Evening star., 1937-01-24

! n III dl dLIlOulII
chats what it later became) for
$4,000, and no takers!
De Mile tried brother William, then
successful playwright, who replied
he'd save the money to pay Cecil's car
fare home from wherever he was go
ing with his batty idea. Dustin Far
mum, wanted for the lead in the first
film, said he'd take $3.50 a week. cash,
but he would have nothing to do
with a quarter interest in the firm.
1T TOOK about year after that
first meeting to get organized for
production. Meanwhile De Mile
helped his mother with her play
brokerage to obtain little income,
often walked. though, to save nickel,
which would buy a bottle of milk
for the baby.
Finally. however. Lasky, Goldwyn
and De Mile secured the rights to Ed
win Milton Royle's successful play,
The Squaw Man" buying them on the
little down and-the-rest-later plan.
The trio decided to film the play
against an approriate background in
Arizona, so gathered Farnum and the
! rest of the crew onto a train and
| set out.
But it was raining in Flagstaff
raining dismally.
| The country looked so disappoint-
ing the Lasky Feature Play Co. stayed
right on the train until it reached
Los Angeles. There a young cow
boy, named Hal Roach. walked into
Cecil De Miles hotel room, applied
for a job in the picture at SIS per
day. was offered So and turned it
down.
| Roach told De Mile. though, about
/ a pleasant suburb, named Hollywood,
where the powerful Universal Co.,
already a leader in the motion pic
ture business, was operating. De Mile
| investigated, hired a barn for SIS a
| month and that was his first studio.
1t was all right, except that the
fellow who owned the barn retained
| part of it for his horse and buggy.
| Whenever he washed the vehicle water
ran into the corner De Mile used
/ for his Office and he had to plant
his feet on the waste basket to escape
pneumonia.
He escaped pneumonia all right and
went to work on The Squaw Man"
completing the filming in four weeks.
Everything was fine, except that the
holes in the margin of the film were
punched incorrectly and no projection
machine in America could show it.
THAT was fairly easy to fix, though,
= and it looked like smooth sailing.
Then De Mile met the monopoly
the combine that controlled the in
dustry and forbade the new company
to enter it.
Film coming back from the lab
oratory was marked with hobnails.
showing definite indications of sabo-
tage. De Mile was saved again.
though, because he was a careful
citizen.
On the first day of shooting he had
seen a man touch a match to a piece
of waste film and had seen the re-
sultant burst of flame. So he had
made two takes" of every scene and
had the spares stored in his attic.
So "The Squaw Man" was released,
crossed $255,O00. And the produc-
ton cost was 25,450.24. The Lasky
Feature Play Co. was on its way and
Dustin Farnum was destined in a
few years to be a sad individual.
He was the lad who wanted $3.50
worth OF cash money every wNek-no
quarter interest for him.
Pioneering in the. motion picture
industry was no picnic in those days.
The next film made by De Mile and
his cohorts was 1.-The Virginian."
De Mile and a rival director tried
to use the same valley at the same
time, and there was almost gunplay
until he found his opponent was
woman. Miss Jeanie Macpherson.
Miss Macpherson went to work for
De Mile, though, not long after tne
controversy over the location site ana
has been with him ever since, doing
considerable of the research work on
Ine PlalnSmdn. 0Ilc WeAb w WIN
for him because her company fired
her for taking too much time In max
ing q picture She was artistic and
took 10 days for the job, while there
was a young lad named Wallace Reid
turning out pictures for the same
company in seven days. He was
cheaper.
E.ARLY in cinema history De Mile
began to experiment with lighting.
When he had arrived in Hollywood
all films had to be made out Of doors
because there was no artificial light
ing. In "The Waters of Virginia"
he tried lighting only half of a char
acter's face in a closeup instead Of
flooding 1t as usual.
The results were surprising. The
film buyers in New York looked at the
picture and wanted to pay only half
price for it because they could see
only half of the characters faces.
De Mile answered Sam Goldwyn's
wire of dismay from the Eastern front
with: "If you and the buyers don't
~.nr, D,-. .hropdf lirhtino ukaY v0t1