Evening star., 1924-02-04
Continued from Yesterdays Starr
CHAPTER TWO.

Records the Success of IN Idea.
AM compelled to say right here
that life had not led me to eX
pect any such facility. For /
had been poor boy-poor and
often homeless. OF formal schooling
l had practically none. At the age
when most boys take arithmetic and
a roof and three square meals as
matter of course l was Tending for
myself When / got these things it
was through odd jobs in blacksmith
shops and in glove-factories. Some
times, of course, / did not get them
at all. For example. 1 remember how
once as boy of twelve / wandered
for a whole week through the streets
of London with no more ardent guar
anty of the future than n loaf of
bread
My early boyhood was spent in
Europe and 1 was just fourteen when,
absolutely alone and with no friend
or relative to greet me. l arrived in
New York city. From the city 1 went
to Gloversville, n. y, and there, after
about four or five years spent in
glove factory, L succeeded in per-
gloves l can say without arrogance
of heart that / did sell them. But
there was no miracle of ease about
this process. / travelled from coast
to coast: l often worked eighteen
hours day; put over my product
in districts where it never sold be-
fore. AS a result of all this l was
making about fifteen thousand dollars
a year at the time when / chanced
in upon that little motion-picture
h. l1 or
company and. thanks to an expanded
income, 1 had been able to supple
ment my fragmentary schooling by
many lectures and concerts and by
frequent trips to Europe.
But, although at thirty / was a
comparatively successful man, l was
not satisfied. i never had been sat
listed. L can remember how when a
boy in the cutting department / used
to walk by the leading hotel in Glow
ersville and look at the "drummers"
who cooked their feet up in the big
plateglass window. How I envied
them-those splendid adventurers
with their hats and their massive ci-
gars both at an angle! For to me
they represented the everlasting ro-
nance of the far horizon. And when
at last I myself was admitted to this
peerage / was sensible, of course, of
another. greater goal. ! have made
many mistakes in my life. but 1 can
honestly say that they were all re-
suits of an unceasing effort on my
part to reach the bigger thing just
beyond.
money for the production of '"The
Squaw Man." How were we going
to raise that necessary $4,000? Our
first approach to the problem was a
number of people we knew if they
didn't want some stock in the Lasky
Company. But all of them were skep-
tical. At last. however, we were
of bank. De Mile resumed work on
the picture, and a few weeks after
ward he returned to New York with
the precious merchandise. Meanwhile
he had wired us that there was some
thing wrong with the film, but even
this did not prepare me for my first
glimpse of the production upon which
1 had staked everything.
Buzz! In the silence ftthat de-
serted studio We heard the machine
a very far shore, 1 heard Laskys
voice.
"We're ruined" he cried.
He was saying only what I myself
had been too sick with horror to eX-
claim. For, like a mad dervish, the
home of the noble English earl, to-
gether with all the titled ladies who
moved therein, had jumped across the
screen. Time rcIuSeQ TO SIaDlllZo
them. They went right on jumping.
And with gathering despair we looked
on what we supposed to be the wreck
of forty-seven thousand dollars.
That it was not a wreck was due to
the aid of some one from whom we
had no right to expect it. At that
time the late SigiSmund Lubin of
Philadelphia was head of one of the
ten companies which we were fight
ing Nevertheless 1t was to him /
appealed for expert advice. I took
the roll of film over to Philadelphia,
and with a a,largeness of spirit which
shall never forget the old gentle
man saved me, his threatened rival,
fl ON utter ruin. He pointed out that
the time-stop was wrong. No, not an
irremediable defect. In the joy of
this discovery overlooked the hard
ship of his cure. Yet this was to
paste by hand new perforations on
both edges of a film that was nearly
a mile long.
The story of the beginning of the
Lasky Company is now coming to a
close. To 1t I might add a thousand
picturesque and amusing details, but
I realize that the chief interest of my
"reminiscences is focused, not upon
the development Of the motion-pic-
ture industry-dramatic as that un-
doubtedly is-but upon the celebrated
personalities with whom my life has
brought me into contact. / have de-
layed this long the more vital COM
munications because the transition
from the former inppv0eS(ne6 nnoto-