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AVARICE AMONG THE AVOCADOS 85 Belasco. For a movie company, there was power and unlimited profit in the supply of plays controlled by either of these two giants of Broadway. Goldwyn wrangled an appointment with Belasco through the latter's secretary, afterward describing his meeting with the fiery impresario: "His entrance was a dramatic as that of a hero in one of his own plays. The majestic head with its mop of white hair sunk a trifle forward, the one hand carried inside his coat, as slowly without a word he de- scended the stairs to greet me." The deal was made, a triumph for Goldwyn and his firm. For a $25,000 advance against 50 per cent of the profits, Belasco surrendered the rights to his plays. The Lasky company now preened itself with such sensations as the Belasco hits The Girl of the Golden West and Rose of the Rancho, turning quickly to other "legitimate" successes: The Man from Home, The Warrens of Virginia, Kindling, Carmen. Public desire for pictures in this period was insatiable, a situation made vastly more attractive to producers by the fact that the required skill did not go much beyond setting a camera and aiming it at an established stage play. In his first year in pictures DeMille produced seven films, profits from one being applied to the next. The seven cost $106,793 and yielded $510,724, thus stimulating the Lasky firm's appetite for increased production. The Girl of the Golden West was filmed in eight days for $15,109. Theodore Roberts played Jack Vance, and Mabel Van Buren the girl, in a manner pleasing enough to draw $102,224 from the patrons, a kingly profit. The following year the studio struck out in earnest. New directors were hired, and Director-General DeMille gave the first hint of what power was stored in that sturdy frame. With something approaching Jovian fervor he wrote, produced and directed, on several occasions performing all three tasks for the same picture, completing a picture a month. By the end of the year, thirteen DeMille productions had rolled out of the