Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-11-21

! imagination In its high priced directors
and executives. Lee Tenny saw the
/ most amazing things done, apparently
! for no reason at all: he saw great
stories by world famous authors pur-
chased at fabulous prices and then
emasculated, torn, shredded, Quilted
and rewritten by young men who had
failed IS cub reporters; he saw titles
OVERLOADED with verbiage. titles where
none was at all necessary still the
wonder grew that men of mediocre
business and artistic ability should
make vast fortunes by treating the
motion picture as mechanical thing
rather than visual story designed to
surcharge the emotions and provide
real, soul satisfying entertainment.
Suddenly the ''talkies" came and
westerns went out" The producers
went sound crazy. For two years Lee
Tenny was practically idle while they
ran the gamut of the orgy Of song, tap
dancing. revueS, and concerts, until
finally 1t dawned upon them that the
public preferred its sound unadulter-
ated and that, at last, the motion pic
lures industry was about TO graduate
into something infinitely more enter
taining-to wit: the show business. Lee |
Tenny decided it would take the pro-
ducers a long time TO realize this fully. /
this conclusion on Mr.. Tenny's part, /
Perfect Pictures decided to make a |
daring experiments western talkte-
and this In opposition to the opinion
Of Hollywood, Solid1y expressed, that
westerns were gone forever.
Suddenly Lee Tenny and his horses
found employment again, and it was
during this production that Mr.. Tenny
displayed his first touch Of tempera-
ment. The director was shooting q scene
where herd of COWS and calves were
being driven into corral by some old
time cattle rustlers, OF which Lee Tenny
was one. The director, stin true to the
tradition that If one be using sound
recording apparatus. one should have
sound TO feed 1t, yearned to have the
calves start bawling. However, they
were neither hungry nor tired and OBJ
stinately declined TO bawl. So the di-
rector had an inspiration.
"Tenny," he said, ~can you initiate
a calf bawling2T
$50 perfectly" MIR. Tenny replied,
that sometimes the COWS break right
down and cry. Not infreQnently the
bulls tremble with emotion"
Then. Tenny, be SO good as 70 bawl
Ike calf"
"Im only an extra man." Lee Tenny
replied. "at seven and O half q day.
Nv horses earn more than that. They
support me and make me ashamed that
IN q kept man. II bawl like a calf
III be doing a bit, and for doing bit
want the regular scale OF wages, s2S
day
Very well, wen forget the bawling,
Jenny. Nov, I'm going 70 make some
.hanges Ia the script. When the rangers Z
;ozse sgp en- the rusElers and the shoot
Eg starts, Russell was to be killed at
ne first vcsAey. Ienny, veil XII you
instead"
mar. Tenny had suffered thousand
UGH deaths In his day; hence when the
h0otfng started he died promptly and
PEACEFULLY and the other rustlers es-
aped by hard riding
Now" said the director, we've shot
ii the scenes with your horse, and
cure dead; SO you're fired"
u was then that MIR. Tenny decided
0 become a producer.
vannoy Mara, down TO her last quar-
sr and stin unknown IA Hollywood,
1t In the waiting room awaiting am II
1terview with Adr. Maurice Katz,
eSkern production manager OF Perfect ~
icturcs. If Mr.. Katz refused to EN-
10y her she would be I'm a desperate "a
tuatiOu. She could not even seek a
10 as q waitress, for her only pair of #
hoes upon which she dare appear Bn
1e street were worn to q paper thin
esS Tn the solcg.
Out OF the east had come vaunny III
lara, young, hopeful. beautiful. and
teh that most terrible OF al diseases n