Screenland (Nov 1940-Apr 1941)

Lcn Weissman Republic Studio paid homage to the memory of Mabel Normand, beloved star of silent days, by dedicating its new sound stage to her memory with this plaque. Above, William Farnum, Mock Sennett and Judy Canova reading the inscription on the plaque. You Kids! Don't Leave Home to be Cowboys Continued from page 55 ing on. Maybe cowboys have felt pretty disgusted sometimes at what they saw in the movies. Anyhow, they're critical, especially them thoroughly experienced ones who have lived the life. They spot anything that's wrong the minute they set their eyes on it. But no cowboy has ever criticized anything I wrote or drew, and that's been a heap of satisfaction to me. One old cowman in Arizona once put it this way: 'There's somethin' wrong with Bill's books —I can't find anything wrong with 'em.' Of course, there are more or less changes with the times. Older cowboys didn't know anything about towns, only going to one about once a year. They're still like that. But some of the younger ones hit out to see the sights oftener, and the closer they get the more they're spoiled by 'em. What does it is tailor-made cigarettes, painted ladies, and stuff like that." Not that Will James was moralizing. "Hell, no! And there's really nothing to worry about. Main trouble is there's been too much hell-raising in the movies. Cowboys are quiet, not whooping it up every time they cut loose, although they still wear guns in some parts. And if most of 'em get the chance to drink once a year they're lucky. There's damn' little of that goes on. As for mucin' with painted ladies in dance-halls overmuch, cowboys as a rule are too shy to be good hands at it. They're alone so much they just don't know what to say to a girl. They may feel sentimental about girls, fact is they do feel plenty that way. I'm putting love interest in the story I'm doing for the movies, because the cowboy is strong on it — and how! But somehow he just can't get conversational. Sing?" A slow smile loped across his face. "Well, I never knew a singing cowboy. That's a movie invention. Take, for example, singing cows to sleep. Why, if a cowboy ever tried anything like that on the range he'd probably spook up the cattle so bad that he'd start a stampede. In all the outfits I've rode for none of us could sing a peep. And we had no mandolin, no guitar. All the boys ever had was a mouth-organ and a jew's-harp, and I wasn't so hot on either of 'em. I couldn't carry a tune in a gunnysack. No, there's nothing to that musicalcowboy thing. That's one of the things us cowboys never got to do or learn." His innate modesty was characteristic of Will James. It made him likable, as well as believable. And here was a writer who knew what he was writing, knew it so thoroughly and so actually as to establish him as an authority on his subject. But I had to press him a bit to get him to tell how his story would differ from others of the West shown on the screen. Planting his elbows on his knees, he pondered a moment, then: "It will differ very much. It's about something never brought up before. What it really means is the upbringing of a race. For that's what the American cowboy really represents. It is his race that_ has made the great cow country what it is today. He has fought for it against rivers, against floods, against cold, against blizzards, against Indians, against sheepmen and he's still fighting for it. At no time has the cowman got any protection from the government. Instead of being helped along, he has been crowded back. Out of the fine thing he has done, and is doing, has sprung a fine race. That's my story. The people of that race are going to live for ever — and I'm one of them." In his strong words, the strength of Will James himself came vigorously to life. There was no mistaking the mettle of the man behind those words. Something more seemed implicit in their earnestness, some thing of the youth of today in his relation to the cowboy of the present and the cowboy of the future. At this suggestion, the cowboy of all cowboys fell into a thoughtful silence, only to raise his head with : "You don't make a cowboy in one day. If a young fellow's got the guts, it shouldn't take over five years. But even then he wouldn't have the understanding or the spirit of the former cowboy. That's a mat ter of upbringing, something that's in the blood. Now, mind you, there's a lot of true blood to be found both in the 'West and in the East. And if a fellow with that strain in him has also got the guts he can ride SCREENLAND GRAY HAIR ..AND LOOK IO YEARS YOUNGER • Now, at home, you can quickly ami c;mlly lint l«Utulo HtrcukM of tcray to natural-appearing HhadeH — from llKliti-Ht blonde to 'i ■ ■ ■ ■ '. black. I'.rowiiatonc ami airmail bruxh <]och It — or your money back. 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