Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

30 Hail the Conquering Beery ! at Three glimpses of Beery in "Casey at the Bat" and, right, a snapshot of him as he looked on his return from a hunting-and-fishing trip. X says. "Take that with you. But make yourself home there, and don't bother about anything." I have seen Beery setting forth on one of his expeditions to the island and, believe me, "Richard is himself" when he does this. Old boots, old hat, old shirt — no fancy sporting accoutrements for him! He goes out to hunt and fish, not to pose for a good-looking photograph. His love of sport crops up in Beery in other ways, too. For instance, on the day that I went over to the studio to see him for the purpose of this interview, I found him purportedly gambling for a lady. It was in Madame Helen's restaurant, where during the lunch hour directors, scenario writers, and stars linger over black coffee discussing plots and situations, studio politics and other mundane movie matters. In this somewhat drab circle, the Beery lunch table was the one bright spot of color — two men throwing chuck-a-luck for a pretty girl clad in a flouncing skirt of thirty years ago. As a matter of fact, I learned afterward that the ivories were prancing merely for the lunch, but the immediate impression was dramatic. The girl was Iris Stuart, who was playing one of two feminine leads in "Casey at the Bat." Beery's contestant in the dice game was Monte Brice, the director of the picture. It was all done in fun, of course, but it was an indication of Beery's character. Wally has always loved adventure and play, in the same way that a kid loves such things. His set is invariably the center of some sort of excitement. It was visited successively, on the day I was there, by Raymond Griffith and Eddie Cantor, two typical kidders. and later on by good-humored Emil Jannings, who has by some been hailed as a rival for Beery. But if Jannings and Beery are rivals, there is nothing in their attitude toward each other to indicate it. They can't speak the same language, but they gaze at one another admiringly, and affectionately call each other by their first names. Later on, too, it is pretty certain they will appear in a picture together. The friendship that is growing up between the two is evidence that really big men do not worry about such small things as jealousy. There may be a suggestion of similarity between their types, but they are clever enough to discount it, and smart enough to know that each really has a separate province in acting and characterization. If you note the difference between the films that Jannings has made and those that Beery has played in, you will realize that the two men are distinctly different. The only point of similarity in their films is that they both like to play kings. Jannings has done a long line of them, such as Louis XV. in "Passion," Henry VIII. in "Deception," and others ; and Beery has the one great portrayal of Richard the Lion-hearted to his credit, and wants to portray other famous monarchs. Possibly, however, there can be erected a throne large enough for both of them, in the event that a king role appears in the offing that they both crave to do. Beery has really an amazing natural courtesy and chivalry that contrasts with his seemingly rough exterior. He showed this recently in a series of introductions diplomatically accomplished before a large audience at a ^flB^ p r e m i e r e , at which he acted s as master of ceremonies and proved himsel f | one of the very ablest. But of course his progress and success v. have tended to mellow him and do away w i t h some of his superficial unrestraint. In the earlier days — well, Wally had a good time. The fact that he went into a circus at the outset of his career is indicative of his predisposition toward a carefree existence. "It started in the usual fashion, I suppose," he says, "because I carried water to the elephants as a youngster. That was next door to training them. You don't have to know so much for that. They don't hire you to train elephants because you're intelligent enough to handle them, but because you're too dumb to be afraid of them! I knew enough to hit them on the trunk with a hook, and that was about all that was necessary. "During my second year with the circus, I had twenty-six elephants to boss, so I had made progress. All the talk about their intelligence and memory is the bunk. They don't have it in for you if you give them a chew of tobacco, either. In fact, we used to feed them tobacco by the plug, and they liked it." In his boyhood, Wally was nothing if not theatrical. He took particular delight in turning the town of Leavenworth, Kansas— where he lived as a bov — topsy-turvy with his enterprises. He ruled the rest of the kids in the town. The other boys viewed with awe his various exploits, which climaxed dramatically when he ran away from home to join the circus. He was always the first to get into a fight, bowling over the young misses of the village with his bravado, and he always stood the hardest lickings from various and assorted schoolmasters. He made his greatest sensation when he succeeded in playing sheik to a gay blond belle quite a few years his senior. "I used to go riding about with her," he Continued on page 99