Screenland (May–Oct 1927)

SCREENLAND 9? the city limits of Los Angeles, six hundred miles out in the desert, by the "Escrow Indians", who stripped the poor creatures of everything they owned as first payments on promising subdivisions. "Say, Bill," said one of the character men when we were nearly through shooting, "Is this a comedy? It seems to me we are just making The Covered Wagon all over again." "Sure we are," replied our dual-roller, "the only difference is our comedy is deliberate." Location was finished in two weeks, and with three days more shooting to do at the studio, we joyously returned to the lot, expecting them all to be bursting with mirth, but to our chagrin and surprise, we were met by the most mortuary greetings. "I think we'd better wait until we get this stuff cut together before you go on," said the studio manager. "Perhaps we won't need it." "Need it?" I exclaimed, "Why I've shot everything but the verb. I've got to shoot the studio stuff or our story won't make sense. Besides, we've started a lot of gags that are unfinished." "Well, we'd better wait," was the cold reply. Chopfallen and distressed, I hurried over to Will's dressing room and told him my suspicions. "I know they don't like it," he said, "but I think it's funny, an' I'm goin' right over an' offer 'em twenty-eight thousand dpllars — the negative cost — fer it. Then we'll go out an' make a three-reeler of it." But alas, they wouldn't sell. They had their contracts, release dates and all that sort of stuff. And so I was fired! Ignominously fired! "Bob," said the studio manager, "we love you personally, but you don't know comedy. There isn't a laugh in this stuff." Three weeks later it was announced they were to preview the picture at Ocean Park — without a verb and half the gags un topped. Gosh, what a kick in the shins to get on my first comedy. Now I know how dramatists feel on their first nights, only my feelings were hopeless, for besides the ragged production I was about to witness, I had come to believe that perhaps they were right. They had been making successful comedies for years, and who were Will and I? Sneaking in alone so as not to meet the studio bunch, my sympathetic side kick and I crouched low in our seats and sat through something or other — I don't know what — awaiting the blow. Finally the main title appeared with my name emblazorred shamelessly forth as the director. Then the opening sequence! It got a laugh, then another, then another! We both sat up. As the verbless tale unfolded, the audience got to squealing at Will's delicious humor, and every squeal was like an oldfashioned cocktail to us both. Well, to condense this critique, they did everything but pull up the seats. As we emerged from the theatre, there was the whole studio crew blinking in amazement. "Well, by gad, you never can tell," said the sporting manager as he rushed up and grasped my hand. Nor was that all. The picture then went to one of the big down-town theatres where it was scheduled for a week's run. It ran nine! But we must not blame the studio. For years, they had made successful comedies based upon cataclysm and custard, and they did not know there could be another idiom of humor — the quiet, slow-moving, deliciously satirical humor of Will Rogers. Will is extremely sensitive and his adventures in two-reelers have not been happy, but some day perhaps he can be lured away from his pen and lecture platform, and his amusing duties as "Mayor" of Beverly Hills, long enough to make a few comedies in his own whimsical idiom. If so, the cinema will see something new in humor. Smile, Darn You, Smile! (Continued from page 21) with the grin wins. Oh, they have other expressions, too — they can act, and everything. But the reason you take them to your hearts, if you'll think it over; the reason that you love them like a brother, or like a boy friend or a girl friend, is because their smiles have won you over. Of course, there are smiles and there are toothpaste ads. You can tell in a minute which is the real thing. I can, anyway. The dental smile shows a swell set of teeth and that's all. But the smile — yep, "the smile that belongs to you"— is the result of an inner radiance; it can't help itself; it shines through — that's the smile for you. You know as much as I do about the smile-sales-talk the stars give you from the screen. But wouldn't you like to know what kind of smile your favorite reserves for his very own, his private life — supposing the poor darling has such a thing, what with personal appearances and picture premiers and all? When a star is off-duty, he is pretty apt to give himself away — to show you his real self, minus make-up, stripped of sham. I've had a chance to watch, and I know. Lucky me! The first screen smile I ever saw — offduty — was Doug's. Not smile — grin. It was, and is, the most infectious he-grin I ever saw. When Fairbanks smiles, you do, too. Can't help yourself and don't try. He grins when he is interested; he smiles when he talks — and he's always alert and almost always talking. Somehow Bill Haines' grin reminds me of Doug's. There's something of the same exuberance, the same "Don't mind me, I can't help it" sort of thing. Eternally boyish . When they're old men-of-the-world, thinking how cynical they must be, both Bill and Doug will smile like that, and give themselves away! Tommy .MeigLan ' s — that's different. Tommy doesn't go around grinning. He saves up his smiles, it seems, and then lets 'em loose all at once. He has a slow, quiet, winning smile — not typically Irish, just typically Tommy. But when you see it, you can understand why the boys at the Lambs Club in New York made Tommy their Shepherd and why he's one of the most popular men stars on the screen. That smile suggests the rugged strength, the honest dependability that is Tommy Meighan. You can lean on" that smile! You've heard people say, "Why, I never thought that girl was pretty until she smiled!" That's the way it is when Lois Wilson smiles. Lois once won a beauty contest and everybody knows she is a very pretty girl. But somehow she doesn't stand out in a crowd — until she smiles. Then she's transformed. She's a small riot. That smile of hers sold her new personality. It expresses all the gaiety, the humor, and the pertness in hiding for so long; and it's DOES GRAY HAIR With ai/onnqFace c\ MAKE ONE BEAUTIFUL; SOME say Yes — others say No. Answer it for yourself. Gray hair makes anyone look ten to twenty years older. 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