Picture Show (Nov 1919-Apr 1920)

The Picture Show, January 10th, 1920. 17 . ) My First Dip in Salt Water. I X I f R NT joined a troupe. I don't know whether ' \t 'had a regular name, but the company 'Wh's owned by a man named Al Beasley. W ho had a wife named Sarah, who was an nwfuTly good sort. I:,.jojned them at Biloxi, Mississippi, where I top|^.rmy first dip in the salt water. We had plfjWd to very bad business for three or four weeks, and the company had dwindled down to five people, besides the manager and his wife. But with seven people there were enough plays that we could put on, so wo. decided to stick together and work on the commonwealth plan — which means that everybody shares alike in the profits — until the autumn, when Mr. Beasley had a contract to put a company into tho Maryland Theatre in Cumberland, Maryland. Oh, what a time we had reaching there ! We were always just one step ahead of the sheriff all the way. We were playing in Scranton, Mississippi, to very good patronage. The theatre was an open-air affair, sitting in a park by the side of the ocean, and we stopped up the beach about a quarter of a mile in a great big boarding-house. We were to about Friday of our stay in that town when an awful storm came up after the night performance. We sat out on the front porch and watched the storm on the ocean, thinking it a beautiful sight. But next morning, when we heard that part of the theatre and oOhme of our trunks had been washed out to sea, we rushed down to view the disaster; and all the beauty went out of our lives. Some of our wardrobe was (ntact, but a good portion was being battered about in the waves. We rescued all that we could of the wreck, but the missing articles put an awful dent into our outfit. We struggled on for some more weeks and landed in Anniston, Alabama, where business bucked up so well that we each got about two hundred dollars. Fortunately, or unfortunately as it may have been, we ran into a "fire sale " there. A big clothing store had been partly burned, and all the goods slightly damaged, but they were selling their clothing so cheap, and we needed them so badly, that we all spent our money in getting ourselves dressed up in new outfits. We continued on tour looking fit at least. We could never seem to get more than just enough money to pay our board and get to the next town, but we did have a good night in. one other little town in Alabama. We were doing what they call in the show business " Wild Catting," which means booking your show as you go along, and playing anywhere at all. We arrived in this little town — I've forgotten its name — and there didn't seem to be more than a dozen houses, along with a drug-store, grocery store, and post office. We were to play in the schoolhouse, about a milo from the station. We got some biscuits and sardines from the village grocer and ate them on the steps. This was our dinner. Then, with our clothes and make-up in our handbags, we started for the " Opery." The bell on said " opery," or schoolhouse. started ringing at about seven-thirty, and continued for an hour ; that is how the farmers were notified that a show was in town. This house was in the woods, and where the people came from I know not, but by a quarter to vine the house was packed, at a dollar and a half a shot. This was our last successful town, and we finally got so bad that we had to have our faro • advanced by tho theatre in tho next town in which we were to play. Still, we stuck together until we went absolutely on tho rocks. Then Sarah dug down somewhere and got enough pennies to take us into Cumberland. We enlarged our troupe and played to very good business for a few weeks, but the man who owned tho thoatre was very enthusiastic about running moving pictures in tho theatre instead of a stock company, so wo had to quit. Now Helcne Hamilton was a woman in our company who had been in Xow York many times, and she told me that was tho place for me, because the season was just starting. It was then September. (Continued on next page.) ait J " C weet and Twenty ' ^ the first of a ser of splendid AllBritish Pictures, produced by Progress Films at Shoreham on Sea. The photographic quality attained there is equal to §■ the world's best. The photographs are of the leading players, Mar guerite Blanche i-^^y rhoio: and George 'aKv Claude Keene, A scene from the film version ot Basil Hood's play. "Sweet and Twenty," showing MARGUERITE BLANCHE and GEORGE KEENE.