Evening star., 1924-02-12
Behind the Screen
Intimate Of Of the Sarer Sheet
Copyright b. George

| panies in the world.
One day, while the receivership was
| threatening Mabel Normand came up
J to my desk and handed me a long en-
f, velope.
, What is this?" asked her.
"My liberty bonds" she answered.
There are only fifty thousand dollars
worth of them. but if they will tide
you over you may have them"
Those interested in the personality
of Mabel Normaud can receive no
more Illuminating Introduction to her
than the incident just sketched. There
are hundred tales OF this character
| istic response to any human appeal
clustering about the name of Mabel
Normand. One which came directly
| under my observation relates to a
poor girl with a dependent family
This girl was stricken with tubercu-
| losis, and, although Mabel did not
know her, she became interested in
her condition through friend of hers.
Immediately she went to see her, and
when she left she pressed som thing
after she had gone that the other
realized what her caller had left. /;
was cheek for $1,000.
Nor does Mabel wait for the large
demand upon her sympathy. Gifts
from her come unprovoked as mama.
She is likely to go out and buy a
| Sl00 beaded bag for stenograpaer
| in the organization, and just as likely
to invest a corresponding amount in
remembering somebody whom she has
met once and happened to like.
I used to find IL very hard to get
Mabel to a set when the set was
early in the morning. Extras and
other members of the cast would have
! been waiting there for hours. The
| director would be fuming. At last
| somebody would be sent to investi-
gate the whereabouts of the missing
luminary. More than likely she
would be found writing letters in her
! dressing room.
But ! don't feel in the humor this
morning" she would sometimes say
| down there and act that way?
| My associate. Mr.. Abraham Lehr.
made frequent attempts to correct
| this habit of Mabers. He found him
self forever rustrated-indeed. dis
| armed-by the charm of manner. the
delightful playfulness which Mabel
| possesses so abundantly.
; Once I remember when she was eX-
| ceptionally tardy Lehr met her in the
| studio with his face fixed in lines of
| righteous Indignation. She approached
him with one hand behind her back
and the other upIifted in gesture
! of the gayest, most irresistible com
mand.
Wait" cried She, before you say
| anythingr'
| With that she brought forward n
new and very beautiful photograph
4
! with a curtsey. On the photograph
| were written these lines:
| Roses are red.
Fiolets are blue:
| When I'm late
| | think of you.
She watched him while he read
these words, and then. her big brown
| eyes dancing with merriment, she
| said coaxingly:
\ -, n
F, see. I was thinking up something
nice to write on your photograph. ]
didn't want to say just Yours sin
| cerely,' or something stupid like that"
do not need to say that Lehr's S
face softened perceptibly or that he
forgot all about the judicial rebuke
! which ne had evidently planned. For
! the pictured collection of stage and
| screen celebrities which he has had
mounted under the glass top of his
office desk represents hobby. and
| this contribution of Mabels still oc-
cupies an honored place in the gall
lery.
! / do not mean for a moment to
is an isolated example of tardiness.
Many screen favorites heave in sight
| as slowly as Lohengrin's swan. This
| IS particularly true of comedians.
Chaplin, for example, often keeps his
| associates waiting for hours-fndeed,
! there are entire days when he is alb
! solutely unable to work. The fact of
| it is that the efficiency engineer will
never be able to control a picture
| studio.
Such an expectation is as vain as
| the belief that You could obtain a
| poets best work by swapping your
| fingers over him and crying, come,
/ come, we want another sonnet and a
| gross of couplets before lunch!' For
| the best screen acting is naturally
| nspirational.
| True, some performers are able to
turn on their emotional faucets at any
: time. Mary Pickford, as l have re-
| lated, rings up early every morning.
But, then. she is systematized hu-
man being, who presents in tempera-
| ment the opposite pole from Mabel
Normand. The latter is creature of
impulse. She never calculates the
moment ahead, for fear that the mo-
| ment itself might calculate some
thing she liked better. When she
works she works hard, but she can't
do it in step with the hour-hand.
Mabel has a really fine talent, and
she knows picture production from
| every angle. But the screen does not
Eagerly she turns to people. books,
gayety, strange. scenes. She does not
| want to miss one CLINT of "'this dome
of many-coiored glass"
titude of Mary Pickford to pictures
and that of Mabel Normand is indi-
Gated by their varying response to
European travel. Chaplin once said
to a friend of mine, You know, was
in Paris with Mary and Doug, and
often they really seemed lost without
their pictures" Far from this state
of mind, so familiar in the American
business man temporarily implicated
| with q gondola or a ruined temple, is
the eagerness with which Mabel Nor
mand returned last autumn from heI
first trip abroad.
"Oh. how I enjoyed every minute OF
itr' she told me. Pictures, music
all the funny outdoor cafes, all the
funny people!"
She has always been an inveterate
reader This, of course, is at present
one Of the fashionable claims of the
screen star, and in some cases I am
obliged to say that the claim rests on
very fiimsy foundations. Right here
Indeed, I feel compelled to anticipate
by telling story illustrative of this
point:
One day Charlie Chaplin went with
me to a Los Angeles hospital, where
q friend of mine was recuperating
Left alone in the corridor, he wan
dered into little sitting room. II
was filled with books representing
the most advanced taste in fiction
poetry and criticism.
"Whose room is thiS?" asked Chap
lin of the nurse lowering over the
1 scene.