Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1920 — Temperament and Ted [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Temperament and Ted

By VINCENTG. PERRY

(Copyright, 1919. by th* McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Ted was a wonder. Every man, woman and child on the Merlight “lot,” as the big film studio was called, admitted It; every film fan in America proclaimed it from the “housetops.” It wasn’t just Ned’s acting that was the cause of nil the {wonderment at the Merlight—it was Ted's defiance of temperament. Why, actors and actresses who were not half so famous as Ted Leonard were allowed to have their days and even weeks of temperament “flings,” but Ted worked right through withcut one in two years, and he worked twice as strenuously as any of the other ii ctors, at that. Ted wasn’t one of the “bold men” type or film actors, either —be was a typical matinee idol in everything but disposition and nerve control.

Director Bob Lasbrook was the only one who didn’t comment much on Ted’s wonderful fortitude. Lasbrook had been in the film business since its infancy and before that he had had a long stage experience. “He is going to come down with a crash scene of these days,” Lasbrook murmured to himself one day. “I never saw the man with the true dramatic spirit who didn’t have the'temperament bug, too, and Ted sure has the dramatic spirit and then some. When the crash docs come, look out!” The crash did come. It was all because of the new leading lady. From the day of his first early success Ted had been starred alone, but now for some unexplained reason the directors of the company decided upon a co-star for him —a famous stage actress who was to make her film debut. Ted knew what most of the stage actresses who sought the movies were like. He had seen them come up one by one and go down in formation of fours and fives. They didn’t take. The movies were meant for young actresses, not for made-up has-beens. The camera brought out the lines and crowsfeet the footlights and grease paint hid! - No stage actress was going to be exploited on bls fame, no siree!

Bob Lasbrook was not surprised. The calm of the old director had more to do with Ted’s final breaking up of temper than anything else. After Ted had waxed hot, shaken his fist and resorted to mild profanity old Bob just shook his head. Ted left that night for parts unknown. “To blazes with my contract," Ted £gd flung back, at the business manager of the company as he sailed through the office, head held high. “Marie Slvelle can star alone. I hope her face breaks the camera I” He closed the dot'/r without noticing that the business manager had been talking to someone very small and sweet, someone who had risen and was blushing profusely. The temperamental crash, as old Bob would have called it, had a firm grip on Ted for three days. At the end of the third day he began to think reasonably. It all came from not taking a vacation for so long, he told himself. The country was the place for him—the country he had left so few years before. How changed it would be now. But the country waa not much

dfanged, he found. There was a feeling of gratification In bringing hia roadster to a halt In front of the little schoolhouse where he had learned his A B C’s. That sentiment was not the one that had brought him there first, though. The pleasant memory of the little teacher who taught there the last year he had been In the village had never really left him, but now it had come back with great force. He had thought then that their friendship would have developed to something more than memories, but for some unexplalned reason it hadn’t. It was all hfs fault, the fault of his success, he told himself reproachfully. Would she remember? Would she look the same? Wonder of wonders, she had not changed a bit. The school door had opened and she was coming down the path to the road. Ted w s out of the

car and running down the path to meet her. Did she remember? The glad little cry of recognition and the eyas filled with tears of joy said more than all the words in the world. He almost had her in his arms when he remembered. It was a wonderful week that followed. Just the sort of week that was needed to restore Ted’s nerves. With the return of all his practical judgment, Ted began to analyze his feelings. He loved this little teacher, this Nora Givens. She was the sweetest little woman in the w’orld and he was going to make her his wife, he told himself. Just as he had made firm this resolve a bomb was hurled onto his plans. “I felt sure that some day you would come back—a successful business man. I knew you would lose all those foolish old ideas about the stage and art and such like,” Nora told him as they drove along a particularly inviting stretch of country road. “Would it make any difference if I still had those., ideas —couldn’t you love me?” he asked her as he nervously reached out for her hand. — “lt wouldn’t be practical to love a man with unsettled ideas, like your old ones,” she answered, withdrawing her hand from reach. “I understand,” Ted mumbled. That settled it in his mind. Nora shared the narrow thoughts of many other country people —stage and movie folk were all bad In her estimation —she could not realize that some of the finest men and women in the world were engaged in the theatrical profession. What did it matter after that? There was only one place where Ted belonged and he went back to it —back to the Merlight studio. Let them bring on their co-stars, let them exploit has-beens under his fame. What did it matter? What did fame or success mean when the woman he loved could never be his? Bob Leonard could not understand this morbid change In Ted. Temperamental attacks did not usually leave after-effects like that. He wondered, too, when Ted raised no further objections to Marie Slvelle. Perhaps when he met that young lady a change would come over him.

A change? Well, perhaps! The moment Ted looked up languidly to acknowledge the introduction to the actress who was to share honors with him in the forthcoming production, the change was effected. “Nora!” he gasped, “what are you doing here?” Certainly it was Nora. She was smiling out an explanation. “I am Marie Slvelle. I became famous on the stage because that was my ambition —and I came here to co-star with you because I knew who you were and I wanted to be near you. I was in the manager’s office when you expressed the wish 'that my face would damage the camera. I knew you didn’t know. I guessed where you would go. My sister is the teacher at that school now. That’s how I arranged to substitute there for a week. I mdde up my mind months ago, when you first became famous, that I would be your leading lady. Please Teddy won’t you let me?” There was real pleading In her request. “Let you? Why, dear heart, you must be my leading lady for life. I want you always,” he cried joyfully, as he gathered her up in his arms. “When they fall, they fall hard,” old Bob Leonard mumbled to himself, and old Bob was an authority on such things. a .

“I Hope Her Face Breaks the Camera!"