Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, April 8, 1923, Page 24

HE man behind the star! a In other words, the “extra” man—and the “extra” girl, who stand or sit or dance or ‘cheer in the background of the motion picture scene, who are un- xnown to fame, but who are abso- jutely necessary for the verisimili- tude of your motion picture play. You hear and read so much about the ‘star: his and her taste in food, in automobiles, in dress, his or her views on love, and life and this world and the one to come. Shall not the extra man and girl have their little places in the sun of publicity? They serve no less faith- fully than the stars, though for a smaller stipend; they are no less ambitfous, though so much further from the goal. M y of them are in- teresting characters; their personal- ities and experiences offer a rich field to the real student of human nature; their infinitely varied Ife- histories might furnish inspiration for many a comedy—and tragedy. Take for mple, Mary, Mary is fat, Irish, redheaded, and has had few advantages. © has a brogue that is as rich as the crimson of her hatr, Her history does not go beyond her “discovery” in San Francisco George Melford, Paramount producer, while he was in that “ship stuff” for he Sea Wolf.” He used Mary in some of ni scenes, and took the responsibility of advi: ing her to to Los Ang work “in pictures.” Parent: Mary has never had occ gret taking his She now r less effort than life. She 1 ford with: down here, a elty making es and tically, fon to re- well-meant more money with he ever did in her greets Mr. Mel- Aw, ye tell me to come d now give me no advice akes us: ye! wur-r-r-k!" But she “says it with a smile.” Mary, of course, has her dreams and her ambitions. The taking of the accompanying preceded by a h time for mak- ing up, and nied by as many queries as to whether her hair looked all right, and whether her was showin’—they turrib| whether the light tions were just right, an the plo- ture would captious star could photograph was mu The “Double.” Consider tho “ ble.” It is no the directors have somcone else, when it is possible, do acts called for in the script, which might place tunt man” or “dou- ar secret that y years the star in‘ great danger.. They would be foolish to do otherwise, for the life and bodily Integrity ef a star represent great assets to his com- pany, and must not be unnecessarily jeopardized. Moreover, these “dou- bles” are trained divers or’ acrobats, as the case may be, and can do the stunt with considerably less risk than the star would take, “Slim” is a double. He ts a fa- miliar, hatless figure, riding his mo- torcycle about tho streets of Holly- wood. A certain legend surrounds Slim. He is supposed to be a sprig of a family of great wealth and breed- ing, who has a fatal fondness for working before the camera. At least, it hasn't been fatal yet, but in the sort of work Slim does, you simply never can tell. Here is John MacKinnon. That is his full and real name, John would be worth a story by himself; a rather sad story it would be, of disappointed ambitions, and perhaps, occasionally, regrets. His father was one of Scotland's greatest pipers; won the gold medal for the championship of Scotland against Ross, the Queen's bagpiper. John himself enlisted in the British army in 1873, nearly 50 ago. He had music in his heart, and won high honors at tho Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, after serving as a band sergeant in the Egyptian campaign. Disappointed Ambitions. He completed 25 years in the army, and was retired with a pension. He came home to London, and was at once employed by the London Coun- ty Council as conductor of one of their bands. He organized and con- ducted a “string scction.” He was selected two successive seasons to go to Folkestone and conduct the G adier Guards band, in famous Dan Godfrey, who was I!!! at the time. Get the idea that over in “Lunnon” John MacKinnon was an artist—he was “somebody.” | He had known the thrill of homage; he had, as he swung the baton over a great band, been the cynosure of all ey He came to America in the Fall of 1912. He tells the story him f, without apologte: He was un- known over re, what he had ac- complished in England counted for little. He could have “gotten a job’ playing “reed or brass wind” in an orchestra, But he had been soloist, leader, artist! He came to Califor- nia, the Mecca, the Golden Land. It was just about the time that Josse L. Lasky and Cecil B, DeMille had a GREENWOOD, VAVIEVELE: ACT, PREIMER WIT. MAIARY ME CONNELE PAY - CHECK arrived in Hollywood to begin the production of motion pictures. A friend sent John MacKinnon to the studio while they were making “Brewster's Millions,” the second picture. He was offered the part of the butler in the piece, which he ac- cepted—and sealed his fate! For they keep him playing butlers; the “butler ideai,” they call him. Al- s he keeps ag to get better parts, but they rarcly come his way. “Why spoil a perfect butler to make What might be a second-rate come- dian?” they say Occasionally he docs better: he is seen as a florid burgher, a guest at a house-party, in “Nice People.” He went for a while as a featured player with a comedy company. It ultimately fatled, through no fault of Mr. MacKinnon’s you may be sure, So he is still playing butlers, and the outlook isn’t encouraging. He earns a very good salary; he 48 prosperous enough; all his wants are satisted— except ambition. He is obscure, un- known. Husband and Wife, What about marital devotion DATING TO CASH ZTEE- STUIO, #0, BE # MEZLTHL T2017) NOW AL. P| LN £2 INL HER. LEEWWOOD among the supporting players? Hol- lywood, maligned Hollywood, offers as beautiful an example of it as could be found between the covers of any romance. Fred Weller was mar- ried to the present and only Mrs. Weller seven and ono-half years ago, in Colorado, Until September, 1921, they had never been separated 24 hours, nor had they been apart so mrch as one night, and they had been in motion pictures since 1917! In September, however, “The Call of the North” was being made on location in the mountains, and no women were taken along. So “Bud- dy” in Hollywood pined for Fred in the mountains, and vice versa, and when the {wo weeks was over and the joyful reunion had taken place, @ grand resolve was made, that It should never happen again. And it hasn't! The Wellers have at their Holly- wood home four monkeys, two pup- pies and two big dogs of the Green- land wolf-dog breed. They have six others of the domesticated wolves which they keep at kennels. Yes, they're both fond of animals, but be- IR. ANO TIRS. LEO GENET THE THE LASSI KATIE LE OF LV DLE <ACCAPZPANFLING RD a WELLE — SEETING KE CALLEO I0 WORK, Srvaro : (T2IEL- ARE THE ZITCIIY DASCRI BELO WOFLN DIAC KLAN ON sidos the they have from the menagerie, it is a very substan- tlal financial assot, for Fred has worked his dog-team in many Alas- kan ‘arid Canadian pictures, and got- ten a very good rental for them. His wolf-dogs are the great-grandchil- dren of the team which Admiral Peary drove in his polar expeditions of 1908-1910. They have appeared ‘n such Paramount pictures as “Be- hold My Wife,” “Call of the North” and “Over the Border.” It isn’t domesticity, exactly, that tho Wellers illustrate, for Mrs, Wel- ler works in pictures, too, and they often have to “eat out,” or be away from home—together—for weeks ata time on location. But it certainly is felicity, and content, and a success which should go far toward proving that Hollywood and the motion pic- ture profession are not at all as their detractors have described them. A Real Duchess! A duchess on the extra list! But details must be preceded by an ex- planation that, although this titled girl began her screen career by ap- pearing as atmosphere, she has al- ready begun her climb out of that class to a position before the cam- era more nearly analogous to the social position she occupied in Eng- land, Stella, Duchess de Lanti, came with her husband, Fenwick Ofiver, to Hollywood less than a year ago. She asked for work. She did not mention her title, but told a very convincing story of her screen as- LAE CoE pirations, and her trip from Burope to put them to the test. “Miss de Lanti,” as she chose to be known, had bearing and appearance. She proved in her first opportunities that she had ability. She was very desirable “atmosphere” for “society stuff,” so she worked rather steadily. Now she is doing parts. But in the time, it has come out that “Miss de Lanti” {s of the blood royal. She did not publish the fact, but {t was un- avoidable that it should be discover- ed. Years ago, when she was an art student in London, she “played hookey” to work by the day in mo- tion pictures which were being made there, At that time, she resolved some day to make it her life work. Her fortune wrecked by the war, and her husband's health affected by the same malefic agency, she came to California and is making her dream come ti Her first picture was “Saturday Night.” This was fol- lowed by “Moran of the Lady Letty” and “The Woman Who Walked Alone.” An uncanny ability to do queer things with his eyes, ears and joints enables another chap to earn a com- fortable living at work before the camera. Nearly every casting direc- tor knows that this man can roll his eyes clear up in his head so that only the whites are showing, and hold them there longer than anyone in the business. So when a “bit” as a bjind beggar comes up, they em- ploy him. He is a bit of a contor- tonist, too, and can eomplete such a characterization by making him a terrible cripple. For comedy pur- poses, he can do a “shimmy” with his ears, or move his scalp-lock in a wide radius. These tricks are usually good for a laugh, Not All Aristocrats, Not all of the “extras” are aristo- crats, by any mea: ‘ome of them One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of Ife as laughter. ddison : GC, Ee OU12E, SEAGER are not even “nature's noblemen.~ There is a certain man whom we will call E., who is very much in de- mand asa type. There !s no once who looks just like him, or can make up to be his double. Like the man referred to in the paragraph above, E. does tricks, but he does them with his salary check. For ex- ample, E. is called to display his pe- culiar “physiog” before the camera of the X Corporation, and it is agreed that he shall receive $10 for the day’s work. That finished, he goes home. In the course of the next day, the director discovers that he needs E. again on the day follow- ing. The casting director calls up E. and asks him to return next day for a continuation of the work already done. ©. regretfully tells the cast- ing director that the Z Company has called him for the same day, and that they are going to pay him $15 per diem. The obvious inference is that if the X Corporation wants him, they must pay the same figure. And they have to do it. Of course, no casting director likes to say that E. is falsifying, but they all think it odd how often this situation arises. And once two of them compared notes! There are many illustrations of the studio's attraction for the stage peo- ple who weary of the grind of “the road,” of weary weeks of rehearsals in a production which promptly fails, of all the frustrations and un- certainties of the theater. Some of these actors have waited until their best years have been spent behind the footlights; others come while still young and able to compete for the highest rewards, One of the latter {s Curtyno Enz- ler, who has already made a grati ing success in musical comedy vaudeville, Trained for the stage one of the best dramatic schools of the land, she went with Charlo Greenwood in “Linger Longer, Li ty” as ingenue and premiere danci This, her first professional enga. ment, lasted two years and covered the entire country. Movies—and a Home. Then she danced a season in vau- deville as premiere with Marvel, the famous deaf-mute dancer and panto- mimist. Here she became interested in the wonderful possibilities of pan- tomime, and her study and practice gave her a vision of what could be done with it in its greatest feld— motion pictures. Her season closed with the arrival of hot weather, and she found herself in Los Angeles, on Hollywood boulevard, which is to motion pictures what Times Square is to the stage. - Parenthetically, Curtyne had an- other yision—of a home! Instead of the gypsy life of the stage player, she longs for the settled and daylight- Saving life of the screen actress. A “settled life’ may not sound good to you, sheltered little girl of the small town, but how inviting {t seems to this girl and her mother, who have been existing month after month in a different hotel room each week or oftener, with-only at inter- vals a really comfortable apartment during a run in a city lke New York or Chicago, So Curtyne (say it Cur-teen) de- cided to have a try at the motion Pictures. Patiently, she began tho study of the new medium. Bravel, she put aside the recognition already gained from a public appreciative of her dancing; renounced the kudos won in stage circles, and declared herself willing to begin as near the bottom as was necessary. Of course, her stage experience helped her, and she has already made creditable ap- peara , though in small parts. The girl behind the star! Will she come to the front? What are the qualities that bring her from ob- scurity into the brilliant sunshine of public favor? No one can say exact- ly; no one can predict just the fate of any particular aspirant. She must try it for herself. If you are strong, if you are stout of heart and sound of body, if you can withstand disappointments and buffeti if what burns within your breast {s a steady flame of ambitious desire, and not tho feeble spark of a whim; then you may take up your humble place behind the star, begin your battle for screen honors—and find that the event is worth it all!— Thomas Shepherd.