When the movies were young (1925)

Getting On 135 extra girls appeared in a frock decidedly not home-made. You could count on it that it had come either from Macy's or Siegel-Cooper's Eighteenth Street store, and that it had cost a whole week's wages. Not much escaped Ma Smith's eagle eye, and so she wailed: "I wish Mary would buy clothes like the other girls." But Mary, the same simple, unaffected Mary that a year since had said "thank you" for her twenty-five, was quite contented to continue wearing the clothes her mama made her, and at that a few would do. A few years after this time I met Mary in Macy's one summer day and hardly recognized her. She had grown thin and had acquired style. I admired her smart costume and said: "Nice suit, Mary, I'm looking for one. Mind telling me where you found it?" But Mary, with a note of boredom, so unlike the Mary I'd known, answered: "Oh, my aunt brought me six from Paris." "Mary, you haven't forgotten how we used to strike bargains with the salesman at Hearn's on Fourteenth Street, have you?" "Oh," said Mary, quickly coming back to earth and proving greatness but a dream, "wasn't it fun? Let's go over to the Astor and have tea." Across from Macy's, Mary's first bus was parked and young brother Jack was chauffing. When we hopped into the car, we found a very disgruntled youth who, having waited longer than he thought he ought to have, gave me a stony stare and never spoke a word. As far as young Jack Smith was concerned, I'd never been on earth before. We wondered about Mack Sennett. Would he ever buy a girl an ice cream soda? Marion Leonard said it would be his birthday if he ever did. But the day arrived when Mack Sennett did open up. He bought a seventy-five-dollar