I always thought we were a rather well-behaved lot--there was rather
strict discipline maintained at all times. But on this occasion we
old troupers were told to “sit pretty,” to be quiet and stay in the
dressing-room if there were no scenes being taken in which we were
working, and if we were called upon to work, to please just “work” and
not be sociable. Our director seemed to be somewhat ashamed of his
faithful old crew. So the studio remained hushed and awed--a solemn
dignity pervaded it. In the dressing-room, those who didn’t know what
was going on said, “Why are you all so quiet?”
“Oh, don’t you know?” we sang in unison. “There’s a Broadway actor out
there, from the _Henry Miller Company_.”
“_Oh, you don’t say so!_”
The effect was funniest on Mack Sennett. He wore a satirical smile that
spoke volumes. For he had divined that these “up-stage” new actors were
to get more than five per day; besides, he was getting few enough parts
as things were, now where _would_ he be?
“Lord Jim” was certainly treated with great deference. He was shown
several scenes “in the taking,” and then escorted upstairs to see some
of Mary Pickford’s pictures. The Cook’s tour over, Mr. Kirkwood agreed
to appear in the movies.
A slow, easy manner had Jim Kirkwood, which with underlying strength
made for good screen technique. Early June was the time of his
first release, “The Message,” in which picture as _David Williams_
he portrayed the honest, big-hearted farmer. Mr. Kirkwood, the
diamond-in-the-rough type, was honest and big-hearted through all his
movie career. He was the heroic Indian, as in “Comata, the Sioux”; the
brave fisherman as in “Lines of White on a Sullen Sea”--the latter one
of Stanner E. V. Taylor’s early classic efforts which was taken in the
little fishing village of Galilee in October, 1909.
Harriet Quimby, now established as a journalist, came down to visit.
Thought it would be good fun to act in a scene, so she played a village
fishermaiden and thus qualified as a picture actress for her other more
thrilling performance two years later. I was with her that time, on
the flying field at Dover, where Bleriot had landed on the very first
Channel crossing, and where she was to “take off” for France. Gaumont
took a five-hundred-foot picture of the flight, titling it “The English
Channel Flown by a LADY AVIATOR for the First Time.”
The day Harriet Quimby flew the English Channel brought sad news
to the world, for that appalling disaster--the sinking of the
_Titanic_--occurred. It also brought a personal sadness to the
Biograph, for Mr. Marvin’s youngest son, who was returning from his
honeymoon, was lost. Before the happy couple had sailed, a moving
picture of the wedding had been taken in the studio.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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