The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-09-01
Talkies Tax CLANCY Ingenuity;
Keen Mind Discovers Solution

O111 WOOO, O6pL. 1.-4Jo 1O
II easy matter for a man with a
thousand faces to give each Of
these faces a voice-yoices each as
different as the faces themselves.
In fact, when your character
makeups require such things as
false teeth worn over your own,
cotton stuffed in the jaws to make
them bulge, cheek bones padded
with layers Of putty and nostrils
distended with rubber plugs, speak
ing of any kind seems almost an
impossible task.
Such is the problem that Lon
CLANCY faced with the advent. of the
talkies.
To ordinary actors, make-ups re-
quired only a little paint and pow
der, it meant nothing; to him it
meant everything.
DUT CLANCY, though he with
ID Charlie Chaplin held out for a
Long time while cropping for a Solu-
ton to the problem, finally met it.
1.-THE talkies necessarily will limit
nv transformations" Lon told me
one day last spring as We stood
watching Lila Lee go through a
short scene. characters such as l
played in The Hunchback of Notre
Dame Phantom of the OPERA
and others will be impossible to do
now, as I can't put anything in my
mouth that will interfere with my
speaking.
"Other characters I will have to
forego now will be those that re-
quire a dialect. Speaking with a
dialect is one thing I will not do.
There is too much chance of doing
it wrong and offending some per-
sons.
But I'm not going to forsake my
makeup entirely. I still intend to
keep my characterizationS as varied
as possible.
And I will not let the speaking Of
lines interfere with my action. In
my opinion, dialogue is a secondary
consideration to action"
II = =
TTOW well CLANCY adapted him
IL self to the new limitations so
suddenly placed on his art you can
judge for yourself If you have seen
him in the recent talkie version of
THE Unholy Three"
In this absorbing drama of the
rfFOt1c xrnTAfri1NCTYic fIaA 1in1 aE a1aA
the dwarf who form an odd GRIM
inal alliance, CLANCY appears as
the former and uses five voices.
He is first Professor Echo, the
ventriloquist, Stimulating $he pro-
fessor's voice and also that Of the
dummy on his knee.
He speaks again when he i'm
~personates the grandmotherly old
lady who runs the bird store that is
the crooks headquarters; also as
the parrot and the girl.
Replying to skeptics who doubted
that all the five different voices
we're his own. CLANCY went before
F. L. Hendrickson, a notary public
at Los Angeles, and made an affi-
davit that they were.
But no one around the studios
eve questioned it. They knew that
CLANCY, proud as an artist, would
never consent to a fake.
XXTHEN the public probably
wv thought that the veteran
character actor merely was holding
out against an innovation in the
progress of motion pictures, CLANCY
was wrestling with the problem.
1.-THE point is, old man." he once
confided, that I might appear as a
crook and a voice record would be
made. Next I might appear as an
old man or a character entirely diff
ferent from the others-but there
would be my voice and perhaps the
similarity in it could be detected.
That's just what I've been afraid
of. 1t isn't that I have anything
against sound pictures"
There was the artist who loved
his art. In all his roles he had
striven to reach the acme of per-
fection-and he didn't want to run
the risk of spelling the illusion.
II Il Il
TUST as CLANCY sought to hide
~ his real face from the camera,
so he sought to hide his real voice
from the talkie microphone.
when you hear a person talk
YOU begin to know him BETTER" he
explained in his quaint way. my
whole career has been devoted to
keeping people from knowing me.
1T has taken me years to build up
a sort of mystery surrounding my
self, which is part of my stock in
trade. And 1 wouldn't want to sac
ri1ce it by talking"
That's showmanship for you-a
man of mystery should not be too
well known. 1t dullS the public
curiosity, cuts the box Office re-
ceipts, and shortens his days OF
Stardom.
It all dove-tailed with Chaney's
personal preferences. He didn't like
to be stared at on the streets and
pointed out by the curious. He just
wanted to be let alone.
= 4 =
THERE was another mystery, too,
l. that CLANCY carefully guarded.
1t was the mystery of his remark
able make-ups, for they we're his
stock in trade by which he made
his living.
OF course, some of the details OF
how he achieved such striking
facial and bodily effects are obvious
after being seen.
Others may be arrived at by the
simple process Of deduction; it is
nasu 70 slirraise that as an arm.