Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-01
No MORE EXTRAS"
APPEAR IN MOVIES;
NEW CLASS ACTORS
Persons Are Especially Trained
for Minor Parts in Lasky
Studio.

The term extra" must now be
listed as an obsolete term in the lexl-
con of motion pictures.
For the dictum has gone out that
here is no longer to be such a per
son as an extra.
Now we are to have factors and
actresses in minor parts.
1t was at the Lasky studio that this
! movement started and concerning it
Lou NJ. Goodstadt. casting director for
Paramount pictures, made the follow
ing statement:
The term extra was originally ap-
| piled to untutored persons picked at
random to make bulk in crowd scenes.
in the early days, through lack of ex-
! perienced material, we were forced to
take anybody that could walk in order
to supply the demand. But these I'M
trained individuals couldn't act and
caused real damage oftentimes, by their
ineptness.
Trained Actors in Crowd Scenes
"For many, many months we have
not used extras at the Lasky studio.
We film a lot of crowd scenes-scenes
requiring hundreds of people at times,
but we do not use extras We have
available a large group of actors and
| actresses who work all the time in
smaller parts, trained people who know
their business thoroughly and know
the methods of the various directors.
A majority of these people have had
four or five years experience. They
| know lust what to do; they don't have
to be watched and the director can
leave the atmosphere work safely to
them, devoting his time to handling the
more difficult dramatic work of the
principals.
1T is entirely a misnomer to call
these players extras and so far as we
are concerned the word is obsolete.
There is one thing certain-it would
be impossible for modern motion pic
lures to be made in an artistic and eff
ficient manner with the itinerant type
dubbed extra some six or seven years
ago. 1t has been a case of survival of
the fittest.
Star Material Developed
"It is from the actors and actresses
of minor parts, for so long and unjustly
termed extras that every casting
director. every producer, looks to for
his leading men, his leading women,
even his stars of the future. | need
only point to such people as Wallace
Reid, Gloria Swanson, Agnes Ayres,
May McAvoy, as examples of present
celebrities who not so many years ago
did crowd scenes just as our minor
players are doing nowadays.
And every year we find two or
three men and women advancing from
minor parts into roles of real impor-
lance. At our own plant such grad
yates within a very recent period in
clude Monte Blue, William Boyd, Lu-
Glen Littlefield, Lura Arson and
Bernice Frank, players who for months
were lust very excellent minor artists
until something came along which gave
them a chance to show what they
could do.
Saves Directors Time
II can't impress too heavily the
importance of our group of minor
players in the making of a modern
photoplay. Take the big oriental party
in Gloria Swanson's new Paramount
picture, The Impossible Mrs. Bellew.'
Here q hundred gaily dressed people
must comport themselves like the
wealthy f~ashionables who throng Deau-
vile, France, where the scene was laid.
They must know how to sit and stand,
how to address a lady, how to light a
cigarette, how to take refreshments
from a servant, how to enter and
leave such an entertainment-in other
words, they must be trained to this
sort of thing through actual knowledge
and practice. The directors time is
needed for the dramatic work in the
foreground; he cannot be expected to
watch these details of department.
"And then there is the question of
background action while the principals
are doing their parts. In. a scene such
as that which I have described, real
acting is required from the minor
players. They must carry On appro-
priate small talk and cross back and
forth to maintain the natural aspect
Of the scene. If they do not do their