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Job Hunting in Hollywood
BY LOUISE GALLAGHER
THE came in before the advent of the flapper and like that persistent young person, though she has been criticized, condemned and held up to : ridicule, has held her own and steadily increased her ranks until today she occupies a place all her own in the picture industry. She comes in all types and styles, in a Packard, a Ford, and on foot, in satin slippers, sensible oxfords or blacked-over canvas, she takes her stand in the casting offices determined to be heard. She has something to sell on the bargain counter of cinema and, like any good salesman, presents her offerings with all the eloquence she is capable of an in the most attractive covering. Casting directors will tell you that she is the greatest nuisance of the age-a pest designed especially to annoy them.
The movie mother is a cross between the dear old fashioned type and the up-to-date expressive business woman of today. Would-be movie aspirants, and those who have already arrived, may have a father tucked away somewhere in the background but he is neither heard nor seen. He is not an asset and can be dispensed with at any time, for it is mother that holds the center of the stage.
A casting director was telling me about them the other day. “I can’t begin to tell you how hard they make life for us. No man like to tell a woman to her face that her daughter has no photographic qualities-that the field is overcrowded with plenty of her kind. She either looks at you in a pitying sort of way as though you have just escaped from some feeble-minded institute or treats with contempt your best evasive methods of getting her out before you commit murder. Most of the mothers who besiege motion picture studios are convinced that they have a daughter who can, without any apprenticeship at all, step right on a set and fill the place of Mary Pickford, Corinne Griffith or Norma Talmadge. A chance is all the gifted young amateur needs and mother is determined that she have it.
“They never take into consideration that no director would intrust a role of any importance whatever to an amateur no matter how gifted. Actor and actresses that come to us from the speaking stage realize that they must learn the art of acting before the camera, but the beginner thinks that all that is required for pictures is a certain amount of good looks. When we are casting for a picture we look about among the professional picture players for the person best adapted to the role. We are uninterested in the unknown-We have to be, for the cost of getting out pictures is too great to risk holding up production to replace someone who falls down on a part.
“You can’t explain this to a mother bent upon getting her wonderful daughter into the movies, in a language she will understand, no matter how plain and expressive you try to be. She takes the attitude that for some reason you are putting forth every effort to keep the dear little thing from getting before those higher up who would instantly recognize her great ability. If you try to be nice and friendly in your refusal, mother is apt to imagine you have other designs on daughter and lets you understand right in the beginning that she is on to your little game.”
What “Mother” Thinks.
“But some of the girls you turn away,” I said to him, “are beautiful and mother thinks they belong in pictures.” I would myself. “Is there no way for a person to know in advance whether they stand a chance of ultimate success in motion pictures? We all have a certain amount of personal vanity and when you look at a pretty girl as though she were a. piece of furniture that you wouldn’t even have on the installment plan, she is naturally offended.”
“Well, of course, no one can tell exactly how you will screen, but there are a few points we are sure of. For instance, clear blue eyes, though they may be beautiful in the original, will never do for the camera. Blue eyes with a tinge of green in them photograph fairly well, but not so good as brown or grey. Then, too, the health must be perfect, for the mere suggestion of bad health is caught by the camera and mars the appearance. You have to be slender for the public does not take to heroines who are not. Look at Mary Miles Minter. She would find it impossible to land a job now that she has taken on so much weight.
“The girlish appeal is no longer there. Pauline Frederick did not photograph well in her last picture because she was not in good health. Extra precaution was taken to give her good lighting, but the camera caught the tired look. Imagination is, I think, one of the greatest assets a candidate for screen honors can possess and is much rarer and harder to find than beauty. Directors are always looking for a person who, when give an idea, does something with it which the director himself had not thought of. It is always essential to have youth, because it is going to take years to learn the business. Perseverance and ambition are other qualifications.”
Hopefulness Eternal.
“How about an eternal hopefulness?” I asked him. “It seems to me I would mention that first to any of my friends wanting to join the ranks.” “I’ll admit that maybe mother helps to keep that alive, but she is not always wise in her methods of doings so. If you stick because you love the work, that is a different thing, but I honestly believe most of those trying to get in do so because they think that it is an existence of luxury and leisure. ”
Our conversation was interrupted here by the entrance of two women and a young girl of 14 or 15. The women were plainly dressed and were evidently people of moderate circumstances. The mother explained that they were anxious to get work for Gladys in pictures-she photographed beautifully and was a good dancer. The photographs were the expensive kind, showing daughter kicking up the usual tulle skirt. “Do you like to dance?” Mr. Hill asked her. The poor kid was scared to death but finally did get out, at a vigorous punch from mother, a timid, “Yes.” That one little word proved her Waterloo, for it disclosed a band around her front teeth.
“I wouldn’t have registered her anyway, but wouldn’t you have thought any sensible woman would know that band on the girl’s teeth would show if she opened her mouth? I tell you, it is the mothers who are to blame.”
“But some mothers have made their daughters great actresses, don’t you think, by just believing in them and making them stick?”
Not All Ma Pickfords.
“I doubt it. Of course, you are going to say look at Ma Pickford. Ma has managed well the good material she had on hand. She is a good businesswoman who would have made good in any line of work. The Talmadge girls like to say that ‘Peg’ is responsible for their success, but one look at her would convince you differently. They just say it because it sounds well. A few of the stars have sensible mothers who never make a nuisance of themselves. I actually one day overheard the mother of a star say that daughter looked like the devil in a certain costume. I nearly fell over at hearing such a remark from a movie mother.”
One of the Sennett bathing girls has a mother that goes around informing everyone who will listen to heryou fight shy after the first time-how wonderful Helen is. There is absolutely nothing that that girl cannot do better than anyone else. Two or three of the big producers are just waiting to grab up the proper story for her to star in. Did you see her in the Apache dance? Everybody, my dear, positively everyone who saw her said Gloria Swanson couldn’t touch her. When you had seen the picture, lasting about one second, you couldn’t help but wonder how the audience had time to even distinguish the difference between Helen and Gloria.
B.B. Boosting Club.
Sunday all seven of us cute little B.B. ‘s, of which fascinating young things Helen is one, went out to Ventura to boost the sale of lots for a real estate company. Why they thought motion picture actresses would put home building ideas in any sensible man’s head, I forget to ask them, being mosting interested in the $10 for the three hours spent there. We were all in sport clothes, that went with our out-of-door stage, with the exception of Helen, who was all gorgeously gotten up in white tulle and a floppy picture hat. We looked her over and no one said anything until she started to put on white kid gloves-that was too much. “What do you think this is?” Evelyn asked sweetly, “The Prince of Wales’ wedding?” Mother was right on-the job and replied for Helen, “You see, girls, they asked especially for Helen to be dressed up. And then, too, I never like for her to •. take a chance on not looking her type, as you never can tell whom you may bump up against.” We agreed later when we had to dance with some of the young men present, that you never can.
We are all going to kick on making any more personal appearance now that a new film star is blazing actors the cinema heavens and making personal appearances at all the theaters. This is Freddie, the trained seal, who plays the title role in the “Galloping Fish.” Freddie is being heralded as the Charlie Chaplin of the animal kingdom, but he reminds me more of a flapper well up on all cute little movements to attract attention. He is a native California son, having been caught off the coast of Santa Barbara when he was 18 months old. He is an all-round trouper, having appeared on big-time circuits since 1916. Freddie made such a hit in his last picture that he is liable to the star at the head of his own production company before long.
