I liked the Vitagraph well enough to wish to remain there, so I set myself to find out the possible financial future of a Vitagraph player. From A.E's brother, Vic Smith, I got an approximate idea of Vitagraph salaries. John Bunny, the star comedian of those days, was drawing $400. a week. Maurice Costello came next with $250. Norma Talmadge, Anita Stewart and Clara Kimball Young were getting about $90. When Antonio Moreno came from the Biograph he got $60., and the Blackton's automobile brought him to the studio. When, as sometimes happened, legitimate players like Robert Edson, Joseph Kilgour or William Humphrey came to the company from a Broadway show they got well paid for one or two pictures; less, if they decided to remain in stock, which meant fiftytwo weeks a year. Ralph Ince, and George Baker, who had been stage director with the Spooner Stock Company, were the best paid directors. I heard that A.E. raised Ralph's salary after The Million Bid to $400., which was very encouraging to me, not having a face like John Bunny, and being quite sure I could direct pictures myself and write the stories for them as well. The writers were paid less, but one or two of them got around $60. I think this is what they paid William Courtney, and Buchannon who wrote stories like 413 for Ralph Ince when the train wreck epidemic hit the Vitagraph and A.E. bought trains and Ralph ran them off bridges and over precipices.
Once in stock, I set about getting myself a complete wardrobe, including a silk hat with a flat brim, a cutaway coat and striped trousers. I also bought a doublebreasted 'highwayman' overcoat, yellow gloves and a walking stick, all of which I wore when I went to call on Mrs. Winthrop, which I did regularly on Sunday afternoons. She helped me choose the overcoat which was a very dashing affair.
My first Vitagraph part was a juvenile with Maurice Costello and Mary Charleson, but there was never very much to the juvenile rôles in Costello's pictures. After that I played with Lillian Walker. The picture was called A Daughter of Eve and I was a sculptor and the director, Mr. North, had me make a very bad statue of Lillian, and dress the studio set. I borrowed some plaster models of Mr. Lawrie's work and a couple of pieces by Carl Bitter, and rented some of Benton's pictures from him, including Horace Newson's portrait which was still in his studio. But I was too young for the part which was really a juvenile heavy who excited Lillian until her husband Earl Williams came in and broke the statue, which relieved me considerably. Benton said it was lousy after he had been paid the rental on his pictures and had been given a couple of canvases that were used in the set. Later on I worked for Captain Harry Lambart in another sculptor picture and had to wear a velvet coat and a Windsor tie. I told Captain Lambart that Mr. Lawrie always worked in his shirt sleeves, but he insisted on the velvet coat.
Then I played a picture with William Humphrey. Leah Baird, the leading woman, did not think so much of the idea. The operator told me she made quite a fuss in the projection room when she saw the first rushes, as I looked younger than she did. I had a pretty tough time on this picture because Mr. Humphrey did not have the knack of putting his people at their ease, and I was over-anxious to please him. He had seen the picture I made with Lillian Walker, and started off by telling me I knew nothing about acting. He played all the scenes for me himself and expected me to play them exactly the way he did. When I did not, he would come over and look at me the way he had looked at the peasant boy in The Tale of Two Cities before he ran his sword through him, and say: "I told you to do so-and-so, and you did so-and-so," or: "I told you to say so-and-so, and you said so-and-so." He managed to get my wind up from the start. At the end of the first day's work I was a wreck, and when I got into my dressingroom, which I shared with 400-lb. comedian Hughy Mack, I felt so discouraged that I cried, for I would rather have pleased Mr. Humphrey than any director on the lot. I felt better after talking to Vic Smith, who was a very kind fellow in spite of the unkind look his broken nose gave him. The next day I did my best to follow his advice and not mind anything Mr. Humphrey said that was unpleasant. This time he began by explaining that whatever he said to me was for my own good, so I must not take it too hard.
When he got his next story he told me I would have to wear a moustache to make me look older and avoid trouble with Miss Baird. I got a nice straight hair one fixed up by the makeup man, but Mr. Humphrey did not think it was big enough and picked a larger one that I did not like at all. I could think of nothing else when it was on, for I felt it made me look ridiculous. It kept getting crooked which made Mr. Humphrey very angry. He sent for the makeup man, and it was decided to cut the gauze so that the moustache would be in two pieces instead of being a hard black line right across my face and wouldn't waggle when I moved my mouth or said so-and-so in the scenes. The second day on the picture we went out on location beyond Sheepshead Bay, quite a long way from the studio. There was a scene where I hid in some shrubbery watching the window of Miss Baird's bedroom. We rehearsed the scene a few times and then took it. I played it well as there was very little to do, and I was beginning to feel my courage coming back when Mr. Humphrey walked in front of the camera. He was so angry he could not speak for several moments. I did not know what had happened.
"This is insupportable," he said. "One would think that you had deliberately set yourself to make my task more difficult."
Then he walked away. When he was out of earshot people began to snicker and someone handed me a mirror. One side of my moustache was missing. We never did find it, though we searched every inch of the shrubbery, scraping up the leaves and shaking the branches. As a result we lost half a day's work, for the car had to be sent back to the studio for the makeup man. While waiting for him we rehearsed and rehearsed until we were all ready to drop, and then some more, and I had to wear the remaining side of the moustache as Mr. Humphrey said if I took it off I would probably lose it too. He did not use me in another picture after that.