Название:
Автор:
Жанр:
Серия:
Издательство:
their investment in the success of movie personalities. “HOW ONE ‘EXTRA GIRL’ CLIMBED TO STARDOM” was the one tale in the “How to Become a Motion Picture Actress” column that sounded a pessimistic note, yet Parsons called it a story to “cheer the heart of every anxious to be photo-player.”45 A more accurate title for the interview with the former Chicago journalist Ruth Stonehouse would have been “HOW ONE ‘EXTRA GIRL’ SHOT TO STARDOM,” since Parsons reported that she progressed from an extra girl with no experience to one of “Essanay’s brightest stars” in eight short months. Despite her allegedly rapid ascent, Stonehouse confessed that she “felt like telling every girl to stay at home,” warning those she called “the movie mad” that “the profession is crowded now . . . it will be survival of the fittest.” Yet, Parsons interjected, “haven’t you something to say to the poor girls whom you so cruelly condemn to stay at home? ‘Tell them that a “pull” does not go in this business,’ ” she responded, “that unless they have the ‘goods to deliver’ to stay at home.” Thus, even as Stonehouse warned readers that only the most deserving, industrious individuals could hope to triumph, the flavor of the piece encouraged young women to cast themselves into the fray. And indeed, after Stonehouse traded work as a leading lady at Essanay in Chicago for Universal City, she went on to direct herself in many movies, including a successful ten-episode series about a willful orphan named Mary Ann.46 Photoplay later echoed Parsons’s strategy, warning that the industry’s rapid growth and consolidation meant writers would have “to be increasingly discouraging to the feminine youth of the land.” Yet it also called fans’ yearnings “to see themselves as they see their favorite stars . . . a very laudable ambition. In passing we might credit the screen with administering a knockout to the old fashioned pre-film days. . . . It is a golden lighted road to fame and fortune that had a dim counterpart yesterday in the way to stage success.” The article concluded, “Every one of them has the chance to be a Mary Pickford or a Norma Talmadge.”47 As in all good adventure stories modeled on the dream of social mobility, obstacles met and conquered sweetened eventual success.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
