Evening Star Newspaper, February 8, 1924, Page 20

Behind the Screen Intimate, Personal Pictures of BY SAMUEL the Stars of the Silver Sheet GOLDWYN, " Copyright, 1923, by George H, Doran Company. o« (Continued from Yesterday's Star.) CHAPTER V. Marguerite Clark Misses Fire and Edua Goodrich Doesn't Iznite at AllL EANWHILE, of course, I had been negotlating with va- rious other stars. Among |this humber was Marguerite Clark. Miss Clark, you remember, had stirred the public deeply by her beau- tiful performance in “Prunella,” and thiz success of the speaking stage Tesulted In a competition between r. Zukor and ourselves for her serv- ices on the screen. Our final compro- anise indicates how ably we lived ug to the friendly enemy ideal of con- duct. “See here,” called Mr. Zukor over| the phone, “I hear you're negotiating With Marguerite Clark. Now L want to tell you something. I'm going to get her, no matter what I have to pay. So you'll do me a favor if you don’t bld me up any higher.” 1 agreed to withdraw, but upon one condition only. The Lasky company had just secured the rights to Harold McGrath's “The Goose Girl,” and we had been thinking for some time that Marguerite would be ideal for the part. My final understanding with my = competitor accordingly was that he chould lend us the covoted Star for this single plctire. In tils arrangement, however, we reckoned Wwithout Marguerite herself. , “What, Marguerite go all the way out to California!” exclaimed the star's sis- ter when I called at the Clark apart- ment that first evening. An Astor or a Vanderbilt ordered to ®o out and hoe potatoes, a_Russian nobleman sentenced to Siberia— neither of these could have expressed more profound emotion. Nor was the prejudice of Miss Clark's sister an isolated one. I quote this exclama- tion, Indeed, as significant of an al- most universal obstacle I encountered in those early days. Stars did_not want to leave New York for Cali- fornia. 1 soon suspected that in Mar- Buerite’s case the prejudice was a| more deep-seated one than could be explained by climate or landscape. The very morning after she agreed to B0 out to the Lasky studios a young man in the employ of Mr. Zukor came to my office. His name was Harold Lockwood and he will be remembered for his work in some of Mary Picke ford’s earller stories, and later as a famous star for the Metro Company. After a little preliminary clearink of his throat the handsome Harold suggested the purpose of his call. “Ahem,” began he, “I hear you've More pronounced nervousness by could proceed. “Ahem—well—I just thought—of course you may not be looking for anybody—bu ¥ | ve did not take advantage of Harold’s willingness to share Miss Clark’s banishment, but there are numerous parallel situations where we found the pressure more forceful. Sometimesy in fact, we have been obliged to take a constellation in order to secure the services of the one particular star which graced it. Our_engagement of Blanche Swee of Pauline Frederick, and later e periences with Geraldine Farrar— these episodes to which I am coming presently—reveal the extent to which some emotional preference influences the contract of the feminine star. Well. Miss Clark did go to Califor- symptoms of Harold before he Goose Girl." The performance was not, however, devold of friction. From the studlo across the continent to my office in New York came con- stant mutterings of disagreements between Miss Clark and her director, Fred Thompson. Once I wired to De Mille to ask him how the, play wi coming along, and his answer to the telegram was as follows: “Don’t know much about the play, but geese - and photography , both looked great.” Have mentioned that Marguerite's sister met me that evening.l went up to her apartment. This sister, Wiio was some years older than her cele- brated relative, was almost as con- |- stant a’ phenomenon as was® Mary Pickford's mother. Indeed,” many feminine luminaries of creen possess one’ of these adhesive rela- There is nearly always a mother or brother or sister or hug- band standing around back of the screens to see that justice’is admin- istered. < There was one time when Ma Pickford's. supremacy was serlously threatened by the success af this other Famous Plavers .star. “Is Mary jealous of Marguerite?” I asked Mr. Zukor &t this perio: He shook his head. “No. said he. And then ‘he added swiftly, “But it comes to the surface through Mrs. Pickford and Marguerite's sister.” From this remark 1 gathered that the two doughty supporters of o posing causes used to look:at each other about as pleasantly as did the Montagues and Capulets. And if you possess any flair, like Landor, for imaginary _conversations,, you - can easily congtruct a djalogue betweén the twain based on their respective claims to the most mall; the most unappeasable demands of' exhibiters, the most appreciation from Mr. Zukor. Yet Mary long outlasted her. fair rival. Why was this? Marguerite Clark was beautiful, she was ex- quisitely graceful, and shé brought to the screen a more finished stage technique and a more spacious back- ground than did Miss Plckford. - My answer to this question, so often pro- ounded to me. applies not only_ to iss Clark, but to _all the other actresses who have flashed, meteor- like, across the screen horizon. of all, she did not have Mary Pic ford's absorhing passion for work. Secondly, she did not possess the othera fundamental human emotion. and direct and polgnant, Mary goes to the heart much as does a Foster melody. Herein is the real success of a popularity so phenomenally sus- tained. Previous to engaging Miss Ward and Miss Clark, the Lasky Company had secured the services of Blanche Sweet. The performance of this Ac- tress in Griffith’s “Judith and Bethu- li” had lingered in my memory, and almost as soon as we organized I took Lasky to see that film. He wus . so much impressed that wired at once to De Mille to negotiate with Miss Sweet, then working under Mr. Griffith in California. From the first she did not seem satisfied with her new environment. After some days, in fact, she came to me and begred that she be allowed to leave us. She wanted to go back to, New York. “But why?" 1 pressed her. After some hesitance she finally con- fided the reason of her unrest. Marshall cllan, whom 1 have mentioned a8 aying with Mary Plckford, had been unable to find work in Loe Angeles and was taking the train back east the very next day. The result of this conversa- tion was that I sent for Mr. Neilan, and 80 impressed was I by his intelligence First | & 1 _HARACTERIZATIONS HAVE LONG BEEN POPULAR. the first and I have already indicated his rapid ascent to fortune. ~ As to Blanche, who eight vears later became Mrs. Marshall Neilan, it was fot until she began to work under Mr. | Neilan's direction that she justified our expectations of her. I shall never, in- deesl, forget my disappointment at see- ing her first Lasky film. “What!" thought I. “Can this be the same girl who was so effective in that Griffith picture 1t was my introduction to a recurrent tragedy in my career as producer. Va- ous times I have been attracted by riffith puccesses only to find that they could not thrive in another environ- ment. Just like Trilby when no longer confronted by the hypnotic baton of vengall, £0 many of the men and wom- ¢n who have worked under Mr. Griffith cannot perform when deprived of his fnspiring, force. Meanwhile the Lasky Company had been expanding tremendously. Like an octopus it clutched at all the landscape avallable in the vicinity of the original livery stable. New bulldings kept go- ing up. New people were being added. So swift was the pace of progress that De Mille's brother William. whom we had sent out meanwhile as a svenario writer, frequently voiced his leading plaint. He liked to work by himself in a little bullding away out in a fleld, but to save his life he could not move that little building fast enough. wake up in the morning after I've just staked a fresh claim.” he used to say, “and the doggone studio has caught up with me in the night ! A tremendous impetus was given to both Mr. ZuKor and the Lasky Com pany by an organization of the dis. tributers who had been handling ou: filme. _About six months after Lasky and I went into business these function- aries decided that in order to make themselves a real force they would have to guarantee to theatrical managers throughout the country a larger num- ber of pictures. Their organization, under the name of Paramount Pictures Corporation, requisitioned 104 films a year, of which our company agreed to supply thirty-six. As this was just three times the number we had planned capltalization now increased from the original $20,000 to $250,000. But the domestic market by no means exhausted our outlet. Always I have been penetrated by a sense of inter- national possibilities in the film fndus- try. That this Esperanto of the stage could be communicated to foreign coun- tries—here was the idea which in the early summer of 1914 sent me speed- ing to Europe. I was Interested in placing not Lasky products alone, for before my departure Mr. Zukor had asked me if I would not look after his interests also. Until this time we had enj in no concentrated drive of the sort. For, although Wr. Zukor had a representa- tive in London, the agency waged only a haphazard, picture-by-picture cam- palgn. Nor was my first important in- terview pregnant with hope of more systematic saies. Great Britain had always been active in ‘picture production and her leading distributor was Willlam Jury, who has since been knighted. Mr. Zukor's Lon- don representative arranged my meet- ing with this personage, and from al- most the minute 1 began talking to him 1 saw that Mr. Jury believed that Britannia rules the films as well as the waves. After he had listened to my enthuslastic praise of both Zukor and Lasky products, he told me that no American_company could possibly be as great as 1 £aid we were going to be. To this T retorted that no one 8o lack- ing in confidence in a product could possible be able to sell it.” Having thus clarified out views, Mr. Jury and I parted. Almost immediately afterward I helped finance J. D. Walker to handle both Famous Players and y films in Great Britain, Under my contract with him he was to take the output of both studios and to pay us $10,000 ad- vance against 65 per cent gross. r this my_progress was compara- tively easy. Sweden, Norway and Denmark promised to buy all the pictures we made at something in the neighborhood of thiee thousand dol- lars each. I closed a deal with Australia guaranteeing to take our complete output at thirty-five hundred dollars a film; Germany put in the same large order at an even higher rate—four thousand each; Belgium and Switzer- U, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1921 even she dld not with- hold her mite. Is it any wonder that as I rode from Berlin to Paris my head reeled with the magnitude of our success? Could this really be I, the poor boy who & rt time before had wand- ered over these very countries with hardly a sou in his pocket? Yot mine was no aniracle of success. I traveled in Europe day and night. 1 pitted all my enthusiasm against many citadels of prejudice and scep- ticism. When, indeed, I firially sailed from Liverpool I was physically tnu- trated by the long strain of it al Even the trjumph which I have Just chronicled was doomed to only partial realiz: cipate, of course, ol r when, riding from Berlin to Parl counted up my thousands, that few short weeks a bomb- would e: plode In Baraj which would change the map and the psychology and t! industrial conditions of the whole world. And I certainly could not fore- see, therefore, the broken contracts and the difficulty of obtaining ships to fulfil contraets which followed the declaration of war. ‘While in Europe I was eonstantly on the lookout for actors, and one of She was beauti- ed a se , and sh cently joined the famous recession of wives of the late Nat Go Eventually ‘Miss Goodrich made a picture for us at $5,000 dollars, with the understanding that if it were suc- cessful we should have the first op- tion on her second venture. ‘Too bad for Miss Goodrich! Too bad for the Lasky Company! Almost the minute De Mille started to work with her he wired me, “Goodrich too cold.” n the ‘world this is an epitaph, Nor did Miss Go h live down her obituary. Time refused to thaw her, and I was then Initiated into the pro- found truth that many an actress whom individuality « of volce and beauty of coloring render glowing on the stage are absolutely calcimined by the camera. However, my interview with Miss Goodrich ulted profitably in a other way. While dining with her at the Carlton in London I was intro. duced broad-shouldered, to a tall, manly-looking chap with a mop of chestnut-brown curls. From the mo- m I was struck with Tommy Meighas possibilities for the acreen, and when he came to America I wired Lasky to look him over. We engaged him, and Tommy went to California to make his first picture, “The Fighting Hope.” arrived in Los Angel the defendant got to me before the prosecutor. here,” anngunced Tommy, rue- » “they say I'm no good around this place, 80 I guess I'll clear out. The Universal has made me an offer, “Do nothing of the sort” I com- manded. “Wait until I see your pic- ture first.” My view of that picture convinced me that our chief director's opinfon had been conceived too hastily. And the outcome of my intercession was a very ‘distinct gain. A year or_so planted this atar on terra firma. To- day he s one of the most popular actors of the screen. All this happened in 1914, The next year was one especially signifi- cant * in motion picture circles. Amgng the events contributing to its impressiveness was that titanic con- ception of the silver Birth of a Nation.” This Griffith pic- ture which, by the way, was the first screen performance where two dollars a seat was asked, might also have been called “The Birth of Num- Star, Mae Marsh, the Gish a _dozen luminaries ince flashed across the public consclousness, owe their suc- ts in the giant canvas. It was during this year that De Mille and 1 went to a dinner given to Raymond Hitchcock at '8 Cafe in Los Angeles. We were half way through when we were at- tracted simultaneously by a young who had just sat down at an adjacent table. One look at the clear-cut face and we exclaimed in unison, “Isn’t he attractive! Wouldn't he be wonderful in pictures!” He was wondesful in pictures. For his name was Wallace Reld. The very next day we engaged him at a salary of one hundred doll: a week, ~ & 22X = ard it was not until this first meet- ing that we discovered he had al- read: orked at pictures under Mr. G‘rlflrthl direction. ~ The untimely death of this gifted and attractive Our Annual young man, whose future held me much of promisi, brought to his pro- - fession an_ irreparable lo: & (Continusd in Tomorrow's Star.) February— CHOICE-OF-THE-HOUSE SALE Earlier than usual mill deliveries have put a large assortment of spring woolens in this sale. Suits, O vercoats and Topcoats MADE TO MEASURE $39.50 Former Prices $50, Newcorn 1002 F St $55, $60 and $65 & Green reet N.W. Open Saturday Until 6 P. M., (S that I engaged him as a director at $250 a week. His success was marked from <& nia and she made for, the Lasky to produce, you will see the urgency of Company its successful play of “The land contributed their quota, and al- growth. 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