(_See p. 97_)
]
An express wagon was waiting for our load of stuff--big wads of
canvas for the teepees, cameras, and costume baskets. A man in a red
automobile was also waiting--Mr. Predmore, who owned Caudebec Inn where
we were to stop. Mr. Griffith and Mr. Bitzer and a few other of the
important personages took their places in the automobile--the second
in the county--the “Red Devil” we afterwards called it. The actors
straggled along.
[Illustration: From “The Mills of the Gods,” with Linda Griffith and
Arthur Johnson.
(_See p. 49_)
]
[Illustration: Biograph’s first Western studio. Scene from “The
Converts,” with Linda Griffith, Arthur Johnson and Marion Leonard.
(_See p. 150_)
]
Caudebec Inn was no towering edifice--just a comfy place three stories
high, with one bathroom, a tiny parlor, rag-rugged, and a generously
sized dining-room whose cheerful windows looked upon apple orchards.
It was neat and spotlessly clean. On two sides were broad piazzas. The
inn faced the basin at the head of the old D. L. and W. Canal, and the
canal took its pretty way alongside for a mile or more until it spilled
itself over a busted dam (Mr. Kennedy’s I opined--it was the only one
about), making lovely rapids which later we used in many a thriller.
It was extremely fortunate that we were the only guests. We filled the
place. Such a thing as an actor having a room to himself, let alone a
bed, was as yet unheard of in those vagrant days. Mr. Powell doubled
and sometimes tripled them. Some actors got awfully Ritzy, resenting
especially the tripling, and at night would sneak downstairs hoping to
find a nice vacant hammock on the porch. But that had all been looked
into. The hammock would be occupied by some lucky devil whose snores
were being gently wafted on the soft summer breezes. Three in a bed,
two in a cot, or two in a hammock--the stringy old-fashioned kind of
hammock--which would offer the better comfort?
Immediately after lunch, the boss and Billy Bitzer, with Mr. Predmore
at the wheel, would depart in “The Red Devil” on a location hunt. The
carpenters must get right to work on their stockade. The actors were
soon busy digging out costumes and grease paint boxes, and getting made
up and costumed; for as soon as the chief returned, he would want to
grab a couple of scenes if the light still held. The making up was not
a quiet process. As the actors acquired brown grease paint and leather
trappings, animal skins and tomahawks--what a pow-wow!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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