They “sat in the audience,” and then sat in it again, and again and
again, for it seemed that Mr. Biograph Griffith was not satisfied with
just doing a thing once, and made you do it over and over until he was
sure it could not be any better, even if he had to keep you at it most
of the night.
Lillian and Dorothy got five dollars each, for that day, and felt very
proud of it. Dorothy especially. She had a grown-up feeling. Five
dollars a day—a real job. But, alas, early next morning Lillian took her
to a department store, and when the saleslady appeared, said:
“Have you a suit that would fit this little girl?”
But of course Lillian _was_ a good deal taller, and then she was “going
on sixteen.”
That day they had their first parts as regulars. At the studio, Griffith
said he would rehearse them a little. He took them upstairs, and chased
them here and there about a room, firing off a revolver. It seemed
unusual, but did not alarm them. They had been through too much
rehearsing, for that. Griffith wanted to see how they reacted under
fire. “All right,” he said when they came down, “but they don’t know
what it’s all about.” The picture he was making was “The Unseen Enemy.”
At the climax, two sisters are trying to telephone for the police, while
burglars in the next room are firing at them through a stove-pipe hole.
Lillian and Dorothy must have given a good account of themselves, for
they were at the studio daily, after that, absorbing a new technique.
They had no parts to learn. Mr. Griffith stood by the camera man and
told them what to do. Just what to do. Every minute. That was altogether
a novelty. On the stage you had to learn your part before you began. If
you forgot your lines, a prompter helped you out, but he didn’t tell you
what to do ... never shouted at you, like Mr. Griffith, who on the whole
was kindly ... even amusing. He tied red and blue hair-ribbons on them,
to tell them apart, though the resemblance was not striking ... a
fleeting thing ... momentary. Lillian was “blue,” Dorothy “red,” because
he said she was the spunky one ... would talk back. Anyway, it was
easier to call out directions to “Blue” and “Red.” They got in three
days on their first picture, and an extra night. Eighteen dollars
apiece. That was riches. They lived in furnished rooms, at 424 Central
Park, West.
[Illustration: DAVID WARK GRIFFITH]
II
GRIFFITH’S GROUP OF PLAYERS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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