still be a fact unknown to a majority of the public that MacLean is the son of a Presbyterian minister, and that he originally studied to become a civil engineer. He found, after he had gone to school a year or two, that he didn't care for this, and so became Continued on page 104