Picture-Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

40 The Mystery Man of Hollywood only as an ex Fred Thomson, known to his public ponent of Western screen chivalry. A crazy fool, perhaps, according to some standards, but an idealist. He has shunned publicity, and is the only star who has never had a press agent. Shrinking from the spotlight because it does not interest him. he is never seen at the Hollywood cafes or at the resplendent picture premieres. Once a year, looking very uncomfortable in his tuxedo, he appears at the Ambassador, on social duty. Just once he has lunched at the Montmartre. And when a girl fan sent a waiter over to ask for his telephone number, he dived down the stairs. I )etesting a holier-than-thou attitude, he expresses his ideals in his work, and also by example in his personal life, rather than by fiery tirades. Though be does not dance — he thinks he would feel awkward — he considers the amusement harmless. But he is intolerant of drinking, not only because alcohol tends to break down moral fiber, but also because it ruins health. Yet he does" not flaunt his views obnoxiously. His face set in disapproval, he merely scowls. Possessing a candor that often irritates his friends, he will not lie, and insists that the truth be told bluntly. Claiming that he is not an actor, he detests interior scenes, and kids love scenes, but is in his glory out of doors, planning stunts and executing them. He risks his neck, not because he places no value on his life, but because he considers stunting a science which he has mastered. He has a sinewy body that obeys his brain like a welloiled machine. "It is all mathematical calculation," he says, disclaiming heroism. "These dare-devils who depend on chance take risks. But I don't. I figure out rhts, distances such things. self, he is nevertheless tolerant of others' views and agreeably willing to be proven wrong or to try another person's way, but seldom is he swerved from his stand, because he usually convinces others that he is right. An incident occurred recently which shows his patience, and the lengths to which he will go to prove a point. His wife, Frances Marion, the brilliant scenarist, became interested in psychic phenomena, spiritualism, mind-reading and such things. Fred laboriously checked up on her, keeping careful accounts in a notebook, proving eventually that she remembered only the occasions when something happened, and forgot the others. "Your batting average is one out of ten," he showed her. And further to convince her that she was dealing with a game of chance rather than a formula of scientific certainty, he sent to Johns Hopkins for records and data of tests conducted there. Confronted by this weighty evidence against her theories, Frances remarked eloquently, "You win." Now for the explanation of Hollywood's most unusual man. If you are interested in turning back to the pages of yesterday to find the beginnings of to-day, if you agree that "every character is the result of two sets of factors," suppose we trace two influences which, in blending-, have given us the dare-devil minister, Fred Thomson. His forbears on his father's side have for two centuries been scholars and savants, either professors, preachers, or engineers, but invariably men whose mental activities overbalanced their physical endurance. In almost every generation of the celebrated Thomson family, one finds a noted figure in the scientific or theological world being forced to give up his work because of ill health. On his mother's side, he traces back to Bach. From this root of sturdy German stock spread numerous religious and musical branches. Religion thus comes to him from both sides of his family — one side following orthodox principles steadfastly, the other being more impulsive and interwoven with musical inspiration. His father's side has given him his trend toward invention, and toward the mathematical calculation which precedes his every stunt and which subconsciously motivates so many of his personal activities, has also Thomson was a r ecor d-mak i ng athlete at Princeton, and he has never gone out of training. A Violently opinionated him ceived from He rehis