Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Stardust in Hollywood The clappers snapped, and I tried to count. I could not count at all. I counted all kinds of numbers, one, five, nine, three. ... I was clinging with all my power to my words, how could I distract my memory by concentrating on counting. Indeed, up to that moment I had never understood what an exclusive concentration of mind is needed to count correctly. I don't know whether I counted five numbers or eight, but at last I raised the telephone to my ear and began my speech. The counting had upset me, I tripped. " Cut ! " shouted the darkness. " All right, though. Don't worry." Then I thought of a new bit of action. I picked up a pen and tapped the paper before me to emphasize my words. " Cut ! " came from the darkness. " The pen is twice as near the microphone as your mouth. It will record four times as loud and will come out like a pistol-shot. The business is good, but tap gently." A third time I went through the inane speech and repeated the foolish expressions, a fourth time, a fifth. . . . My sense of assuredness was growing. " That is all right,' ' said the director's voice from the darkness. The lights snapped off, leaving me blinded, and in what I felt to be a still underdone condition ; what the restaurants would call saignant. I removed Alexandre's libel from my face, and, as the studio bus would not start for a full hour, I chose to return by train. I rumbled along the suburban railway — oh, the sweet coolness of the air on my tanned face ! — and I reflected over the situation. Undoubtedly three hundred francs a day seems a nice salary for, say, a month's occupation or even for a single day's work. But in this case it had resulted in [300]