, 1923-04-08

In spite Of tho ferocious slashes In
salaries. wages. sets. most OF the stu
dos were declaring holidays Of n
month or more.
The orters had gone forth to rush
the Hobby picture to a conclusion.
The big night storm scenee had been
scheduled for the final takes. They
would appear early In the story. but
too many accidents might happen II
rhey were shot in sc iu.nce. 1t would
be lamentable IL any OF tho actors
were injured at my time. but II
would be disastrous to nav an arm
or II hend broken or Il cnse of pneu
monia III the middle Of the work. II
had happened. Actors occasionally
died with c~xtravagant inopportunityi
or broke bones. or married counte
nances that could not be matched OF
replaced. Tho expense OF some Of
these mishaps was appalling. with ar
overhead OF $4,000 a day.
On the final morning the first
scenes were begun promptly at O.
Kendrick promised to let the cttn,
pany go at three to rest for the all
night grind. but delays OF every sort
occurred. A light would flicker dur
ing an important e In a close
up one of the characters would
swerve outside the narrow space al
!oted.
When the actors were again at
tuned and the director was impa.
tient to cry ''Cameray' one of the
camera men would find hat he had
not film enough and a new maya
zine must be fetched.
Such inevitable. ~incessant delays
were peculiarly Irritating to a com
pany on tho razor edge on emotion.
but there was rarely an outburst
Emotion, being property. was con
served. There is probably no class
Of people who act SC rarely as &c
tors.
Tho general opinion to the con
trary is like most general opinions.
based on ignorance.
At 3 o'clock there were still many
scenes unshot. The work continued
and it was not until half past sever
that the days work was done. The
"rushes' Of the day before were sti!'
to be inspected in the projection
room whittier tn e cdnpany scam
peretl.
1t was 8 o'clock before anyone
could stop for dinner. The actor,
were not considered, but the work
crews had to be humored. Some OF
them were members of unions and
t was a legal peril also to keep extra
people at work more than eighr
hours in n day.
Tom Hobby and Mem sought thei,
dinner In a little shack near the stu
dio. They perched on stools and at,
f-bone steaks, fried potatoes, dough
nut n cuffee with the voracity O.
longshoremen.
At Q they went TO the first Of m,
sets. The Californian night wa,
black and bitter cold. The night 4,
the story was one of tempest nm,
battle. Tom Hobby must run M
automobile Into a ditch and make
desperate war against four brute,
VINO were Instructed to put up a GOO
fight.
The public would not stand a mooI
engagement. Fists had to land
heads had to rock, and when a mar
Tell he must fall. He must go owe
with a crash wherever the blow sen
him.
Thc actors wanted IL so.
Tom Hobby expected to end IN,
night bleeding. bruised. tattered. snt
mud smeared. He had tracked many
n bone n lost a tooth or two or
such gala occasions: anc. once he bat
splintered the bones of his rIrh,
hand when his fist missed the face II
was aimed at and struck the stone
beneath 1t.
Mems share In the hurricane wa,
to run through tho widest of tho
storm and bring rescue.
Such scenes In the movis. nv.
often rallied at as cheap sensational
ISM yet they are heroic art, In mr.
EPIC poem. or a classic drnma, they
are tho height OF achieve
n'ent. Winslow Homer's high sees
Conrads gorgeous slmooms, are ,aud
ca Is tridmphs OF genius. The au
THOR rifles the dictionary and guts
ms thesaurus. the painter wrecks his
palette and his brushes, and is eel
ebrated as of the grand school. wher
the movine-picture geniuses likewise
exhaus a vocabulary OF mechanical
effects. and spread before the worlt
visions Of beautiful dramn. the crl
tcs pass by with averted gaze.
Mem had five scenes to dast
through. Her pilgrimage was 10 he
a sort of 'Pippa Passes" but she
was not to go singing; she was &c
be stormed upon as Sebald and or
TINA were.
Each bit OF scenery through which
h was to flash had been made
ready the day before. Three lonp
perforated rain pipes were erected
on scaffolds and connected with the
standpipes. and they were reinforced
by men who would play a fro hose
or two upon the hapless actress. Thu
gale was to BIO provided by an air
plane engine and propeller mounted
on n truck.
Mem, suffering the chill of The
night especially because of fatigue
and excitement. inspected the set
tings h was 40 briefly to adorn,
why do they build that fence
around the wind machine she ask
ed Kendrick.
ITO keep people from walking in
to the propeller Inc getting chopped
to mincemeat," said Kendrick. my
assistant was engaged on three pic
lures where airpiane propellers were
Iuad and a WAN trur.a -.