Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-07-05
BY WADE WERNER

HOLLYWOOD, Cal. R)-Said the
interviewer to the tramp:
TO what, sir, do you attribute
your success?"
Said the tramp:
ITO hard work and plenty OF it
They still call Jim Tully the hobo
novelist, for he rode the b~rake-beams
in many q state before he became
famous for his depletion Of the 2
bond ! of American life. At times.
however, he worked; worked hard
enough n consistently enough 10
learn the trade Of chain-makinp.
IL was an ironic turn in his life.
this application to the art Of making
chains. For chains were Tullvis
heritage. Poverty and loneliness
shackled his childhood and chains
OF adversely weighted him wherev-
er he turned TO climb.
Born poor, he went to an orphan
age when his mother died. He was
five then-"just another freckle-
faced kid that nobody ever came TO
see" he recalls, but the best altar
boy they ever had"
Loneliness ate into his spirit In
those days. He felt keenly and re-
sented his utter unimportance dur
ing the years be was growing from
small boyhood toward adolescence.
4 came out Of it with a great Bit
terness,' he says.
Away from the orphanage. work
ing for his board on q farm. the Bit
terness grew. Being older. he ran
away and began his apprenticeship
IN ~vagabondage.
And later, when he turned TO learn
ing a trade, il was the forging Of
chains that occupied him. lie still
has a card in the chsin-makers' union
and likes to talk Of old days in the
chain shop.
Its a great art, this making Of
chains" he says. "Men must make
them, and by hand, just as they made
them long ago. Machines can't tame
the red-hot links and DO it we'll. And
it's no job for weaklings OF the half
hearted. A five-pound sledge was the
smallest hammer we used. A man
had 10 hit hard and learn where 10
hit. and he had TO learn young"
To his first typewriter, built like
a battleship, Tully brought the
scorched and ealloused hands Of a
chain-maker. He smote the keys
with sledgehammer fingers; beat
out laborious paragraphs with the pa
thence Of a hemmer-wielder who has
helped to make anchor-chain for
dreadnaughts.
Eight years il took me TO write
my first novel," he relates. Eight
years. 1t has hard labor. but
learned a lot in the writing Of that
book. Others came easier. Beg
gars Of Life | wrote in two months
FULLY often is called "thc most
hated man in Hollywood II he's
been said that when he walks into
a room full of picture players the
picture people walk out. This al
legged feeling against him is ascribed
to his depletion Of Hollywood char
acters in "Jarnegan" and to his pub
lished interviews with stars.
For FULLY is blunt with a chain
shop bluntness. To paraphrase one
of his own expressions, the smallest
hammer he uses is a five-pound
sledge.
Tully also was a fighter IN the
days before his books brought him
money. and he learned no velvet
touch in the prize-ring.
However. one need not fear that
this stocky, red-headed ex-chain-
maker eve will starve I'm Holly
wood. II IS not the people Holly
wood hates but the people Holly
wood forgets who need pity here.
Just at present a producer who
hated Tully well enough to pay
handsomely for the screen rights "a
"Beggars of Life is paying him an
additional $500 a week to collabo.
rate with the director during tho
filming Of il.
Such collaboration Tullv hoes not
regard as work. 81 don't argue with
the director" he explains. writ
ing the book was my job; filming il
is his"
For what he has achieved In his
writing. however. the "hobo novel
list" wants full credit.
at wasn't luck nor genius" he