Screenland (May-Oct 1931)

for October 1931 59 Drawings on these pages reproduced by courtesy of Mr. John Barrymore. had feared and trembled about was that she decided that so long as she worked for the paper, Barrymore was to illustrate her poems. Not unlike others of the newspaper craft — (you meet so many interesting people) — Barrymore soon wanted a change of scene. He switched jobs. For all of twenty minutes he worked on The Morning Telegraph in New York. Then he got another job, which lasted until the managing editor took more than casual interest in the Barrymore drawings. Somewhat like Zuleika Dobson of Max Beerbohm's novel, the editorial chief did not profess to know much about Art, but he knew what he didn't like, and at that moment he did not like what Barrymore was drawing. It is not a matter of record just what he said, but his decision certainly is stage and screen history, for he gave back a Barrymore to the stage. He didn't put it quite so kindly, to be sure. He fired that Barrymore kid. And that was one of Arthur Brisbane's few ventures into art criticism. He sold Barrymore short. Thus John found himself without a job, bounced out of journalistic art, and unwilling to go on the stage. He had forgotten for the time being that he had turned a picture over for exhibition, but he was pleasantly reminded of it when his agent informed him that the picture had been purchased by none other than Andrew Carnegie. For the munificent sum of ten dollars ! The title of this Barrymore original was "the Hangman." Of course ten dollars meant a lot more in those days than it does today. But it wasn't quite enough to convince Tohn the Artist that John Barry more' s own drawing of the character of Don Juan, made before he played that character on the screen. A lettuce picker loaded with spoils was a subject that Barrymore found interesting on his visit to Ecuador. The Barrymores in their trophy studio, where John likes to read and sketch. charcoal and paint and brush were his forte. Even with the approval of the great steel man, Barrymore was not so sure that he was on the road to success in that field. He had a few weeks of beating the pavement on his uppers, and two or three unsuccessful jousts with his landlady. But the flesh was weak. Maybe the young man was an art critic himself. In any case, he capitulated. He was taken back to the ample bosom of his family and he became a real Barrymore. That is to say, he became an actor. Now it is not the province of this journalist to divulge fancy facts about the Barrymore career as a thespian. We are more concerned with the artist Barrymore. Thus we find him at his early struggles on the stage, learning how to read lines, taking abuse from directors and stage managers, receiving helpful hints from his uncle. John Drew, and his brother and sister, a Miss Ethel and a Mr. Lionel Barrymore, who are not unknown to lovers of good acting. He learned how to show the famous profile to advantage, how to walk on the stage and how to walk oft" ; he acquired the little tricks of memory and a stage presence, and the all-important ability to "ad lib" when another player forgot his lines. It was more rigorous and a harder life than the life of a newspaper artist, and young Barrymore had only two outlets for his suppressed temper : he would swear great and large oaths, and he would draw. Naturally enough he could not swear his great and large oaths in front of the director who had chicled him, nor could he take to pen and pencil during a rehearsal, so both means of expression of the inner rebellion had to take place in the privacy of the young actor's room. Nights after the theatre he would pass long hours drawing outrageous caricatures of people who annoyed him, and he would sit at his drawing board and enliven his sketching with hearty trooper talk. In that way he kept up with his drawing and with his swearing, in both of which he is today highly proficient. Both talents come in handy, the latter on almost any occasion, and the former when Barrymore wants to tell the ward {Continued on page 116)