When the movies were young (1925)

Acquiring Actors and Style 109 clothes. He became our leading aristocrat, specializing in brokers, bankers, and doctors — the cultured professional man. David soon saw that he could take over little responsibilities and relieve him of many irksome details not concerned with the dramatic end. So he became the first assistant, and then a director of comedies — the first — under Mr. Griffith's supervision. In time he went with William Fox as director. He discovered the screen's first famous vamp, Theda Bara. Against Mr. Fox's protests — for Mr. Fox wanted a wellknown movie player — Frank Powell selected the unknown Theda from among the extras to play Mr. Kipling's famous lady in "A Fool There Was," because she was a strangelooking person who wore queer earrin«6 and dresses made of odd tapestry cloths. The picture made William Fox his first big money in the movies, and established his place in the motion picture world. "His Duty" was Frank Powell's first picture. In the cast were Owen Moore and Kate Bruce. "The Cardinal's Conspiracy" — the name we gave to "Richelieu" — marked Mr. Powell's first important screen characterization. It was taken at Greenwich, Connecticut, on Commodore Benedict's magnificent estate, Indian Harbor. Soon came "The Broken Locket" which had a nice part for Kate Bruce. Fortunate "Brucie," as her confreres call her! She seems never to have had to hunt a job since that long ago day when D. W. Griffith picked her as a member of the old Biograph Stock Company. Little bits or big parts mattered nothing to "Brucie" as long as she was working with us. David hunted movie recruits not only at the dramatic agencies, but also at the Lambs and Players Clubs of New York City. It was at the Lambs he found James Kirkwood,