Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

73 The Little Corporal Not a story of Napoleon Bonaparte, but the tale of one Johnny Hines, who commands an army of his own with an indomitable will and enthusiastic persistence not unlike the tireless energy of the great Corsican. By H. A. Woodmansee NrO one who knows Johnny Hines can imagine him spending his life on a bookkeeper's stool, patiently making entries in black and red. After about a day of that, he'd chuck the ledger through the window and rush out to scalp Indians — or the man who persuaded him to take the job. Nor can one imagine Hines idling away his life at some fashionable resort. Drudgery and idleness, alike, are poison to him. He craves action, and he craves variety — and his career in pictures has been a long and successful fight to get both. There is no star who works harder, or contributes more to his pictures than Hines. Only one who has worked in close association with him, fully appreciates the long hours, the mental and physical labor, the terrific nervous energy that Hines puts into one of his productions. The fans see only his work as an actor. They see him scaling walls, repairing greasy machinery, or racing to a rescue, but do not realize that it is behind the camera, not in front, that the greater part of this peppy comedian's energy is spent. His whole work is six sevenths hidden from view. Although he has a large and capable staff, he is virtually director, scenario editor, gag man, film editor, and supervisor of every detail of production, from the original idea to the finished film. Moreover, he cooperates with his shrewd partner, C. C. Burr, in determining policies, and in steering the business organization through the treacherous rapids of the movie world. He keeps tabs on the bookings and exhibitors' reports of his pictures, and his fan letters, as carefully as a broker studies the ticker tape. He knows just what the fans think of his pictures, individually and collectively, both on Broadway and in Wieser, Idaho. He has the reputation of being nobody's fool in a business deal. ' He has the canniness of his Scotch ancestors, and other qualities inherited from his Irish and German forbears, that help to account for his complex career. He has to be many things to express himself fully. Only those familiar with the picture business can understand the burdens and responsibilities of Hines' seven-fold role. Only Charlie Chaplin exercises such complete supervision and participation in his pictures as Hines does, and Chaplin works slowly, takes time off frequently, and makes very few pictures. Hines, however, makes three pictures a year, and uses every ounce of the energy of an abnormally energetic man to do it, while during the same time other stars are making half a dozen pictures, and finding plenty of idle time on ■ their hands, because I they confine them 1 selves to acting. | The more work I Hines has to do, the i more of a kick he gets 8 out of it. If life were g a football game, he n would want to carry the ball, to referee the j|: game, to lead the E Only one who has worked with him can appreciate the hours of physical and mental labor which Johnny injects into his pictures. Photo by Boris Some people are born to middle age, but though Johnny Hines grows older in age and experience, he will cont i n u e to be young, though he lives to be ninety. cheers, and to sell the tickets. And he plays as hard as he works. He's never too busy to tell a friend the "nifty" he heard at the party the other night. He may be engrossed in an important conference, but "good-by, conference" when the returns from Notre Dame's biggest football game start coming in over the radio ! He's seldom too busy to live over old times with friends of the days when he was a young actor, j| struggling for recognition, before such films as the "Torchy" series put him over, i He'll pause to fondle I his pets: Loretta. the 8 Continued on page 108