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Beverly, I've been meaning to ask you for so long to tell us something about the olden

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days at the S&A studios.

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Oh, my dear.

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Well, at the drop of the hat, I can talk about that.

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Because it's quite a remarkable bit of history.

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You see, the S&A studio in Chicago was one of the finest in the world.

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I believe the first studio that Pathé did was in the 90s.

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And of course, they had all the equipment, everything was brand new.

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It was an entirely new technique, the way of making films.

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So everybody was fumbling a little bit in the dark, but endeavoring to really do an

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excellent job.

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And I can remember that we had tremendous, cleaved lights overhead, great big things.

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And below that, they would have what they called an arc light that burned carbons.

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And if you worked anywhere near those arc lights for a half a day, say, you would go

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home at night and your eyes were sunburned.

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You'd wake up in the morning, be as red as your dress, and in great pain, and your eyes

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would water.

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So maybe the next day you didn't work.

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You had a vacation because you couldn't be seen, you know.

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And it was a very painful deal.

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But finally, they got better lights and more sensitive and a curious thing.

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At this period, they wouldn't allow a shadow on your face, a shadow on the floor.

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Everything had to be pure, bright, white light.

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And we had from the tripod of the camera two white ribbons that went back to about 18 feet

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distance back there.

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And you had to do all the work within the confines of those lines.

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And you weren't half out.

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You would have to retake the scene if you were.

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And Mr. George K. Spoor, that SNA meant Spoor and Anderson.

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You remember Bronco Billy Anderson?

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Of course you wouldn't.

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You're too young.

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I do.

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I probably would.

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I do.

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But anyway, he would come into the studio every day looking so dignified and elegant

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in his humbler hat and always had a beautiful Havana cigar.

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Oh, and he would come over and watch us at the set.

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And we were very respectful of the big boss, Mr. Spoor.

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But he was very kind and very dignified and charming.

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Anne, please, upside down.

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Upside down.

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OK.

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Very good.

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Yeah, I got you.

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Hi, Anne.

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Speak.

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Scene two.

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Take one.

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Sound two.

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Look at me.

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Beverly, please tell us something of the people that you worked with.

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Well, there were a lot of interesting people, the beginners in the movies, the pioneer days, you know.

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There was, oh, Luella Parsons, by the way, took care of all the scripts, you know, that

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she would read them over and accept or reject them.

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So she was a very important person.

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And there was Richard Travers and, oh, Ben Turpin started as a property man.

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What about Chaplin?

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Was he with you?

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Oh, yes.

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Well, I was getting to that.

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Chaplin, of course, came.

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And there was a great deal of excitement about him because he always had his set enclosed,

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you know, with screens and wouldn't allow anyone in there.

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And he would take, actually, a day and a half just to go in and out of a door, maybe with

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a great ladder or a old wet mop or something.

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And as he would swing through the door, he would knock somebody else that was coming

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into the room down, you see.

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So it had to be very precise with him.

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He just watched it every minute.

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And of course, the rest of us who were legitimate actors, not comics, we were very much offended

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that we only had a day to probably do half a picture.

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So anyway, he was responsible for our getting a better time schedule with our directors.

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They were thrilled, you know, to not have to condense their stories into a very short

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time capsule.

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But the interesting thing was, did I say this?

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We're not taking it, are we?

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Oh, I'm so sorry.

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Cut.

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I'm sorry.

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Oh, I'm so sorry.

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Have you killed Tom?

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Okay.

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I didn't do anything.

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No, that's fine.

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Oh, can we take it from the...

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We're going to start it over this way.

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Tell me about blondes.

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You were talking about blondes, that they do not photograph well in the early day.

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Tell me about...

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No, not you.

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Ten, excuse me.

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Yet, when you come to your question.

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Okay, Eleanor.

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Beverly, tell us about some of the interesting people that you worked with at the old SNA

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studio.

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Well, there were quite a few.

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I bet.

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Oh, for instance, Luella Parsons, you all knew her column in the Los Angeles paper.

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Well, she was in charge of scripts at the SNA, and it was a very important position,

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you know.

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And she afterwards became a...

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Well, handled Mr. Bushman's fan mail.

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And, of course, Francis X. Bushman was one of the big stars, Richard Travers.

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Oh, by the way, Ben Turpin started originally as a prop man, and afterwards did a very fine

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picture, a comic, you know.

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I suppose Charlie Chaplin was there, too.

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Oh, yes, Charlie came there, and of course there was a great deal of mystery about him.

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And he required such meticulous pains.

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Every scene was rehearsed and rehearsed, you know, time after time.

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For instance, I think he took a day and a half.

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This caused great consternation in the studio.

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He took a day and a half to do one scene going in a swinging door with a ladder or an old

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mop, wet mop or something, and he turns around and hits somebody else in the back of the

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head and knocks them down.

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And, of course, we were the legitimate actors, you know.

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We weren't comics.

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And, of course, the idea was that here we were confined to such a short time, and he

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was taking all of this, that we felt very unhappy about it.

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But as a matter of fact, it worked to our good, because the directors finally had more

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time to do their scenes.

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But he was entirely encased with screens all around him.

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Nobody could look in, and he was czar while he played.

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Well, oh, yes, Gloria Swanson.

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Gloria Swanson, yes.

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She used to go up after school in the afternoons or Saturdays and try to get a ballroom scene

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or an extra part or something like that.

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And, oh, yes, Wally Berry came.

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Wally Berry had been in carnivals and circuses and everything, and they gave him a series

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to do in which he played a blonde, well, I was going to say cook, but anyway, a white

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woman, all dressed up in a gingham dress, and he wore shoes actually this big, like

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they do in the circus, you know, that flop when he walked.

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And he was very funny.

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He was a very jovial person, lots of fun.

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And Gloria became enamored with Wally and used to come quite frequently to the studio.

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And pretty soon we heard that Gloria and Wally were riding in his Bearcat Stutz, and they

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were out evenings dancing or whatever.

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And very shortly after Wally accepted a big contract with the Keystone Cops in California,

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the MacSenet Studio, about six weeks later, Gloria and Mama went to the coast and they

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were married ultimately.

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Scene 11, take one, sound 11.

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Beverly, please tell us about working conditions in those days, and were you represented by

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a union at that time?

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No, we didn't have unions in those days, but they came later.

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But it was, well, of course, everybody was fumbling around in the dark, so to speak,

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you know, the directors, the cameramen, everybody.

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It was a new technique entirely.

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And each day we tried to improve all our scenes as much as we could and learn by previous

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days' rushes, as we call them.

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We'd go in at night and see the rushes that we'd taken that day.

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And of course, we weren't allowed, the producers wouldn't allow you to show a shadow on your

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dress or on the floor from furniture or objects that were there.

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You had to have complete white and dark outlines for your body.

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And you know, they had big cleat lights and then broads, they called them, they were about

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like this, that had carbons on them.

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And if you did a scene working, we'll say a half day, with those close to your eyes,

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even though you weren't looking directly, they'd tell you, don't look into the broad.

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You would go home at night and your eyes were burning and tears were running down your eyes.

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You could hardly sleep all night.

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And the next day, of course, you might not be able to work at all because your eyes would

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be bloodshot.

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And...

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Beverly, didn't you tell me the other day that brunettes photograph better than blondes?

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Oh yes.

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As a matter of fact, I went up to the studio the first time with the most beautiful blonde

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friend.

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Her eyes were sky blue and perfectly wonderful blonde hair and slim and beautiful.

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And the director took me instead of this dear friend.

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And it worried me terribly because I didn't want her to think that I had cut her out of

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an opportunity.

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But you see, with these very vivid lights, the blondes, their eyes faded.

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So you hardly saw an eyeball at all.

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And if they had blonde hair, it photographed white.

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So you looked like an old lady.

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So...

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Okay, cut.

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Very good.

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Thanks, babe.

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Call it, Toby.

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Scene 12, take 1, sound 12.

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Hold on.

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Same thing, go ahead.

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Scene 12, take 1, sound 12.

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Beverly, the other day you told me that brunettes photograph a lot better than blondes.

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Oh yes.

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Good.

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Sorry, I got to do...

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That's okay.

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I couldn't read it anyway.

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Wait for my word action though, Beverly.

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Okay.

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Scene 13, take 1, sound 13.

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You know, it's so funny.

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People look at a silent movie today and they see all of these big gestures and everything.

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They think, oh, what hammy kind of acting that is.

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But this is the way we had to do.

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Hey, Loretta, will you go with me over yonder?

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And you take their hand and you go.

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And it looks so silly today.

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But we only had gestures, you see, to tell a story.

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And as a matter of fact, when we did at Metro years ago, Romeo and Juliet, we said every

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line of Shakespeare's script.

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And it was considered a great, great feat to have told the story in gestures of the

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beautiful language of Shakespeare.

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And I know that the E.H. Southern Company and all the Shakespearean artists in New York

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sent their companies to see our production.

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They didn't think it could be done in gestures, you see.

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And the wonderful thing was that the School for the Deaf all over the country sent their

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people to see Romeo and Juliet because they could read the lips.

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And it was wonderful.

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So dear, if I do all of these things, let's go up and go to bed.

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Sort of silly, you know.

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But that's the way it was done in those days.

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It seemed like to me that in the olden pictures that they used to go a lot faster.

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Oh, yes.

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Well, that was because they had fewer film slots, you know, picture.

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16 to a foot.

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And of course, if they ran those through quickly, you look as though you were doing all of this,

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you know, like a crazy person.

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But.