Screenland (Nov 1925–Apr 1926)

Making Beauties Into Stars ~~ Continued from page 32 Saturday is no holiday for them. How of the film industry, who is one' of the ever, most movie stars work all day Satur school's executive council, day and usually on Sundays, too. Every "Motion picture actors need exceptional ten minutes of the boys' and girls' day is bodies," he explained. "Actors for the accounted for just as systematically as that screen are constantly in need of physical of the Twentieth Century Limited. strength to perform stunts which occur For instance, here is an excerpt from the with frequency in pictures. Physical schedule of one of the girls: Rise, 6:30. training is the best means of keeping the Breakfast, Allerton House For Girls, 7:30. young men and women in good health. Riding Lesson, Central Park, 8:00. Report Take a look at them, and see whether their at studio, 9:30. Practice in screen tech work has done them any harm!" nique on set, 9:30-12. Luncheon, studio The students were at the moment enrestaurant, 12-1. Lesson, classical dancing, gaged in acting before a grinding camera. 1-2. Practice in screen technique, 2-4. They were using a simple living room Lecture on etiquette, 4-5:30. Dinner at which had been the setting for Richard Dix studio, 5:30-6:30. Showing of selected in a scene of "'Womanhandled" earlier that motion picture and lecture on its fine points day. Klieg lights, arc lights, and Mr. Mit' — 6:30-8. Return to Allerton House. Retire at 10:30. Such is a typical day, but it is varied every other day by several hours of gruelling work at gymnastics, in the swimming pool, fencing, driving an automobile, and observation of some of the stars at work in their pictures. Each student gets a mark for each course and if their average does not stand up, they will not remain in the school. Some idea of the way the Paramount Junior Stars feel may be formed from the following talk with Thelma Todd, a lovely blonde from Lawrence, Mass. Miss Todd graduated from normal school and intended to become a school teacher, until she received the opportunity to win a movie star's career. "The course has been interesting, but nothing like what I thought it would be," said Miss Todd. "Some of my illusions are gone. I used to have hazy visions of motion picture stars coming to work in their limousines, of their descent down a carpeted stairway to the stages, an hour or two of posing, perhaps, and a return to their gorgeous homes to be attended by several servants. It was a gay and carefree life of ease and luxury as I visioned it, but the reality! Heavens! "It's a life of hard work even for those who have succeeded. I have seen them at it. It's a life of even harder work for those who are aspiring to the heights. Play time is sleep time for me and I know it is for most of my fellow pupils. "I've never been so busy in my life. The quiet days in the Normal School at Lowell are alluring as I look back at them. Life seemed ordered and laid out according to plan when I had only school teaching in " Douglas Fairbanks has started wor\ mind. Now I seem to be chasing a rain on his next future, "The Black bow. Nothing that I do is like anything Pirate" — a dashing and colorful role. that I have done before. The rewards may be great and the disappointments may be great, so I try to keep both in mind. If I chell as director, with carpenters, electrisucceed, I will be happy; if I don't, I'll cians and artisans at work nearby on other resume my preparations to become a school sets, made the scene most realistic, teacher, satisfied that my course here has They were acting before the camera, been a wonderful experience." Selecting pairs, Mr. Mitchell would instruct Perhaps the hardest part of the course them to conceive some act of pantomime, for most of the coming crop of heroes and enter the door and go through with it. heroines of the silversheet has been the Next day they would be enabled to see time spent in the gym. themselves in action on the screen and For three hours at a stretch they were could profit by their mistakes, given not only the usual setting-up exercises "The fundamental principle of the but the work on parallel bars, on rings — school," explained Mr. Mitchell, "is to in fact, all the preliminary training of aero teach the boys and girls to think for thembats. Their hands were blistered by hold selves. We don't want to develop artificial ing the bars and they were sore in every actresses and actors who are helpless with' muscle and joint. out a director to dictate every movement Wondering why movie stars needed such for them. We want to train them to use a rigorous routine we sought enlightenment their observation all the time. Unlike most from Claude Mitchell, a pioneer executive schools, we do not teach by rote. We are making this course just as practical as possible by letting the students do things them' selves and profit by their mistakes." We watched for a while. Marian Ivy Harris, the vivacious brunette from Atlanta, and Dorothy Nourse, the little home girl from Roxbury, Mass., elected to portray a sisterly scene. Miss Nourse sat on a sofa reading a book. Miss Harris paced quietly into the room. She had a letter in her hand. With a furtive look at her sister, she opened it and began to read it with a good range of pantomimic expression. Meanwhile, Miss Nourse, noting her with the letter, had risen silently and stepped in back of her and was reading it, too. The little act was completed when Miss Harris detected her and drew the letter away, with Miss Nourse laughing at her. Irving Hartley and Josephine Dunn played the weary husband and pleasure loving wife. He returned from work with his newspaper and sank wearily into an armchair. She came over to him, petted him and whispered in his ear. Registering emphatically that it was much against his will, Hartley got up, straightened his coat, put on his hat, and left the room with his wife. Ethelda Kenvin, a glowing blonde girl, and Mona Palma, a tall and stately brunette, .entered the room and walked about it — a difficult thing to accomplish gracefully and naturally. Charley Rogers from Olathe, Kansas, and Jack Luden, the New York boy, enacted a comedy scene. Rogers was playing a trombone when Luden entered and presented him with a package. From it he took a rubber device which he placed at the end of the trombone. Rogers began to play it and both laughed at the strange sounds which issued from it. Just then the telephone rang and Luden answered it, while Rogers played the musical instrument up close to it. The little act was well done and would have elicited laughs from any screen audience. Walter Goss, Greg Blackton and Iris Gray, a newcomer in the school, also thought up a clever comedy touch. They rehearsed a little sequence where the girl was in the room when two suitors entered almost simultaneously, registered surprise and some annoyance at the other's presence. Then, engaging in lively conversation with the young woman, both boys sought to hold her hands (which were in back of her). A moment later she walked ahead and the lads were amazed to discover that each had been holding the rival's hand. During the past month the students have learned to appreciate fully the skill of Lon Chaney, Raymond Hatton, Ernest Torrence and some of the other noted masters of makeup. For hours at a time they have stood before the glass and have converted themselves into old women and men of sixty, battered with life; or into Hindus, or Indians, and every conceivable makeup. The most recent addition to the class is a charming miss of eighteen from Wichita. Her name is Iris Gray. She came to New York this summer in search of a career in musical comedy. Somebody told her about the opportunities of the Paramount Pictures School; she applied for admittance and was accepted. Miss Gray, whose parents are well to do, has danced in various pageants and theatrical prologues ever since she was a little girl. Recently, she has been playing in a vaudeville sketch with an older sister. 59