Motion picture actors and actresses; Motion pictures
“But what shall I do?” asked she helplessly, “I don’t know how to stand
or look.”
“You watch me,” rejoined the good Samaritan. “I’ll put you wise.”
Right then and there he arranged a code by which to defeat the
operations of a cameraman who, according to report, did not administer
his lens with impartial fervour. If he put his finger to his left cheek
it meant, “Turn to the left”; to the right, and the gesture was equally
logical. From this point onward the system progressed to all the most
minute provisions for securing some of the coveted attention.
How to engross the most of the camera! I regret to say that here on
the roof of this ambition has been wrecked many a lofty nature. The
public does not realise as it watches the beautiful feminine star look
up at the handsome male star over the moonlit stile the warfare that
may possibly have occurred as to which should get the more advantageous
focussing. Nor does it interpret the moving subtitle, “Promise me
you’ll leave me,” which may accompany this scene, in its correct spirit
of “Promise me you’ll leave me--a little of the camera.” I have known
sweethearts strangely impervious to the higher point of view when
it came to this test. And I shall tell presently of a husband who
skirmished fiercely with his famous wife on this particular point.
Mae’s case was far from indicative of such unappeasable appetite. Her
struggle was only for a just share of the camera. Indeed, she has
too much respect for a good story ever to offend by insistence on an
individual prominence, which often destroys the story.
She did insist on another director and on claiming my promise of “Sweet
Kitty Bellairs.” Both wishes were gratified. But perhaps, in spite of
her avowed admiration for the workmanship of Jimmie Young, no director
ever really took with her until she met Bobby Leonard.
“Girls, girls,” she cried on the evening of the day after she had
first worked under Bobby, “I’ve got a great director at last!”
She was radiant. As she tripped across the lot to her dressing-room
her blue eyes danced exactly like those of the little girl who has
finally drawn the gold ring at the merry-go-round. Nor did her
gratification stop at the studio. For, as all motion-picture fans know,
she subsequently married Viking Leonard, and they have been engaged in
living happily ever since.
Again I realise that I seem to be piping the honeyed lay of the
press-agent. And once more I protest my innocence. Bobby Leonard and
Mae Murray have, like Doug and Mary, one of those marriages based on
an intense common interest. They are both absorbed in pictures and
together they work out direction, business, costuming, and all the
minor chores of creating a picture. It is undoubtedly due to this
co-operation that Mae’s achievements have broadened so notably in the
past few years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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