How funny we were when we moved in the world of brilliant men and
beautiful women only we, who represented them, knew. Dress suits of all
vintages appeared. Any one with “clothes” had a wonderful open sesame.
A young chap whom we dubbed “the shoe clerk”--who never played a thing
but “atmosphere”--got many a pay-check on the strength of his neat,
tan, covert cloth spring overcoat--the only spring overcoat that ever
honored the studio. (An actor could get along in the spring with his
winter suit and no overcoat!)
Clothes soon became a desperate matter, so Biograph consented to spend
fifty dollars for wearing apparel for the women. Harry Salter and I
were entrusted with the funds and told to hunt bargains. We needed
negligees, dinner dresses, ball gowns, and semi-tailored effects. The
clothes were to be bought in sizes to fit, as well as could be, the
three principal women.
In that day, on Sixth Avenue in the Twenties, were numbers of shops
dealing in second-hand clothing, and Mr. Salter and I wandered
among them and finally at a little place called “Simone,” we closed
a deal. We got a good batch of stuff for the fifty--at least a
dozen pieces--bizarre effects for the sophisticated lady, dignified
accoutrements for the conventional matron, and simple softness for
young innocence.
How those garments worked! I have forgotten many, but one--a brown silk
and velvet affair--I never can forget. It was the first to be grabbed
off the hook--it was forever doing duty. For it was unfailing in its
effect. Arrayed in the brown silk and velvet, there could be no doubt
as to one’s moral status--the maiden lady it made obviously pure; the
wife, faithful; the mother, self-sacrificing.
Deciding, impromptu, to elaborate on a social affair, Mr. Griffith
would call out: “I can use you in this scene, Miss Bierman, if you can
find a dress to fit you.” The tall, lean actresses, and the short ones
found that difficult, and thus, unfortunately, often lost a day’s work.
Spotting a new piece of millinery in the studio, our director would
thus approach the wearer: “I have no part for you, Miss Hart, but I can
use your hat. I’ll give you five dollars if you will let Miss Pickford
wear your hat for this picture.” Two days of work would pay for your
hat, so you were glad to sit around while the leading lady sported your
new headpiece. You received more on a loan of your clothes, sometimes,
than you did on a loan of yourself. Clothes got five dollars always,
but laughter and merry-making upstage went for three.
Jeanie Macpherson had recently returned from Europe with clothes the
like of which had never been seen at Biograph. From the chorus of
“Hello People” at the Casino Theatre little Jeanie entered the movies
and even though she had a snub nose and did not photograph well, what
could Mr. Griffith do but use her?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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