Evening star., 1960-12-13

fabulous heyday was Just be-
. ginning. This was the Holly
. wood where Mack Sennett
/: could 60 out and buy an $4,000
1 car to cheer himself UP when
! Mabel Normand was mad at
! him, and where Mabel had to
: be restrained from smashing
the diamonds Mack had given
! her with q hammer when she
was fed up.
! Hollywood lived fabulously.
. extravagantly and publicly.
+: The aristocracy.. headed by
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary
Pickford, lived in quiet. sump-
tubus ostentation, entertaining
dukes and maharajahs, princes
E-of the realm and captains Of
industry.
Others were surprisingly vul-
gar. Wilma Banky had to be
dissuaded from hiring a de-
partment-store window in
which to display her wedding
gifts. Jack Gilbert vainly
wooed Greta Garbo by build.
ing a four-room bridal suite
complete with a $4,000 bath
room decorated in black mar
BILE. CMiss Garbo was unmoved,
''It Is so shiny" was all she
said when she saw it,
=. Ben Turpin delighted in di-
recting trafiic on a downtown
hos Angeles intersection in a
Keystone Cop uniform. cre-
ating hopeless snarls and
shouting. I'm Ben Turpin
5000 3 week" This was
double his actual salary, but
exaggeration was in tune with
the Hollywood times.
Mack Sennett was content
to leave the big. ambitious pic.
lures to the giants like .Grifith
william Fox, Cecil B. De Mile
and Sam Goldwyn, while HI
turned out two-reel comedies
ON . lot that was as crazy a.
~~any Of his pictures.
sN-%
=. He began making NOR,
ssmdney than he dreamed existeC
almost from the start Of hi
Hollywood days. He turned ou
two comedies a week and late
Z Z estimated that the averag,
roprofit. on each was $25, 900 Il
! $4,000.
He paid actors what he hat
to. In the beginning, at least
the clowns, acrobats, wrestler
and rotstabouts he hired of
the street got So a day, and ;
rainy spell. when outdool
shooting was impossible. mean
hungry actors. He regarded i
= as blackest treachery when ON
actor went on strike in th'
middle of q production and de-
manded and got q contract call
ing for a salary Of $12 q week
Not only that, but the dirty
t=dog tipped on his Fellow thes
plans and they followed suit.
Mack Sennett dearly loved {
buck. but 1t should be said tina
the pie had to be cut man!
ways. And his ex-bookmakel
I; partners. Charles BaumanI
and Adam Kessel, who handlet
, film distribution from New
: York. were involved in man.
other projects. few Of them o.
. profitable as Keystone. Thus
he was under constant pressurl
to keep costs down.
80
, An astonishingly talente,
! crew either made their film de,
butts at Keystone or achieves
their first screen successes un,
der Sennett.
+, According to Mack, Glori,
Swanson and Wallace Beer,
; met on the Keystone lot ant
eloped the same night. (Mis
t. Swanson always denied tn,
story) Carole Lombard, Phyl
lis Haver and Marie Dressle
first faced the cameras there
So did Ben Turpin, Fatty Ar
, buckle, Chester Conklin, w. c
Fields, Bing Crosby (afte
sound came I'M, and q host o
others.
ITO his lifelong regret. Sen
nett fired Harold Lloyd afte
one days work.
- The incompatible Charli
Chaplin was Keystone's proud
est product. Sennett neve
claimed to have seen any great
ness in Chaplin. He was hire,
away from touring Englisl
vaudeville act only becaus
Ford Sterling. chief of the Key
stone Cops, left after a salar
dispute.
The diffident Englishmal
didn't fit into the pow, ram
sock world of the Keyston
Cops. Not that he couldn'
take a prattfall with the bes
of them. He could do it bette
than most, but it just WASH
his style.
If Sennett didn't see mucI
future for Chaplin at Keyston,
neither did Charlie. He wa
more than ready to quit NOR
than once and had grave doubt
:, about the wisdom of q man VIII
".wanted to be an actor "posin
for the fiickers." But Nab,
Nornland. with whom he mad
many comedies. cottoned
him and by some miracle h
was not forced into the Key
stone mold but was allowed
develop his own style, wit
~"Mabel's help.
Charles tramp characteriza
!: ton was a matter of evolutio
rather than inspiration an,
according to Sennett's recoI
lection, he made many two
,.1reelers before he began to al
tract much notice. Other az
syx,counts differ, saying that frol