When Gertie, the village belle, finally decides she is not appreciated
at home, you can generally bet the last nickel of your last forty-cent
dollar, that very shortly she will be found in the already long line of
hopeful future “stars,” before the door of some motion picture studio.
And, just as certain as the seasons come ’round, is the fact that Gertie
will never star under any lights other than the flickering gas jet
beside the mirror in her hall bedroom.
It simply isn’t done. In our experience, we have found that the chance
of the ordinary screen struck girl of “getting into the movies” is about
on a par with those of the rich man of Biblical fame entering Heaven.
Yet these prodigies who triumphed in amateur theatricals at the Home
Opera House, or of whom well-meaning friends spoke as “much cuter and
more beautiful than Flossie Star,” continue to pay the railroads a good
part of their revenue.
Which may account for the startling dearth of suitable material for
musical comedy choruses, and for the presence of hefty,
thirty-five-year-old “girlies” in the burlesque troupes.
To go into the “hows and whys” of this would take up more space than it
would be worth. And, though the difficulties of becoming even an extra
in pictures have been publicized broadcast by many magazines, and even
some companies, our mail continues heavy with letters from hopeful,
pleading, blinded women, old and young, who seek a way to picture fame.
Casting directors, directors, company executives, have become so blasé
in the face of the onrush of appealing femininity to whom home and
virtue are as nothing to a career in motion pictures, that the
inexperienced damsel who catches their eye to any effect is indeed a
fortunate one.
True, as many readers will say, “stars” bob up over night. “Over night”
is right, perhaps. Yet aren’t these bubbles on the crest of the wave,
these petted favorites of the moment of some one “powerful,” regarded as
is an old man’s darling? We’ll answer ourselves. THEY ARE.
Nix, girls, nix. You might be the one in a thousand who got somewhere.
You MIGHT. But we would rather gamble against an electrically controlled
roulette wheel than have your chance. It would be pulling an old saw to
say the road was rocky, but take it from us, Aspirants to Movie Fame,
unless you have absolute assurance of a position bringing in at least
cakes and coffee, you will do better to stick close to home and mother.
It is a great business. But there is no quick and easy shortcut to
automobiles, furs, picture in the papers and Pomeranian. Not more so
than there is a shorter cut between two points than a straight line.
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