Evening star., 1924-02-08

Goose Girl" The performance was
not, however. devoid OF friction.
From the studio across the continent
to my office in New York came con
between Miss Clark and her director.
Fred Thompson. Once l wired to De
Mile to ask him how the. play was
coming along, and his answer to the
telegram was as follows:
Don't know much about the play,
looked great"
. have mentioned that Marguerite,s
sister met me that evening went
up to her apartment. This sister. who
was some years older than her cele-
brated relative. was almost as con-
slant a. phenomenon as was Mary
Pickford's mother. Indeed, many
feminine luminaries Of the screen
possess one Of these adhesive rela-
tives. There is nearly always a
mother or brother or sister or hus-
band standing around back of the
istered. =
There was one time when. Mary
Pickford's supremacy was seriously
threatened by. the success Of this
Mary jealous of Marguerite" / asked
Mr.. Zukor at this period.
He shook his head. mo-" said he.
And then he added swiftly, But it
comes to the surface through Mrs.
Pickford and Marguerite's sister"
From this remark l gathered that
the. two doughty supporters Of .op-,
posing causes used to look at each
other about as pleasantly as did the
Montagues and Capulets. And IL you
possess any flair, like Landor, for
imaginary conversations, you can
easily construct dialogue between
the twain based on their respective
claims to the most mail; the most
unappeasable demands Of exhibitors,
the most appreciation from Mr.. Zukor.
Yet Mary long outlasted her fair
rival. why was this? Marguerite
Clark was beautiful. she was ex-
quisitely graceful. and she brought
to the screen a more finished stage
technique and a more spacious back
ground than did Miss Pickford. My
answer to this question. SO often pro-
pounded to me. applies not only to
Miss Clark. but to all the other
actresses who have flashed. meteor
like, across the screen horizon. First
of all, she did not have Mary Pick
ford's absorbing passion for work.
other artistes capacity for portraying
fundamental human emotion. Simple
and direct and poignant, Mary goes
to the heart much as does a Foster
melody Herein Is the real success
of popularity so phenomenally sus-
tanned.
Previous to engaging Miss Ward
and Miss Clark. the Lasky Company
had secured the services of Blanche
Sweet The performance of this ac-
tress in Griffith's Judith and Bethu-
liza" had fingered in my memory. and
almost as soon as we organized l
took Lasky to see that Aim. He
was so much impressed that we
wired at once to De Mile to negotiate
with Miss Sweet, then working under
Mr.. Griffith in California
From the first she did not seem
satisfied with her new environment.
After some days, in fact. she came
to me and begged that she be allowed
to leave us. She wanted to go back
to New York.
But why?" pressed her.
After some hesitance she finally con-
fided the reason Of her unrest. Marshall
Neilan, whom l have mentioned as
playing with Mary Pickford. had been
unable to find work in Los Angeles and
was taking the train back east the very
next day. The result of this conversa-
ton was that 1 sent for Mr.. Neilan. and
so impressed was I by his intelligence
that I engaged him as a director at $3.50
a week. His success was marked from