Screenland (May–Oct 1927)

88 SCREENLAND VALENTINO AS I KNEW HIM by S. George Ullman with an introduction by O. O. Mc In tyre Macy-Masius: Publ'tshtn New York $2.00 per copy, postage prepaid. Write Book Dept., Desk 5. SCREENLAND MAGAZINE 49 West 45th Street New York City Movie Acting! A. fascinating profession that nays big. Would you like to know if you are adapted to this work? Send 10c for our TwelveHour Talent-Tester or Key to Movie Acting Aptitude, and find whether or not you are suited to take up Movie Acting. A novel, instinctive and valuable work. Send dime or stamps today. A large, interesting, illustrated Booklet on Movie Acting included FKEE. FILM BUREAU Station 5 Jackson, Mich. FAT GET RID OF YOUR Free Trial Treatment sent on request. Ask for my "pay-whenleduced" offer. I have successfully reduced thousands of persons, without starvation diet or burdensome exercise, often at a rapid rate. Let me send you proof at my expense. DR. R. NEWMAN. Licensed Physician State of N. Y. 286 Fifth Av., N: Y. 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All you have to do is to send your name and address and we wil send absolutely FItEE. in plain wrapper, a trial package of GOLDEN TREATMENT. You will be thankful as long as you live that you did it. Address DR. J. W. HAINES CO. 1177 Glenn Building Cincinnati, Ohio The Happ Reunion and the result was that his old chum was given a try. In one interview Irving showed his calibre plainly. His personality stood out beyond all the other applicants and he got the job. Ever since Dutcher has climbed straight up until now he is Fishbeck's Chief Assistant. If Irving had had a vacillating, listless, untrustworthy personality he might this minute be working in some photographic studio for little or nothing a week. Or he might be around taking pictures on the street, on beaches, any place, anywhere, to pick up a slim dime. But he's not. He is, instead second camera man in one of the greatest moving picture studios in the world. There are all shades and grades of personality. It isn't necessary to have the "life of the party" type to win a juicy executive scat. Take J. M. Gerauld — or Jerry as he is called. Jerry is in charge of the Paramount's publicity at the studio. To look at him not knowing who he is you'd say: "Why he must be a Consul, or a Judge, or maybe the American Ambassador to one of those foreign countries". He is strikingly handsome in a finely bred, distinctive way. He was born in Rhode Island and is a Brown University .man. Early in his youth he adopted the newspaper game as his profession. But he was dissatisfied with his work in Providence and wanted to enlarge his sphere. One time he happened to be in Newark. New Jersey, visiting the girl who afterwards became his wife. He liked the town and its people so well that he thought how nice it would be if he could get a newspaper job and settle there. So plucking up his courage he went to see the City Editor of the Newark "News". But in a very noncommittal fashion the editor informed him "that there was nothing open just now. Would notify him later if a vacancy occured." Jerry left the editor disheartened and went back to his Providence newspaper. Scarcely had he gotten settled before he received a telegram telling him there was a position for him on the copy desk of the "News". Unquestionably it was Gerauld's personality which got him that position. A city Editor tells ten people a day: "Not a thing now. Will notify you if a vacancy occurs." And it means nothing. But something about Jerry must have impressed that Editor or he would never have telegraphed all the way to Providence for a man when he could probably fill the position a hundred times over right in Newark. From the copy desk Jerry rose in a few years to an influential position in the Newark newspaper world. Finally he gave up his newspaper connections and went into politics. He had a fine position in the city government, a large salary, a handsome car, and many other emoluments. But Gerauld wasn't satisfied, somehow. His personality didn't have the outlet it demanded. So one day he went up to Charley McCarthy. Director of Publicity at Paramount, and asked for a position in the moving picture business. And that same rare distinctive personality of his has again brought him where he deserves to be — to an important, executive position. But consider this man's case gravely. If he hadn't been SURE of his personality, he couldn't, in all justice to himself and his family have given up a comfortable position in the world of politics, to start from the bottom in an entirely new profession. And again if Charley McCarthy hadn't been SURE that this man's personality was a suitable one, he wouldn't have placed him where he did — in the publicity department where a tactful personality is the paramount issue. One undiplomatic sentence on the part of a publicity man can throw a whole studio askew. And now I come to two men whose stories I approach almost with awe. They are just two plain, modest, American boys, both under thirty-three years of age, and yet with achievements to their credit that rank with those of the Great Amundsen. And the strangest part of all is, they have no unusual background; they weren't born in wealthy families; they didn't have lavish opportunities poured into their laps. The first, Merian Cooper, is a southerner from Jacksonville. The other, Ernest B. Schoedsack, is a middle west boy. They were both war heroes, in different branches of the service, and never saw each other until they met in Poland — casualy — after the war. Finally in 1923 they were brought together again. Cooper was on his way around the world as second officer of the little ship "Wisdom Second" when Schoedsack boarded the boat. While in the Red Sea, the keel was knocked off this ninetyeight foot craft and in the fortnight that followed Schoersack and Cooper planned a dream. They dreamed of making a great picture — not a travelogue — but a tremendous dramatic film, created in some jungle, with natural characters and a natural background. A few years later this impossible, this evanescent vision was an accomplished fact. Those two boys, with no King, Queen or Country to cheer them on, with meager equipment and less money — these two boys went into the jungles of the Tao country in North Siam and emerged, after eighteen months, with a picture whose fame has spread around the world. What was it? Why, "Grass". This film "Crass" portrays man's inevitable struggle against nature. And it isn't a travelogue — but a tremendous dramatic film, created in a jungle, with natural characters and a natural background. Twice a year the natives of this country are forced to make a migration in search of food — "Gross". With them they must take all their earthly possessions: their wives, their children, their flocks and herds. Icy torrents must be forded, snow mountains of perilous heights must be climbed. Intolerable obstacles must be overcome which would drag a weaker tribe down to crushing defeat. Twice a year this happens; twice a year this superb drama of man against nature is enacted with no sound of martial music to inspire a lagging spirit. Cooper and Schoedsack went on this same pilgrimage and transcribed this battle to the screen. They endured the same devastating hardships but with many additional burdens. For this two-man studio had to do all the work They had no assistants. They were their own stage hands, property men, camera men, scenario writers, costume designers — if any — script girls and directors. With super-human effort, under maddening circumstances this great film was created. Then when it was all finished, the strategic work was just commencing because they had to find some big film company which would be willing to release it. The success of all the Gargantuan work which they had already accomplished depended upon their personalities — their ability to sell or release this picture which they had produced. But Cooper and Schoedsack with the same spirit that had overcome tigers, cholera, malaria, and a hundred other terrors, conquered this last hurdle and the Paramount Company agreed to take care of the picture.