Screenland (Apr-Sep 1924)

86 SCMEENLANB QJiunice Marshall tells of Charlie's Brother— from page 31. offered the colossal sum of $175 per week in pictures, Syd cabled in great alarm to investigate thoroughly the financial standing of the company. It seemed incredible to him, that salary. But it wasn"t long afterward, as Charlie's business manager, that he was demanding for Charlie's services sums that made the industry gasp. It's a standing joke in Hollywood that whenever it came time to sign one of those amazing contracts, Syd has worked on the contract and Charlie has been out of town. Charlie didn't have the nerve to ask the sum that Syd demanded for him, they say, and ducked out of sight until the deal was over. Syd came to America to study the business end of pictures and, perhaps, do something in an acting way while he was studying film economics. But he soon realized that Charlie was a gigantic asset, and Charlie, like most geniuses, was — and is — no business man. So Syd put aside his own personal ambitions for the time and retired behind the scenes, to advise and work and plan for Charlie's success. Charlie's Utility Man, he called himself. The rest of the world who knew of him at all called him just "Charlie's brother." It was Syd who brought Charlie's films out in the open market, sounding the death knell of the antiquated footage basis of film selling, by which all film, regardless of actor or subject treated, sold for the same amount of money per foot. Syd Engineers Million-Dollar Contract It was Syd who engineered the famous $670,000 contract with the General Trust, and the still more famous milliondollar contract with First National. Charlie lost money on the contract, because he took four years to complete the eight pictures which he should have made :n one year, but the contract was a stroke of financial genius on Syd's part, just the same. If you have laughed over Charlie's pictures, during the last six years, you probably have chortled at Syd's antics without knowing it, for Syd has featured in almost every one of his brother's pictures. Whenever a particularly difficult bit called for special treatment, Charlie would draft Syd for the action. Do you remember the hot-dog vender in A Dog's Life, from whom Charlie stole the sausages? That was Syd. The bit required perfect "timing." Two men were tried out and rejected, and Charlie, in despair, was about to cut out the scene altogether. But it was a good gag and he hated to. "Why don't you put on a 'muff' and do this for me?" he asked his brother. A "muff," by the way, is in stage parlance, a mustache. Syd hesitated. He thought that to play a "bit" after his extensive stage and screen experience in "leads" might hurt his reputation with the industry. "No one will recognize you," Charlie coaxed, and Syd consented. That episode was one of the most hilarious in the picture. In Shoulder Arms, Syd played the part of the Kaiser, and also took the part of the sergeant who slept next to Charlie in the water-filled dug-out. You remember, doubtless, that deliriously funny bit where Charlie rubbed the numbness out of Syd"s foot instead of his own. Syd's Part in Charlie's Pictures Syd had three roles in The Pilgrim. He was the eloping lover in the opening scenes, the conductor on the train, and. funniest of all, he was the visiting church member whose derby hat figured in the plum pudding incident. If Syd ever wants to go into the diplomatic service, he can say with truth that he has had excellent training. He has been Charlie's emissary more than once in affairs de coeur. It is said that, after Charlie's separation from Mildred, whenever Syd would show up at Mildred's house, she would burst out with, "Oh, I know what you want; you want to see how cheap I'll let Charlie off!" When Charlie outgrew his old studio headquarters, he began to think of building his own studio. Wherefore, after his custom, he sent Syd out to find the tract. Syd nosed out a five-acre tract that seemed to be just what he wanted, out on LaBrea and Sunset Boulevard. In addition to the ground, there was a fine old house in a setting of palm trees. "Go in and see if they'll sell," Syd instructed a real estate friend. "And don't say it's for the pictures." Hollywood looked down upon the picture industry in those primitive days of 1918. The owners needed money and were willing to sell, so the deal was closed. But no sooner had the word spread that a film studio was to be built right in the heart of Hollywood's residential district than a fine hullabaloo arose, and all of Syd's diplomacy was needed. The churches protested. So did the teachers of the near-by high school. But the deal was already in escrow, and when Syd showed the protestants the architect's drawings of the proposed studio, beautifully done in colors suggesting a row of quaint English cottages instead of the ugly shacks that the neighbors had feared, the opposition died down. When the studio was finished, it so little resembled the usual factory-like studio that one little old lady waxed very indignant when she was not permitted to rent one of the "cottages" for her own use. After very nearly six years of behindthe-scenes work for Charlie, the old longing for the footlights that never deserts an actor has led Syd to the acting game again. His brother firmly established on the pinnacle of fame, Syd is about to resume the furtherance of his own career. His decision was hastened by his recent staggering loss of $350,000, wiped out in a day by the failure of a broker with whom he traded in the stock market. His clever and convincing characterization of the British sergeant, Winkie, in Neilan's The Rendezvous, was his first contribution. He followed that up by two more comedy successes in Her Temporary Husband and Ince's Galloping Fish, and is now at work supplying the comedy relief in Colleen Moore's new picture, The Perfect Flapper. Q EUNICE MARSHAL promises us something unusual in her article for next month. She calls //--The New Pola. We have given Delight Evans the assignment that goes with it. The New Gloria will be the title of Miss Evans' article. The last time the Mademoiselles Evans and Marshall combined on one of the East and West articles they produced PetroushkaAlgonquin, a study in restaurants. That was last month. The Negri-Swanson combine promises to be even better. Watch for it in the July Screenland. READY JUNE FIRST