Screenland (May-Oct 1928)

SCREENLAND 95 ing to the studio before nine o'clock in the morning and she is the most prompt person in Hollywood. When Marceline makes an appointment there is not a chance of her being late. She's a marvelous photographic subject because she is always bright and giggling and happy, and these things register before the camera. "Good results on pictures are often gained in strange ways. I remember one of the best sittings I ever made of Joan Crawford that I thought was going to be terrible. I had to do some things of Joan in Spanish costume. They had to be vivid and sparkling and zippy and Joan had been working frightfully hard on the set and was in a low mood besides. My heart sank when I saw "her because I realized that she was not in the right mood for the type of thing I had to get. But she put on the costume anyhow, and I played the wildest Spanish music I had, and I talked to her very fast about sparkle and vivacity and then I asked her to go before the camera. 'Now/ I said, 'let's have lots of zip and dash. Wonderful! Atta girl! You look exactly like a Spanish senorita! That's it, show the teeth! Marvelous!' And all the time the wild music was going and in a very few minutes Joan was in just the right mood and I think the results were as good as any I've ever had with her. She is a true actress and responds to atmosphere almost at once." Ruth Harriet Louise finds that her chief worry is not simply getting a mechanically good portrait, but handling the stars themselves. She never allows them to work in front of a mirror because she strives for certain effects from her angle and the subject must be plastic. When a mirror is used Ruth fails to get results. One temperamental star refused to work unless she could have a mirror before her. Ruth refused to photograph her if she did. The photographer photographed the star without a mirror! She works like a director getting her best effects for emotional and character pictures by the proper choice of a word. "I want a cool look," she says. Simply the use of the word 'pain' produced one of the most effective studies she ever did, a tragic mask of Gwen Lee. "One of the most interesting things about this work is watching a personality develop," said Ruth. "There's the case of Norma Shearer. I've photographed her for three years and I've watched her change from a sweet, charming girl into something much more than that. She has developed a vivid personality with a great flair for strong dramatic work. She puts definite thought into her portraits. She is always helpful to me and is one of the easiest subjects I have. Her face is fine and patrician and there is a beautiful spiritual quality about it which definitely registers on the negative. "When Renee Adoree comes to be photographed we always end in hysterics. The photographing is incidental tc the joy of being with Renee and hearing her talk and our sittings never seem like work. She is easy to photograph since she is so plastic and such a marvelous trouper. "Ramon Novarro has perfect poise. He takes his photographs seriously as he takes everything. I have never seen Ramon in a temper. I have never found him anything but charming and helpful. He likes best being photographed in costume but he has never objected to a pose that I have suggested. "A very gay, very debonair sort of man is Tim McCoy, who can only work to lively music. This, of course, suits his personality as well as the sort of parts he plays on the screen. After Tim McCoy has been to the studio for a sitting I am always happy because his is such a friendly, glowing character. "Lon Chaney, of course, is a marvelous person. There are just two things that he will not do. He won't come to the studio to be photographed unless he is working, because he always leaves Hollywood between pictures; therefore I have to -catch him at noon hour or when he has an hour or two away from the set. The other thing that he absolutely refuses is to have a straight portrait made of himself. You will remember that whenever you've seen a picture of Lon Chaney he has been in character. "One of the most delightful people with whom I work is Lew Cody. I have never seen anyone who disliked having his picture taken more thoroughly yet he is always sweet about it and tries to do exactly as I say. His pictures are always good since he is always himself and never affects a pose. It is strange but it is a fact that an affectation of any sort always photographs. "And, of course, there's darling Dorothy Sebastian from Alabama who has more trouble getting up to my studio but who gives so much of herself once she's there: and there's always dear Gwen Lee, who is one of the few actresses in Hollywood with an inferiority complex. Gwen doesn't know how clever she is on the screen and she is actually embarrassed when she has her photograph taken." The stery of the success of Ruth Harriet Louise is one of the most surprising in Hollywood. She had always wanted to be an artist and when she was a child she began to study art; but when she was sixteen she realized that she would be but a mediocre artist. It is unusual for a girl of that age to realize her limitations. The artistic feeling she had. She knew composition and line but the ability of executing her ideas was lacking; so she turned to the next best thing, photography. She apprenticed herself to a studio in New York, and learned every angle of the business and then opened a small studio at her home. The first sitting of a professional that she ever made was of Carmel Myers. Carmel could not arrange to get to Ruth's home, which was out of the city, so the girl took her camera and all of her heavy lights to Carmel's hotel. It was this very sitting that changed the tide of her career, for Carmel returned to the M.G.M. studios with the portraits and showed them to Louis B. Mayer. The executive was so impressed with them that he sent for the artist in New York. Three years ago she signed a contract with the studio. She was just eighteen then and in those three years she has become the foremost photographer in Hollywood. SCREENLAND for October will be on the news-stands on September 5th, and its appearance will signal the beginning of the Fall Season. There will be fall hats, falling leaves, Niagara Falls — but No Fall in Quality. 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