Motion picture actors and actresses; Motion pictures
“Hmph,” duplicated Madge to her group, “she saw me do it and she
quickly did it first!”
Mabel behind the screens is as full of pranks as she is on the screen.
Madge Kennedy’s professional manner, on the contrary, is decorous to
the point of primness.
My contract with Mabel Normand contained one clause providing that
she should pay half for the clothes worn in her stories and that the
company should pay the other half. Time went by, however, and brought
us no bill from the star for our share of her stage wardrobe.
“How’s this,” I asked her one day.
She looked very much embarrassed. “Well, you see,” she replied, “I’ve
ordered so many clothes that I don’t feel right about letting you pay
anything at all.”
It was quite true. She did order lavishly. Instead of buying one hat
at a time she bought twelve. With frocks and other accessories it was
the same. To be sure, there are other stars whose expenditures in
this direction are equally impressive. Pauline Frederick, for example,
once got an exemption of fifty thousand dollars from her income-tax on
the basis of an investment of that amount in her wardrobe. I am sure,
however, that only a few of this number would have been halted by any
such scruples as those revealed by Mabel Normand.
I had the same wardrobe arrangement with Madge Kennedy. In her case,
however, developments were slightly different. One day my studio
manager came to me in a towering rage.
“See here, Mr. Goldwyn,” he began truculently, “Miss Kennedy has been
ordering a whole lot of clothes----”
“Sure,” interrupted I. “They always are.”
“Yes, but she doesn’t need them for her picture. She needs them for her
Autumn--that’s what!”
It was with difficulty that I persuaded him of the fact that Miss
Kennedy would never be guilty of such an imposition. Indeed, my success
was only temporary. For almost every picture which she made revived
this supposition that Madge was ordering more clothes than she needed.
Madge Kennedy was always prompt on the set and was most conscientious
in her efforts to do good work. No moods, no sharp edges, obtruded
themselves into any business relation with her. I ascribe this to the
regularising influence of a very happy marriage. Obviously she was
very much in love with her husband, a young New York business man who
frequently drove over to the Fort Lee studio to take her back to town.
From a being so well disciplined as Madge you would expect the
relentless care with which she guarded her health. At any party she
was apt to go off unseasonably as an alarm-clock. Once, I remember, I
invited her to a dinner-party in Los Angeles to meet Mr. and Mrs. Rex
Beach. The dinner had just ended and the party had hardly begun when
Madge rose to depart.
“What!” exclaimed Pauline Frederick, another of the guests, “you don’t
mean to say you’re going?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account