When the movies were young (1925)

ii2 When the Movies were Young Mr. Griffith, an Italian costume picture on the ways, was snooping around for an actor who not only could look but also act an Italian troubadour. When he met Henry Walthall of the dark, curly hair, the brown eyes, the graceful carriage, he rested content. "The Sealed Room" was the name of the screened emotion that put Mr. Walthall over in the movies. Wally's acting proved to be the most convincing of its type so far. He was very handsome in his silk and velvet, and gold trappings, with a be jeweled chain around his neck, and a most adorable little mustache. It was foreordained that the Civil War should have a hearing very soon. There was Kentucky, David Griffith's birth state, calling, and there in our midst was the ideal southerner, Henry Walthall. And so after a few weeks the first "Stirring Episode of the Civil War" — a little movie named "In Old Kenutcky" — was rushed along. In the picture were Mary Pickford, Owen Moore, Kate Bruce, and many lesser lights. It was a long time back that Mr. Walthall started on his career of "Little Colonels." He portrayed many before he climaxed them with his great "Little Colonel" in "The Birth of a Nation!" A remarkable trio — Frank Powell, Jim Kirkwood, and Henry Walthall — such distinct types. Though they all owned well-tailored dress suits, Frank Powell's was featured most often. Henry Walthall, suggestive of romance, had fewer opportunities; and rugged Jim Kirkwood only occasionally was permitted to don his own soup-and-fish and look distingue. With the acquisition of the ten-dollar-a-day actor, we seemed to acquire a new dignity. No doubt about recruits fresh from Broadway lending tone — although the original five-per-day actors, who were still getting the same old five,