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diff --git a/77829-0.txt b/77829-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3cb08b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/77829-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2524 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77829 *** + + + + SCREEN ACTING + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1921 + PHOTO-STAR PUBLISHING CO. + LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA + +[Illustration: _The Author and Daughter Mary_] + + + + + SCREEN ACTING + + BY + + MAE MARSH + + OF + “THE BIRTH OF A NATION,” “INTOLERANCE,” “POLLY OF THE + CIRCUS,” “THE CINDERELLA MAN,” ETC. + + ILLUSTRATED + + LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA + PHOTO-STAR PUBLISHING CO. + + CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUILDING + + _All Rights Reserved_ + + + + +FOREWORD + + +In her travels and through her amazing--to put it +mildly--correspondence, the motion picture star finds that there is +everywhere a great curiosity about screen acting. + +What does it require? What, if any, are its mysteries? What system of +detail is there that permits fifty-two hundred feet of celluloid ribbon +to spin smoothly past the eye to make an interesting story? + +I look upon this book as an answer to the thousands of letters I +have received in the past several years asking as many thousands of +questions. A motion picture star’s most intimate audience, after all, +is her correspondence. + +There comes to her sometimes the vague realization that in a dozen +different countries little children, their sisters, their brothers and +their parents may be, at one moment, viewing her image upon the screen +in a dozen different plays. It is all too stupendous; too impersonal. +But though she cannot be a breathing part of these audiences she learns +often what is in the hearts of many. This message comes through the +mails; that is her broad point of contact with her international public. + +Five years ago these letters were largely to request photographs and +the star could tell something of her popularity by the number of +pictures mailed out. But, as the screen has grown in importance and +merit, the star’s correspondence has indicated a lively curiosity in +the art of camera-acting. So much ambition; so many questions! + +I have often thought that to make a satisfactory reply to the thousands +of questions I have been asked would be to write a book, and--well, I +wrote it. I have tried to outline the important steps in the building +of a screen career. In doing this I have evaded technical phraseology. +It is not indispensable to a knowledge of screen technic and might tend +to confuse. + +I believe that anyone desiring a career in motion pictures can profit +by that which I have written out of my experience; that others can +learn from it something of the work-a-day life of the screen actress. + +In conclusion I would take this opportunity to thank the tremendous +number of children and grown-ups who have at one time or another +written me. They serve always to remind me that those of us upon the +screen have an influence and responsibility that go beyond a mere +make-believe. + + MAE MARSH. + + + + +Contents + + +Chapter Page + +I. The Universal Impulse 15 + +II. Stars and Meteors 23 + +III. Seven Qualities 33 + +IV. Beauty and Expression 43 + +V. Story, Make-up, Costuming 51 + +VI. Noses, Chins and Eyes 61 + +VII. Camera-Consciousness and Such 73 + +VIII. Emphasis and Repression 81 + +IX. Long Shots, Intermediates and Close-ups 91 + +X. About Atmosphere 101 + +XI. Mr. Griffith 109 + +XII. Home Life of the Star 121 + + + + +Illustrations + + + Page + +The Author and Mary Frontispiece + +Lillian Gish and the late Robert Harron 27 + +Charles Ray 37 + +Mary Miles Minter 47 + +Mary Pickford 55 + +Madame Nazimova 65 + +Blanche Sweet and Wallace Reid 77 + +Norma Talmadge 85 + +The Author and Some Beginners 95 + +Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan 105 + +Mr. Griffith 113 + +The Author at Home 125 + + + + +MAE MARSH, MOTION PICTURE ACTRESS + + +_I_ + + _The arts are old, old as the stones_ + _From which man carved the sphinx austere._ + _Deep are the days the old arts bring:_ + _Ten thousand years of yesteryear._ + + +_II_ + + _She is madonna in an art_ + _As wild and young as her sweet eyes:_ + _A frail dew flower from this hot lamp_ + _That is today’s divine surprise._ + + _Despite raw lights and gloating mobs_ + _She is not seared: a picture still:_ + _Rare silk the fine director’s hand_ + _May weave for magic if he will._ + + _When ancient films have crumbled like_ + _Papyrus rolls of Egypt’s day,_ + _Let the dust speak: “Her pride was high,_ + _All but the artist hid away:_ + + _“Kin to the myriad artist clan_ + _Since time began, whose work is dear.”_ + _The deep new ages come with her,_ + _Tomorrow’s years of yesteryear._ + + --_Nicholas Vachel Lindsay._ + + _From “THE CHINESE NIGHTINGALE_ + _and other Poems” by Vachel Lindsay._ + _Published by The MacMillan Company._ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + _The dilemma of a casting director--A flood of letters_ + _and their four objectives--What every-_ + _one wants to know._ + + +When Mr. Adolph Klauber, former dramatic critic of the New York Times, +was casting director for a big picture corporation I chanced to meet +him one day in the Fort Lee Studios. + +“Read this,” he said, tendering me a letter. + +It was from a young girl in Columbus, Ohio, as I remember, who wanted +to know how she could get into motion pictures. It was not so much the +letter as a small snap-shot photograph of herself which she had pinned +to her missive that took my attention. + +The picture showed a girl in a sitting position, who was plump to +the verge of fatness. She had thick legs and ankles, straight hair, +probably brown, and dark eyes. So far as a front view divulged her +features were fairly regular. It was not in any way a remarkable +picture. Nor did it promise any particular animation in its subject. + +She had written to ascertain “what chance she would have in motion +pictures.” + +“What are you going to answer?” I asked of Mr. Klauber. + +“That’s a poser,” he replied. “I was about to write her that she didn’t +have any chance; that she probably would be happier if she remained +home; certainly so until she obtained her parents’ consent for plans of +a career. Looking at the picture I should say she had one chance in a +million.” + +“That is probably true,” I said. + +“But do you know,” continued Mr. Klauber, “that the more I think of +it the less I believe that I am endowed with authority to tell anyone +that he or she has no chance in motion pictures. How can I know? We see +about us every day celebrated stars who, perhaps, began their career +with apparently no more chance than this little Columbus girl.” + +Mr. Klauber paused. + +“For that reason I have not sent the discouraging letter which it was +on the tip of my pen to write,” he continued. “Instead I am going to +send her a letter telling her that her chance of screen success is +altogether problematical; that everything depends upon circumstance, +hard work and the native talent that is developed before the camera.” + +“I should like to see a copy of that letter,” I said. + +I never happened to see Mr. Klauber’s reply to the girl in Columbus. +But I am sure it was interesting. + +In the past eight years I have received hundreds of thousands of +letters from motion picture fans in every part of the world. In answer +now to a question I have often heard asked, “Does a motion picture star +immediately read all her mail?” I can say for myself, “Bless you, no.” + +A single mail has brought as many as a thousand letters and I shall +leave it to the reader to determine how one could possibly read one +thousand letters and arrive at the studio at 8:30 o’clock. Personally, +my secretaries are instructed to attend to such fan letters as request +a reply--which practically all of them do--and then preserve the +letters that I may read them in leisure moments. + +In that way I have managed I think to peruse at one time or another the +majority of the letters that come to me. I find the reading of them a +great pleasure. + +It is nice to receive pleasant compliments on one’s hard and honest +effort to do something worth while. I have on many occasions found +helpful criticism in my mail. Almost anyone can dismiss a picture with +a “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it.” There is the exceptional one in +a thousand who will tell you he didn’t like it and why, placing his +finger upon a real defect. Often that is a help. + +To get back to my point: The letters I receive seem to be written with +one, and sometimes all of the following objectives-- + +1. To request a photograph. + +2. To request an autographed photograph. + +3. To ask for “old clothes.” + +4. To find out how “I can learn to act for motion pictures.” + +As for Numbers 1 and 2, the many of you who are making a “collection” +know that a picture, autographed if requested, is sent you in due +time. Up to very recently the star has considered it a matter of good +advertising to remember those friends who are kind enough to ask for +photographs. But the demand for pictures has become so tremendous that +some of the stars are now making a flat charge of twenty-five cents +for their photographs. This barely covers the cost of production and +postage. + +It was Miss Billie Burke, I believe, who was first to establish a cost +charge on her photographs. She did this during the war and donated the +receipts to charity. + +The most of us have feared to risk offending those picture fans who +have been at the pains of writing us by asking them for a photographic +fee. We have spent from $10,000 to $25,000 a year out of our own +pockets--unless by our contracts our producers agreed to bear this +expense--and have trusted that it was money well expended. In the +amount of pleasure brought to the little ones I, for one, am sure it +has been. + +But, as the demand for pictures grows greater and letters pour in +from all parts of the world, the cost of materials has been steadily +climbing. In 1915 I could send out three photographs for what it now +costs to send one. That means something when thousands of photo-mailers +each month are being sent to a dozen different countries. + +Recently a well known star, a particular friend of mine, declared that +it was but a matter of months before all the more popular stars would +institute a photographic fee. + +As to Number 3, regarding old clothes, I am sure that while the +requests emanate from worthy sources no star could possibly satisfy +these many supplications. + +To begin with if the story calls for clothes that are actually old--old +enough to be considered “costumes”--they are usually supplied by the +producer and belong to him after production. In the case of modern +clothes--meaning new ones--most stars are very pleased to wear them +themselves when they have finished before the camera. + +Such is mine own case. Whenever there is any danger of my reaching a +point of clothes saturation I have several growing sisters who, so +far, have been able to handle the situation. After that our clothes go +through certain pre-arranged channels of charity. + +I make this point in the hope that many young ladies who have written +me for my “old clothes” will understand that I have few or none, as +much as I should like to accommodate each one of them. + +Which brings me to Number 4. + +“How can I learn to act for motion pictures?” Six years ago in “The +Birth of a Nation” days my mail brought me many such inquiries. Since +then, with the motion picture steadily gaining in favor, I have been +swamped with this universal request. + +“Do brown eyes photograph better than blue?” “Is it necessary to have +stage training to act before a camera?” “Can a girl with a big nose +succeed in the movies?” “What is the accepted height for a motion +picture star?” “Are the morals of motion pictures safe for the average +girl?” “If I came to Hollywood and got work as an extra how long +would it be before I am featured?” “Do you know any director who will +star a small girl, of blond type, who has played parts in high school +comedies?” “Are the star salaries we hear of the real thing?” “Does +Charlie Chaplin make $1,000,000 a year?” + +I have picked at random these few questions. I think I could go on and +on, farther than Mr. Tennyson’s charming brook, with others of the same +kind. Sometimes I am given to the thought that every young girl in the +United States wants to go into motion pictures. + +Possibly I am right. You know as well as I. Receiving so many of these +letters I have begun to feel as Mr. Klauber felt. I don’t know exactly +what to say. + +But since there are undoubtedly many thousands of boys and girls not +only in the United States but in foreign countries--the Japanese boy, +for instance, is particularly keen on knowing the how of motion picture +acting--who would like to get into motion pictures, I feel that such +information as I have acquired through a wide experience will interest +many and perhaps prove of value to those others who are destined to be +our cinema stars of tomorrow. + +As for my qualifications I was about to say that I am one of the motion +picture pioneers. Yet when I say pioneer I think of Daniel Boone. And +Mr. Boone, had he lived, would have been an old, old man. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + _The myth of the “overnight” star--An instance of_ + _success after long sustained effort--_ + _What the beginner faces._ + + +To become an artistic success one must assuredly be in love with the +art he has elected to follow. In business or finance a so-called lucky +stroke may make of a man or a woman a success without there being those +qualities of esteem and enthusiasm for the thing itself that are so +essential to artistic endeavor. + +Such lucky strokes are rare in pictures. Appearances to the contrary, +notwithstanding, motion picture stars are not made over-night. Every +now and then some actor or actress begins to assert his or her right to +cinema stardom. But if one will take the trouble to examine the records +in such cases he will usually find that the privilege of stardom has +come only after a slow climb. + +There have been cases where producers have tried to “manufacture” +stars. But, in the main, it hasn’t worked. + +To recall one example: One of the shrewdest of our producers not long +ago signed a young, beautiful and talented vaudeville actress to a long +time motion picture contract. Screen tests proved that she photographed +beautifully. She had the grace of carriage to be expected of the +professional dancer. Her face was expressive. That a capable director +would find in her all the qualities necessary for stardom the producer +never doubted. + +Thousands of dollars were spent in an ocean of advertising ink +announcing the debut of this star. Her name was flashed from one end of +the country to the other, indeed, around the world, in electric lights +and on bill boards. Her photograph was published in the metropolitan +dailies and small town papers. So far as the campaign was concerned it +was an unqualified success. By the time the little star’s first picture +was ready for release there had been built up about her a tremendous +curiosity. + +I own I was as curious as the next. I think the majority of us, who had +attained stardom only after years of rigorous training, self denial and +hard work, were interested, even anxious, to know if motion picture +stars could be developed after the formula of this producer. It meant +something to us. + +If the magnitude of the motion picture actress was to be in proportion +to the size of an introductory advertising campaign then our own +position was none too secure. + +As a star this little actress failed. Thanks to some natural talent her +failure was not so disastrous as it might have been. But as a star, she +was soon withdrawn. The fortune spent in exploiting her was gone, but +not forgotten. As a proof of the impossibility of “manufacturing” stars +under the most favorable of circumstances it probably served a purpose. + +Why did she fail? Why would a baby, who had never walked, fail if she +were told to run a foot race? She simply didn’t know how. + +All the little important things that one can learn by nothing save +experience, things which mean everything to successful screen acting, +were missing in her work. She was like one trying to paint without +knowing color, to compose without a knowledge of counter-point, to +write without having learned grammar school English. Contrary to a +tradition which exists in some localities the best swimmers are not +developed by throwing the child into the water and telling him to sink +or float. + +There is another interesting point in the case which I have cited. When +the plans to make this young lady an over-night star failed she became +a featured player in a group. Surrounded by experienced, capable screen +actors and relieved of the responsibility that stardom entails she has +developed splendidly and is, in point of fact, a better actress today +than she was when she was advertised as a star. + +It has been simply a matter of training. If sometime in the future she +is again starred she will be prepared to make a better job of it. + +I have brought up this case because it has been my observation that +there exists a feeling that in motion pictures anybody can be a star +anytime. There is talk of influence, managerial favoritism, luck +and, goodness knows, what not? There may be truth to some of these +assertions. + +But the year in and year out stars--Mary Pickford, Dorothy and Lillian +Gish, William Hart, Mme. Nazimova, Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Ray, +etc.--are those who stand solidly on the ground of genuine merit. + +And the solidity of their stance is usually determined by the amount of +their natural talent, plus the excellence and length of their training. + +I believe many people have the habit of falling in love with an idea. +The idea of becoming a motion picture star is appealing. But like many +other general conceptions the idea of the star’s life--as gathered from +a smoothly displayed picture drama or a magazine article portraying the +artist’s home, her automobile and her pets--is misleading. + +Robert Louis Stevenson wept in despair over the composition of many of +his stories. A great many of us have had occasion to weep over our own +more modest efforts. We have found, indeed, that the most beautiful +roses are very often those with the cruelest thorns. + +[Illustration: _Lillian Gish and the late Robert Harron in a love scene +from “The Greatest Question.”_] + +It has been proved that motion picture stars cannot be made over-night. +It is equally true that many promising actresses do not become +stars--in the accepted professional sense of the word--even after long +years of work. + +I suppose if I said that nobody can succeed in motion pictures and that +the star is the exception to the rule I should be accused of being a +pessimist. Yet that is more nearly the truth than may appear on the +surface. + +Consider, for instance, the thousands of actors and actresses who have +appeared before a camera in the past decade. After you have done that +count the number of genuine stars now before the public. You can name +the majority of them on the fingers and thumbs of four hands. + +Yet in the heart of each of the thousands, who have stepped before the +batteries of motion picture cameras, there was undoubtedly the hope +that natural ability, circumstance or hard work would bring success. + +It is well to take this into consideration when one looks toward the +screen for a career. + +But sometimes this law of average is defeated by that exceptional +person whose faith is undiminished, whose confidence in one’s self is +boundless and whose capacity for work never flags. + +Let me cite you the case of one of the best known young actresses +on the screen who, as this is written, has never enjoyed the full +privileges of stardom though she has shared most of its disadvantages. + +She began her screen career more than a half dozen years ago. She was +frail, and slow to absorb the lessons of the screen. Even her dearest +friends never imputed to her a great natural acting talent. + +But this young lady was dauntless. She kept everlastingly at it. +By systematically exercising she gradually built up strength and +endurance. When she was given a part she read everything she had access +to which would help her in the development of her character portrayal. + +She over-came any tendency toward self-consciousness while before the +camera. She became adept in the matter of thinking up business. The +fact that she did not attain stardom, in its generally accepted sense, +never deterred her. Year after year she gave to the screen and to her +parts the best that was in her. + +Her courageousness has been rewarded. It is my opinion that in the past +two years she has contributed to the photographic drama two of its most +distinguished characterizations. She is a motion picture star in the +true sense of the word. Her name is Lillian Gish. + +If I seem to be gazing on the darker side of a screen career I assure +you that it is not because such is my habit. Quite the contrary. But +it appears to me that since there seems to be such a universal impulse +to gain fame through the medium of the moving picture drama that it is +as well to consider some of its difficulties. + +Trained actors and actresses from the spoken stage to their sorrow have +found these difficulties. The established star finds sometimes that +success has seemed merely to double her troubles. + +The beginner will discover, therefore, that when he or she sets his or +her face toward a screen career there will come moments when it will +seem much easier to give up than go on. Those who give up will be those +who should never have started. They will have wasted time that could +have been otherwise more profitably spent. + +Those who go on--well, there is always hope for such. + + * * * * * + +I am always interested in and can sympathize with the young girl who +yearns for a career. It seems but yesterday that I was in short skirts +and Miss Marjorie Rambeau was the most talented and beautiful actress +that was ever permitted upon the face of the earth. After a matinee +at the old Burbank theater in Los Angeles a young girl friend and I +often followed Miss Rambeau discreetly and at what might be called a +worshipful distance. + +Then there was Mr. Richard Bennett. What a masterful, handsome man was +he! My goodness! he was one to occupy one’s dreams; to make one wonder +if somehow it might not be possible to grow up and become his leading +lady. I am sure that the very paragon of modern-day leading men could +not come up to my childhood estimate of Mr. Richard Bennett. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + _Seven qualities that indicate fitness for a screen career_ + _--Why they are important--An illus-_ + _tration of vitality._ + + +As I have said, I have been asked by thousands of correspondents for +the formula for screen success. I have never felt able to answer. I +don’t believe there is any such formula. + +Putting the proposition another way: + +If I were requested to choose from among ten beginners the one who +would go the farthest in motion pictures I should unhesitatingly lay my +finger upon the one who possessed the following qualifications: + +(1) Natural talent. + +(2) Ambition. + +(3) Personality. + +(4) Sincerity. + +(5) Agreeable appearance. + +(6) Vitality and strength. + +(7) Ability to learn quickly. + +I am sure that I should not go far wrong if I were to place my trust in +one endowed with these qualities. + +A natural talent for acting implies more than a mere desire to act. It +is the art, usually discovered during childhood, of mimicry, and the +joy in that art. + +How many of us have been convulsed in our earlier years at some school +girl friend’s take-off of our teacher? How many of us, indeed, have +played the mimics? I seem to remember that in my grammar school days I +was called upon more or less to take-off one of our teachers. + +If not called upon I volunteered. None of my school chums got more +enjoyment out of my “imitation of Miss Blank” than I did. I never +dreamed at that time--or, if I did, they were vague dreams--that I was +to become an actress. Since then I have come to the conclusion that I +was actually taking my first steps toward what I chose as a career. + +Natural talent, as I have called it, is no more than a tendency toward, +or an aptitude for, some form of endeavor. In youth my first artistic +loves were for mimicry and painting--the latter of which took the form +of sculpturing--and both of these loves have been enduring. + +For that reason unless my candidate for screen success had previously +shown some love for acting or mimicry I should come to the conclusion +that he or she was intoxicated merely with the glamour of the +profession, with no especial love for the fundamental thing itself. + +This is an important point. If its significance were duly impressed +upon the thousands of girls and boys, who would like to choose the +screen for a career, perhaps, some of them would abandon their dreams +and turn to things for which they have displayed some natural aptitude. + +Ambition must, of course, go hand in hand with natural talent. In +any form of vocational training it is assumed that the student has a +feverish desire to succeed in the particular line that he has elected +to follow. It is the same on the screen. + +Possibly I might have written down enthusiasm in the place of ambition. +After one has attained stardom and thus, perhaps, achieved his or +her ambition the ability to sustain enthusiasm in one’s work becomes +more important than ambition. But ambition and enthusiasm are closely +correlated. + +They mean that one has an ambition to gain the top, and that to reach +that position one has the enthusiasm to practise all the forms of +self-denial, discipline and study that are important to artistic +success in any line. + +Personality is important for the reason that the camera has a way of +registering it unerringly. It is keen in detecting the weak or vapid. + +In my eight years before a motion picture camera I have never met a +person of inferior fibre whose inferiority was not accentuated by the +camera. For that reason to sustain success on the screen I believe +there is nothing more important than clean thoughts and clean living. +They do register. + +It is precisely the same with sincerity. In any line there is probably +little hope for those who lack this salient quality. But a motion +picture camera seems especially to delight in exposing insincerity. + +I think considerable of the success of Mary Pickford and Charles +Ray--to name but two stars--is due to their absolute and abundant +sincerity. The camera, finding so much that is clean and real, has +joyously reproduced it. It is the love that Miss Pickford radiates from +the screen and the obvious manliness of Mr. Ray that are among their +biggest assets. This is sincere love and sincere manliness, or it would +never be so emphasized by the camera. + +My candidate for screen honors, therefore, must have the God-given +quality of sincerity. Only that kind can feel deeply, think cleanly and +develop the sterling traits without which neither a camera or a public +can be very long deceived. + +I now come to the matter of personal appearance. This is a topic +in which every man under 65, and every woman under 100 years seem +interested. I sometimes wonder if it is not the desire to see how they +would look on the screen, rather than how they might act, that fills +so many boys and girls and men and women with an ambition for a screen +career. + +[Illustration: _Charles Ray, plus his abundant sincerity, as reflected +in “The Old Swimmin’ Hole.”_] + +I have found the subject of such universal interest that I believe it +deserves a chapter to itself. Therefore I shall dismiss this matter +until the next. I may say, however, that in my candidate I should rank +agreeable appearance and an expressive face as superior to mere beauty. + +To paraphrase, nothing succeeds like good health. Of itself it is the +most valuable thing that we should own. Good health can be translated +into terms of capacity for work. Therefore since a screen career means +both hard and trying work I should insist that my candidate possess or +develop the qualities of strength and vitality. + +I am aware that in many forms of art such artists as Chopin, Stevenson +and Milton, have become famous in spite of great physical handicaps. I +do not believe the same can be done in pictures. + +It seems to me that healthy persons like to see and be among well +people. Motion picture audiences being invariably in first-class +physical shape themselves, desire that those who appear before them on +the screen be likewise fortunate. It is my belief that an audience is +usually bored to tears by a convalescing hero or heroine. If I were in +charge of all the scenarios played I should cut such episodes very +short. They beget more impatience than sympathy. + +But it is not only because good health radiates from the screen that it +is important. In point of nervous and muscular strain, and the often +long studio hours that are necessary when production has begun, good +health is essential. + +To illustrate: While we were filming “Polly of the Circus” in Fort Lee +one morning I reported at the studio at nine o’clock. We were working +on some interior scenes that were vital to the success of the story. +My director at that time was Mr. Charles Horan. Mr. Vernon Steele was +playing the male lead. + +That day we became so engrossed in playing some rather delicate scenes +that before we knew it--or at least before I could realize it--it was +six o’clock, and we weren’t half done. + +“What do you say to continuing?” asked Mr. Horan. + +“Good; we’re right in the spirit of it,” I replied. + +We had a bite to eat and worked on until midnight. In spite of our +hard and earnest efforts there were several scenes with which we were +dissatisfied. + +“Well,” said Mr. Horan ruefully. “Tomorrow will be another day.” + +As he spoke it dawned upon me how one of the scenes on which we felt +we had failed could be done with probable success. + +“Why tomorrow?” I replied. “Let’s make a night of it if necessary. We +simply have to get that scene.” + +Mr. Horan grinned. That had been his wish. But he had feared breaking +the camel’s back. + +We worked until four o’clock that morning. Things went swimmingly. It +was broad daylight when I ferried across the Hudson but if I was very +tired I was equally happy. + +Several times during “Polly of the Circus” we had experiences which, in +the number of hours put in, were similar to that which I have related. +But in the end it was worth while. We had a picture. + +At that time I was feeling in the best of health but, even so, the +long hours had been a severe drain upon my none too great vitality. +For anyone lacking strength and vitality such hours would have been +impossible. + +It is not my intention to write a booklet on health. But all of us +should be very careful of our most precious possession. I know of so +many young girls in motion pictures who have let their health get away +from them. And some of the cases are so pitiful.... + +My candidate, then, will have strength and vitality and, equally +important, he or she will cling to both, whatever social sacrifices may +have to be made to preserve them. + +The ability to learn quickly will save anyone going into screen work so +much trouble and possible humiliation that it may well be listed as an +essential qualification. + +The screen is no place for the mental laggard. The beginner, +particularly, must be alive to learn the new lessons that each day will +bring, and learning them he must remember. + +During the course of production in a studio things are at high tension. +Time is money. Each of us constitutes a more or less important cog in +a great machine. Those cogs that inexcusably forget to function are +eliminated. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + _Beauty and the measure of looks upon the screen--_ + _Expression most important--Tragedies of_ + _doll-faces--Photographic “angles.”_ + + +What follows happened during the National Convention of Motion Picture +Producers in 1917 at Chicago. The convention was held at the Coliseum. +There were jazz bands, gay and costly decorations, and motion picture +celebrities from both Coasts. The carnival spirit ran high and +thousands of motion picture fans squeezed into that huge old building. + +The opening was called “Mae Marsh Day.” I shall not soon forget it. +That night as our party entered the Coliseum through the manager’s +private office I espied in the center of the building a newly erected +platform draped with bunting and decorated with flowers. + +“You will make a little speech,” the manager said. + +I gasped. I think I almost fainted. I had never made a formal speech. +The idea of it was as foreign to me as becoming Queen of the South Sea +Islands. + +“All right,” I gurgled weakly. + +My voice has never been strong. As I walked to the platform the +Coliseum was a bedlam of sound. I was introduced with difficulty. With +sinking knees I stepped forward. + +“Ladies and gentlemen I am sure I am pleased to--” + +A jazz band, which seemed to be located somewhere immediately beneath +my feet, began to loudly play. I didn’t know whether to dance or sing. +It was a medley in which “The Star-Spangled Banner” was predominant. I +blessed the band. I doubly blessed our national anthem. Looking about +me I saw a small American flag. I grasped it and stood waving it to the +strains of our national air. The convention was duly opened. + +Afterward, when I stood upon a small table giving away carnations until +my wrist ached--smiling like a chorus girl meantime--a woman informed +my mother that she wished to see me on an important matter. In the +press of those thousands of children and grown-ups I was virtually +trapped. + +“Tell her,” I suggested, “to call at the Blackstone Hotel tomorrow +morning.” + +She came. She was a plain woman with an honest eye. She brought along +two small daughters aged, respectively, ten and twelve, I afterward +ascertained. + +“Miss Marsh,” she declared, leaning forward expectantly in her chair, +“I think my two daughters should succeed in motion pictures. One of +them is very beautiful, and the other looks like you.” + +I told this honest lady, with as straight a face as I could command, +that while her daughters were still too young to think of playing in +motion pictures that some day, perhaps, I could do something for them, +particularly the one that looked like me. + +In approaching the matter of screen faces I am strongly reminded of +that Chicago lady. I believe her logic was essentially sound. There +is no measure of looks for the motion picture screen. If there is a +yardstick it applies to expression, or animation, and not looks. + +No one admires a beautiful face upon the screen more than I. If it so +happens that this beauty is allied with ability then I am often given +to the thought that they are not a congenial combination. For beauty, +ever a queenly quality, is diverting and manages in this way and that +to steal some of the thunder that rightfully belongs to ability. + +If, as sometimes happens, I see mere beauty being exploited on the +screen with no semblance of acting talent, I am ready to give up my +seat to the next one along about the third reel. Nothing palls upon one +more quickly. + +Therefore, I am at odds with those who believe that beauty is necessary +for the screen beginner. Say for beauty that it has the merit of more +quickly attracting attention to the one who possesses it and you have +done it full justice. But even then, if it is unaccompanied by ability, +it is just another tragedy of a doll-face. + +Acting is primarily the ability to express something. If the face that +conveys that feeling is not disagreeable then it becomes a matter of +not how much beauty is in the face but how much expression. That was +certainly the case with Mme. Sarah Bernhardt. All of us know plain +appearing persons whose faces, when they have something to say, become +interesting and expressive. + +They impress us as individuals whose beauty is inside or spiritual. +That is a lovely quality for the screen. On the other hand we know, +all of us, persons who are generally considered beautiful whose faces, +under any circumstances, have no more animation than a mask. These +people strike us as spiritually barren, lacking in humor, or something. + +If my candidate for screen honors has simply an agreeable appearance +and good eyes--which I consider most important of all facial +features--I shall be satisfied provided his or her face, and +particularly the eyes, are expressive. + +[Illustration: _A beautiful young star and her director, Mary Miles +Minter and Chester Franklin._] + +It has been my observation that while beauty or good looks is largely a +matter of opinion--which has furnished many lively debates--the quality +of expression or animation is seldom denied those who possess it. For +that reason my candidate, if he or she has an expressive face, will +have a more valuable and certain stock-in-trade than mere good looks. + +In spite of this logic most of us stars go on wishing to be thought +beautiful, or to have it thought that we could be beautiful if we +wanted to be. I recollect that it took time and courage for some of us +to brave our publics in other than our pet make-ups. + +There are, for instance, two stars who had always regarded their curls +as indispensable. After many years of stardom one of them decided to +take what she thought was a desperate chance. She skinned her hair back +and played the part of a little English slavey. The result was that she +turned out one of the most successful pictures in her career. + +Another, a dear friend of mine, we used to call “The Primper.” She +never appeared upon the set without her curls just so. I think at that +time she thought they were the most important part of her career. + +She has reformed. As her art developed she became less particular about +her hair dress. One night in a little theater in Jamaica, Long Island, +I dropped in to see one of her photoplays. It was an excellent picture. +Her hair was drawn back tightly over her head into a knot. That night I +wired her congratulations. + +No; curls, Grecian noses, up-tilted chins and rose-tinted cheeks are +not the measure of success upon the screen. It is something that goes +deeper than that. + +It is something that goes deep enough to over-ride facial defects. +There is one excellent little star, for example, who, because of a nose +unfortunately large, must always work full face when near the camera. +I think she is charming. Another, for an odd reason, permits only a +one-way profile to be taken. There are many such cases. + +Indeed, the majority of us have our “angles.” By “angles” I mean the +full, three-quarters, one-quarter or profile views in which we think +we appear at our best. Each star has studied that point out for his or +herself. And, since we are taking largely our own opinion for it, it is +possible we are mistaken. But our vanity upholds us. + +In my own case I was hauled into motion pictures while sitting rather +forlornly on a soapbox waiting for my sister Marguerite. Since at that +time I was without curls, having never had any before or since, and +looked as I look, so to speak, it has never been necessary for me to +expend any great amount of time in make-up. That has been satisfactory +to me. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + _The story, make-up and costuming--Rouge riots and_ + _their disadvantages--The blond_ + _and the “back spot.”_ + + +In any art or profession the ability to seize opportunity when it +presents itself is important. This is especially true in motion +pictures. Things move very fast there. It is like a game where the +knack of doing the right thing at the right time determines one’s value. + +After the beginner has done his extra work, or small bits, if he is of +the right stuff, he will some day be given a part. He may be unaware of +it, but that will be the biggest moment of his screen career. + +When doing extra work or small bits the critics, the public, and the +profession have paid little attention to the beginner. But once the +beginner secures a part he comes instantly into the eye of everyone +interested in the screen. We are all diverted by new faces. + +Thus the impression that the beginner will make in his first part is +one that will for a long time endure. It comes very near making or +breaking him. This may seem hard. Often it is unjust--a beginner may +have a part forced upon him for which he is unfitted. But it is true. +And we have to deal with conditions on the screen as we find them. + +For that reason when the big moment comes, and the part is secured, +the beginner must do everything within his or her power to be as well +prepared as possible. + +There are in this respect three important mechanical details that must +be looked after. I should list them as follows: + + (1) Studying the story. + (2) Studying make-up. + (3) Studying costuming. + +The beginner will be given the story--or script--typewritten in +continuity form. Continuity means the scene by scene action through +which the story is told. Ordinarily there will be some three hundred +scenes or “shots” to the average photoplay. + +The beginner will first look to the plot and theme of the story. We +want to know what the author is telling and how he is trying to tell +it. We find the big situations and the action that precedes them. More +important, we locate the why of it. + +When I have established the idea of the play I immediately go over the +script again with an eye alert for business. By business I mean the +tricks, mannerisms, and the apparent unexpected or involuntary moves +that help to sustain action. + +The value of good business cannot be over-rated. It goes a long way +toward making up for the lack of voice. Without clever business any +photoplay would drag. The two-reel comedy, which I have observed is +popular with audiences of all ages, is usually but a sequence of +business. + +If the business that is planned upon seems natural to the +character--the wiggling of a foot when excited, the inability to +control the hands, the apparent unconscious raising of an eyebrow, +etc.--I am sure there can be no real objection to it. The audience, who +are the final critics, love it. + +Just the other night I saw Mr. Douglas Fairbanks in a play the final +scene of which depicted him in the act of making love to his intended. +That there might be some privacy to the undertaking they were screening +themselves from the view of the guests--and the audience!--with a large +silken handkerchief. + +The girl might have stood still. If she had there could have no +criticism. Neither would there have been much of anything else, as her +face was hidden from view. She laid her hands over a balustrade and +wiggled her fingers. The audience roared. + +These are the things which keep a photoplay from dragging. They give +the action a piquancy and charm. + +Now while the audience may believe that these things are done on the +spur of the moment the facts are very contrary. These bits of business +must be planned in advance and it is only an evidence that they have +been well planned when they appear to be done unconsciously. + +While it is true that we have all discovered very telling bits of +business during the actual photographing of a scene, we can count this +as nothing but good fortune. To leave the matter of business until the +director called “Camera!” would be fatal. + +Thus in going over a script I look for business. I think of all the +business I can, knowing that much of it will prove impracticable and +will have to be discarded. Nor is that all. When the scenic sets upon +which we are to work are erected at the studio or on location, I look +them over very carefully in the hope that some article of furniture, +etc., will suggest some attractive piece of business. An odd fan, a +pillow, a door, in fact, anything may prove valuable. + +I should suggest to my candidate that he or she be just as alert for +good business as the star is. The good director is always open to +suggestion. Business may make all the difference between a colorless +and a vivid portrayal of a part. Thus for the beginner who, in +obtaining a part, has reached the most vital moment of his career, +the value of keeping an eye open to the possibilities of business is +apparent. + +[Illustration: _Mary Pickford’s love radiates from the screen. A scene +from “Pollyanna.”_] + +Make-up, like much of everything else on the screen, is a personal +matter. There are, however, some general rules that can be followed to +advantage. + +I should instruct my candidate not to make up too much. It seems to me +that I have observed a tendency in this direction recently. + +Some actresses have laid on lip rouge so thickly that their lips seem +to run liquid. Rouge photographs black. The result has been that this +riot of lip paint has given them the appearance of having no teeth. +Others have used too much and too dark make-up about the eyes. Nothing +more quickly ruins expression. Such eyes have the look of holes burned +in a blanket and for dramatic purposes are only slightly more useful. + +Since my candidate will have youth, good health and vitality he or she +will not have to resort to tricks of make-up. There are many such. I +recall the case of one actress who is considered a beauty on the spoken +stage. On the screen she discovered that the motion picture camera is +not very kind to some people. The lines and flabbiness which were in +her face were accurately reproduced. She thought, of course, they were +exaggerated. + +She was in despair until she found that by laying heavy strips of +adhesive tape over her ears and behind her neck--she wore a wig--these +lines and flabbiness were overcome. The tape pulled her face into +shape! But, I am sure it must have been painful. + +Another actress, it is an open secret, undergoes periodic operations +for the removal of the flabby flesh underneath her chin. Others +afflicted with the hated “double chin” rouge the guilty member heavily +with more or less success. Still others wear collars and necklaces to +thwart flabbiness. + +None of us need laugh; that is if we are in motion pictures. If we stay +there long enough we may be driven to similar measures. + +In make-up, to begin at the top, is to consider the hair. Let me say, +first of all, that this should always be kept very clean. The camera +has a way of treating us unpleasantly if it isn’t. + +Some actresses have set styles of hair dress which they seldom vary. I +think of Madge Kennedy’s “band of hair,” Dorothy Gish’s black wig and +the Pickford Curls. + +Dorothy Gish had tried many styles of hair dress and found none of them +to her liking. She experimented with a black wig and was delighted with +the result. It contributed something to her expression--brought it +out, as it were--which she felt had been lacking. Since “Hearts of the +World” she has never stepped before a camera without her trusty B. W. + +But while most of us have a favorite style of wearing our hair most +of us are forced often to lay aside that style to suit the character +we are playing. Playing a child we let our hair hang. The length or +abundance doesn’t seem to particularly matter. + +If enacting the daughter of a well-to-do business man then we may have +our hair plain or marceled to suit our fancy. Plain hair seems to +suggest sweetness. If playing a saucy character we must contrive some +dress that will convey the desired effect. + +Blonds, in motion pictures, are traditionally fluffy-haired. There is a +very good reason for this, by the way. Some years ago Mr. Griffith--who +usually does everything first--discovered that by leveling a back +spotlight on Blanche Sweet’s fluffy, blond hair it gave the appearance +of sunlight showing through. + +On the screen it was beautiful. Since that time the “back spot” has +been worked to death. In spite of the fact that it is an old trick it +is one that is still very much respected by the actress--or us blond +actresses, as it were. + +The back light shining through the hair has a tendency to take away all +the hard lines of the face. It leaves it smooth and free from worry. +How often in a motion picture have I heard the involuntary expression, +“How beautiful!” when such a shot--usually a close-up--is shown. + +Many of you may have wondered why a blond seems to have dark hair in +many interior scenes and blond hair out of doors. Here is one fault, +at least, that we can shift to other shoulders. If a blond’s hair is +dark indoors it is because the cameraman has failed in his lighting +arrangement. + +But even with the most expert manipulation of lights there is no rival +in motion pictures for the sun. For blonds and brunettes alike he is +Allah. + +And now since this matter of make-up requires more space and this +chapter is growing long we shall skip to the next. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + _More about noses and chins--Costumes as important_ + _to the star as a story to the director--_ + _Rags and riches._ + + +In the matter of face and make-up we seldom think of the forehead. Yet +I personally admire a pretty forehead very much and think it is as +important as a good mouth or nose, if secondary to the eyes. Comprising +as it does--or should--one-third of the face it is nothing if not +conspicuous. + +If to be deep and learned is to have an extremely high forehead then +to be deep and learned on the screen is to labor under one definite +handicap. For the girl with a too high forehead cannot skin her hair +back without appearing ugly. + +Those of us with medium foreheads are more fortunate. Whatever may be +said for our mental capacity we can, at any rate, skin our hair back +and thereby add very much to our expression. + +The girl with the high forehead compromises by trying to keep some of +it covered but it never gives quite the effect of hair drawn tightly +back. + +I should particularly admonish my screen beginner against too much +make-up about the eyes. For blue or gray eyes, a light gray make-up is +used; for brown or black eyes, a light brown make-up. + +We frequently hear it said that brown eyes photograph best for the +screen, but I have never heard anyone whom I would accept as an +authority say that. I believe that all colors are equally good. It is +far more important that a screen actress’s eyes be expressive than it +is that they be either brown or blue. + +Thus if we have expressive eyes and evade the error of making them up +so heavily as to create the “burnt hole” aspect we shall have nothing +to worry about. Generally speaking the more prominent the eyes and +eyebrows the less of make-up should be used. There are exceptions. + +A nose is something we can do nothing about. We either have or haven’t +a good nose. If the nose is so badly out of symmetry with the face as +to be unsightly its possessor will probably have to confine himself, or +herself, to character parts. There are some who have attained stardom, +even with ill-shaped noses, but I think of very few. These by devious +practices conceal the defect as well as possible. + +Make-up for the nose is usually for character and not star parts. A +spot of rouge at the tip of the nose will give it a turned up or pug +appearance. When playing a mulatto in “The Birth of a Nation” Miss +Mary Alden inserted within her nostrils two plugs that permitted her +to breathe and yet had the effect of greatly widening her nostrils. +The late and beloved “Bobby” Harron broadened his nose with putty in +the same play in one of the scenes in which he doubled as a negro. +The screen lost one of its sweetest and most lovable characters when +“Bobby” Harron died. + +But these cases were characterizations. For star purposes a nose is a +nose. The pity is that sometimes even well-shaped noses seem to lose +something or gain too much when they are reproduced on the screen. + +The lips and chin require a light make-up for the very good reason, +again, that to overdo in this respect is to stifle expression. It is +my opinion that those who are becoming addicted to an extremely heavy +make-up of lips are making a mistake. It is unreal. It is not art. Such +thick, sensuous, liquid lips as I have beheld on the screen during the +past year have never been seen on land or sea. + +The chin is a good deal like the nose. Very little can be done about +it. If it protrudes too much, or is abruptly receding, its possessor +will probably find himself chosen for character parts. Here what are +otherwise considered facial defects will be no handicap at all. On the +contrary they may be a decided help. + +As in the case of the ill-shaped nose there are stars who have +succeeded in spite of an absence, or too great presence, of chin. They +have learned the photographic angles at which they appear to the best +advantage. In one way or another, when working close to the camera, +they keep always within these angles. Thus they prove that there can be +an exception to any rule. + +If in the matter of make-up I can convince my candidate that he or she +will be better off by using as little as possible of it, I shall be +willing to pass on to the next topic. + +Hands, too, must be kept clean and are usually made up with white chalk. + +I often think that costumes are to the star as important as the story +is to the director. + +Whatever may be the case in everyday life clothes do make the man, +or the woman, in motion pictures. They establish character even more +swiftly than action or expression. No where so much as in motion +pictures does the general public accept people at their clothes value. +There are the over-dress of vulgarity, the shoddiness of poverty, the +conservatism of decency and so on, each of them speaking as plainly as +words of the person so attired. + +Now if mere over-dress, shoddiness, conservatism, and so on, were all +that were necessary the process would be quite simple. But the art of +costuming is more subtle than that. + +[Illustration: _Madame Nazimova, one of the few dramatic stars who +quickly mastered the art of the screen._] + +In each costume there must be something original and personal. In other +words, something that is peculiarly suited to the precise character +that is being portrayed. There must be also a color contrast or harmony +that will be favorable to good motion picture photography. + +In addition, the costume in a broader sense should harmonize with the +scenic setting. The costume, more than anything else, will establish +the fiction of age. To appear very young or middle-aged is to dress +young or middle-aged. + +In addition to its value in suggesting character the costume has +attained a new importance in that the screen has become a sort of +fashion magazine. The thousands of young ladies who live outside of New +York, London or Paris have come to look more and more to the screen for +the latest fashions, and are accordingly influenced. + +With this phase of costuming my candidate need not particularly +interest herself beyond remembering that women love to see pretty +clothes and that those who give them the opportunity occupy an especial +niche in their affections. + +The beginner who learns the knack of dressing for the screen in a +manner that is sharply expressive of the character being played, and, +in a way to bring out what the actress herself has come to regard as +her strong point, will find her pains rewarded. + +Mr. Griffith has always been extremely painstaking about screen +clothes. Even in the early days of the old Biograph two-reelers we had +screen tests for costumes. It was no unusual thing to hear him say, +after one of us had been at much pains to select a costume which we +thought did justice to both our part and ourselves, “No, that won’t +do!” Possibly we were trying to do too much justice to ourselves. + +Anyhow we often had as many as four costumes made before Mr. Griffith +was suited. Then he invariably suggested a ribbon, a fan, a bit of old +lace, etc., the effect of which upon the screen was always pleasing. + +I have been told that one of the sweetest and, at the same time, most +pathetic scenes done in motion pictures occurred in “The Birth of a +Nation” where I, as Flora Cameron, the little sister of the Confederate +soldier, trimmed my cheap, home-made dress in preparing to welcome home +my big brother. + +It was Mr. Henry Walthall, himself a southerner by birth, who suggested +this bit of business. + +You will remember the situation. The Camerons, an old and distinguished +Southern family, had been impoverished by the war. They were +preparing for the return of the big brother--played capitally by +Mr. Walthall--with the mixture of emotion to be expected under the +circumstances. I, as the youngest member of the family, was least +affected by our cruel poverty. The joy of being about to see my big +brother again overcame any other feeling. + +I begin to dress. The sadness of my stricken family cannot affect my +holiday spirit. I have but one dress. It is of sack cloth. I find +that its pitiful plainness is not in keeping with my happiness or the +importance of the event. Looking about for something with which to trim +that dress I find some strips of cotton--“southern ermine,” as it was +called. With these I trim that homely old dress, spotting the “ermine” +with soot from the fireplace, in a manner that I think will be pleasing +to my big brother. + +Mr. Walthall suggested the “southern ermine” and it was Mr. Griffith, +always kindly in the matter of accepting a suggestion, who built the +drama about it. I have had many women, from the North as well as the +South, tell me that to them this scene is the most affecting they ever +have seen in the picture drama. I know I have played few, if any, in +which I have felt more deeply the spirit of the action. + +In “The Birth of a Nation,” by the way, all of us were forced to do a +great deal of research work upon our costumes. This is a good thing. It +gets one quickly into the spirit of the drama that is to be played. + +As I say, I have always appreciated the advantages of modish dress upon +the screen even though I have had in my eight years of acting only one +“clothes” part. By clothes part I mean one in which the star dresses in +modern garments in every scene. I began my career as a screen waif with +the result that the literary men who have to do with the stories picked +for me, have kept me at this style of part. + +There is never a story written in which a poor, little heroine conquers +against great odds--usually after much suffering and not a few +beatings--but that many friends rush to tell me that so and so is “a +regular Mae Marsh part.” Such is the power of association. + +Yet I very much enjoyed my one dressed-up part. That was “The +Cinderella Man.” I understand that there was great doubt expressed +by the scenario department that I should be able to play such a role +for, since the heroine was the daughter of a wealthy man, there was no +occasion for her appearing in rags. + +Miss Margaret Mayo, the well-known dramatist, who wrote “Polly of the +Circus,” “Baby Mine,” etc., was here my stanch advocate. Both she and +Mr. George Loane Tucker, one of our greatest directors, insisted that I +could do the part. It was decided to make the trial. + +“Go to Lucille,” suggested Miss Mayo, “explain the story to the +designer and let her show you the kind of costumes she would suggest.” + +Expense was to be no object. Mr. Tucker and I met one afternoon on +Fifty-seventh street and, entering Lucille’s, we went into a clothes +conference with a designer. The result was a mild orgy of beautiful +gowns. + +It was decided that Lucille should make two dresses of a particular +design, one green and one gray, as the gown which I was to wear in a +great many of the scenes. + +Showing that cost does not indicate fitness I remember that the gray +dress--which was $100 cheaper than the green--was the one which we +decided to use. My costume bill for “The Cinderella Man” exceeded +$2,000. There are many actresses who spend far more than that for +clothes on every picture. But compared with the amount that I had been +spending in my “poor girl” roles that $2,000 was as a mountain to a +sand dune. + +“The Cinderella Man” was a great success and we were happy; +particularly Miss Mayo and Mr. Tucker, who had never doubted that I +could do a dressed-up part. + +The matter of costumes, then, is one of the important things that the +beginner must consider. On the screen clothes may be said to talk; +even to act. The male artists, I am sure, also realize this. But the +actress, particularly, must always dress in a manner to get the maximum +of benefit from her clothes whether they be cheap or expensive. + +In “The Birth of a Nation” during the famous cliff scene I experimented +with a half dozen dresses until I hit upon one whose plainness was a +guarantee that it would not divert from my expression in that which was +a very vital moment. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + _Camera-consciousness and a way to cure it--Why it is_ + _fatal to imitate--Some scenes_ + _in “Intolerance.”_ + + +The several qualities most likely to succeed upon the screen having +been discussed, and the importance of knowing the story, make-up and +costuming having been established, my candidate is now ready to go +before the camera. + +All that has been done before is but to build up to this vital moment. +The camera tells at once and usually in no uncertain terms whether one +is possessed of star possibilities. + +It is a sort of court from which there is no appeal. For that reason +every expression, every movement, every feeling and, I verily believe, +every thought are important once the camera has begun to turn. + +Now the actress or actor is standing entirely upon her or his own feet. +Previously they have had the benefit of all the advice and help that +the many departments of a studio could proffer. In a word they have +been able to lean upon someone else and to correct mistakes at leisure. + +It is different before the camera. The beginner will at once +feel very much alone and terribly conspicuous. This tends toward +self-consciousness, or camera-consciousness, which must be immediately +overcome or success is impossible. Camera-consciousness is the bane of +the beginner. I think most of us have suffered more or less from it. I +have known actresses who possessed it to such a degree that, finding +they could not rid themselves of it, they left the screen. By extreme +good fortune this never happened to be one of my troubles. + +Self-consciousness on the screen is much the same thing as stage fright +in the spoken drama and proceeds, I suppose, from the same source, +which is the inability to forget one’s self. + +When a dear friend of mine first began playing small parts she found +that she suffered from it. She also saw that it would certainly be +fatal if she didn’t cure it. + +“For that reason,” she said to herself, “the best thing to do is to +think so hard about the part that I am playing that I won’t have time +to think of anything else.” + +She gave herself good advice. Anyhow it worked and I am sure it +will be successful in the case of the average beginner. If so, then +camera-consciousness will really be a blessing in disguise, for it will +have taught the actress concentration upon her part and concentration, +in every fiber of one’s being, I believe, is the big secret of screen +success. + +I remember the case of one young actress who came to me in tears saying +that when she rehearsed her part in the privacy of her own home, or +dressing room, she felt every inch of it, but once under the gaze of +the director, the assistant director, the cameraman, possibly the +author and perhaps a number of privileged persons about the studio, she +seemed to wilt. + +“Look at it this way,” I advised. “When you are acting the director has +his work to do and is doing it. So has the assistant director. Likewise +the cameraman and the assistant cameraman have their work to do and are +doing it. So are the other actors. As for the lookers-on, request that +they leave. Then imagine you are in a big schoolroom where everyone +is busy at his or her lessons. You have your lesson to get which is +concentrating upon your part. Go ahead with it.” + +It helped the girl in question. She has become a very excellent and +charming star and while she still prefers to work upon a secluded stage +she does not find it positively necessary, as do some actresses. In any +event there is no trace of camera-consciousness in her acting. + +Camera-consciousness having been eliminated the beginner can now throw +himself or herself entirely into the part being played. By throwing +one’s self into the part I do not mean forcing it. Nothing is quite +so bad as that. I mean feeling it. If you do not feel the particular +action being played then the result will certainly be a lack of +sincerity. We have already decided that that is fatal. + +Let me illustrate: + +While we were playing “Intolerance,” one cycle of which is still being +released as “The Mother and the Law,” I had to do a scene where, in the +big city’s slums, my father dies. + +The night before I did this scene I went to the theater--something, +by the way, I seldom do when working--to see Marjorie Rambeau in +“Kindling.” + +To my surprise and gratification she had to do a scene in this play +that was somewhat similar to the one that I was scheduled to play in +“Intolerance.” It made a deep impression upon me. + +As a consequence, the next day before the camera in the scene depicting +my sorrow and misery at the death of my father, I began to cry with +the memory of Marjorie Rambeau’s part uppermost in my mind. I thought, +however, that it had been done quite well and was anxious to see it on +the screen. + +I was in for very much of a surprise. A few of us gathered in the +projection room and the camera began humming. I saw myself enter with a +fair semblance of misery. But there was something about it that was not +convincing. + +[Illustration: _Back to the old Mutual days with Blanche Sweet and +Wallace Reid._] + +Mr. Griffith, who was closely studying the action, finally turned in +his seat and said: + +“I don’t know what you were thinking about when you did that, but it is +evident that it was not about the death of your father.” + +“That is true,” I said. I did not admit what I was thinking about. + +We began immediately upon the scene again. This time I thought of the +death of my own father and the big tragedy to our little home, then +in Texas. I could recall the deep sorrow of my mother, my sisters, my +brother and myself. + +This scene is said to be one of the most effective in “The Mother and +the Law.” + +The beginner may learn from that that it never pays to imitate anyone +else’s interpretation of any emotion. Each of us when we are pleased, +injured, or affected in any way have our own way of showing our +feelings. This is one thing that is our very own. + +When before the camera, therefore, we must remember that when we feel +great sorrow the audience wants to see our own sorrow and not an +imitation of Miss Blanche Sweet’s or Mme. Nazimova’s. We must feel +our own part and take heed of my favorite screen maxim, which is that +thoughts do register. + +It is true that we have good and bad days before the camera. There are +times when to feel and to act are the easiest things imaginable and +other occasions when it seems impossible to catch the spirit that we +know is necessary. In this we are more fortunate than our brothers upon +the spoken stage, for we can do it over again. + +It is also very often true that even when we are entirely in the spirit +of our part, and believe we have done a good day’s work, that there +will be some mechanical defect in the scenes taken which makes it +necessary to do them over, possibly when we feel least like so doing. + +In this event it is a good thing to remember that it doesn’t pay to +cry over spilt milk. We must learn to take the bitter with the sweet. +Fortunately the mechanics of picture taking are constantly improving. + +The hardest dramatic work I ever did was in the courtroom scenes in +“Intolerance.” We retook these scenes on four different occasions. Each +time I gave to the limit of my vitality and ability. I put everything +into my portrayal that was in me. It certainly paid. Parts of each +of the four takes--some of them done at two weeks’ intervals--were +assembled to make up those scenes which you, as the audience, finally +beheld upon the screen. + +Therefore, when first going before a camera it is well to resolve to +put as much into one’s performance as possible. We cannot too greatly +concentrate upon our parts. If we do not feel them we can be very sure +they will not convince our audiences. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + _Over-acting and a horrible example--the value of_ + _repression and emphasis--How we_ + _act with the body._ + + +Good screen acting consists of the ability to accurately portray a +state of mind. + +That sounds simple, yet how often upon the screen have you seen an +important part played in a manner that made you, yourself, feel that +you were passing through the experiences being unfolded in the plot. I +imagine not often. + +If a part is under-played or, worse, over-played--for there is nothing +so depressing as a screen actress run amuck in a flood of sundry +emotions--it exerts a definite influence upon you, the audience. + +You begin to lose sympathy with the character itself. You are +interested or irritated by the mannerisms--often hardly less than +gymnastics--of the actor or actress. You never identify such an actor +or actress with the part they are playing for the very good reason that +they are not playing the part. They are playing their idea of acting +_at_ a part. + +In any event your interest in the story crumbles. What the author +intended as a subtle character development flattens out. An ingenious +plot is ruined by its treatment. You index that particular evening as +among those wasted. I know. I have done the same. + +For those who would like to take up the screen as a career, however, +such an evening may prove very profitable. For it is the learning what +not to do that is important. There never was a character portrayal done +upon the screen that could not have been spoiled without this knowledge. + +I have in mind a photodrama of 1920 that because of the excellence +of its plot gained quite a success. But for me it was ruined by the +ridiculous overacting of the heroine. + +She had beautiful dark eyes and seemed to think--it was a +melodrama--that the proper way to display screen talent was to dilate +and roll those eyes as though she were constantly in terror. + +She had added to that trick one of dropping her jaw which I understood +to be her idea of the way to register astonishment. I cannot begin to +describe the effect upon me of those horrified eyes and open mouth. At +the end of six reels I felt like screaming. There was no time when I +should have been surprised had she wiggled her ears. + +Either she was unfortunate in her choice of a director or he, poor +fellow, was powerless to stop her once she had decided upon her +program of mouth and eyes. + +One of the first things that a screen actress must learn is the value +of emphasis. In the case that I have cited above the actress threw +herself emotionally (?) so far beyond the mark in little moments that +when a big situation in the development of the plot occurred she +had nothing left. The impression consequently was one of a strained +sameness. Than that there is no quicker way to wear out one’s audience. +It is like shouting at one who has sat down for a quiet chat. The shout +should be used at no distance less than a city block. + +No screen actress makes a shrewder use of emphasis than Norma Talmadge. +She seems invariably to hold much in reserve with the result that when +she does let go in a big emotional scene the effect is brought home +to the audience with telling force. There are other actresses who +play with reserve. But it is important that with Miss Talmadge her +repression seems ever illuminated by the fires of potential emotion. + +The student of the screen will do well to study these matters of +emphasis and repression. They are all important. Our manner of life +itself is an accepted repression, outlined by laws for the streets and +conventions for the drawing room. From the screen viewpoint repression +is a vital thing, if for no other reason than the fact that it gives +the audience a breathing spell. After a breathing spell it is the +better disposed to appreciate emphasis. + +Whenever I study a scenario or story it is with an eye for the contrast +of moods and the situations that call for emotional emphasis. I plan +in advance of the actual camera work the pace at which I will play +various stages in the development of the story. By shutting my eyes I +can almost _see_ how the part will look upon the screen. If there is a +sufficient contrast of moods and opportunity for emphasis I feel that I +shall, at least, be able to do all within my power to make the story a +success. + +The physical strain before a camera is a peculiar thing. At no time +is the motion picture actress or actor called upon for a sustained +performance such as is true on the spoken stage. For that reason we +should theoretically be in condition to put forth our very best efforts +on each of the short scenes or “shots”--averaging not over two minutes +in photographing--that we are called upon to do. The ordinary director +is well satisfied if he averages twenty “shots” a day during production. + +But here, I should say, appearances are deceiving. Genius has been +described as the ability to resume a mood. In the case of motion +pictures it is necessary that a mood be resumed not once or twice, but +possibly twenty times during a day. + +[Illustration: _Norma Talmadge whose acting is notable for its +admirable repression._] + +This is no less important than it is at first difficult. There may +be an hour or two hours’ interval between scenes--often longer than +that--and picking up the thread of the story where it was dropped, the +actress must resume the mood of her characterization. + +I can suggest no better aid to this undertaking than retiring to one’s +dressing room and remaining quiet. Absolute quiet is an excellent thing +for the actress during the working day. It gives her a rest from the +turmoil of the studio set. It provides her a chance to do a little +mental bookkeeping on the part she is playing. I have found it a great +help. + +This ability to resume a mood, however, soon becomes something that is +subconsciously accomplished and for that reason need not be too much +worried over by the beginner. + +There is one quality on the screen that the audience always likes. That +is vivacity, and by vivacity I mean both of the face and the body. + +Vivacity in this respect is a lively and likable sort of animation +which goes a long way toward establishing that mercurial quality which +is known as “screen personality.” + +I have never heard anyone give a very good definition of “screen +personality.” The most that can be said is that some seem to have it +and some don’t. Certain it is that it is valuable quality, for it will +not stay hidden. + +In the news weeklies that are so popular on the screen I can, in +a group of men or women, almost instantly pick those persons who +have screen personality. It makes them stand out sharply in contrast +to their companions. Ex-President Wilson, for instance, has screen +personality while President Harding, I am certain, will make a better +President than he would an actor. + +The movement of the body contributes to this sought after animation. +The body is almost the equal of the face in expression and the way to +talk and use the hands and feet are things that must be sedulously +studied. + +Many stage directors have advised famous actresses to “learn how to +walk” and before a camera one not only has to learn how to walk but how +to walk in many different ways. + +We would not, for example, expect a little girl on New York’s East Side +to employ the same body carriage as a society girl walking down Fifth +avenue. There seem to be so many schools of walking! + +Thus in going over a part it is of the utmost importance that we +decide upon the way our heroine is going to carry herself and then +throw our body, as well as our thoughts and expression, into our role. +I have often used this matter of walking--I was about to say art of +walking--to very good effect. I should advise the beginner to observe +the many different ways in which various persons accomplish expression +through the movement of the body. + + * * * * * + +It was in the early days. It was in Yonkers. We were making “The +Escape.” It was a street scene and we were working with a concealed +camera. Mr. Donald Crisp was playing the brutal husband. He drew back +his fist to strike me. I was the forlorn wife. + +“If yu’ touch that lady I’ll knock yer block off,” said a threatening +voice. + +It was a young Yonkers bravo. Absorbed in the scene he had forgotten +that it was acting, particularly with the camera concealed. + +I often think of that incident when at a picture play I hear someone +say: “People don’t act like that in real life.” + + * * * * * + +If I were a director there is nothing I should rank as more important +than rehearsals. I do not mean merely running over the scene before +it is filmed. All directors do that. The ideal rehearsal is one which +calls together the leading parts perhaps a week before production and +meticulously works out every vital scene in the story. + +No director of the spoken stage would think of producing a play without +doing this. Yet in motion pictures a production that may cost twenty +times as much as the average spoken drama is often put on with twenty +times less of care in rehearsal. It is illogical and costly. + +Working with the director of the type who leaves everything until the +last minute the actor or actress feels a strain that takes away from +the performance rendered. On the other hand where painstaking rehearsal +is practiced the actor acquires a poise and deftness of touch that +justify the preliminary preparation, say nothing of the labor spared in +editing. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + _Long shots, intermediates and close-ups--“Hogging_ + _the camera” and ingenious leading men--_ + _Keeping one’s poise under fire._ + + +While the actress will exert herself in every “shot” or “take”--as +the separate exposures of a scene are called--she comes to know that +the result of her acting upon the screen is greatly influenced by the +distance from the camera that she has worked. + +There are, for our present purposes, three different distances which +we work from the camera. There is the long shot, the intermediate and +the close-up or insert. With the gradations of these we need not now +concern ourselves. + +The long shot is usually taken to establish the atmosphere and setting +of a scene. In this the actress finds herself ordinarily so far from +the camera that her facial expression registers indifferently. For +that reason the body movement, with which she is playing a character, +substitutes for facial expression. She is known to the audience by her +costume and carriage and makes her appeal largely through these. + +Most of the dramatic action is now played at three-quarters length; +that is from the face to the knees. As we weave in and out of a +scene, very often the entire body is shown and the feet have their +opportunity for expression--they assuredly act!--but the majority of +the intermediate shots through which the dramatic action is conducted +cut off the lower part of the body. + +Here, in brief, is the combination of facial expression and bodily +movement that establishes the actress. It will be through the +intermediate shots that my candidate will make or break. All our +preparation for a part and our fitness for it are here brought to the +test. + +An important item in this phase of screen acting is the effect that +those playing opposite will exert upon one. The good actor or actress +helps one. Things seem to swim along. Work becomes a pleasure! + +But very often the actress will find that she is forced to work +opposite other actresses or actors whose style is disagreeable. If +they are too loud or too full of antics it has the effect of taking +your mind off your work--if you let it! In such a case very often the +director will observe the difficulty and a word of caution spoken in +private to the offending actor or actress will improve conditions. + +But sometimes the director is not observing and you are forced to make +the best of conditions. I recall one rather well-known actor who, +to use a frank expression, “spits as he talks.” If I should ever be +compelled to play opposite him again I should prepare myself either +with an umbrella or a bathing suit. I think it was only his total +unconsciousness of this habit that made it possible for me to continue. + +We women are told that we are very vain. Perhaps we are. But if my +experience with male actors may be taken as a criterion I should say +that vanity has been pretty well distributed throughout the world. + +With a few notable exceptions, I make bold to affirm that the leading +man counts that day lost when he has not stolen the camera from the +star (poor girl!) not once but several times. In the profession we call +this “hogging the camera.” + +The tricks that some of these amiable gentlemen will play to keep +themselves in the immediate center of the foreground deserve nothing +less than a volume. This leads to many amusing experiences. + +I remember one leading man who had a habit of falling back from the +camera during the progress of a scene. The result of this, of course, +was to turn me toward him, leaving my back exposed to the camera. He +was very ingenuous. I thought, at first, the habit was unintentional. + +But as work upon our play progressed he repeated this maneuver often +enough to convince me that I was dealing with a rather clever artist in +his way. I began to anticipate him. When he started to drop away from +the camera, instead of turning toward him, as I had previously done, I +stood still and practiced talking over my shoulder. + +This had the value, at least, of showing my face and not my back to the +audience. In addition it gave me an unequal prominence in the picture, +since he was standing three or four feet behind me. Realizing his +disadvantage he quickly resumed a position beside me and thereafter +abandoned his little trick. + +Since that time, however, I have seen him in other plays and he is +quite as original as ever. + +I might go on indefinitely with such instances. Enough that the artist +must be on her guard for it seems to be acting-nature to want to “hog +the camera.” But as the stars and directors are aware of this tendency +its accomplishment has become more difficult. + +It is particularly trying, too, to play opposite one of your own sex +who insists upon over-acting. This is a common case. This kind of +actress generally realizes that she has but a few important moments +before the camera and is determined to make the best of them even if +she has to “act the star off the set.” I have actually felt sometimes +as though I were being pushed from the stage by some actress, who, +without any particular reason, has come in like a whirlwind. + +[Illustration: _A long shot, the author, and some screen beginners in +the days of “Hoodoo Ann.”_] + +The beginner will find himself best off if he does not let the style of +those playing opposite him affect him too much. If the style is good +take advantage of it. It will be real help. If it is bad one should the +more concentrate upon his part and thus maintain his own poise under +difficulties. + +If in these important intermediate shots where the most of the dramatic +action is sustained we remember the various points that we have +discussed we should come off acceptably. + +The silent drama is silent only in its completed product. Before the +camera lines are spoken and it is of utmost importance that they be +pronounced clearly and with feeling. + +In spoken sub-titles that are expressively mouthed and well-timed in +the cutting, the sub-title seems to blend in with the voice--though it +be unheard--of the speaker, particularly so to the spectator who is +clever at lip-reading. + +While it is not necessary to memorize a great number of lines, as on +the spoken stage, it is necessary that those lines which are read be +given with the correct shade of feeling, just as they should be on the +dramatic stage. + +Lines are particularly important to many persons who show a maximum of +expression while speaking. Here the silent voice is a genuine asset. + +Most close-ups, or inserts, as we call them, are of the face alone. +Sometimes there may be a close-up of a hand, a foot, etc., but the most +acceptable style of direction these days seems to be not to overdo in +this respect. + +In the close-up the face of the actress is usually about 24 inches from +the camera. Every line of her face, every thought, indeed, her very +soul, will now be more or less registered. Nothing, in the whole range +of screen acting, is more effective than the close-up. + +The insert is always to depict a particular emotion. In a single scene, +in the intermediate shots, we have perhaps expressed several degrees of +feeling but in the insert it is a matter of one emotion at a time. + +Here we are not aided by the action or expression of any brother +artist. It is entirely a matter of imagination or feeling. The lens of +the camera, like the eye of a Cyclops, is staring sheerly at us and +it is not necessary to feel its breath to believe that it is a living +thing. + +When called upon for an insert we know precisely the emotion that we +are supposed to express and will bend every effort to concentrate upon +it. + +To begin with there are two important things to remember in the insert. +One is that the make up should be very much lighter than in the long +or intermediate shots; the other, that the action will be slower. + +The reasons are fairly obvious. If the same make up that is used in the +dramatic action is continued it becomes immediately too conspicuous. +Slower action is necessary because at the distance of two feet the +camera is limited in the speed of movement that it can faithfully +record. + +In the insert we are ever reminded of the value of repression. The mere +expression of the eyes may be all that is necessary to convey to the +audience the emotion of the player. The truth is that the effectiveness +of the close-up seems to be in inverse proportion to the amount of +facial action in it. + +When we behold an insert in which there is much grimacing and +contortion of the face we realize that there is no real depth of +feeling. It is playing at feeling. + +On the other hand I have seen vital emotion so delicately expressed +in the insert that its effect was haunting and beautiful. Observe in +“Broken Blossoms” and “Way Down East” the close-ups of Lillian Gish. + +Much as the good old “back spot” is popular among the fluffy blonds, +so is the insert welcomed by all screen actresses. We believe that +it shows us off at our best and brings us nearer, as it were, to our +audiences. + +Yet there are some actresses favored over others by the insert. One +whose features are naturally coarse, or hard, loses something when +in close contact with the camera. Others, like myself, who have small +features, and believe, therefore, that we are often at a disadvantage +in the long and intermediate shots, are only too glad of the +opportunity to prepare for an insert. + +Indeed, our directors sometimes make a jest of saying that we seem to +want a drama of inserts. But it is never quite so bad as that. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + _Atmosphere and studio morale--Where best work is_ + _done--Importance of story--Value of_ + _“Observation Tours.”_ + + +The beginner has learned that he or she must at all times stand +solidly before the camera upon his or her own feet. I mean this in a +metaphorical sense. So much depends upon courage and self-reliance. + +If it is well not to let the style of supporting artists affect one, it +is equally well to steel one’s self against the conditions under which +one must sometimes work. + +The motion picture, after all, is a commercial proposition. It is very +much so to the producer. For that reason the beginner will find that +different studios create and maintain their own atmosphere. Here one +will discover a wide range. But since we may consider ourselves called +upon to work now in New York, again in California, and sometimes in +Florida, passing from studio to studio, we shall win a big battle if at +the outset we will determine to let conditions and studio atmosphere +affect us as little as possible. + +It is here, again, a case of taking advantage of conditions if they are +good, and trying to ignore them if they are distasteful. + +I know from experience that this will be a hard thing to do. If the +actress finds, in the very air of which she breathes, unpleasantness +and intrigue, she will be normally inclined to resent it hotly. Yet +such resentment only takes away from her acting, for it diverts her +mind, and she will be the greater loser as between herself and her +producer. + +I have worked under such profound systems as considered studio spies +and time charts upon make up, etc., as necessary to production. I will +leave it to the reader to decide how much morale one will find in this +sort of studio. + +Fortunately such a studio and such a morale are the exception. But, if +encountered in the many vicissitudes that an actress will face, it will +be well to make the best of it; to steel one’s nervous system against +odds. Self-reliance in such a case is no less than golden. + +But in the majority of studios the manufacture of motion pictures is +not put upon the same level as the making of gloves or brooms, and the +beginner will find a kindly and friendly atmosphere both charming and +helpful. + +In those studios that glow with a warm, friendly atmosphere there +is always a good-natured rivalry and spirit of fellowship which is +certain to reflect itself in the finished picture. For that reason it +is a genuine asset. Here hours are buoyant minutes and the actors and +directors find their reward in the excellence of their endeavor, as +well as somewhere in Heaven. + +Another point that the beginner must remember is that it is much harder +to make good in pictures now than it was when I started. That, of +course, is because of the greater competition. + +Where ten years ago there was one boy or girl ambitious for a screen +career there are now a thousand. I often think that the screen has been +very kind to those who had faith in it in its babyhood. It has brought +to so many of these fame and fortune. + +And sometimes, when I observe some fairly competent actress or actor +thwarted in an attempt to reach stardom, I wonder if the screen, after +its own fashion, is not asserting itself for this lack of faith in +those early days. + +At any rate those who got in first secured a big advantage over those +who wondered if a multiple-reel picture could be a success and doubted +it for, as some said, “It would be too great a strain upon the eye.” + +But if there are more aspirants now there are assuredly more +opportunities and my candidate need have no fear. Sooner or later merit +may be counted upon to assert itself. All about us in motion pictures +we every day perceive the truth of this. + +It is also true that the screen is in a state of constant change. The +methods of acting change; the methods of direction; the methods of +presentation; the methods of story selection--all is continually in +flux. + +No one knows what another five years will bring. But we do know +that some of our prized pictures of five or more years ago would be +instantly pointed out as old-fashioned by the average theater-goer. +That is because there is no fundamental point about them that has not +been somehow affected by time. + +Yet no pictures I ever will make will be dearer to me than my “The +Sands of Dee,” “Apple Pie Mary,” “The Little Liar,” “The Escape,” +“Hoodoo Ann,” “The Wharf Rat,” etc. + +This constant evolution is a matter to be reckoned with. To stand still +is to be lost. We must always be pushing ahead. For that reason the +beginner and the star will find it greatly to their advantage to follow +everything that is done on the screen. + +In unexpected places we discover new development. Some unheard-of +player in a boisterous two-reel comedy may disclose some little trick, +or expression, or bit of business, that can be easily interpolated in +the more serious drama with good effect. And so on. + +[Illustration: _A pair excellent in its screenic balance--Gloria +Swanson and Thomas Meighan._] + +We must read widely. Try as they may, we can be mortally certain that +no scenario editors can always supply the vehicle which we feel is +suitable for us to play. There will come a time when the actress will +be thrown upon her own resources, either in the matter of rejection or +selection of a story. She must be able to put her finger on what she +considers a vital defect in some narrative that appeals to the editor, +or discover for him good points in some other story against which he is +prejudiced. + +In any event it will be extremely hazardous not to participate as much +as possible in the business of deciding upon the play. + +Nothing is so vital as a good story. Even when poorly acted it will +be of greater appeal than a well played scenario of no merit. Motion +picture actresses prosper almost in exact ratio to the inherent worth +of their scenarios. + +At first this story matter will not greatly concern the tyro. But as +the beginner finds himself or herself slowly crawling up the ladder to +stardom he or she will do well to think often upon the type of story to +be preferred if given a chance to star. + +By this process the beginner will be visualizing himself in a role. +Of a certain his most pleasant visualization will be the role in +which he feels that he would be at his best. In such a way, when the +chance comes, the star may know exactly the story he or she will fit +perfectly. + +Once the story is decided upon there are many ways to bring to it +genuine color. In several of my early plays Mr. Griffith sent me down +into the New York slums on an “observation tour.” We all made such +tours. In “Intolerance” I visited sick and stricken mothers in baby +hospitals. We spent a half-day once in a jail observing the characters +therein. + +It is always important in acting to show a thing as it is, not as we +think it ought to be, and for that reason these “observation tours” are +of great benefit. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + _Mr. Griffith and some of his methods of direction--_ + _What everyone associated with the screen_ + _owes to him--About patience._ + + +I have planned all along to dedicate this chapter to Mr. David Wark +Griffith, and now that I have arrived at it, I find that my pen is +unequal to the task. No mere chapter, nor book, could undertake to tell +Mr. Griffith’s importance to motion pictures. The things that he has +accomplished in the past ten years, invariably in the face of great +odds, almost pass belief. + +For Mr. Griffith I have the strong and mixed feeling that the child has +for its benefactor, or the student for a beloved preceptor. At an age +now where I can more appreciate the many trials that he endured I look +back fondly to those days when Mary Pickford, Blanche Sweet, Lillian +and Dorothy Gish, Robert Harron, and myself were beginning our careers +and at the same time founding what has come to be known as the Griffith +school. + +Nor were we all. If the list of actresses, actors and directors who +spent the formulative days of their screen careers with Mr. Griffith +were compiled I believe it would be found to include many of those who +have reached the heights. Mr. George Loane Tucker, Mr. Thomas Ince, Mr. +Marshall Neilan and Mr. Raoul Walsh, to name but four, were directors +that he started on the road to success. + +Those were the days of the old Biograph. I am sure they were of the +happiest that any of us ever have spent. We made two-reelers then. But +we made good two-reelers. And the guiding genius of the organization +was Mr. Griffith, tireless in his quest for something new, something +big, something that would expand and elevate this new art to which he +had pledged his very soul. + +His energy in those days, just as it is now, was astounding. Traveling +from New York to Los Angeles not long ago, I happened to meet aboard +the train Mr. Griffith’s private secretary. + +“He seems never so unhappy,” she said, “as when he is taking a day off. +He mopes around the studio, hands in his pockets, with an air almost +comical. It is as though he were silently resenting such foolishness as +days off.” + +With this energy I remember those early days best for Mr. Griffith’s +infinite patience. I can truly say that he had the patience to make us +succeed. He never despaired no matter how backward we might be. He +kept at us constantly to bring out the best that was in us. And even on +those extraordinary occasions when he seemed to lose patience--usually +when we had worn his nerves to a frazzle--we always had that wonderful +feeling that he was intensely loyal to all of us. + +Those were the days when in addition to schooling us to pictures Mr. +Griffith was constantly experimenting with such things as close-ups, +fade-outs, etc., that were to revolutionize the entire picture drama +and lift it above the atmosphere of the nickelodeon. + +For he did lift it. And he is still lifting it. + +Not only those privileged few of us who consider ourselves of the +Griffith school are indebted to his genius. Every actress, or actor, or +director, on the screen today, who has a weekly salary that runs into +three figures, can thank Mr. Griffith for making motion pictures big +and prosperous enough to so recompense them. + +It is not the money that Mr. Griffith has made possible, but the +dignity that he put into this new art for which we are most beholden +to him. Motion pictures were lightly held until “The Birth of a +Nation” shook an entire continent and showed the deep significance and +possibilities of the screen art. + +It took the courage of the born fighter and worlds of confidence to +put on such a picture as “The Birth of a Nation.” For here at one +step he was doing the unheard of thing, the thing almost everyone in +the profession said was impossible. But it wasn’t impossible to Mr. +Griffith. He did it. + +He has continued to do things just as fine. And if there is one fault +to which the most of us are addicted it is that we have come to expect +more than is humanly possible of this patient, humble genius. + +In my correspondence I am often asked many questions regarding Mr. +Griffith’s manner of directing. Wherein is it different from other +directors? Wherein does it excel? How is it possible to become +associated with him? Can he make anyone a star? And so on. + +These questions are, in a way, difficult to answer. So far as I know +Mr. Griffith possesses no magic lamp by which he makes a star out +of anyone. It is not any one quality--unless it be patience--but a +combination of many that make him the foremost of our directors. + +Mr. Griffith is extremely human. There is no unnecessary flourish, +or blowing of trumpets, about his manner of direction. That has the +simplicity of true greatness. He never lords it over his players +as I have seen some directors do. He is kindly, sympathetic and +understanding. + +[Illustration: _Mr. Griffith, at the left, directing a scene in +“Intolerance.”_] + +Perhaps we are about to do a very vital scene. Mr. Griffith tilts back +in his chair--he has a manner of directing while seated--and may say to +the actress: + +“You understand this situation. Now let us see what you would do with +it.” + +Here is a direct challenge. The actress is put upon her metal. After +giving the matter careful consideration she plays the scene after her +own idea. If she does it well no one is quicker in his praise than Mr. +Griffith. If otherwise, no one is more kindly in pointing out the flaws. + +In other words, Mr. Griffith gives the actress a chance. How different +from other directors I have seen. They might say under the same +circumstances: + +“You understand this situation. Now here is the way to do it. Follow me +closely.” + +With that the director will proceed to act out a scene according to his +notion of how a woman would conduct herself under given circumstances. +The flaw in this is obviously that a man and woman have a way of acting +differently in the same situation and Mr. Griffith, by letting the +actress show what she would do, is shrewd enough to profit by Nature. +Our self-sufficient director, on the other hand, wants us to act only +as a man would think a woman _ought_ to act in a given situation. + +In this way Mr. Griffith draws out the best that is in his players, +and, by seeming to depend upon them to stand upon their own feet, +maintains an enthusiasm among his players--a sort of big family +spirit--that I never have seen equalled in any other studio. + +I hope no one understands me to say that the actress, under Mr. +Griffith, has the say of how she shall act. Quite the contrary! No one +has a way of bringing a player more abruptly to his or her senses when +he or she is unqualifiedly in the wrong. + +And no matter how well we think we have outlined a scene Mr. Griffith +may entirely change it. When he does change it we know it is for a +reason other than a fondness for showing authority. In other words, he +has built up among his artists a great and abiding faith in his ability +to do the right thing at the right time, or, as importantly, have it +done. + +For another thing, Mr. Griffith is big enough not to be small about +receiving suggestions. His people know that, with the result that they +are always thinking up something to put into a scene that has not been +written there. He listens attentively to these suggestions, even though +he knows in advance that he probably cannot use one in a hundred of +them. Yet that one may be important enough to balance the patience +expended in listening to the other ninety-nine. + +To illustrate: + +In “The Birth of a Nation,” when the Cameron house was being mobbed by +frenzied negroes and the family had barricaded itself in the cellar it +was a matter of some moment how the little sister, which part I was +fortunate enough to play, would be affected. + +I can hear your average director: + +“Roll your eyes,” he would say. “Cry! Drop to your knees in terror.” + +In other words, it would be the same old stuff. It is this same old +stuff that makes so many pictures positively deadly. The least that can +be said about this conventional style of doing things is that, if it +cannot be criticized, neither can it be applauded. + +Mr. Griffith, when we came to the cellar scene, asked me if there had +ever been a time in my life when I had been filled with terror. + +“Yes,” I said. + +“What did you do?” he inquired. + +“I laughed,” I answered. + +He saw the point immediately. + +“Good,” he said. “Let’s try it.” + +It was the hysterical laugh of the little girl in the cellar, with the +drunken mob raging above, that was, I am sure, far more effective than +rolling the eyes or weeping would have been. + +Mr. Griffith is quick to appreciate the involuntary action of one +of his actresses while a scene is being played or rehearsed. As for +instance, in the court room scene in “Intolerance” (“The Mother and the +Law”) when I began unconsciously to wring my handkerchief and press it +to my face. + +“Good,” he said, “keep it up!” + +We are gratified when Mr. Griffith accepts any suggestion for business, +etc., for we know he has a fine sense of distinction and, for every +idea we give him, he returns a hundred. + +This system of suggestion extends beyond the players to the mechanical +department with the result that camera men and assistants, as well as +assistant directors, are always on the alert for something new. They +know their suggestion will be given due consideration. And for that +reason to Mr. Griffith and his staff we owe credit for most of the new +inventions of telling a story by pictures. This director is as expert +in the mechanics of his art as he is bold in story conception. + +We are familiar with that smoky, hazy, beautiful close-up that Mr. +“Billy” Bitzer invented by using gauze or placing the camera slightly +out of focus. In some recent pictures bearing the “D. G.” stamp I have +seen some beautiful blue values that I have not elsewhere observed. + +I find the space allotted to this chapter beginning to dwindle with a +sense of having left unsaid so many important and interesting things +about this wonderful director and his methods. But someday someone will +set down the true estimate of the man who has done so much for the +picture drama. And Time will write it even larger. + +Many of us are deeply indebted to Mr. Griffith and none of us owe that +which can be repaid. For he gave us of his genius and personality and +for these there is no return coin. + +Other directors I have had of many experiences and varied training. +Sometimes we have succeeded and sometimes we have failed, and success +is made only the more sweet by taste of failure. But whether we failed +or succeeded we know, all of us, that we did our level best. That is +something. + + * * * * * + +In the matter of public acknowledgement the stage has never been so +kind to its directors as the screen. We think of Belasco, Hopkins, +Cohan, not forgetting Mr. Oliver Morosco, and are almost done. + +But on the screen, to name a few of many, there are the De Milles, with +their uncanniness in seeming to make the screen talk; Tucker, with his +painstaking thoroughness and ability to limn the separate values of +a story; Neilan, with his quality of gay, unexpectedness; Tourneur, +with his grand manner of picturization; Dwan, with his workman-like +comprehension; Fitzmaurice, with his ability to make every scene +beautiful as a painting; Walsh, with his all-around cleverness--all +these are famous, and there are more. + +No medium has equalled the screen in its kindness to those who do +creditable work. Witness, for instance, our camera aristocracy. + + * * * * * + +While I have ridden faster than seventy miles an hour in an +automobile, have been “ducked” in lakes, rivers, and oceans--two of +them--have braved the wintry blasts of New England until I thought I +was frozen, and done scenes with tigers, bears and lions, I have never +feared greatly for my personal safety nor need the beginner. + +In really dangerous scenes “doubles”--acrobats, trick jumpers, bareback +riders, animal trainers, etc.--dress in feminine garb to resemble the +star, assume the role being played and risk death or danger for so many +dollars a day. The star’s services are too valuable to the producer for +him to allow her to take any unnecessary chances. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + _Opportunity for home life of motion picture actress--_ + _Los Angeles and New York as production_ + _centers--Screen morals and such._ + + +In this final chapter I shall try to say something about the home life +of the motion picture actress. In general actresses are of two classes: +those who act both on and off the screen, and those who confine their +efforts merely to the studio. + +The first class is not particularly open to censure. For, unless I am +mistaken, the public desires to see its actresses act on an average of +sixteen out of twenty-four hours. One friend of mine, a star, stoutly +maintains that she would not go to the theater in anything except the +most up-to-date garb and a conspicuous car! Why? Because otherwise +there would be sure to be many who would be disappointed in her! If +there is anything funny about this it is that it is somewhat true. + +Actresses, as public favorites, maintain a peculiar position, as Gil +Blas points out, somewhere between royalty and the citizen without +being of either. The public seems to feel something of pride when it +points out some glittering dreadnaught of an automobile, conspicuous +for color or equipment, and says, “There goes Dolly Twinkletoes!” + +Personally I have never had this inclination to act both “off and on.” +I am afraid, having been of a large family, I should have found it +extremely difficult even had I the inclination. A number of sisters, +and a brother or two, are a fine cure for any tendency to undue +importance. + +And now that I have an especially charming daughter, and am happily +married, I must really be set down as a conservative. That baby of +mine! Being detained beyond hours at the studio one night I hurried +home to see her before she was tucked in bed, having no time to take +off my make up. She gazed at me as though she were beholding a ghost or +a total stranger! + +A Chicago picture critic once gave me such advice as I think fit +to pass on to those who think of the screen as a career. “Save the +pennies,” she said, “they can always be spent if you have them.” + +Yet how many, with a splendid opportunity, do not save! Then some day +they wake up and find their golden chance gone. As an old philosopher +has pointed out, we, who find money so easy at times, must guard +against intemperance and folly. + +But this is not a sermon. We live up in the beautiful California +mountains. There, in a colonial house on a small acreage, with flower +and vegetable gardens, Airedales, chickens, a car, a cow, and a cat, +I have a feeling of substantial worth-while happiness and that is the +kind that counts. + +Indeed, one of the best things about motion pictures is that it +permits of a home life. The actress in vaudeville or on tour, or even +on Broadway with the uncertainty of the length of runs, never has any +surety where she will be on the morrow. We, in motion pictures, are +fortunate enough to sign contracts that usually call for a year or more +work in one city and that New York or Los Angeles. This, I should say, +is one of the most advantageous things about the screen as contrasted +with the spoken drama. There are many others. + +Since Los Angeles and New York are the two centers of the motion +picture industry each has its staunch advocates as to suitability, etc. +In any group of actresses and actors this will usually be the topic of +a lively discussion. Personally I like Los Angeles. At a dinner that I +attended some time ago the head of a big distributing company, who is +interesting for his shrewd observations, said there had never been a +really great picture done in New York City. “For the entire atmosphere +of life there,” he continued, “is too superficial.” + +I agree with him. Los Angeles is friendly and natural. Its climate is +only one of its many virtues. + +The screen actress will be called upon to meet the people of the press. +Interviews are important. She will find that the number of them will +usually be determined by the degree of success of her newest screen +play. As for screen writers, one will discover them, in the majority, +keen, sympathetic and altogether delightful. No one need have the dread +of coming in contact with them that I originally had; nor resort to the +subterfuges to evade them. I was very young then. + +Public appearance is another factor the screen has to deal with +and sometimes I think this is rather overdone. During the separate +campaigns for the sale of Liberty Bonds all of us tried to do our +share. While I never hope to be able to make a speech, I find that the +anticipation of being expected to do so fills me with greater terror +than actually being called upon. + +I believe it is a good idea for the actress to cultivate some companion +art. In between productions, or during an enforced vacation, she will +have something then as an off-set to mere indolence. I have been +interested in sculpture for many years, and I have an ambition to do +something in it that will be of real value. If I don’t, the ambition +will have been of real value, for it has assisted in providing me with +many happy and instructive hours. That is the main thing. + +[Illustration: _The author at home and happy._] + +The study of another art is interesting, too, because we immediately +perceive in its form and substance the truth of the saying that all +arts are one. Sculpture is a matter of repression and emphasis just as +acting is. And when I am doing the figure of my baby, or modeling from +life, I am startled to find that my errors, in their way, are akin to +the errors of the beginning actress. + +There may have existed at one time a silly idea that actresses +shouldn’t marry; that it hurt their box-office value, destroyed an +illusion, etc. As though actresses were not women! Most of my actress +friends are married and glad of it. Almost without exception those +who have gone highest in the profession are married. The public has +invariably been pleased about it. + +I should recommend any young actress to a suitable husband. It +will give her a better and deeper insight into life and broaden +her sympathy. There is something a little pitiable, something that +doesn’t ring quite true, about the actress too ready to boast of her +star-spangled freedom. + +I have often been asked about the morals of motion pictures. Will +someone tell me why we, all of us, are so deeply concerned with our +neighbor’s morals? And when we find them not all that could be desired +are we filled with sorrow and the wish to effect an honest reform, or +with a sort of unholy joy and a desire to spread scandal? + +It has been my observation that in motion pictures a girl can be as +good as she wants to be. In that way our profession is identical with +others. It is true that the glamour of the screen has attracted people +who would be undesirable in any business or profession. But we should +recognize them as such and never mistake them as representing the +entire profession. + +The majority of those who succeed in motion pictures do so by honest +work. That means long hours and application. I doubt if the average +successful business man puts in as much time or as high-tension effort +as the picture actress, actor or director who gets somewhere. My +friends are of that kind. They are too busy to worry unnecessarily over +what the public may think of motion picture morals. They assume only to +regulate their own conduct. + +I have enjoyed doing this book. From time to time I have been forced +to drop my work upon the urgent appeal of my eighteen-months’ old +daughter. She has gorgeous blue eyes with lashes long as twilight +shadows. Her cheeks are exquisitely pink and her little mouth is like +a rose-bud in spring. Her name is Mary. She has brought me worlds of +undreamed of happiness. + +Someday Mary may want to go upon the screen. Even now she acts before +the long mirror. If she can, in any way, secure her mother’s hat she +gives a complete performance. My blessed baby! + +When the time has arrived for her to start upon her career I shall +place my little book in her hands and say: + +“There is the most and the best that I knew about the screen back in +those old-fashioned days of 1921.” + + + + +Transcriber’s Notes + + Inconsistent hyphenation has been retained. + p. 30 changed “had” to “has” in “she has contributed”. + p. 40 changed “The” to “the” in “Polly of the Circus”. + p. 46 added a period in “mask. These people”. + Removed excess whitespace at bottom of p. 89 and top of p. 90. + p. 97 changed “diffculties” to “difficulties”. + p. 99 changed “bonds” to “blonds”. + p. 115 changed “closelly” to “closely”. +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77829 *** |