Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, June 19, 1921, Page 11

+ An eight-year-old girl named Gladys Smith once went to Each night she died pantnis child. of yesterday is ti This is her life. ay ay e Mary Pickford of today. very word of it was dictated by the star iles to induce her to narrate os oes penne etl Saat Mary’s father died when she was a vith three little ones to feed. ecame an actress at the age of five has already been told. ton ee # o one better remembers those hard years of struggl ether than Mary, and here is the story in her pore ogee gy “MY LIFE”--IL AS TOLD By:Mary Pickford to Hayden Talbot ae my Rey say balbypians connected with it. ope lieved when I say I don’g place too much importance on ie eee eee Rowe is testimony 4 abundance to prove it is a made g those early roles, pleasi a Ra enone pleasing critics and audiences The, standards cz acting demanded of a stock company in Toron' not so high as to make success there cause for conceit, uf Se But making good did have at least two valuable consequences. ei, ib etped the family ptree more and more, and it gave me the selfnonfidence 0 necessary for your actor—if he is to surmount the hard periods of idle- pess all too frequent in this most uncertain of all the professions. ‘Whether because the shrewd manager decided I had uired a fol- jowing and that it was good business to have me in the pits? ccmiee possible, or whether it was just chance, the fact remains that ‘presently here were*few bills in which there was not a part for me. By ‘the end of the first year I was seldom idle. But finally i ly a chance came for Lottie and Jack, also! That made me very happy, for I had little ifticulty In persuading the manager to let my sister und brother prove that cting was 6n inborn trait with my family! By this time I had passed beyond that first stage of childish i ingencous- ess regarding the weekly pay envelope. I had discovered that acting was profession and that the actor was an artist worthy of hisshire: To swell the total family income by salaries pail to Lottle and Jack struck me as highty desirable. And so presently it turned out that the +hree of us—our total ages barely thirteen—were producing’ a not-et-all negligible proportion of mother’s total income! . “@ucation Not Neglected. For the first few yéars we continued +o live In Toronto, m ‘ . my engagements the stock company becoming more and more frequent, and Jittle by little Lottie and Jack getting bits to do more and more often. Mother saw to it that none of this interferred with our educati ret-she taught us herself, and later—aa soon as she could attend tt mnployee Wore te teach us at odd moments at rehearsals, All of us pro as much education in this fashi a pros wep reste : ion as the average child gets In But finally, one day, when I was eij Years of age, came my first ch: © leave Toronto—vwith a traveling company, a very cheap tineripice one zation offering. very mellow. melod: to not too discerning communities referred. to in theatrical parlance at “one nights."* 8 The manager of this company ‘had happened to drop in’ f/ a Se Auataapecins pinged and had looked in a4 de bert foun ie My dm that play was better tha: and a ~e a es - : 2 Usual and made my perform. The visiting manager liked my. work. He needed a child actress’ for jh's repertoire company. made inquiries about me. Presently my real friend, the stock company manager, came back to my dressing room (where my mather was-with me, as always) end told me about it. ¢ . "You ean do better for yourself with him than you can here 3 sta; th me," he said frankly. “I'd hate to lose you, Gladys, Mat iy vou are jcoing on with your work this is a chance you can’t’ afford to overlook.” , Of course I had every intention of showing New York and London and Paris «nd Rome—one wonderful day—just exactly what Shakespeare bad ly? mind when he created the lovely lady I loved most, Juliet. T had tistened to the grownups in the company talk about the gren Bron ne eo it ctors of the past and bewail their lack/in the down-at-the-heel present day ‘age of the theater, and had secretly resolved that tn good time I should do my bit to make histrionism take its rightful placa onéejngain in the rategory of great achievements. . Oh, vaunting ambition hada permanent viding place in my eight-year-old brai:!? But hard experience had made me more than wary. Even’:ny mother hardly more cautious and practical, As things were, we were able to pay our rent each month and pay all our other little bills on time. In a ague sort of way I knew there was little fot! me to learn by remining vith the stock company. The parts that came my way were and must con- tinue to be, only Uttle paris. ¥ e But in a repertoire of smashing melodramas—of the general ilk of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin"—there were really big emotional roles for a child to play. Of course, generally, the “child” chosen for such parts was old enough o have children of her own. Occasionally could a child actress, ‘capable of playing these big parts, be found. Sent Home Half Salary The opportysity,. from the viewpoint of advancing m; A a y art, was undoub edly presented in this unexpected offer. Also I‘ had the natural, healthy. ‘uriosity of the child that makes its heart heat fast at the prospect of avel, of seeing cities that have been only names. But against all these onsiderations were the cold, hard facts which I. never forgot for long— a Tso! nae bere oe by my mother, by Lottie, by Jack. If I went away, what x At my own manager’s urgent suggestion I consented to meet the reper tolre man after the performance. Before he came I had had a little talk }with my mother, and let her understand I’d not let my enthusiasm run away with me. Naturally the one thing uppermost in my mother’s mind was the hought of my leaving home and her protection. The repertoire man turned out to be very, very nice. The salary he mamed—$30 a week and all my traveling expenses—was too good to be true. I knew I could live on half of it. That meant I could send $15 a eek home—every week! _. It was far better than I had been able to do in stock. And the parts T'@ have a chance to play! “star” parts! My eyes danced at the thought. But then came the one big objection back into“my mind. Who ould take care of me? Now let me make this point very clear. It wasn’t that I wasy't abso- jutely self-reliant and sure of myself. Although I was eight years of age I knew I could take care of myself in any situation. : I had learned to dress myself and care for my teeth—and teach Lottie d_ Jack to do these <hings for themselves—long before. My mother believed in self-reliance for her children and had taught us to. take care of ourselves. But on the.“road” I felt instinctively I should have somebody, some woman on whom I could depend, to whom I could go for advice, Gish Girls in the Company. _ My luck was in ‘that night. The repertoire man had just that very day arranged with a woman my mother knew quite well—a Mrs. Gish—to go ong with his troupe to take care of her two daughters, Dorothy and Liltian. He was sure Mrs. Gish would take me under her wing. And. of course, she Was willing to look after me, when my mother put it up to her the next day, And so everything was settled. That first season on the road was a succession of roseate day dreams forme, I loved it ali—the cheap hotels, the dirty little theaters, the noisy diences—all of it. For after the first few weeks of hard work at re- sals we had plenty of time—to explore the new towns we visited each , and for me every little city presented a new fascination all its own. It was very’ hard to have to put in hours of study with Dorothy and Lilian, -but Mrs. Gish insisted on the schooling. Today I am very grateful to her for it. But then it seemed such a waste of time when one might be outside on exploration bent! I remember the thrill it used to.sive me when other little girls, oblivious to my presence, would stop in front of one of the lurid posters depicting a scene from one of our plays—and make wild-eyed pttrious exclamations about it! It was all I ¢ould dé, tn those days. to ‘cep from telling them who I was. a See that beautiful little golden hatred girl going up to heaven?". Tid ant to ask them. And then after they had turned to see me, I'd/picture myself smiling very sweetly and saying, ‘It's me.” r their. daddien would take them to the show—and I always echoed these opes, On the infrequent occasions when I didn't fecl too well or when komehow I-couldn't get ali I ought te out of my part, I'd think about little Se Y haA heard talking this way—end that ‘would be all I'd have to go. axing we ly had to. do my best! For per fans I went on playing one-night stands. By -the md of that time there were few cities from the ‘Atlantic ocean to the Rocky : ‘ on the stage of a small-town theater. ed $30 across the counter. Half of this sum she sent home to her moter. ‘As it was I contented myself listening to their wistful little hopes that - ow I “Barn-Stormed” 8 canvas heaven. On pay day che si.ow the first authentic, first-hand account of its kind ever pras Talbot, who travelled 6,000 intimate and personal details of her life. child, leaving her mother in Toronto, Canada, How the family “took in” roomers and how Mary, herself, Today, Miss Pickford—known then as Gladys Smith—relates her experien with heap stock companies traveling from town to town. On the same stage with her, ee other hildren now famous, had parts. They were Dorothy and Lillian j You will smile at the anecdotes of those early days—how brother Jack became .a member” of the Stage Hands’ Union—how Mrs. Pickford was mistaken for a profes- > ish. to keep the little family to- Mountains in which I had not ap Incidentally the original zest for travel that had caused me to ignore Of course there were compensa- tions. My name, Gladys Smith, be it remembered, for the Mary had been accounted not theatric -enough for melodrama—had by now become fairly well known. At least in reper- toire circles. I had e:tablished my reputation, as = cmd actress of de- pendability. Offers were many. I had reached the stage where I could pick and choose. I was 10 years of age. Keeping the Family Together. Before figally signing a contract for the following season I gove deep thought to what was then and still is the all decisive matter of my family's well being. By this time Lottie and Jack were old enough and had had enough experience in the Toronto stock company to play speaking parts themselves. I made up my mind that I wasn't going to be separated from them again. As for my mother—I made up my mind on that point, too. Anybody that wanted me that next season would have to want my family! Everybody, I suppose, knows that big stars ofthe stage are permitted by their contracts to carry with them at least one maid, and not infre- quently a mother as well—with the management paying railroad and hotel bills for maid and mother well as star. But I was hardly in that class. Any contract I might sign would be with a management in whose experience the word “ maid" would mean nothing at all, For me to persuade my man- ager who wanted me to take my mother and Lottie and Jack salso— ‘well, it wasn’t the eastest thing in the world to accomplish. But I made up my mind thet it was what I was g0- ing to do; 4 As things turned out I did it. I found & manager who could use all three of us children. To me he would pay $50 a week. Lottie should have $20. There wasn’t any part for Jack in the play, but he, would have one written in—to make me happy. There wouldn't be any salary for Jack, nor any railway expenses psid for. him. But that didn't matter so much—considering the fact that he really looked, at six, less than five, and would be carried free by the rail- roads. ‘With our total earnings of $70 a. week we could easily afford to have mother with us. “And so it wan settled. - ae. Everything went well until one night in Buffalo, half way through the Week's engagement. It was al- most time for the curtain to go up. The house was packed. Jack's Strike for a Salary. In my ressingroom I heard DOS 0 for $30 Per Mary and Her Mother sounds of a violent commotion on the stage.’ I hurried, down. Here was Jack, all dressed and made up for his part—stending on a chair and emphatically layiis down the law to the company manager, be- hind whom a crowd of grinning stage bands was gathered. The point was that Jack had suddenly decided that he must have a salary! No pay, no work, was the point of his heated remarks. And it must-be settled on the spot. If the manager wouldn't agree to pay him, he wouldn't go on —a threat piped out in his childish treble with all the earnestness in tho ‘world. But the manager only grinnec an4, turning to me, “guessed” he’d have tc’ get on as “best he could without the services of the “striker.” And no. fer several days Jack was out of the cast, wrapped in sullen gloom and outragged pride. In the end he gave in, avd humbly asked to be allowed to have his part back. Discipline and education ‘are to be found in the theater, you see. Photo (Copyright) by U. & U. Of course Mrs. Gish was a second mother to me. And for the matter of that all the men and women in every company I played in were all wonderfully good to me, always. But I found out by that best of teachers experience, that no one in the world —absolutely no one—can mean quite as much to a girl as her mother. ‘This {3 something young girls who are ambitious to become actresses, either on. the stage or in pictures, should take very much to heart. It is so easy for a girl 17 decide that she knows ever so much more than her mother. It is so easy for her to say to herself that mother is fashioned” and “doesn’t understand, and all that sort of thing. But the big important fact is that your mother:/is—tnless you are @ very, very lucky girl indeed—the only al solutely unselfish person who will ever come into your life. For all the $70 a week that Lottie and I were carning, we had* to be very economical. Never could. we put up at a first rate hotel. Like the MaryPickford in a Reflective Mood loyety shops_in the larger. cities: we played, the beautiful bis hotels we knew. only from what we could see ot them through their plate..glass windows. But we were a happy fam- ily for all that. ‘ The Stage Hands Play a Joke. Jack was the comedian who sup- plied the whole company with most of its fun. Before he: went on strike he had been duly initiated into all the various unjons connected with the theater. Once the stage hands put him through a side-splitting “initiation,” out’ of which ‘he came equipped with an imposing looking card, purporting to stamp him a full- fledged member of their organization. Jack's ability to read at this time was confined to cat stage. so it wasn't until later that he discovered that his “credentials” informed all and sundry that ‘the bearer” of the card was “entitled tn three. kicks from all stage door kéepers.” Need- less to say he showed the card to only two individuais—the first stage Mary Personal Story of Pickford’s Own’ Her Career Photo (Copyright) by White covered thit New York in July and ‘august isthe one place to be to get the most opportunities of work for the following season, In New-York are the headquarters of all the managers who send out th? road companies, now I had de- veloped a “popularity in one-night stands all over the country which my mother decided could be italized —if we were on the ground and could start rival managers biddi my services. Incidentally I had given yolce to my determination not to go out on the road ever again unless I could have my whole family with me In New York we would have the best chance of finding a play that would have three children’s p in ft. Out of that trip to New York and out of my determination never again to be separated from my family came one of the funniest incidents of my whole stage’ career. We found a ma r who was put ting out a company in which there was room for three children * (ait “No One Like Mother,” Says Mary And Mrs, Pickford thinks that there is no one like Mary. ding together on the rear end of their Pull- which brings out distinctly the facal resem- era man caught theurs« man, and secured a “shot The cam- Diance between mother and daughter. ‘An amusing story of the Pickfords, when they were members of a small theatrical company playing in Brooklyn, is told in a recent issue of Photoplay Magazine. It all happened when Mary was even smaller than she is now and when her week's “annoyance” was one dime—the te: little Mary’ incomplete without a visit to the Hippodrome. cents between them. But, Mary, then ss now the ms One day Lottie, Jack and decided that {t could be done. She approached the box office man bravely. part of a dollar. decided The three chi tay of the family, Her eyes barely reached the windowsill as she wistfully addressed him “Can you give me three tickets for thi am an actress. Don't you recognize the profession aft she asked. “I “You can have the tickets,” said the box office man, “if you will give ten cents apiece to the Actor: Mary was game. to Brooklyn.” “In that case,” answered the box office man. y, send a contribution to But if you ever get any money Years later, Mary Pickford did not forget her proz door man he met after the initiation, and very soon afterwards to mother! Ry the end of the season, thanks to our vert strict ecortbmy,s we had. saved ehough to afford to go-to New York instead of returning to Toronto. Needless to say I was anticipation of seeiny the wonderful city. But mother’s hard sense was behind the idea. no idle holiday spirit that prom her.to take us to tte big city for summer. It was because she had dis- “You can have my dime, Fund.” k back I'll havo to “you girls, by the way. be very fayorabl playing the there was (To be continued) Hangar Door | Higher Than Skyscraper Huge Terminal for Government Airships So Big That 16-Story | Building Could Be Moved Into It Through Doorway. MERICA’S first great for giant aircraft is comple terminal nearing i pn at Lakehurst, This structure, the largest of its kind on earth, is 803 fect long, 244 feet wide, and 195 feet high. Some ica of %.« imn pense size may be gleaned from the fact tha et down ip a | py three so 4 | ch end stand h and are 264 skyscraper could be pushéd through the space disclosed by the doors when.they ‘are opened The hangar is off y known as jthe Navy , and repre. septs the word in construction ot this ve it ready summer tb hou: type. It is n the early e the two giant dir- igibles now under construction,. the ZR-A, building at League Island navy yard, F hia, and the \ nearing n in England. The transatlantic flight of the latter is scheduled for late in July or early in August and the United States navy department plans to have the hangar completed for service ships are ready to saél “Docking” Airships a Problem. The new airships nearing comple- tion are of such large proportions, each being 700 feet long and 85 feet in diameter, as large as many of the before the air- great ocean liners, that the manner of “docking” them presented serious problems in engineering, but it is” be- lieved that the Lakehurst hangar will go far toward solving many of these problems. First In importance came the ques- tion of doors to the hangar. Each leaf of the two doors, there being two leaves to a door, is made up of S00 tons of steel and corrugated asbestos. These leaves are supported on con- crete trucks which in turn rest on wheels the size of those on a freight car. The leaves are rolled apart by a 25-horse power electric motor. If manpower were needed to open the doors, it is estimated that 1,500 men would be called on. Naval experts calculate that the giant doors can ‘not be rolled open within 13 minutes and the entire process of housing one of the dirigibles wit! consume approxi- isstely 40 minutes, Running lengthwise through the hangar is a railroad and three trolley slots ‘technically described as docking The dirigible about to enter the hangar wh! be eable-fastened to those rails, which ‘extend on a 1,500-foot runway at either end, and guided to its berth, Open Windows by Motor. Under the roof among a network of steel rafters, five monorail cranes support movable platforms which en- able workmen to repair an aircraft after it has docked, ‘These rafters are so far above the floor of the hangar into mere specks. So large are the glass windows in the sides and the roof that individual motors are necessary to open each window. ; Every precaution has been taken to make the hangar as nearlyfire proof #s possible., The concrete floor js asphalt covered to prevent falling tools striking sparks and possibly ex- ploding gas. Searchlights, of high intensity will guide the dirigibles at night and sunken light#, arranged like crosses, at the end of each runway, will facil- itate Jandings. Like the doors the entire siding of the hangar is of corrugated asbestos. arranged in strips, alternating ‘be- tween gray and two shades of brown Experts declare it will be impossible for a hostile observer to identify the Lakehurst han from the alr. ge Sian? He Meat Give Pilgrimate Play At Open Air Theater LOS ANGEL Cal., June 17.— The second annual presentation of the Pjlgrimate play, “The Life of Christ” will begin at the open air theater in El Camino Real Canyon at Hollywood, near here, July’11 While the play 1s a private enter- prise, it is conducted primarily as a summer feature for people of south ern California and ‘Visitors and the earnings, are» put back into better equipment, costuming, employment of better known’ persons in the leading parts, and other betterments. During the winter the ting éf- fects were remodeled, the stage en. larged by blasting away rocks at one end, and many of the actors supers attended frequent meetings at which mob and crowd psychology was studied for use in the scenes. oe | Britishers to Write On U. S. Constitution LC> DON, June 17.—Th> American | ambassador, e Harvey, ts offer- }\ing of prize pounds for an esa} jon the consti of the United | States. | ‘Phe competition is open to under- | graduates of the University of Leh- | don of not more than ten years standing. Re geen we |Engine Commemorates Men Who Fell in War LONDON, June 17.—A locomotive has been selected as a memorial to the employes of the Great Central railway here who fell in the war. The engine, which !s a modern one and in nain line, has been chris * and beneath the title has placed the inscription ir large n memory of the employes this company who fell in the war 1914-18." 4, that the workmen resolve themselves ~ | | | |