Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1926 - Feb 1927)

83 To the Manner Born A phrase that can be truly applied to the youngsters who are following their parents into the movies. By Margaret Reid THE movie industry — that intricate, titanic craft which ensnares romance and high adventure and sometimes even life itself, and winds it all on wooden spools — is no longer in its infancy. Even as the second generation of wealth definitely establishes a money aristocracy, so the second generation of wealth definitely establish an air of substantial dignity to the business. Parents who have themselves devoted the better part of their lives to the movies have found in them a sufficiently admirable profession to hand down to their children. And parents don't plan lightly for their children's futures. They want so much for them — happiness, security, success. In particular do the parents of the picture colony want these things for their sons and daughters. For, with few exceptions, they themselves knew days of bitter struggle and uncertainties in the embryonic period of the movies. They know all there is to know about their profession — about the work, the sacrifices, the concentration it demands. None of them have allowed their children to enter it without full warning of all this. But once satisfied that these very ambitious young people were in earnest, and capable of working out their own success, their parents have added "God bless you !" to "God help you !" and sent them on their way. And — wisely — they have not sent them in the family limousines, but sturdily, on foot, with only a few sage directions as to what turns in the road to follow and what bypaths to avoid. The first of the new generation to make his cinema debut was Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Hollywood still had an impression of the Fairbanks fils as a smiling, rather fat little boy, when the first Mrs. Fairbanks returned from a trip abroad with a tall, serious, charming-mannered youth whose dignity belied his fourteen years. He wasn't quite handsome, then. There still lingered traces of adolescent gawkiness and angles. But he was clean cut, wholesome, earnest. He is still all that, and also, now, more than ordinarily good-looking — handsome by the best American standards of broad shoulders, firm jaw, sensitive mouth, steady blue eyes. When he signed his first contract with Famous Players, it was well known that Fairbanks pere objected. Doug felt that his son should still be in school, that he was too young to decide upon a career for himself. Perhaps he felt justified in his opinion when young Doug's first picture, in which he was starred, flopped. When, after an interval, young Doug returned to pictures as a featured member of certain casts, he had grown up considerably. The rough edges had worn off and he was, for all his inadequate years, a handsome, It was only after much wheedling that Rita Carewe coaxed her father, Edwin Carewe, the director, to give her a start in the movies. athletic, determined young man, and with the makings, apparently, of an excellent young actor. He had poise and a level head, a nice sense of his relative unimportance and the enormity of all he had to learn. Which includes practically every requisite for the more lasting and dependable sort of stardom. In "Stella Dallas," young Doug bore himself like a trouper, and to all intents and purposes, it is tacitly understood, now, that his father is more enthusiastic than he was at first about his son's career. Certainly, he must be proud of such a stanch young spirit, with its fund of very sound philosophy. For, read the answer that young Doug gave not long ago, when he was asked to define his ambitions. The conversation took place in one of the studio offices. Boylike, Douglas waxed self-conscious and incoherent in trying to express his desires, until he turned impulsively to one of the adjacent typewriters, explaining that it was so much easier to write than to talk. And this is what he rather inexpertly picked out on the keys, his brow wrinkled in earnest concentration : I have so many ambitions that it is rather hard for me to single out any one of them. One of my ambitions is to have the power to create. Also to have an education fine enough to appreciate the results of the creations and to be able to judge them correctly. I also have a yearning for those about me to be always happy and harmonious. As to my ambitions in my work, I should like never to do a thing unless it really meant something. For everything I do I should like to have a real reason and a meaning. Always to