The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1916-09-18
WHY | LIKE THE MOVIES
By PEARL WHITE

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n From n very early age / have had
q positive fondness for doing reck,
less things, and the more danger there
has been connected with them the
more pleasure | have taken In them.
am not unique In this. ! have met
curing my career number Of other
persons who confessed to having the
same strange tastes. Speaking for
myself, hum-drum existence would
bore me to distraction. think
would sooner die. For instance, when
| was child about five or six years old,
despite the fact that / received repeat
ed warning from my father and moth
or, / used to delight in going out to
a rattlesnake den which was not far
from the house and teasing the rep
tiles until they made repeated jumps
at me. My father caught me at this
amusement one day, and decided that
radical action was required. 1 will
never forget the punishment that l
got, but after that l let rattlesnakes
alone.
| Later on while still a mere slip Of
girl, / Joined a circus. The most
dangerous end Of the work seemed
to be that of the trapeze performers,
so begged until / was given a chance
at II. / made good at this from the
start. My instructrcss, a lady who
bad been doing trap" work for years.
told me that the reason for my sue
cess was because / lacked the ele-
ment Of fear. She said that in this
profession many were called, but few
chosen, and those few persons were
all like me, utterly Indifferent to dan
ger. / suppose this sounds rather
ly don't mean to make it so, because
| am telling facts. / can claim no
credit for the daredevil spirit, since
1t was born in me. / was with the
circus several years, only leaving 1t
because / was offered more money
with a theatrical troupe The com
pany / joined was not a well-known
company; as a matter Of fact its APP
penrances were more or less confined |
b. what are known in the theatrical
profession as tank toVns." We play
ed at popular prices, and did moth
ing but one night stands. l found |
the life very tiresome. Hours of weary
travel by railroad, then the same old |
Journey by bus TO an inferior hotel,
the same hurried and poorly cooked |
dinner, the same old trip to the thea |
tire, which usually was Of the kind |
known as the "Opera House" After
the show, if we were lucky we had a
few hours sleep in miserable beds
before going on to the next town. If
unlucky we left town the same night
and picked up what slumber we could
on the train.
The nearest came to encountering
danger in these peregrinations was
when our train ran into another, and
several persons were killed, so ! de-
cided after several years Of this to
get into motion pictures, which then
had just started to boom" and Sc
cured an engagement with the Pathe
company This was over three years
ago. and / have stuck to the work
faithfully. not merely because l get
a good salary, but because the life
me.
The first Of the long line Of thrill
ers' in which | have appeared was \
the "Perls of Pauline" which Pathe
put out some two and a half years
ago. In this production for the first
time fell in love with my work. The
various stunts" which my director
called upon me to do offered to me
the most sincere pleasure. brief
recital Of some Of the feats which 1
did in Pauline" may be of interest.
The first was my experience with
the rats. mention it first, not be-
cause it is the first in point of time,
but because most women, however
courageous, draw the line when 1t
comes to close contact with rats or /.
mice. The villain. in order to encom-
pass my death. was supposed to have !
shut me up In a cellar with the hero
and enen turn the water Of canal !
into the cellar. AS the house was
to be fun Of rats, naturally !