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Ways to Film Success 219
opposite me. We had one vacant room in a house rigged up as a studio, and when we wanted to change some interior scene, I found I had also to play the leading part in moving the furniture around. It took a lot of moving, too, to make the room look like a different one !
I beheve that film was never shown. It was just as well. If I had seen myself on the screen, I don't think I could have withstood the shock. As for George, he was a man of iron under any conditions.
A few weeks later, another cinema frontiersman approached me. He said :
" Are you good in pictures ? "
" Great ! " said I.
" How many have you made ? "
" One ! "
" What salary do you expect ? "
" Thirty pounds a week."
" I'll give you six."
" Done ! " I cried — and almost embraced him.
After this I began to play odd parts — and sometimes leading ones — • fairly often, but for another three years my main interest was the stage. Then Cecil Hepworth persuaded me to give my whole time to pictures and, with him, I made A Son of David. It was in this film that I had my first look at my screen shadow. It was dreadful !
However, I persevered — though I admit I was a very bad actor in those early films. Finally, in 1920, when the unemployment problem was becoming the biggest question of the day, I decided to take what few shiUings I had saved and sail to America. Several film managers had given me notes of introduction to American picture people, including D. W. Griffith and Jules Brulatour.
New York — that golden gate — proved to be effectively locked. I found all the New York studios closed, as a result of the bad slump in business. My money was soon gone ; my letters of introduction could not be presented at the barred doors of the film studios and I found a return to the stage imperative. Eventually I got a part in the touring company of East is West, and that tour took us right across the United States to Los Angeles.
Like Valentino
Would it be any easier to get a film part in California than in England and New York ? I headed for the cinema studios ; I haunted Holl^-wood ; but I had no introductions there and I could not even get in.
I found an agent, told him what I had done, and asked him : " Do j'ou think there might be a chance for me in Hollywood ? "
" I wonder ! " said he. . Just that. Nothing more. And I walked out.
I had my first chance in American films because two people thought I looked like Valentino. They were Henry King, the film director, and Lillian Gish. They were planning to film The White Sister and wanted an actor who looked like an Italian — me ! So the road was open. With ]Miss Gish and Henry King to help me, I found The White Sister the greatest acting experience I had ever been through. Whatever doubts I had about my devotion to pictures were dispelled. Tliis was to be my field.