When the movies were young (1925)

42 When the Movies were Young he would roll back the table-cloth, reach for pad and pencil, and work out a story for his next movie. Back to the dingy "A. B." for us. Strange, even from the beginning we felt a sort of at-home feeling there. The casualness of the place made a strong appeal. What would happen if some one really got on the job down there some day? And so it came about shortly after "The Snow-man" that the elder Mr. McCutcheon fell ill, and his son Wallace took over his job. He directed "When Knights Were Bold" ; directed Mr. Griffith in several pictures. But Wally was not ambitious to make the movies his life job. He soon made a successful debut in musical comedy. Some years later he married Pearl W'hite, the popular movie star. It began to look as though there soon might be a new director about the place. And there was. There were several. No offer of theatrical jobs came to disrupt the even tenor of the first two months at Biograph. It was too late for winter productions and too early for summer stock, so there was nothing to worry about, until with the first hint of summer in the air, my husband received an offer to go to Peake's Island, Maine, and play villains in a summer stock company there. Forty per, the salary would be, sometimes more and sometimes less than our combined earnings at the studio. To go or not to go ? Summer stock might last the summer and might not. Three months was the most to expect. The Biograph might do as much for us. How trivial it all sounds now! Ah, but believe me, it was nothing to be taken lightly then. For a decision that affects one's very bread and butter, when bread and butter