HOW OTHERS HAVE DONE IT
The histories of the movie celebrities are as picturesque as the story
of their industry. Nearly all of them have risen from the ranks. Few of
them, in the days when the motion picture was classed as a freak
novelty, expected the present amazing expansion of the industry; still
fewer had any conception of their own latent talents in photodramatic
art.
But characteristics which they all had in common were determination to
succeed in their profession, a modest faith in its future, and a desire
to learn the business from the ground up.
It is a curious fact that many of the directors of to-day were once
automobile mechanics. This is not because automobile mechanics are as a
class better fitted for such work, but because, in the old days of 1907
and 1908 and 1909, when everything started, they had a singular
opportunity to apprentice themselves to the profession.
In those days companies worked almost entirely out of doors, and the
cameraman transported his paraphernalia in an automobile. The driver of
the automobile would usually assist the cameraman in "setting up"; a
friendship would spring up between them; presently the driver would be
assistant cameraman, then chief cameraman, and finally director. Of
course, directors have been recruited from every profession and every
class--actors, authors, professors, newspaper men, scene carpenters,
artists--for the dramatic gift is not confined to any class. What a
man's profession was before he entered the movies has nothing to do with
his career thereafter; he has to learn everything all over again, and a
very good actor, with years of studio experience, may make a very poor
director, whereas an unsuccessful tinsmith might suddenly rise to the
top by virtue of an innate gift for this type of work.
The scenario writers of to-day have also grown up with the business.
Some were newspaper men who broke into the game as press-agents; some
were actors; others were directors. Recently a large number of
professional playwrights, novelists and authors with magazine experience
have entered the movies to learn scenario writing, but this is a new
development.
The writers of this series have been asked to tell how they themselves
broke into the scenario offices. Unlike the others, our own story has
nothing picturesque about it. Miss Loos was born and bred in a
California town; she was the daughter of a newspaper proprietor and
inherited that fatal desire to write. At the age of fourteen she sent
her first scenario to Griffith; for a miracle, it was accepted--but, of
course, it was easy to sell stories in those days, when scenario writing
was almost unheard of outside of California. Soon after this she paid a
personal visit to the Griffith studios and became the youngest scenario
editor in the world, turning out a new story about every six weeks. Some
six years ago Mr. Emerson left his post as producer for Frohman on the
legitimate stage and went to Hollywood to keep an eye on the filming of
one of his own plays which was being adapted from the "speakies." He
decided to make the movies a permanent profession, and with this in mind
worked as an actor about the Griffith studios to learn the rudiments of
the game. Some months after this he was allowed to direct his first
picture; and at this time he met Miss Loos, who was to write the
scenario. After that they collaborated in the Doug' Fairbanks'
pictures--and that's that.
Most of the present-day movie actors and actresses gained their
experience as extras, although a few have first made their success on
the legitimate stage and then stepped directly into film stardom. Doug'
Fairbanks was one of the latter, and so was Mary Pickford. Charley
Chaplin and Wallace Reid, on the other hand, have done little of note
outside of the movies.
Both Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge rose from the ranks. They
took small parts in the old Vitagraph pictures; but their extraordinary
beauty and talent was immediately recognized by the directors, and they
were permitted to try bits, then parts, and finally leads. Norma
Talmadge went in for the more emotional rôles, while Constance developed
her ability as a comedienne. Within six years they have attained to
position of leadership in their respective fields.
D. W. Griffith himself was once an extra. He was a good extra, too,
according to some of his former employers who now work under him in his
great studios at Mamaroneck, Conn. But he had all manner of queer ideas
as to how pictures should be acted, and directed and photographed. For
example, he thought that more effective scenes might be made, at times,
by photographing actors "close up," cutting off their legs and arms with
the frame of the picture and showing only their faces many times
enlarged; also he had a theory that one might heighten the dramatic
suspense by "cutting back" from one scene to another, instead of
following one line of action in a monotonous sequence through an entire
photoplay. The directors and actors and cameramen of those days, who
would no sooner have thought of taking a character's picture from the
bust up than of taking the picture upside down, were nevertheless
interested in this eccentric chap, and even asked his advice from time
to time. Finally, the eccentric extra got his chance as a director to
try out a few of these radical theories. His "The Birth of a Nation"
changed the entire technique of the movies.
Many noted directors received their training in directing plays for the
legitimate stage, as, for example, Hugh Ford. Others, like Marshall
Neilan, or Allan Dwan, came in from outside professions. Victor Fleming,
formerly director for Douglas Fairbanks and Constance Talmadge, was one
of the latter. His first success, many years ago, was as an automobile
designer, but his interest always lay with the theater; he resigned his
post with the automobile company at about the age when most young men
are seeking their first jobs, and decided to learn the business of
making movies. The same creative faculty which made his automobile
designs distinctive in the old days manifested itself in his pictures
last year, "The Mollycoddle" and "When the Clouds Roll By."
There are a million ways to break into the movies. No one can imitate
the career of another. Don't read other people's biographies; go out and
make one for yourself.