Evening star., 1924-12-07

way BlShop, casting dl-
VI rector for the H-B Film
Company. always ad-
dressed the second person
singular of the genus flappers. mo
Flappo: we amt got a thing. Full
up on leading ladies and stars and
wouldn't think of offering you any
thing less"
Now, isn't that too bad" drawled
the girl with the cool, green eyes.
And there must be such splendid
opportunities here, too. Otherwise
they wouldn't promote janitors TO
casting directors as quickly as they
must have promoted you" Then she
bathed him in a wide, sweet smile,
turned on her heel and undulated
out.
Say Bishop demanded of me,
what kind of a crack was that?
amt never been janitor here. l was
a property man.
Il know it," 1 says, but, you see,
she don't"
Guess not" he agreed. Probably
a newcomer and not up on who's who
around the studios"
That may be- 1 says, but she's
got the right system for finding out.
Then l eased out to follow Miss
Green-eyes. / had an idea she might
be interesting.
l caught her waiting for a street
car on the boulevard. Pardon me-
! says. but could l have one word
with you?"
She looked me over with a slow
look.
"One word is right" she says. And
that word is git" And she stamped
1t in with her foot-Wham.
Excuse me. lady" I bleats. You've
got me wrong. I'm a casting director
and l thought l might be able to use
YOU"
oh" she says, smiling a little
you're one of the men that get peo.
pie into the pictures?"
Well" l says. mostly 1 keep EN-
from gettin in, but now and then
let one slip by"
You talk my language" she says
turning on the full voltage of heI
smile. Whats your studio. and al
what hour do you have your back
turned?"
The Reaux Arts. And the casting
director shanty at 2 pm. The pass
word is "Janitor"
And that's how MoIlie MedforG
broke into the movies"
At first | had hopes that she might
he find" but somehow she couldn't
he anything but Mollie Medford. BE
Nourselfn' That was her motto, and
she had the odd idea that she ought
to act in picture just like she would
I'm the same situation in real life.
Another thing that didn't help hel
any was her habit of wanting to know
what everything was about and why
Little Frank Steele told her how
that went. one day. He'd been gener.
Gus enough to give her a fat bit In
q picture he was doing; told her how
TO make up. and all that. and when
he got ready to rehearse the scene
told her what to do. just as plain as
anything. Now. you see that old
man lying there on the bed? All
right: he's your father, who has been
murdered. You rush on; stop and
register horror. then rush to the bed
and fall over his body, weeping. Get
me?"
She studied the scene a minute
But why has he been murdered
What kind of father was he. and
what kind of daughter am I?'
Frank snorted. GOSH I'm not
asking you to act the whole play
You're just doing this one bit in this
one scene"
II know-but don't you think ]
could do it better If l knew more
about him and more about the girl
I'm supposed to be-"
No You'd do it like you think II
ought to be done. I'm the one that's
getting paid to do the thinking
you're paid for acting"
Makes sense, don't it? But don't
you know, she wanted to argue about
it, Yes, argue,
GUESS you can see now why she
~ never got beyond atmosphere
and little bits of general business
that didn't call for any real acting.
She was stubborn, though, and hung
on; and when she couldn't get any
thing on the lot she would go around
TO the office and do typewriter So
ratas that sounded like rain on the
roof on top of that, she got to be
something of a wiz at makeup.
and the assistant directors found her
handy when they were working gangs
of extras in costume stuff.
"Oh, I'm versatile. l am" she said
to me one day. Good at everything
but the one thing l came here to do
Maybe you'd be better at that par
ticular thing" l suggested. "if you'd
spend less time telling the directors
how you want to do it, and more
time trying to do it the way they
want it done"
Maybe 1 would" she admits. But
look what the directors would be
missing. 1heyd never know that
they'd been doing it wrong"
Great Caesars Ghost. Are you
trying to be one of them, too?"
"One of what?"
These high -brows that are trying
to reform and refine the movies so
that 80 per cent of the people won't
know what they're about"
She shook her head. Not me.
But-what are they about?"
Now. / ask you-what could you
do with a girl like that? And she'd