The Washington times., 1936-03-17

Dicks starring picture, "The
Bright Shawl" En- route to Cuba,
where the film was made, Dick
and l got acquainted. We've been
close frierdS ever since.
We discovered we could sing
close harmony together. We've
been inflicting it upon defense
less victims for years now. Dick
usually sings the leads and l sup
ply the tenor. Being versatile, We
occasionally shift. My tenor isn't
very good but it Is loud.
Which recalls my one ven-
ture in musical comedy on
Broadway. l got good part in
Going Up," with Frank Craven
and Edith Day. One of the
good things about it was that it
only called for me to sing with
the chorus. My tenor sounded
pretty fine with so other voices.
So I tried out with Sam Harris
for a singing role. I didn't con-
tinue in musical comedy.
The only solo 1 ever sang
was in my last Broadway play,
"The Woman Who Laughed"
which did with Martha He'd
man. Leo Marsh, of the Tele-
graph, was the sole critic who
wrote: "William Powell had his
good moments. When he was
singing was not one of them"
Nineteen hundred and twenty
two and Italy-with Ronald Col
man and the Gish sisters. We
spent 40 weeks making the pic.
ture "Romola." On the Mediter-
ranean three months, and six
months in Florence. That was
probably the best year of my life.
1t was on that trip 1 met
ROnnie COlman. It was the
beginning of another friendship
like that with BarthelmesS.
I first went to Hollywood in
1925. Did two pictures for B. P.
Schulberg on the RKO Radio lot
where I'm now working. It was
then F. B. o.
One of my early Hollywood
pictures, made in 1926, was a
Western called "DeSer44 Gold"
I noted just the other day that
it is to be done again.
I'd never been on a horse, ex-
cept in a park. And that was
a pretty big park where we went
on location-the whole Mojave
Desert. The first day out my
horse made the correct guess that
I was a tenderfoot and ran away
with me. 1 was loaded down with
the biggest gun, the biggest spurs,
the heaviest chaps and the flash.
lest bandanna I could find in the
property and wardrobe depart
mentS.
The bandana flew over my
eyes and my feet flew out of
the stirrupS. Every jump the
horse made rOwelled the spurs
into his flankS. And he didn't
need such announcement.
I finally headed him into a
box canyon, and when he couldn't
run any further without turning
mountain goat he stopped. They
say before desert claim can be
staked legally it must be cleared
of cactus. I hope some worthy
proSpector came along to stake
that claim I cleared. They were
picking cactus out of me for
hours.
I made several Westerns after
that and was always the SiniS-
ter villain. / wore black frOck
coats and black SOmbrerOS, the
favored garb of frontier slickers,
so often that / felt like an un-
dertaker.
One thing learned from such
roleS-virtue doesn't always bring
it's just rewards. Along in 1927, or
early in '28, did an outdoor opus
with Jack Holt, called "The Van
ishing Pioneer" Jack was the
stalwart cowboy hero. I was the
black-hearted land and water
grabber.
We went to a location near
Zion National Park, in Utah.
On a particularly cold day, Jack
had to pilot a covered wagon
across a stretch of desert 40
miles from camp. A terrific
windStOrm blew up and raised
merry Cain with the worthy
pioneers. And all that day the
villain. wrapped in a warm over
coat, was sight seeing in the
National Park.
Not all base hearts beat beneath
black frock coat. Mine did some
pretty regular ticking under a
dinner jacket in those villain
days.
talking pictures turned the
film world upside down. 1 was
fortunate. The turn for me
was up. l did Interference"
the first complete talking pic
ture my studio made, with Give