Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

49 Decides to Stay used to Hollywood and its ways, and distinct sounds during the first few months after his arrival, but now the edly, and thinks he will probably stay with us a while. Schallert out the threat he made when he first came — to put on his hat and go home if he was not fully satisfied with what was offered him in this country — filmdom would be the better for his visit. The oddest thing any one can mention about Jannings is the fact that he was born in Brooklyn. I can't for a moment associate Brooklyn with him. He is so evidently Teutonic. His mother was an American, and his father a German, and when Emil was still an infant they moved abroad, and his father went into business in Switzerland. Jannings' first venture was as a seaman. In a short autobiography that was published in a foreign film magazine, he dismisses this period of his life with the remark, "I thought when I went to sea that I would be wearing brass buttons, but instead I found that I was kept busy swabbing the decks." From the sea he went into the routine of stage life, working first in provincial theaters, later in the big centers, and eventually with the great Max Reinhardt. Money — the need of it — was the thing that pushed him toward the movies, and it was Ernst Lubitsch who laid the foundation for his success in films when he cast him in "Passion." The place that Jannings won on the screen abroad needs no long-drawn-out analysis. It is sufficient to say that his departure from Germany for this country was akin to tearing the heart out of the foreign, or at least the German, film industry. He held a position at the Ufa studio that was dominating. He was rated the supreme film star of Europe. In Hollywood, naturally, his environment is different. Here there are many stars, and many tense ambitions. Kultur is not so evident. Perhaps this explains why \ Jannings, during his first few months in the film colony, was singularly unhappy. Rumors of turmoil swirled about him, and there is no doubt that he had his tumultuous sessions with the powers that will, if not also the powers that be. Jesse L. Lasky is said to have finally broken the deadlock, and Jannings at last began work on his picture, "The Way of All Flesh," which by the time this is printed should be finished. Jannings' difficulties were distinctly increased by his ignorance of the English language. Hollywood is, in a way, a tragic place for the sincere artist who cannot express himself in the vernacular. One incident that I recall about Jannings' struggles with the language was almost woefully funny. It occurred at a dinner given at his house, at which Wallace Beery and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Erich Pommer. were present. Mrs. Jannings, who was a well-known disease abroad, speaks English very fluently, and this helped to make things a little easier for her husband. There was at the party much talk in German, but Jannings was desirous of showing his growing knowledge of English. He came forth from the library with a schoolbook version of King Arthur's legend, and in a slow, halting, lumbering voice, he read, " 'King — Arthur — was — a — good — king. He — lived — in — a — fine — big — castle.' " He sounded, for all the world, like a child slowly and painfully spelling out and pronouncing the words in a primer. One felt like laughing and weeping at the same time, because it was done with such pride and with such deep and noble seriousness. Jannings and Wallace Beery have a secret means of communicating their thoughts to each other that so far has baffled everybody else. Been, knows nothing of German whatsoever, but he and Emil have long tete-atetes from which each emerges smiling gayly as he repeats what the other has said to him. The remarkable thing is that their stories check! The language of pantomime must indeed be amazingly efficient, or else this is all achieved by telepathy. When Jannings started "The Way of All Flesh," he worked on a stage adjoining Beery's. I think that this must have been arranged between them, so that they could get together easily. Beery was making Continued on page 100 Mrs. Jannings, who speaks English fluently, was a great help to her husband during his early difficulties in Hollywood. They are boon companions, and are shown here giving the medicine ball a little exercise.