Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-07-12
CHAPTER III
The Eleventh Hour

The Eleventh Hour
~ LORIA had made very few friends in
I the film colony. She was reserved and
kept very much to herself and most of
the extras with whom she had come in con-
tact thought her up-stage. The truth of the
matter that Gloria gradually be-
coming embittered She had come to the
conclusion that Hollywood had no place for
the girl of serious intentions. Since her ar
rival several winners of beauty contests had
arrived in Hollywood and with financial
backing were being pushed to the top. Most
of the stars who had already arrived were
like Catherine Charming and Vera Vamp
beautiful and snowy, and with no real ability
to act However, they were in the lime
light and they had clever press representa-
tives and their salaries were reported to be
fabulous.
With the men it was the same, and the
best example of this Rolf empleton
Templeton had an enormous personal follow
ing, and it was rumored that he made So 900
week. Gloria had been an extra in one of
his pictures just after she had arrived in
Hollywood, and had had a chance to- study
him while he was on the set He would
keep scene waiting several expensive mo-
ments for his appearance, he would insist
upon taking time off to smoke a cigarette
And because he was Rolf Templeton with
tremendous fan following, he was spoiled and
deferred to if he had been an Eastern
potentate
The girls around Gloria had pushed and
jostled in an effort to see Templeton act
Murmured remarks drifted to her ears
isn't his hair gorgeous? 1 don't believe
he a thing it, either. And his eyes!
I'm right here to tell you, if he looked at me
once out of those big cleaners I'd swoon''
Gloria frankly disguised. Couldn't
they see that his acting was ridiculous?
Why, he did nothing but trike attitudes and
pose around like a tailors dummy. 1t
amused Gloria, too, to see the look of fury
in the eyes of Templeton's leading woman.
He wasn't giving her a thing, he was taking
all the closeups and every big scene was his
All she had to do was feed him action, and
wear beautiful gowns. She hadn't chance
to act.
Templeton set the pace for moyie-mad
Hollywood to follow. He dashed around
town in a bright green racer. He invited
people over to his snowy white stucco palace,
and after riotous evening the party would
repair to the pink marble swimming pool for
midnight dip. Wild stories were told about
those parties, and Gloria grew to despise
Rolf Templeton for his too obvious insin-
certify.
The day came when Gloria was forced to
break her last $40 bill. She was contemplate
ing taking a job in a cafeteria in order to
pay her room rent, when, wonder of Won
ders, she had a call to appear as extra in
the new Templeton release. Once she would
have banked on a chance like this perhaps
meaning something; she would have taken
fresh hope, but it had come too late She no
longer believed in the impossible, her llu-
sions had been crushed, and she reported on
the lot that morning with her real self hid
den under a hard Indifference. She was still
determined to seize her chance if it were pre-
sented to her. but she knew now that it
was foolish to expect the impossible If she
got chance she would have to make it her
self and she must be alert to seize her OPP
portunity. 1t was with this thought in mind
a cho in tho mid OF Of OWd Of
extras and watched Kendall Manning, the
director, as he struggled with the winner of
the latest beauty contest
This was beautiful girl, no one could
have denied that fact. She was very blond,
with perfect skin and features that remained
placid in spite of everything the director
could do to arouse emotion in her.