Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-12
CONFESSIONS
OF 4 STAR
As Told to
INEZ KLUMPH
CHAPTER XVIII


JJnti, then I hadn't realized that
star must be exploited, pushed into
success in every way. Even the idea
that I might have publicity man o,
my own was rather a shock to me. l'd
never been parsonage, you sec, ana
the thought that now / was going 10 De
made one was brand new.
A good many people who had come on
from New York for the convention went
back on the train that / took. and so,
when was walking through the sta
ton with the man from Mr.. Sandy's
Chicago Office, talking about publicity
and what could be done for me, l WASH {
really surprised to see Merwin Reed
there. He was walking toward the bag
gnge room, with two stunning Airedales
pattesing along beside him. and hes
itated n moment and glanced back over
my shoulder at him, as Interested an
any girl who'd never been inside mo-
ton picture studio.
want to meet Reed?" asked the
man with me. II used to work for the
company he was with, and knew him
fairly well. He's a nice chap-you' d
| like him."
I did want to meet him. OF course ;
| lie WuB Ollt VI luNoii'Co Ou shN
screen, and was eager to know what he
really was like.
have been so glad that l met him
then, before his success spoiled him.
His story is an interesting one, and
| I'm going to pause in the midst OF
telling mine to repeat II to you whether
you recognize him or not, It will give
you a glimpse of the way things happen
behind the screen.
His career was started by a girl, the
girl he fell in love with when he was
trying to earn a living down in Ken
lucky, selling books. He was amaz-
| inRly unsuccessful; in fact, he told me
that he was absolutely the worst sales
iuan that company had ever had. But
lie was 80 much in love with the daugh-
ter Of the woman who was postinlstress
in his home town that he kept on trying
to sell books. determined that somehow
he d earn enough money to marry her.
But her mother was not at all en-
couraging. She wanted her daughter
tc. marry the son Of the local feed and
ice mcrchant-really, this reads ex-
actly like the story of one of Charlie
Rays pictures! She wouldn't even
let Merwin call ut the house, 80 he
and the girl used to meet on the lumber
piles down by the river, which belonged
to the man her mother wanted her to
marry, and sit there holding each
others hands and planning how they d
get married IL Merwin could ever get n
job that would assure him OF 500 q
week.
He couldn't seem to do Il. though.
He tried just about everything. but hc
never was any good at anything at all.
lie couldn't get the knack OF business.
He was nineteen then. and he felt that
he ought to begin to amount to some
thing, IL lie was ever going to. only he
couldn't seem to decide OH what he'd
amount to.
And then one day the girls mother
met him on the street, and stopped ia
talk to him :; she wanted him to leave
town for good. so that her daughter
would forget him. And when they
teen talking for few minutes she said
"Why don't you go into the movies
] should think you'd be awfully good
in them"
So they said good-by and he Aippet
| on the late freight and 'bummed his
way to New York. And she sat there
by the river for little while longer
! and cried a bit, because she though,
Merwin would never come back, ant
then went home to be nice to the feeC
and ice merchant.
Merwin couldn't seem to get any
where in the movies for year or 30
He wasn't as good looking then as h,
is now, and at that time there wasn't
such n chance in pictures for the boy
with clean, honest face and eyelashes
no longer than the ordinary mans. Bur
he hung on, trying his best to learn
sure that he'd found the right line a
last. and that his chance would come
1t did, quite Unexpectedly. He had {
part in picture with Jack Pickford
and then he was given similar part II
another one with somebody else, ant