Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-08-04
He ta1ght HolZyaOo0d to use color
- and started something that will be felt
zvhersz'er movles are made
and shozvn. Here's a zuvld closeup of
Reuben S9zamouhau, director Of stars and
pioneer in bringing the ,ainbos0
to the n(ver screen
by RUTH WOODBURY. SEDGWICK

fathers house with walls eight feet thick,
which rouched against the hillside There he
dreamed heroic dreams of princesses who
danced to the beat of the tapestries which
swayed over his bed at night of knights who
marched to the infallible tempo of the great
clock which licked out in the hail.
But it was at Mouchrany the country
home of the Mamoulian family in the hills,
that young Reuben found patterns for the
creation of poetry and beauty in the theatre,
which have never since left his mind and
heart Out there the earth became hysterical
with life. Vegetables, flowers, grass grew
together in the garden. Above them the grape
vines sagged on their trelises; and over all
were the great serene trees There was water
mill near the house, which every night put a
drowsy boy to sleep with its reassuring
cadence. The peasants, beautiful, strong,
dressed in blazing primitive colors, worked
and lived in perpetual rhythm. They
plowed, and sawed wood, and titled the fields
to the accompaniment of their own folk
songs
Along the road which ran over the Caucasus
Mountains and down along the bank of the
lovely Terek which is to the poets of eau
casia what the Alton was to Bobbie Burns,
there were apt to be bandits. These mountain
people, who have lived for generations in their
impregnable castles up among the crags,
would suddenly drop down across the trav-
elers' path. A handsome people. who wore
soft-soed, high kid boots and silver daggers
thrust through their wide sashes, they would
cowteously suggest that there was danger of
bandits, that they had come to escort you
safely down the mountain, that times were
hard and hundred roubles was small price
to pay for safety.
Perhaps the most important person in this
enchanted world was grandmother She was
made entirely of good, and only few times
in generation does that miracle happen. The
peasants believed that she had supernatural
power; and so, for them, she had. When any
of them were sick they would send for her to
be healed. She had, too, an unmatched gift
for telling stories. Fairy tales on her lips be-
came more real than even the lives of the
peasants. the frutfulness of the garden. When
Reuben was ill she was always there to take
care of him, to pray for him. Once when he
was very sick she promised God that if he
would cure her boy she would, forever after,
give all of the walnuts from one of the great
trees in the garden to the poor God fulfilled
his part of the bargain; but the tree, for some
reason never fathomed was MORALLY offended.
1t never bore again.
All of the other trees in the garden were
the friends of young Reuben, however When
the great king of the grove was struck by
lightning it was his first experience with death.
From the top OF another, an old cherry tree
with comfortably notched branches, he
directed the pastoral symphony which, in its
eternal variations and cadence, was played
out below him
When Reuben was ten he was sent to Paris
to school. BY that time, however, his educa-
ton was completed. He had only craftsman
ship to learn. That came easily. He was a
brilliant pupil. He won scholarships and gold
medal. After Paris he came back to the Tiflis
Gymnasium, where he finished his courses
and began, and soon ended, his career as an
actor.