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86 les, Mr. DeMille barn. When complications developed on The Golden Chance with Edna Goodrich and a $100-a-week unknown named Wally Reid, DeMille took it over, too, working on his own picture The Cheat in the daytime and shifting to the other at night. He was not unduly taxed by the experience. The Cheat cost $17,000 and grossed $137,000, the firm's highest single picture gain to that date. Also, it introduced to a now rabidly star- conscious public two new favorites, Fanny Ward and Sesue Hayakawa, the Japanese pantomimist. The company, no longer struggling, was bulging with confi- dence inspired by large profits. In Hollywood there has been nothing quite as effective as profit in transforming businessmen into self-acknowledged artists overnight. Fanny Ward was a Goldwyn "find/' one of his first efforts at scouting creative talent. He sent her out to DeMille, who was not impressed with the newcomer and wired Goldwyn to that effect. Miss Ward stormed back to New York and showered some plain talk down on Mr, Goldwyn's head, which now had a set to it. He replied by offering her the leading role in The Cheat, and sent her back to the Coast. The air on the set was extravagantly cool, nor was it improved much by an accident in the course of the filming. Miss Ward, outfitted in costly ermine and a Parisian gown and hat, was padding lightly over a footbridge when it collapsed, chucking the graceful star into three feet of water. Miss Ward continued her stardom under other auspices; successful though it was, The Cheat was her only picture under the DeMille banner. Though it was difficult, if not impossible, for a properly marketed picture to lose money in those days, DeMille was not one to take his responsibilities lightly. Even then he cast his stories only after much study of the demands of each part, a policy that conflicted horribly with the free-wheeling methods of the day. Players hired in the East were fired in the West. Eastern executives were denounced by western pro-