Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

Born to Comedy— The Story of Fazend a 19 "No one would make the jump," she explained, "so after the director had invited all the extras to take a chance, he turned to me. I was hoping he would, and I climbed up the pole before he changed his mind. I have always been grateful for that opportunity, because it marked the first turning point in my career. "It's a curious thing, too," Louise added, "that all through my years in pictures I have accepted roles no one else wanted, and each one has meant a steppingstone upward." Sterling watched Louise make the leap from the pole, and when she hit ground safely, he rushed up to the director and in reproach exclaimed that the feat was a terrible one to ask a girl to perform. Needless to say, times have greatly changed andf women since then have performed! stunts far more hazardous and dar ing. Sterling's slight interruption re-'1 suited in an introduction to Louise. She subsequently saw him often on the studio lot, and one day when she remarked that work was getting low, he advised her to try her luck at Mack Sennett's, adding that he was planning to work for Sennett very soon, himself, and that if she did not meet with success to look him up. His advice she remembered. And to this day she speaks of Sterling as her artistic benefactor, because when he started acting and directing for Sennett, he helped her get bits and parts. There is an incident at this stage of her career that reveals again the shyness and self -consciousness which took so many years to overcome, and which she has not yet completely conquered, although the qualities have changed to a certain repose and retirement which make her rather mystifying at times. Recalling Sterling's invitation, she made her way to the Sennett studio, and day after day waited for him without making her mission known to any one other than the gateman, who naturally took for granted, because of the regularity of her calls, that she was seeing Sterling or maybe working in his company. It must be remembered that there were no casting directors in those days, no highly organized departments, no efficiency experts who knew precisely the business of every person on the lot. Consequently, Louise spent day after day, for weeks, at the Sennett studio, just hoping to see Sterling, until Vivian Edwards, who was playing small parts, noticed her long waits on the wooden bench. Vivian inquired if she was looking for some one. Louise broke down and made a full confession, with the result that Sterling put her to work. Miss Fazenda, with Wallace Beery, movies were very young. For a year she was given extra parts and, subsequently, bits. One of her first consequential roles was as Mack Swain's mother. She built herself up, out and aft, and finished the job with a pair of bushy eyebrows. Rather than a mother, she resembled nothing so closely as an ocean liner with flag at half mast. Sennett took a swift look at her. He supervised everything at that time, not to speak of writing the stories, directing, and acting. "Well, all you need is a mustache!" was his brief comment, followed by a command that she beat it to a mirror and look at herself. Momentarily she was broken-hearted. But one fact had been registered. She was funny. Even Sennett laughed. He had caught her feeling for absurd characterization. Every sort of small part fell her way in short-reelers from then on, with Sterling, Chester Conklin, Charlie Murray, and Fred Mace. She impersonated everything from Dumb Doras to one of the celebrated Keystone cops. She also made friends with a cat named Pepper, whose fame at that time, rested chiefly in her prowess as a mouser. She and Pepper became shadows of each other. Ideas came thick and fast to Sennett under the terrific pressure of grinding out short reelers fast enough to satisfy the exhibitors. One of these ideas was to make animal comedies. Louise and Pepper were an interesting-looking pair— why not feature them ? Forthwith she became leading lady to Pepper. Next, the now-historic duck was added to the cast, and later Teddy, the dog. The comedies proved highly successful. Teddy, alas, is no more. Pepper, too, has passed to the great beyond, but not her million or more descendants who populate most of the back yards of Hollywood. The duck alone has withstood the ravages of a comedy lot, but through overnourishment she is gouty and virtually incapacitated. A five-year contract with Sennett resulted from the animal comedies. And then her first big opportunity arrived with "Down on the Farm," which started out as a two-reeler, but grew to five. At the expiration of her contract with Sennett, Louise made a personal-appearance tour, and it was one of the few tours of the kind which proved well-timed and advantageous. It also marked Louise's first train ride since she was first brought to Los Angeles, as a baby, from a little town near Lafayette. Indiana. [Continued on page 111] when the