The Washington times., 1934-07-02

| to film the vice district Of their
fair city!
Opening up the Metro West
Coast studios, our neighbors were
D. w. Griffith and Thomas H.
Ince. Intense rivalry! The indie
pendents were gaining ground!
Paramount was born! Goldwyn
appeared on the horizon! Picture
budgets were increased from fiji
teen to fifty thousand! New York
capital poured in its money!, Elk
citing days! A rush Of talent to
California! Stars! Stars! Stars were
made overnight! Better stories!
Lavish sets! Improved photog.
raphy! Thousands of theaters
were erected in all parts Of the
country! Salaries leaped higher
and higher! Success! Success!
Success!
Then years Of golden harvest.
Corralling Of the world foreign
markets. The baby industry, which
was once the laughing stock Of
Broadway, threatened to become a
major industry! Epic pictures
turned out by every studio!
Theater chains combining every
where! The birth Of United
Artists! Metro and Goldwyn COM
bined and later became Metro
Goldwyn-Mayer! Warner Bros. be-
came a major producing organiza-
ton! The industry ablaze! Salaries
mounted higher, higher, higher!
And then came my greatest sue
cesseS, Resurrection" it made
history-it made Dolores Del Rio
it made my associates and me
more than one half million
dollars.
1 will never forget the day I
sold Joseph M. Schenck the idea
of giving me an United Artist
release for Resurrection" He
was coming out of Douglas Fair
banks steam room, and as he
stepped into the shower I began
telling him what a great picture
Resurrection" would make. With
the water falling and Soaping
himself vigorously, do not know
how he ever heard a word I said,
but a few minutes later in his
office he agreed with me that
Resurrection" would make a
fine picture and gave me a re-
lease.
Theme Song Born
And then, Ramona The
birth of the theme song Qor
which I have never been for
givenD Ramona" also made
history-then "Evangeline," the
first and only financial flop I
ever had-and why not? A silent
picture Of beauty and pantomimlc
art. But whoinhell wanted to
see a silent picture when AL
Jolson was down on his knees
before the mike" singing NAM
N.Y. and Sonny Boy?"
incidentally, AL Jolson wrote
the theme song for "Evangellne. y
AL and Ruby Keeler were return
ing from their honeymoon IN Eu'
rope aboard the Leviathan. I was
also aboard the Leviathan. We got
together, and before leaving the
ship, AL had composed the song
"Evangeline." The takes pe-
came firmly entrenched. It was
hard for some of the Old Guard
to read the writing on the wall.
And then the trek of the legitl-
mate stage actors and song writ
ers across the continent to Cali
fornia. Broadway was deserted
New stars were made overnight.
salaries for both stars and execu-
tives mounted higher. where
would it all end? Then, at the
zenith of my career, I retired. I
had made my pile and decided
I needed a rest; and then, In 1880,
came the great depression. Thea
ter doors were closed-production
schedules cut in half. Industrial
stagnation everywhere!
In 1881, when aboard my yacht,
large portion of my fortune was
swept away in three days! A cool
million disappeared on margin!
I tried to stem the tide, but all I
could do was helplessly survey
the wreck. There was only one
thing to do must make more
pictures. Surely there was place
for me in the industry of which
had been a vital part for more
than 20 years.
New faces in Hollywood made
it difficult to break through the
lines, so I came back to old
Broadway in the hope that I
would find a story and financial
connection that would give me
the opportunity to make a worth
while picture. I met Ed Rasch-
baum and Sidney Pink, new pro-
ducers but real fellows; and we
made our new picture, "Are We
Civilized?"
Looking back upon my twenty
two years of association with the
motion picture industry. I feel o
great pride in the fact that have
never produced or directed a So
called dirty" or "unclean" pic
ture.
Looking into the future, I can
see that decency must be ad-
hered to and. If not, present-day