WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.180 --> 00:00:06.780 on... 2 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:06.940 Hello? 3 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:12.040 And we were talking about 24 films, two reelers, 4 00:00:12.040 --> 00:00:16.000 that he had made at the studios. 5 00:00:17.300 --> 00:00:19.180 Alright, why did you leave the studio? 6 00:00:19.880 --> 00:00:23.980 Well, I got the idea that after 7 00:00:23.980 --> 00:00:28.180 experience over there two or three years, I got the idea 8 00:00:28.180 --> 00:00:29.560 that I wanted to be an actor. 9 00:00:32.660 --> 00:00:36.360 So they were moving west and they wanted me to go... 10 00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:40.060 They were closing up the studio. They closed it in 1919, didn't they? 11 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:43.420 That's right. They wanted me to go with them out to California. 12 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:48.440 Well, I wasn't 13 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:51.620 particularly interested. I was only 18. 14 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:56.480 And my mother, of course, didn't think I ought to go 15 00:00:56.480 --> 00:01:00.880 and so on. But I still wanted to be in the theater 16 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:04.800 business and be an actor, so I picked up all my 17 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:08.560 stuff and I left here and went to New York. 18 00:01:11.240 --> 00:01:12.780 And I knocked 19 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:16.880 around New York for about three years until my uncle 20 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:20.600 stopped me or rather decided I 21 00:01:20.600 --> 00:01:26.460 ought to do something else. But I had a lot of fun. I 22 00:01:26.460 --> 00:01:28.900 had jobs from different ones. 23 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:34.480 I played Vaudeville. I played Procter's, 24 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:38.520 125th Street Theater, and the 25 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:43.060 Steel Pier at Atlantic City. And for about a year and a half, 26 00:01:43.140 --> 00:01:48.080 two years, I had... Procter's was what now? Tell me about it. Procter's was a 27 00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:50.240 chain of theaters in New York, 28 00:01:50.240 --> 00:01:54.000 which were just under the B.F. Keith and Orpheum Circuit. 29 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.000 And of course, the object of all people in 30 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.160 theater business then was to get in an act that would go to the 31 00:02:02.160 --> 00:02:06.100 Palace Theater in New York. And we had 32 00:02:06.100 --> 00:02:09.740 almost made it. We had gotten as far as 125th Street, 33 00:02:10.160 --> 00:02:13.460 which in those days was very 34 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.880 delightful. It was uptown New York, and 35 00:02:19.880 --> 00:02:22.040 the Alhambra Theater was one of the best theaters 36 00:02:22.040 --> 00:02:25.960 in New York. And the next week we went down to Palace, and this guy 37 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:30.120 who had our act decided that he was 38 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:34.060 going to try to make more money out of it. And of course, they canceled the act, and 39 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:37.260 we never did get to the Palace. What kind of an act was it anyway? 40 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:40.540 It was an act, a comedy act, 41 00:02:42.760 --> 00:02:46.040 a straight comedy act, in which I played a 42 00:02:46.900 --> 00:02:49.680 Western Union messenger, and 43 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:53.680 I kept interrupting these two making love all the time, and 44 00:02:54.200 --> 00:02:57.920 the leading lady was a woman by the name 45 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:01.680 of Leah Winslow, who was at that time a very... 46 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:05.420 Leah, L-E-A-H, Winslow, 47 00:03:06.220 --> 00:03:09.940 who was a very prominent and leading lady 48 00:03:09.940 --> 00:03:13.420 in Brooklyn Stock, in Brooklyn Academy. 49 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:17.220 And we had a lot of fun, and finally 50 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:21.300 after about a year and a half of that, it's all 51 00:03:22.580 --> 00:03:25.660 my...of course my relatives 52 00:03:25.660 --> 00:03:29.100 in New York thought it was just terrible in those days. 53 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:33.360 It didn't have too good a name, and so on. So they 54 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:37.320 took me out. He was in the brokerage business down on Wall Street, and 55 00:03:37.320 --> 00:03:41.520 that was how I happened to get out there, and that was what my life 56 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:43.960 was after that, although I always... 57 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:45.700 You know, once I... 58 00:03:47.180 --> 00:03:52.080 Once a ham, always a ham. So of course I've always had a little bit 59 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.800 to do with it in amateur theatricals. We had a company 60 00:03:55.800 --> 00:04:00.020 out in Glenview many years ago, Francis and I did. Francis 61 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:04.040 and I had some experience too. We built this thing up 62 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:07.920 out there and had a lot of fun when we... 63 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:09.580 when we were out there with it. 64 00:04:09.580 --> 00:04:10.920 Careful of this. 65 00:04:14.140 --> 00:04:17.460 That's about all I can tell you. I had 66 00:04:18.200 --> 00:04:21.420 my experience. I had a lot of fun here. 67 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:25.600 Well, Pop Baker, where did the directors 68 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:28.240 go? Do you remember W.S. Van Dyke at all? 69 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.320 He was here though at first. George had brought him here. 70 00:04:32.400 --> 00:04:37.580 There was a guy by the name of... 71 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:39.180 B. 72 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:43.000 Braden. 73 00:04:45.340 --> 00:04:48.620 Now he went out west and made 74 00:04:49.700 --> 00:04:51.900 several big pictures out there. 75 00:04:53.780 --> 00:04:55.000 And so did W.S. Van Dyke. 76 00:04:59.580 --> 00:05:01.700 Now of course all those people all 77 00:05:01.700 --> 00:05:05.260 went out there, made a lot of dough out of it there for those days. 78 00:05:05.260 --> 00:05:06.700 They all did pretty well. 79 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:12.640 That's right. That was the idea. Of course it collapsed all the studios in the east. 80 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:17.680 When you went up to New York, the Vitagraph had already collapsed, had it not? 81 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:20.980 It was just about ready to. 82 00:05:21.020 --> 00:05:24.480 I went out to the studio one day just to see what was going on. 83 00:05:24.900 --> 00:05:28.840 I knew two or three people. What kind of a studio was it compared with... 84 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:33.420 It was an old warehousing 85 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:37.400 type of place. It was better than or bigger than or... 86 00:05:37.400 --> 00:05:41.240 Oh no, this was the biggest in the country. Yes, and it was the best, 87 00:05:41.460 --> 00:05:43.820 finest indoor studio in the country. 88 00:05:45.740 --> 00:05:49.120 Did you ever get to see the Edison studio in... 89 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:53.440 Was it Brooklyn? There were three Edison studios. No, I never saw that. That was in 90 00:05:53.440 --> 00:05:55.940 Brooklyn and then I'm trying to think... Orange. 91 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.520 There was one in New Jersey. Yes, East Orange or West Orange? 92 00:06:01.520 --> 00:06:04.280 I'm trying to think of what it was. 93 00:06:05.260 --> 00:06:07.960 There was another big studio in New York. 94 00:06:09.140 --> 00:06:12.740 The big studio in New York was Vitagraph and Biograph. 95 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:16.380 That was in a brownstone mansion, wasn't it? Biograph? 96 00:06:17.140 --> 00:06:20.040 I think you're right. And then there was Universal later on. 97 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:22.540 Universal, that's where Carl Lemley started. 98 00:06:23.320 --> 00:06:29.580 But Lemley really came here from Milwaukee, did he not? 99 00:06:29.580 --> 00:06:34.080 Yeah. He came from Wisconsin, came from Milwaukee, 100 00:06:34.200 --> 00:06:37.780 and then went to New York. But he was a distributor here for a good 101 00:06:37.780 --> 00:06:41.400 long while. That's right. Carl Lemley 102 00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:45.640 exchanges. And then wasn't there a George 103 00:06:45.640 --> 00:06:49.200 Kleine here who imported... 104 00:06:49.200 --> 00:06:53.520 Who imported a great many films, including 105 00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:57.640 Quovates. I don't remember that name. He was the Kay and Calum in 106 00:06:57.640 --> 00:07:01.960 New York. Only he was almost a silent partner because he 107 00:07:01.960 --> 00:07:05.660 had his offices here. Do you remember Calum Studios at all? 108 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:09.140 Yeah. Where were they? Did you see those in New York? 109 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:13.900 Those were in New York. No, I never saw them. He was the Kay and Calum, but he operated 110 00:07:13.900 --> 00:07:14.840 out of Chicago. 111 00:07:17.780 --> 00:07:21.860 Now, when, for instance, Beverly Bain 112 00:07:21.860 --> 00:07:25.820 says that you worked from nine until about five, you had to punch a time clock. 113 00:07:25.820 --> 00:07:30.080 That's right. You worked also on Saturdays from about nine 114 00:07:30.080 --> 00:07:33.900 until noon. Right. We were busy when we were working 115 00:07:33.900 --> 00:07:38.240 on a picture. We'd work right straight through Saturdays. 116 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:42.220 Not Sundays so much, but generally 117 00:07:43.400 --> 00:07:47.020 all the way through. And we could, in that 118 00:07:47.020 --> 00:07:50.220 inside studio, we could set up 119 00:07:51.340 --> 00:07:53.820 three or four 120 00:07:55.320 --> 00:07:57.760 sets because it was big, you see. 121 00:07:57.780 --> 00:08:02.260 It was much bigger than any you've ever imagined. 122 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:04.920 Now, Mages Spore 123 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:09.820 and Bob Spore were the 124 00:08:11.960 --> 00:08:13.660 managers of the studio. 125 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:17.720 They had charge of all of them. When a director got ready to shoot a picture, 126 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:22.080 he made a thing out of all the sets he was going to need 127 00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:26.120 and everything else. And they would in turn see that the stuff would be made 128 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:30.320 or the carpenter would make up whatever they had and the painter would paint 129 00:08:30.320 --> 00:08:34.440 the stuff and so on. They were very, very essential 130 00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:37.520 to the whole operation. Of course, George Kay, 131 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:42.320 he just handled the stars and went out 132 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:46.260 and got some more and so on. Do you remember a man by the name of 133 00:08:46.260 --> 00:08:50.280 Boucher? Yes, very well. He was brought in after 134 00:08:50.280 --> 00:08:54.520 who? To a superintendent the whole thing. Well, he was brought in by George Kay 135 00:08:54.520 --> 00:08:58.380 to superintendent the whole thing. And of course, like a good many guys brought 136 00:08:58.380 --> 00:09:02.220 into things like that, he was very unpopular. Yes. 137 00:09:02.300 --> 00:09:06.140 And when was he brought in? About what year? Well, I would say 138 00:09:06.140 --> 00:09:09.040 toward 15, 1915. 139 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:14.280 And prior to Boucher, there was another man who was 140 00:09:14.280 --> 00:09:17.680 superintendent who left, did he not, to go to American? 141 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:21.680 Yeah, and I can't think of his name. It wasn't Hutchinson. 142 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:26.220 No. Alright, I'll think of his name. 143 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:29.680 But in other words, in your knowledge, there were only the two 144 00:09:30.640 --> 00:09:33.240 superintendents then. And these superintendents, 145 00:09:33.900 --> 00:09:37.260 what do they mean, what was meant when you say superintendent? 146 00:09:38.140 --> 00:09:41.700 Well, they were, they really... Heads of production? 147 00:09:41.860 --> 00:09:45.860 Heads of production is what I would call them. And they had 148 00:09:45.860 --> 00:09:49.860 a lot to do with the stars and the getting of the people and 149 00:09:50.760 --> 00:09:53.740 the choosing of the directors and things 150 00:09:53.740 --> 00:09:56.780 from the scenarios that were made. 151 00:09:57.580 --> 00:10:01.540 Do you remember the names of any of the writers, the adapters working? 152 00:10:01.540 --> 00:10:05.360 We had a fellow by the name of Hal Roach. Hal Roach? 153 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:09.920 Or Joe Roach, I should say. Hal Roach is healed. Joe Roach. 154 00:10:10.760 --> 00:10:12.760 And we had another fellow 155 00:10:13.460 --> 00:10:16.280 by the name of... 156 00:10:16.280 --> 00:10:20.740 They were the heads of the scenario department. 157 00:10:21.660 --> 00:10:24.760 After Luella left. Luella said she was fired. 158 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:28.480 Well, I don't recall whether Luella was fired. Of course, Luella, 159 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:32.620 I always connected Luella more with the publicity than anything else. 160 00:10:33.740 --> 00:10:36.920 I don't think she did too much or had too much 161 00:10:36.920 --> 00:10:41.100 to say with respect to the scenarios. 162 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:43.620 But Roach was the head of the scenario department? 163 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:49.600 No, there was another guy that was really the head of it and I can't think of his name. 164 00:10:54.180 --> 00:10:57.220 And they then had to prepare the 165 00:10:57.220 --> 00:11:01.180 scripts, the shooting scripts. The directors would work with them or were the 166 00:11:01.180 --> 00:11:05.260 directors more or less hand in scripts? In those days, the directors worked 167 00:11:05.260 --> 00:11:09.180 with them a lot. They'd outline something that 168 00:11:09.180 --> 00:11:13.200 they'd want to do or they'd think would make a good picture and then they'd talk 169 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:17.180 it over with the director or 170 00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:21.220 spore and they'd enlarge on it and then 171 00:11:21.220 --> 00:11:25.060 he'd go back and make another copy and 172 00:11:25.060 --> 00:11:29.300 they all worked together to try to get something 173 00:11:29.300 --> 00:11:33.240 out of these things. I have seen some of these Pop Baker things 174 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:36.480 and they are really well put together. He was pretty good. 175 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:40.260 Well, he was an old Broadway producer 176 00:11:40.260 --> 00:11:44.600 and did things on stage and he knew 177 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:48.420 the business from the back. He was very, very good. 178 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:51.800 And he did most of the George A. pictures. 179 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:55.600 Yes, I gathered that. 180 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.700 Now, when you, for instance, give me the name, if you can remember any of the names 181 00:12:00.700 --> 00:12:04.640 of the pictures and we'll take you through a picture. I just wanted to see how it worked. 182 00:12:04.640 --> 00:12:09.200 You would be called by, who would be in charge of casting, the director or what? 183 00:12:09.740 --> 00:12:12.900 Well, the director would be in charge of 184 00:12:12.900 --> 00:12:16.820 casting the pictures. See, they didn't have quite the set up that you've got 185 00:12:16.820 --> 00:12:20.760 today in films or TV. The director 186 00:12:20.760 --> 00:12:24.720 and the producer. The producer was usually the owner or the guy that puts 187 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.760 up the money, which is what you have today. But the director, 188 00:12:28.640 --> 00:12:33.000 for all intensive purposes, was the guy 189 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:36.640 that really made the film, hired the actors, 190 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:40.640 controlled the whole thing all the way through. 191 00:12:40.820 --> 00:12:45.320 The producer, as far as we were concerned 192 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:48.160 in the old days, was the guy that put up the money. 193 00:12:48.520 --> 00:12:53.760 That was all, and in our case, George Case-Borah, who we worked for. 194 00:12:54.780 --> 00:12:57.320 But, oh, he'd step up, I can see 195 00:12:57.320 --> 00:13:00.980 George now. He'd come down on the floor 196 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:05.060 every once in a while and see what was going on. He was watching some director 197 00:13:05.060 --> 00:13:08.880 taking a picture or something like that. And if he saw something he didn't like, 198 00:13:09.020 --> 00:13:12.980 well, he would hesitate to say something. He was 199 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:16.760 quite a guy. Was he quite a bit older than Major? 200 00:13:17.280 --> 00:13:20.840 Yes, he was. Oh, yes. I figured that would be a lot of fun. 201 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:25.040 George K. was quite a bit older. And 202 00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:28.120 George K. had a very lovely daughter. 203 00:13:29.540 --> 00:13:32.200 Gertrude. Gertrude, who married a guy 204 00:13:33.420 --> 00:13:36.400 who was over at the studio and in the 205 00:13:36.400 --> 00:13:39.920 camera end of it. What the heck was his name? And he left there. 206 00:13:40.660 --> 00:13:44.220 After he and Gertrude got married, he left there and he went downtown 207 00:13:44.220 --> 00:13:46.860 in the, I think, in the advertising business. 208 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:52.000 Oh, I'm trying to think of everything. Well, she did the divorce then, 209 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.020 because she was married to General Wirt. 210 00:13:57.080 --> 00:13:59.120 Well, then they must have got divorced. 211 00:13:59.220 --> 00:14:00.340 That's probably where it was. 212 00:14:01.900 --> 00:14:06.340 Because she married a general, ultimately married a General Wirt. 213 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:08.860 And they lived in Washington, D.C. 214 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:13.980 Let me ask now, now that it's the director, then 215 00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:17.780 you would be called in and... And given a script? 216 00:14:18.420 --> 00:14:21.800 Did you get much time to look over your script? Oh, yes. 217 00:14:21.800 --> 00:14:25.800 We'd get maybe a day or two, but we'd do most of it with 218 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:29.840 all of us rehearsing. And when we did more 219 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:33.660 joint rehearsing than they do today in taking pictures. 220 00:14:33.860 --> 00:14:37.760 Did you rehearse very much? Now, let's say you did a two-reeler, would you rehearse 221 00:14:37.760 --> 00:14:40.480 very much on each scene? And then would you do the take? 222 00:14:42.300 --> 00:14:45.740 Yes, we would rehearse it maybe for a half, three calls 223 00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:48.200 in an hour before we took it. 224 00:14:49.300 --> 00:14:52.300 And then of course all the outdoor stuff, 225 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:56.280 you know, we shot all over the neighborhood. I mean, we'd go over to 226 00:14:56.280 --> 00:15:00.260 this house and that house, and we knew all these things. George K. 227 00:15:00.280 --> 00:15:04.420 knew most of these people that lived in the neighborhood, you know, and he 228 00:15:04.420 --> 00:15:08.380 sent them over 25 hours or at Christmas time he'd give them something, you know. 229 00:15:08.380 --> 00:15:12.400 So we were always, we always had all kinds of locations, any 230 00:15:12.400 --> 00:15:16.120 kind of house we wanted. Did you ever hear of a location 231 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:20.840 in Ithaca, New York? Was there a director who lived up there? 232 00:15:22.040 --> 00:15:23.140 McRae Webster maybe? 233 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:27.180 No, not that I know of. 234 00:15:27.900 --> 00:15:31.780 In one of the SNA folders that I have, publicity releases, 235 00:15:32.380 --> 00:15:34.680 it says SNA, 236 00:15:36.800 --> 00:15:39.940 we called, this was called the Eastern Company, and then there was SNA Ithaca, 237 00:15:40.980 --> 00:15:43.180 New York. I'm just curious about that. 238 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:47.520 Was that the home of McRae Webster perhaps? 239 00:15:48.280 --> 00:15:49.400 Might have been. 240 00:15:51.060 --> 00:15:55.400 One of the directors at any rate, and Bain remembers making several pictures up there 241 00:15:55.400 --> 00:15:59.520 with Bushman, so it might have been McRae Webster. Did he direct most of their films? 242 00:16:00.060 --> 00:16:03.680 Harry McRae Webster. Yeah, he did a lot of the... 243 00:16:03.680 --> 00:16:05.580 Would he have directed Grouse Stark, do you think? 244 00:16:06.740 --> 00:16:11.080 He did, yeah, he directed Grouse Stark with 245 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:14.360 Bushman and Beverly Bain. 246 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.680 And I'm trying to think of some of the others 247 00:16:19.680 --> 00:16:23.080 he had. Oh, he did a series of 248 00:16:25.920 --> 00:16:27.080 two or three 249 00:16:29.400 --> 00:16:31.520 Edgar Allan Poe stories, 250 00:16:31.520 --> 00:16:35.120 you know. Starring H.B. Waffle. Yeah. 251 00:16:36.380 --> 00:16:39.480 Oh, The Raven was one of the big pictures 252 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:42.820 that they did. Quote The Raven evermore. 253 00:16:43.460 --> 00:16:46.380 Tell me, how was that done? Was it kind of a nice... 254 00:16:46.380 --> 00:16:50.320 Oh, yes. We, in those days, they did pictures 255 00:16:52.180 --> 00:16:55.640 and they were very particular about a lot of 256 00:16:55.640 --> 00:16:57.160 things. No, they were, they were really very good. 257 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:03.820 I saw one, one that was done in 1908, 258 00:17:05.100 --> 00:17:06.940 ten nights in a bar room, is that how I write? 259 00:17:07.560 --> 00:17:10.680 Well, tell you what, I saw a clean copy of that, it was not Duke. 260 00:17:10.840 --> 00:17:15.000 It was really beautiful photography. Now, you know, in those days, 261 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:19.340 George Kay, the advertising and the selling of a film 262 00:17:19.340 --> 00:17:21.860 to the Nickel shows, which is what they were, 263 00:17:23.080 --> 00:17:27.120 was done by flyers primarily. 264 00:17:28.560 --> 00:17:31.180 They'd do a picture, they'd make up a fryer, 265 00:17:33.560 --> 00:17:35.280 and they'd shoot these out 266 00:17:35.280 --> 00:17:39.300 to all these theaters around, telling them when the picture 267 00:17:39.300 --> 00:17:43.900 was ready to be shown and how much it would cost and so on and so forth. 268 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:48.240 And that's the one that I was in. 269 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.440 But that's a flyer of the way they sold 270 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:54.600 a picture in those days. Now, there's a picture that I was in. 271 00:17:55.420 --> 00:17:58.240 And as you can see, Wally Berry was in it. 272 00:17:59.700 --> 00:18:03.320 And Charlie Stein was in it. Now, Charlie Stein is an old hoover 273 00:18:03.320 --> 00:18:06.560 in Broadville. He played the Fat Man. 274 00:18:07.380 --> 00:18:10.500 He was awful good. I ain't seen him. 275 00:18:10.500 --> 00:18:15.460 But I thought that you might be interested in seeing that if you hadn't seen one of those. 276 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:19.220 I don't know whether Olive has got any of those or not. 277 00:18:19.360 --> 00:18:20.240 Sounds a little boy. 278 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:25.840 But that was the way they sold the pictures in those days. 279 00:18:26.340 --> 00:18:30.800 Did they send them to around the neighborhood or just to the theaters? Oh, they sent them to all the theaters. 280 00:18:30.800 --> 00:18:35.120 No, this is to the theaters, you see, so that the exhibitor 281 00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:37.440 could see what he was buying. 282 00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:41.960 Well, General Films distributed four S&A, right? That's right. 283 00:18:42.180 --> 00:18:45.980 And they would be posters and then these flyers. Posters and these flyers. 284 00:18:46.080 --> 00:18:48.840 Right, the big posters. Nobody seems to have any of those. 285 00:18:50.020 --> 00:18:55.560 This is beautiful. Would you want this in that book to explain you or not? 286 00:18:55.580 --> 00:18:58.560 Because I would be delighted. You can have it. 287 00:18:58.560 --> 00:19:02.560 Well, I don't want to take it. I would like to. Well, you take it and see that I get it back. 288 00:19:02.580 --> 00:19:05.280 You'll get it back. Don't worry. Will you do that? Yes. 289 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:10.460 Just so we get it back. I think I have other pictures of you too. 290 00:19:10.460 --> 00:19:14.420 Do you have other pictures of yourself? I think you can run that in the book. 291 00:19:14.520 --> 00:19:17.240 And that might be very helpful. 292 00:19:18.380 --> 00:19:20.000 Now there's a picture. 293 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:25.840 That happens to be my brother who is now dead. 294 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:29.420 He was younger than I was. And he did one or two pictures over there. 295 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:31.920 There's a picture of Eddie Arnold. 296 00:19:33.300 --> 00:19:36.640 Edward Arnold. And this is your brother. 297 00:19:37.160 --> 00:19:45.520 Who is this actor? Do you remember? He was a Dutchman by the name of 298 00:19:45.520 --> 00:19:45.840 von 299 00:19:48.460 --> 00:19:50.080 Turpen or something like that. 300 00:19:50.080 --> 00:19:53.400 I can't remember his name. But he'd been over in this country. 301 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:55.440 And he made pictures in Germany. 302 00:19:55.800 --> 00:20:01.220 Tom, had you left the studio when Bill was there? Or did Bill go at the same time you did? 303 00:20:01.260 --> 00:20:04.800 No, I was living there at the time. 304 00:20:04.820 --> 00:20:07.460 You have a real black lady in this film. Yeah. 305 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.660 That's amazing because there are very few of them. Who was that? 306 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:16.920 Of this here, that's one of the scenes in that picture. 307 00:20:18.320 --> 00:20:19.300 And this is you. Good. 308 00:20:19.300 --> 00:20:22.260 And here's the nice one. Well there's Stein. There's Charlie Stein. 309 00:20:23.020 --> 00:20:26.340 What's the name of this picture? Presto Willie. 310 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:29.740 The name of the movie? Is that Presto Willie? 311 00:20:32.300 --> 00:20:34.440 And this is Presto Willie. 312 00:20:36.360 --> 00:20:38.720 And who is the guy there on the wig? 313 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:43.740 That's the guy that was 314 00:20:43.740 --> 00:20:45.980 this fella here. Van. 315 00:20:50.060 --> 00:20:51.180 Van. Van. 316 00:20:51.180 --> 00:20:53.720 Van Klein or something like that it was. 317 00:20:55.060 --> 00:20:58.140 And then here was a, they were shooting 318 00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:02.900 a scene in a church and they wanted an audience. 319 00:21:03.060 --> 00:21:05.980 At some point. So all of them sat in 320 00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:10.320 all of them sat in the pews on the 321 00:21:10.320 --> 00:21:14.180 set scene to be the audience. Now here is the fella 322 00:21:14.180 --> 00:21:16.480 that we've talked about, Dick Baker. 323 00:21:18.360 --> 00:21:20.640 That's Pop Baker. Which one Tom? 324 00:21:21.700 --> 00:21:24.400 This is Tom's father right here. 325 00:21:26.360 --> 00:21:30.120 This is Tom's father. My father 326 00:21:30.120 --> 00:21:34.460 was with the Commonwealth Edison Company. It had the north side district. 327 00:21:34.940 --> 00:21:37.980 So of course the S&A was the biggest thing that 328 00:21:37.980 --> 00:21:42.280 Commonwealth Edison had in those days. They spent more money with Commonwealth Edison than 329 00:21:42.280 --> 00:21:45.980 anybody. So he was over there a lot looking around, you know, 330 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:48.720 and seeing the lights. 331 00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:52.680 Fabulous. I'll take the notes on that. 332 00:21:53.780 --> 00:21:55.260 Go ahead now. 333 00:21:55.520 --> 00:22:02.600 There was Betty Scott. Who was the leading lady over there? 334 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:10.280 I haven't seen her before. That's great. She was over there for 335 00:22:10.280 --> 00:22:11.020 a couple of years. 336 00:22:14.800 --> 00:22:18.280 Well where did they go west? They went to Los Angeles. 337 00:22:19.080 --> 00:22:19.480 Hollywood. 338 00:22:22.760 --> 00:22:26.280 Now the studio that Dr. Billy had 339 00:22:28.600 --> 00:22:30.280 was not located in 340 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:34.620 Hollywood today. No, it was outside 341 00:22:34.620 --> 00:22:36.040 of there. What did you say? 342 00:22:37.180 --> 00:22:41.420 Well I know that W.S. Van Dyke went to 343 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:44.180 Culver City. Culver City. That was where they 344 00:22:44.180 --> 00:22:48.320 had this stuff located. Now there's an interesting picture. 345 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.900 There's Bushman, Chaplin, 346 00:22:52.860 --> 00:22:55.020 and Brunco Billy, G.M. Anderson. 347 00:22:57.220 --> 00:23:00.220 That was when G.M. Anderson brought 348 00:23:00.220 --> 00:23:04.200 him here and introduced him when Spore raised 349 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:06.880 hell because these men always don't get Chaplin. 350 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.300 You know I have the picture that just precedes 351 00:23:12.300 --> 00:23:14.940 this where they're all just sort of staring. Oh really? Yeah. 352 00:23:16.860 --> 00:23:20.200 That's a good picture of Beverly Payne. 353 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:24.240 My God, she writes the same way she wrote 354 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:28.660 then. Exactly. And here's Ruth Stonehouse. 355 00:23:29.160 --> 00:23:32.280 Who everybody liked. Very much. She was a very 356 00:23:32.280 --> 00:23:36.320 fine girl. Now she goes on. Somebody said that she doesn't but I track her down and film 357 00:23:36.320 --> 00:23:40.320 her on. Here is a picture of 358 00:23:40.320 --> 00:23:44.080 Dick Travis who was a very good leading man. He was also 359 00:23:44.080 --> 00:23:46.900 later directed several pictures. 360 00:23:52.540 --> 00:23:56.320 And this guy was an old actor but a director out there. 361 00:23:56.420 --> 00:23:58.900 Calvert. Very good man. 362 00:24:00.980 --> 00:24:02.900 That's the Calvert that I know. 363 00:24:02.900 --> 00:24:06.560 He wore patees. I see him in a picture with patees. Yeah. 364 00:24:08.180 --> 00:24:09.940 Isn't that great? 365 00:24:11.560 --> 00:24:15.040 Fabulous. Now can you tell me something about 366 00:24:15.040 --> 00:24:18.820 this because this is most unusual to have a black woman 367 00:24:18.820 --> 00:24:23.080 in films. Hardly ever did they. Well she of course was blacked up. She was a white 368 00:24:23.080 --> 00:24:27.120 gal. This one was? Oh yes. She's got Brunco 369 00:24:27.120 --> 00:24:31.580 kind. It doesn't look that way. 370 00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:35.040 I'm sure she had 371 00:24:38.360 --> 00:24:39.280 I'm sure 372 00:24:39.280 --> 00:24:43.120 that I'm right. This is you and you're in what? 373 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:47.200 In this. That's right. They're all from Presto Willie. Anonymous Love 374 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:50.720 it says on the back of it. Anonymous Love. Oh that's just a joke. 375 00:24:51.600 --> 00:24:54.800 These are all from Presto Willie. All from Presto Willie. Except this one. 376 00:24:54.800 --> 00:24:58.400 That's right. This one I don't remember what that was from. 377 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:01.780 But I showed you 378 00:25:02.800 --> 00:25:07.040 I think that's an interesting picture to show you a picture of Ed Arnold when he was a young 379 00:25:07.040 --> 00:25:11.120 fellow. Her hands are white. That's the best makeup job I've ever seen. 380 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:14.840 Now let me talk about that if I may because 381 00:25:14.840 --> 00:25:17.900 I found out that the first all black films 382 00:25:18.800 --> 00:25:22.740 were done in Chicago and do you remember seeing 383 00:25:22.740 --> 00:25:26.160 pictures by Ebony 384 00:25:26.740 --> 00:25:30.840 that were distributed in the theaters of 385 00:25:30.840 --> 00:25:34.760 Ebony Films of Chicago. It was started 386 00:25:34.760 --> 00:25:37.600 by a man by the name of Luther Pollard. 387 00:25:38.980 --> 00:25:42.020 And they were supported or backed by the four wheel drive company. 388 00:25:46.100 --> 00:25:48.040 Now the four wheel drive company 389 00:25:48.040 --> 00:25:50.920 was in Wisconsin. It was in Wisconsin right. 390 00:25:51.860 --> 00:25:54.740 Didn't you want to show them this? This was the lot. Oh yeah. 391 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:58.840 This is the, that's the lot. Now this is the back of the lot 392 00:25:58.840 --> 00:26:00.460 and these are the studios here. 393 00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:08.140 So you can get an idea how big the studios were. We could set up four or five 394 00:26:08.140 --> 00:26:11.140 scenes in there. Oh they're still 395 00:26:11.140 --> 00:26:14.920 standing. They're wonderful. Yeah I've been in them. I don't recall 396 00:26:15.660 --> 00:26:19.220 that the name sounds familiar to me. 397 00:26:21.180 --> 00:26:22.700 But did you have, 398 00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:27.380 I have sets of the back lot with houses on it. They look like permanent houses 399 00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:31.300 are set up. Oh they were probably built. I don't know 400 00:26:31.300 --> 00:26:34.300 of any houses on it of any kind on the lot. 401 00:26:35.280 --> 00:26:39.660 What I'm saying is they were probably prop houses but they looked like they were well built. 402 00:26:41.880 --> 00:26:43.420 Was there enough room for that near the 403 00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:47.360 St. Boniface Cemetery? Yeah right near the cemetery. Right in the cemetery. 404 00:26:47.360 --> 00:26:50.960 So at the back end of the lot. Right and now it's all 405 00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:55.860 asphalted over and everything but it wasn't out in the open then wasn't it? Yeah. 406 00:26:57.260 --> 00:26:59.760 When you went into the 407 00:26:59.760 --> 00:27:03.340 studios and you'd be cast in one of these and then the 408 00:27:03.340 --> 00:27:07.420 director would discuss things with you and then you'd rehearse. 409 00:27:07.660 --> 00:27:11.540 Rehearse. Do the inside scenes and then they'd 410 00:27:11.540 --> 00:27:15.260 say well tomorrow we're going to go outside and shoot. And you'd shoot out of 411 00:27:15.260 --> 00:27:19.260 sequence. And then we'd shoot out of sequence things. They'd make them now 412 00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:22.680 and we'd all, we had 413 00:27:23.260 --> 00:27:27.240 George Spurce had two 414 00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:31.260 European cars. Big touring cars. We used these. 415 00:27:31.280 --> 00:27:35.500 One was a Rolls Royce and the other was a Lozier made in French. 416 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.280 And we used to get 417 00:27:39.280 --> 00:27:43.340 these cars you know and jeez we'd be gone for all day and go 418 00:27:43.340 --> 00:27:45.920 out to downtown center. 419 00:27:48.580 --> 00:27:51.560 And we'd spend a day out there 420 00:27:52.380 --> 00:27:55.620 and the studio would buy us lunch or they'd take a 421 00:27:55.620 --> 00:27:58.760 picnic lunch along and we'd make scenes. 422 00:27:58.780 --> 00:28:03.460 It was country stuff you know and all that and we'd work out all 423 00:28:03.460 --> 00:28:06.440 day long. Come back and 424 00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:10.480 it's remarkable. 425 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:11.900 Thank you.