Evening star., 1945-10-17
By HAROLD HEFFERNAN.


Great names from the. past still
filter in and out OF Hollywood the
BushmanS, the Costellos, the
Keatons, the Talmadges, ct al
and this veteran news gatherer who
used to save his nickels to catch
EN- In their latest two-reeler at
the Bijou never gets over the. thrill
Of talking to them.
Old-time n1oviegoers remember
Dorothy Gish as the button-nosed
ingenue of David Wark Grifith's
famous pictures. Sister Lillian was
the beautiful heroine. And the
"Gish girls" are as familiar tag
as the 'Floradora Girls" or the
Harvey Girls"
Right now Dorothy Gish Is en-
gagged In making her second talkie
venture, Centennial Summer" at
20th Century-Fox. Her first, about
two years ago, was playing the role
Of Mrs. Otis Skinner in "Onr Hearts
Were Young and Gay"
Plays Mother Role.
In between silent and talkie films,
Dorothy has had a stage career
which neither marriage, divorce
(from James Rennie) nor changing
fashions in plays, has cramped.
Life With Father" Russell Crouse's
Broadway hit, established her as
the mother r-of-a-grown-family type.
And Otto Preminger has cast her
in pretty much the same thing in
her current picture. She is the
mother. of two grown daughters
Linda Darnell and Jeanne Craine
and has twins around IL years
old. The time is 1876 and the event,
the opening Of Philadelphia's great
Centennial Exposition.
Dorothy began her theatrical ca
reer at 4 when she played Little
Willie in East Lynn" She came
into movies from the theater; was
zone OF the first silent stars to step
back behind the footlights.
That was considered the utterly
foolhardy gesture" said Dorothy.
TN the first place, II you were a
silent star, producers assumed you
were mute. They didn't believe you
could actually give voice to the lines.
And they were convinced you could
never memorize a whole play.
remember all the people who came
back to my dressing room after my
first play, saying: 1--WE could hear
you just as plainlyl' 1t was con-
sidered miraculous"
When we asked Dorothy which
changes she considered the most
radical between the old silents and
modern movie making both In me-
chanical methods and as to the
players, she told us:
''The modern movie actress is left
absolutely no initiative. Her make
up is put on by one person; her hair
done by another. She is dressed by
still third. The director outlines
her actions before the camera. Re-
hearsals are brief and In short
snatches. Why, Mr.. Grifith re-
hearsed the entire troupe over and
over again."
Dialogue Just Grew.
Here an interesting departure oc-
CURED in which Dorothy (who is
palpably still under the magic of the
Griffith aegis) described the mas
ter's methods of working. Players
rehearsed with their own lines
mostly. Later they were forced to
rehearse without speaking-merely
making the mouth motions and re-
lying on pantomime. No dialogue
was written and no record kept of
what was said. If anybody took
anything down, Dorothy doesn't re-
call 1t. Lines just grew out of re-
hearsal
But" and right here Dorothy is
getting very close to the nut of the
whole thing, 4those long rehearsals
In which we went through the entire
psychology Of the story from begin
ming to end developed feeling be-
tween players.
.'"If l am playing a mother role
now, I am called onto the stage,
meet my daughters and the poignant
scene we are to play is probably
safely slowed away in the cans a
few hours later. But MIR. Grifith
rehearsed us for nonths-we had no
shooting schedule-and a hne feel
ing became established between U.S."
She says camera angles remain
substantially the same, regardless of
talk and printed matter.
Grif1th Used Welles' Trick.
I'VE heard so much about Orson
Weles' radical departure in Citizen
Kane where the camera shoots the
newspaperman from the floor. Mr..
Grifith put the camera down in a
pit and chariots and horses ap-
peared to run right out over the
audience. He invented the close
up and the gauge shot. One
could 60 on indefinitely. He gave
this industry the motion picture of
today-he was man far ahead of
his time"
Pretty young ingenues with button
noses often turn out to be women
OF 40 with button brains. But not
Dorothy Gish who is as keen a per-
sonality, as quick on the trigger, as
cannily humorous as any figure in
the theatrical world today.
She'll be back to Broadway, and
to play that is being rewritten