Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-12
"Grahan1

TN conversation with an actor now
appearing in the talking pictures I
! realized for the first time the other
| 4 day that talkie actors have to meet
| lust about the same obstacles and
go through about the same training as
| radio broadcasters. There are certain
| tricks of f1itering personality through a
| machine which both must learn and
| there are certain aptitudes and dis
| abilities which go for both undertake
| ings. This possibly IS an explanation
| of the fact that the movies are begin
ming to pick up talent from the radio
RANKS.
MY friend, the actor, told me of an
other actor-of the legitimate stage
who was all but dumb and helpless
when he tried to read his lines before
the sound camera at Hollywood studio.
! 1t was as if the audience which he
always had faced, had constituted the
return in an electric circuit. With no
audience present the circuit was incom-
plete and the old flow of fire and energy
which had made him a splendid artist
was missing. This, my friend explained,
was a common occurrence, even with
experienced and competent actors. In
this instance the director dug out of
some old properties a big cyClorama,
showing huge crowd, and placed it in
view of the performer. The psychology
ical effect of this was just sufficient
to get the actor off his dead center, or
to use another figure-to prime the
pump. Words and gestures began to
flow and he made passable perform
ance. In later appearances he became
a dependable Self-starter. but he never
got over the curious inertia and help
lessness which come from the lack
of an audience.
New School of Artistry Seen.
Even Demosthenes had to have the
waves to talk to and I don't think the
public in general realizes that a new
school of artistry has been built up in
adapting the human voice and person.
ality to the various mechanical sound
rigs of the last 40 years. In my youth
remember hearing older persons say
they had difficulty in talking through
telephone-that they felt sort of a
panic, and had difficulty in fetching
up words. 1t was the same way with
the monograph. Many artists have
told me that the hardest ordeal of their
lives was to speak or sing for disc
recording.
Television is on the way and science
is more or less fusing the radio, talking
picture and monograph. There will be
more and more mechanization and the
ability to speak or act before a ruthless
little diaphragm, in a cold, white light,
will become an increasingly specialized
art. In some ways think that this
generation of pioneers in such artistry
is just in the beginning.
CuriouSly enough, some of the quick
est learners are Second-rate performers
later on. In radio broadcasting, as ap-
piled to announcers and artists, the best
of the profession are those who have to
fight the rnicrophone to the end. Here
is the point: A person who snaps in too
easily gets to be part of the mechanism
instead of a human personality, Incl
dentally being amplif1ed by mechan-
ical process. He falls into r0te habit
of speaking and where it Is necessary
for him to iInprovise, as in broadcaSting
some political or sporting event, he is
sure to fall back upon worn and trite
expressions. The trouble is that the
machine has conquered him and made
him part of it. 1t Is as If his mind
and voice were geared with cogwheels.
Relaxation is Stressed.
The better artists, I have observed,
are always resistant to this tendency
and although they may speak with less
ease and f1uency than the others, they
somehow manage to get through the
microphone essential qualities of PEN
sonality which vastly humanige the
sound in the loud speaker. OF course,
I do not actually mean that one should
fight the nicrophone. Any expert
enced person, coaching beginner, will
tell him, first of all, to relax, and not to
be afraid of the microphone. My point
is that one should face the microphone
with the illusion that he is facing a
vast audience and that if he has any
real artistry in his makeup he will find
the cold little disc more disturbing to
that illusion than in the case of one
who is less of a person and less Of an
artist.
Both talkie actors and radio perform
ers agree that there is a tendency