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The Moving Picture Girls: First Appearances in Photo Dramas, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 15. Jealousies |
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_ CHAPTER XV. JEALOUSIES Alice hesitated, but only a moment, and, while Ruth was looking at her father, the younger girl exclaimed: "Oh, do let us try! I don't know that we could do it, Mr. Pertell, but let us try! Won't you, Daddy?" Mr. DeVere looked troubled. For some time past he had been watching the growing liking of his daughters for the moving pictures, and he was in two minds about the matter. He had seen that this new manner of presenting plays had a great future, not only for the public but for the acting profession. And now, when a chance came for his daughters to get into it, he hardly knew what to say. He had made up his mind that they should never go on the dramatic stage. But this----. "Something has to be done," urged the manager. "I can't hold things back much longer." "Wouldn't you like to try it, Ruth?" asked Alice, catching her sister's hands. "I think it will be just fine!" "Why, I--I think I would like it--if they think I can do it," agreed Ruth. "Oh, you can do it all right," Mr. Pertell assured her. "It is very simple. A little coaching is all you need. What do you say, Mr. DeVere? May the girls go in?" "Why, I--er--I hardly know what to say. It is so different from anything they have ever done. And I never expected----" "Oh, they can do it!" interrupted the manager. "They've been around here long enough to know how we do things. Come, it may be a good opening for them." "All right, I don't mind," said the actor. "I shall be very glad to let them help you out, Mr. Pertell." "Oh, I don't ask it as a favor. I'm willing to pay for their time. I was to give Miss Parker and Miss Dengon five dollars each for a few minutes of their time to-day, but they have disappointed me. I now offer it to your daughters." "Oh, fine!" cried Alice, clapping her hands. "Then I can get that new hat I've been wanting so much. Come on, Ruth. What do we have to do, Mr. Pertell?" The manager quickly explained what was wanted. The two girls had simple parts, with Mr. Harrison as the chief character. Alice and Ruth soon grasped what was required of them, and, after a little coaching and rehearsing, they were ready. "Now stand over here," directed Mr. Pertell, who took personal charge this time, "and don't pay any attention to the camera. Don't look at it, in fact. Keep your eyes on Mr. Harrison, or on some part of scenery. Just forget everything but what you have to do." "Shall we speak the lines aloud?" asked Ruth. "If you like. Perhaps it will be better, for the first time, to do so," suggested Mr. Pertell. "It may help you to get the 'business' down better. A little more light here!" he called to the electrician, for in one of the scenes artificial illumination was used. "Are you all ready, Russ?" he asked the young operator. "All ready; yes, sir!" "Then--go!" The little section, from what was to be a two-reel play of the movies, was under way. Though a bit nervous Ruth and Alice did very well, and soon they were in the swing of it. When it came time for Alice to act the part of a hoydenish character, she was exceedingly natural in it, and her laugh at the simulated discomfiture of Mr. Harrison was so spontaneous that even some of the others joined in. Ruth, too, who had a more demure part, acquitted herself well. The camera clicked on, Russ turning the handle steadily. He nodded reassuringly at Ruth when she had a moment's respite. Then came a slight change of scene, and a change of costume on the part of the girls, Mrs. Maguire finding just what was needed in the wardrobe of the studio. Then, just as the final strip of film had been exposed, and the emergency work of Ruth and Alice had ended, in came the two tardy actresses. "You're too late!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell. "We couldn't wait for you." "What!" exclaimed Miss Parker. "Do you mean to tell us you went and filmed our parts with somebody else in the cast?" "That's what we did," replied the manager, coolly. "Maybe you'll learn after this that four o'clock means four o'clock, and not half past." "Well, what do you know about that?" gasped Miss Dengon, sinking into a plush chair, and dabbing at her nose with a chamois skin, which gave off puffs of powder like a miniature gun. "An' us tryin' as hard as ever we could to get here!" went on Miss Parker, vigorously chewing gum. "The nerve of some people is suttinly amazin'! Come on, Ruby, I never did care much for movies anyhow, an' how some folks can stay in 'em is suttinly a mystery to me!" Then, with heads held high, and with meaning glances at Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, who were busy in another drama, the two young ladies went out, looking superciliously at Ruth and Alice. "Business is business--in the movies the same as anywhere else," chuckled Mr. Pertell, as he gave Ruth and Alice each a crisp five-dollar bill. "I am very much obliged to you, in the bargain," he went on. "So am I!" added Mr. Harrison. "I can get my train now, and it's a satisfaction to know that the scenes are completed." "Oh, it was fun!" laughed Alice. "I liked it, too," confessed Ruth. "And I want to tell you that you both did most excellently," said the manager. "You have a very good grasp of what is wanted, and you put in the 'business' very naturally. I congratulate you and your father," and he nodded to Mr. DeVere. "I have given them a little instruction in the fundamentals," confessed the actor, "and of course they have been about the theatre, more or less, since they were small children." "I suppose that accounts for it," observed Mr. Pertell. "Well, I want to say that I am very much pleased with you, and, if you think you would like to try it again, I can make parts for you in a drama that I am going to film next week." "Oh, Ruth! Let's do it!" begged Alice. Ruth looked at her father inquiringly. "What sort of parts are they?" he asked. "Oh, very much the same as they undertook to-day, only longer and more elaborate. There will be several changes of scene and costume. Do you think you'd like it?" "Like it? I'd love it!" cried Alice, gaily, "Do say we may, Daddy dear!" and she put her arms around his neck. "I'll see," was all he would promise. "I must look over the parts, and then--well, little coaching wouldn't do you any harm, I guess," he added with a smile. "It would make them all the better," declared the manager. "Oh, Ruth! I believe he's going to let us go in!" whispered Alice in delight. "Won't you like it?" "Yes, dear! It's more exciting than I imagined. And I think you did splendidly!" "Not half as well as you, Ruth. You are a born actress!" "And you're a born ingenue!" "Oh, aren't we silly to compliment each other this way!" laughed Alice. "But, really, Ruth, I just love it; don't you?" "Yes, dear. Oh, I wonder what sort of parts we'll get. I'd like something romantic." "And I want something funny--with laughs in it," declared Alice. "Oh, say, Ruth," and her voice went to a whisper, "do you really think I'm an ingenue--like Miss Dixon?" "I think you're--better!" responded Ruth, kissing her sister, and stroking her soft hair. The work in the film studio was over for the day and the actors and actresses were getting ready to go home. From the time Ruth and Alice had taken the emergency parts Russ had observed Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon casting sharp looks at them. "Jealous!" mused Russ. And his diagnosis was confirmed a little later, when, as the two former vaudeville performers passed Ruth and Alice, Miss Pennington, with a sharp glance at the latter, murmured loudly enough to be heard: "Humph! It takes more than one performance in a little part to make a movie actress! Some folks think they are mighty smart, coming in over the heads of others!" "That's what I say, too!" added Miss Dixon. "It was a shame the way they took the parts away from Ruby and Maude!" _ |
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