When the movies were young (1925)

146 When the Movies were Young were out. Some didn't mind the separation. Some of the women had ties; if not husbands, mothers; and the California salary would not be big enough to keep up two homes. Some didn't want to leave New York; and some who should have known they didn't have a ghost of a chance wept sad and plentiful tears whenever the director looked their way. One of these was Jeanie Macpherson. Jeanie didn't go along this first time. A few days after Christmas was the time of the first hegira to the land of the eucalyptus and the pepper tree. It was a big day. We were going to Los Angeles to take moving pictures, and Hollywood didn't mean a thing. Pasadena the company knew about. Like Palm Beach, it was where millionaires sojourned for two months during the Eastern winter. San Gabriel Mission they'd seen photos of, and counted on using it in pictures. They understood there were many beaches accessible by trolley; and residential districts like West Adams; even Figueroa, the home of Los Angeles's first millionaires, was a fine avenue then ; and Westlake and Eastlake Parks which were quite in town. But they didn't know Edendale from the Old Soldiers' Home at Sawtelle. San Pedro? Yes, that was where the steamers arrived from San Francisco. San Fernando ? Well, yes, there was a Mission there too, but it was rather far away, and right in the heart of a parched and cactus-covered desert. Mt. Lowe was easy — there was the incline railway to help us to the top. Four luxurious days on luxurious trains before we would sight the palms and poinsettias that were gaily beckoning to us across the distances. Let us away!