Screenland (Sept 1922–Feb 1923)

HOLLYWOOO '_*(_tf UKUlA "Owiy Julie?" mocked a wide-eyed vision of innocence in the doorway. "Say, who were you guys expecting?— the Queen of Sheba?" Mr. Bloom spread deprecatory hands. "Now, Miss Douglas," he began patiently. "How many times have I told you, I mean how many times have I asked you not to call me and Mr. Wappinger 'guys'? It don't sound respectable." "Pish and tush," she answered as she passed and came unbidden into the room. "That's worse talk," muttered her employer, following her. "All I hear this afternoon is new talk. If you wasn't such a good ingenue you'd make me cross. But to hear you speak nobody would think you was an ingenue. They'd think you was an adventuress type." "A lot I'd care what they thought" was the vision's spirited rejoinder. "I didn't break my way in here to talkabout grammar. I came in to find out about my grub." Mr. B'.oom rolled protesting eyes toward the ceiling. "Listen to her, Wappinger," he exclaimed. "She comes in to talk about grub. That ain't a lady-like word — 'grub'." Mi .IlSS DOUGLAS, seating herself daintily in an overstuffed chair, slipped one slim ankle over another, regarded them approvingly, and yawned. "It might not be lady-like to ask anybody to buy grub for me," she explained, "but it certainly isn't unladylike for me to ask where I'm going to buy it for myself. Besides, I don't remember ever having claimed to be lady like." „ , , _., "Please, Julie, don't talk like that," begged Mr. Bloom, relaxing, in his earnestness, much of the formality of his manner. "Be more reserved like. You know you've worked for me a long time. You know I like you. You know Wappinger likes you- " "I know I like myself," she affirmed, languidly, but I'd like to know what all this is leading up to." Mr. Bloom and the director looked at each other and then the director looked out of the window, thereby placing the task of enlightenment squarely upon Mr. Bloom. The stubby producer cleared his throat. "I have just hired the highest-priced leading man that ever worked for me in my life," he announced. He is a young feller that's got a big society following, a young feller with class sticking out all over him, a young feller ' "Say!" broke in the feminine half of his audience, "what's the big idea of the selling talk? Do you want me to marry him, or are you afraid I won't know how to behave?" "Who said anything about marrying?" demanded her indignant employer. "I cash on my other bet," she said with chilling disfavor, and began to powder her pretty little nose. Mi ,1R. BLOOM was fairly caught. "It ain't exactly that," he hastened to explain. "But you see this here young feller ain't wild and western like some of the boys. He ain't never been in a studio before. He ain't never been off Broadway and that street in London that everybody knows the name of——-" "What street in London?" she asked icily. "The main street in London," he said impatiently. "They have so many," she yawned. "Julie," he said desperately, "I don't want this young feller to get the idea that we don't know manners. He is so quietlike and refined. He talks always in a kind of a whisper, as if they was somebody dead. Like this." Mr. Bloom's imitation was none too successful. "The poor guy's probably got the con," declared Miss kniglas. "No, he ain't" contradicted her employer. "He has got a high-toned way of talking." "Sounded like the con to me," she insisted. "Whatever it is he ain't used to rough treatment," said Mr. Bloom, "and now that we're going on location what I would like for you to do is to kind of see that those cowboys and fellers like that don't bother him." He ended lamely enough. "I'm an actress, not a nurse-girl," said Miss Douglas stiffly, "and you ain't fooling mc one little bit. What you're afraid'of is that I'll rough him up myself. Well, I won't. I won't even speak to him. What I want to know is where I'm going to eat in this bum town we're going to. I went on location once and I didn't have anything to eat for one whole day. It was when I was with " Wrappinger interrupted her. "Yes, yes, we know," he said. "It was when you were with Griffith." "That's just when it was," she corroborated, unperturbed, "and I don't want it to happen again." "This town that we're going to is on the desert, but it has knives and forks in it," said Mr. Bloom. "Do you get the little hint I was trying to give you?" "I get the little hint," she said dryly, "but I didn't get the name of this ham that you've engaged." "Ham?" exploded Mr. Bloom. "This feller ain't no ham. He is a Broadway favorite speaking actor. He ft is a "I don't want to buy him," the girl protested. "I want to know his name." "Oh, his name?" repeated her employer. "His name is Norval Chillingworth." She gasped. "Not the Norval Chillingworth?" she queried, visibly impressed. "See!" exclaimed Mr. Bloom, exultantly, "I told you nobody would believe that I hired the Norval Chillingworth, the great English and Broadway speaking actor " "And what did he say about playing opposite me?" asked the girl excitedly. Mr. Bloom, looking uncomfortable, began to twiddle his thumbs. Wappinger answered for him. "He didn't say much," he averred. "You see, he'd never even heard of you." "Never heard of me?" she cried incredulously. "Say, where has this guy lived all his life?" "Broadway." answered Mr. Bloom proudly, "and that street in London that everybody knows the name of." "He never heard of me!" repeated the girl in amazement. "Oh, I showed him your picture," said Mr. Bloom hurriedly. "Now he knows who you are." "And what did he say when you showed him my picture?" she asked breathlessly. Mr. Bloom stared out of the window, pretending that he had not heard. Not so Wappinger. "He said," spoke up that disagreeable man, "he said he thought you were pretty, in a doll-like way." "I'll doll him," said Miss Douglas grimly. II. ThE next day Mr. Bloom took his flock to Grandville, a pin point on the illimitable desert a couple of hundred miles from Hollywood. He and the flock traveled in sevenpassenger automobiles for each of which Mr. Bloom was to pay fifteen dollars a day. There were four of these automobiles in the cavalcade that drew away from the Planet studio in the cool of the morning, and they would have drawn away earlier had not the same old controversy as to the front seats arisen. As usual, everybody wanted to ride with the driver, and as usual some more or less 23