New-York tribune., 1918-10-13


.han the hint Of brogue in his voice
and his name is Kelly--Anthony Paul
re,l,. author of "Three Faces East"
HI was born in that district of Chi.
nsro rot so far from the stock va, ls
where the illustrious Mr.. Dooley tended
bar where Mr.. Hennessy and Mr.. Gro
csn were good neighbors and where
Father Kelly, the parish priest, was
his tv;n uncle.
The" hoped he would be priest, like
his uncle-hcarty, OF course, and fond
Of joke, but disregardful of the
world. the flesh and the devil as a
nrcst should be. They refused to take
note OF the fact that the turn-up OF
his nose was slight but pugnacious.
that he had the look of curiosity about
life which a priest may not have and
that as laugh was far too sympathetic
10 be good for the penitcnt. SO after
ayear os study ct PrcdicuX University
something happened which abruptly
terminated his studies for the priest
hood, and young Mr.. Kelly, then seven
teen, was free to 60 and see life and
pay his own way as he went.
H. asked for nothing better. The
men folk Of his family were railroad
people, and he was soon seeing large
sobs Of the world in the company of
q section gang which went into all
sorts Of remote and curious places.
laying track and mending it. He
worked as rodman. Sometimes they
spen. couple of weeks in an out-of
thc-way corner laying a new spur of
track. Amusement would be scant in
such place. No settlement, however.
moving picture palace" even if it
could only show one tattered film to
the same inhabitants every night for
week. One saw it with an air of so.
phisticated toleration the first night.
one grayita.cd toward il the next out
Of sheer cnnui, and all the following
nights out of force of habit But as
the picture itself lost interest the me-
chanics Of it sank deeper and deeper
into ones mind. That is how Anthony
Paul Kelly came to know quite lot
about moving picture effects, in an
amateur way, of course. And perhaps
that IS all he would ever have been.
an amateur, if destiny in the shape of a
large Mexican section hand had not in
terfercd. Kelly was in charge of
squad of Me1icans. One day the larg-
est of them turned up for work drunk.
He fired the Mexican with picturesque
language. The Mexican was simple
hut forceful person. He beat young
Nj. Kelly up very thoroughly.
The large town nearest the scene of
operations was Los Angeles, and there
Mr.. Kelly put in for repairs. After
seven weeks he came out of the hos
rital, little groggv, jobless and very
broke--so broke, he says, that
penny would have looked like a full
moon rising up in the middle of the
street This happened to be during
the acute industrial depression imme-
alately following the outbreak of the
european wal. Los Angeles was full
or unemployed men-a hundred thou
sand Of them, Kelly says, and he saw
.hings that would have made him pause
IN his search for success and ad-
venture to become a man with a mis-
sion' but that he was in too much of
hurry to see what lay beyond the cor
ner- He was still too weak to COM
Eetc with these skilled, brawny men
who scrambled so furiously ahead of
him for a job. So he began writing
scenarios and taking them up to the
studios in which that vicinity abounds.
The miracle Of selling his first scena-
rio left him more dazed than the Mex
lean had He tried it again, and again
II worked And so, with alternating
success and failure, he learned the
game of scenario writing. He wrote
few short stories at that time and
sold them. Then he decided to storm
the citadel. He would beat his way to
New York and see what a youth could
wrest from fortune there. This was
three years ago.
He found whatl each eager-eyed
youth coming to New York to seek
his fortune fnds--a huge solitude. He
moved around requently-restlessly
hoping that the next place would have
the atmosphere he wanted-a part of
New York's feverish alien crowd. He
got pretty low in funds, too
There was time when his finances
eobsd down to IS cents. Then wild
game of pooi-at which ne played
almost professional game--tided him
over. In due season he became a reg
ular scenario writer with a large NOV
ing picture concern. 1t was his job
70 take apart plays that had been
great successes and make them into
scenarios. In the process of taking
'hem apart he learned how they were
put together. He learned great deal
OF the mechanics of obtaining effects
rot only in movies but in plays And
IN the hunt for possible scenario ma
,erlal nc browsed into books. In a
queerly ordered way he has rolled up
experience that must stand him in