Burbank Theatre

When this theatre opened in the very early 1900's it was called the Morosco Theatre. After the theatre owner Oliver Morosco. Who had another theatre located on Broadway that was later known as the Globe theatre. In the late 20's the Morosco changed it's name to the Burbank theatre. It was located at 548 S. Main Street, and lasted till the mid 70's. During it time as the Burbank it was a Burlesk house like the near by Follies theatre. When the theatre was being demolished by Cleveland Wrecking. They used their famous banner "Bring Down the House".

The Burbank Theatre seat 1027 people.

Most of the information about the above theater is incorrect. The theater was originally known at the Burbank Theatre, built by Dr. David Burbank, and opened in 1893. It was never known as the Morosco Theatre, nor was it owned by producer Oliver Morosco. Oliver Morosco leased the theater beginning in 1899. In January 1913 Morosco opened the Morosco Theater, the same theater that would in the 1980's be known as the Globe. The Burbank was turned into a newsreel house in the 1930's, and by the 1950's was known as the Burbank Follies. Prior to its destruction in 1973, it was an x-rated movie house. The Burbank Theatre in 1912 played the original production of Peg o' My Heart, produced by Oliver Morosco.

The above photo of what is purportedly the Burbank Theatre, may not be the Burbank Theatre, although its frontage does look very similar. This should be checked. What year was this photo taken?

The marquee letters do spell out BURBANK. More than likely, B-A-N were changed on the vertical sign to L-E-S to spell BURLESK.

Does William Gabel know anything more about the demolishment of the Burbank? The theater has much historical significance, and the photo he provides is great.

The David Burbank who built the Burbank Theatre in Los Angeles was a dentist and the namesake for the nearby city of Burbank. The Burbank Historical Society at their Gordon Howard Museum on Olive Street in Burbank does have some information on David Burbank and his theater.

An article in the L.A. Times of 2/6/1887 announced the plans for the Burbank Theater, on Main Street between Fifth and Sixth.

As for the photograph, that is certainly the Burbank much as I remember it from the early 1960s, though I think this picture must be later- probably the 1970s. I used to pass by the theater frequently in those days. The simple streamiline/art deco front with big louvers shading the upstairs windows must have been put in place in the 1930s or 1940s.

Construction on the Burbank Theatre began in 1887 to the plans of notable 19th century theatre architect James M. Wood. It remained incomplete until 1893 when it was finally finished and opened that year to the plans of Los Angeles architect Robert Brown Young.

The interior was done-over in 1937-38 and featured a rather thin overlay of art-deco over the original 1893 decor. It could be at this time that the exterior, seen in the above photo was also carried out. The building was always a street level and one floored facade.

It was demolished in March 1974.

Here is a picture from the LA Library:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics17/00008035.jpg

Great picture! Exactly as I remember it from a passing bus in 1974. The signs atop the Rosslyn Hotel are interesting from that angle.

I didn't realize, though, that the decorative twin-headed light standards survived at that time on Main Street though it had been Skid Row for decades. Broadway should have been so lucky! Whatever beautiful light standards Broadway might have had over the years had long since been replaced with non-ornamented downward-hanging twin lights that are probably still there today.

According to a biography of Morosco by his wife Helen called "The Oracle of Broadway," Helen went ahead on her own and leased the theater in 1899 from its then owner Mr. John W. Griffin. It seated 1500 and rented for $400 a month.
She said "No less than thirteen managers had failed one after another in a vain attempt to make that house pay." After a redecoration and rebuilding of the stage it opened on September 3, 1899, to a full house.
From what information I have been able to gather, Morosco and his wife were born in Utah and were not originally what you could call theater people. Oliver's real last name was Mitchell and he created a flamboyant theater producer named Oliver Morosco.

Sign on the Morosco wall, courtesy of the LA Library:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015416.jpg

This is a 1920 picture, allegedly the Burbank Theater at 548 S. Main, but it is hard to recognize when you look at the later building:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015252.jpg

Rear wall of the Burbank:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015253.jpg

Main Street is not what it used to be...

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015257.jpg

The 1920's photo is apparently the Burbank Theater in Burbank. My mistake.

ken mc: No, you were right the first time. The 1920s picture is of the Burbank Theatre on Main Street downtown, with its original, late 19th century facade still exposed. The front was covered up with the streamline-deco facade sometime in the 1930s or 1940s.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Can anyone tell me if the Chino Theater is listed here under a different name? The architect was S. Charles Lee. Thanks.

A photo by William Reagh. What ever happened to Baby Bubbles, anyway?

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/reagh/1989-1900.jpg

Another post-mortem photo:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics34/00036904.jpg

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Baby Bubbles photo appears to have been taken in the 1950s. The marquee advertises the Joe Louis-Primo Carnera fight, which took place on 6/25/35. The marquee might have been used for a film shoot when the picture was taken.

http://digarc.usc.edu/cispubsearch/sidview.jsp?object_name=chs-m1438&ORN=CHS-5106


From USC Digital Archives.

"Exterior view of the Burbank Theater, taken from the east side of Main Street and north of Sixth Street, ca.1903
The theatre is about three-stories tall. Above the entrance, there is a covered balcony. The windows of theatre and several corridors have semi circled arches. To either side of the theatre entrance are stores displaying their products through their windows."

Betty Young in "Our First Century" a history of the Los Angeles Athletic Club mentions that the first manager chosen when the Club was reorganized in 1906-07 as a private corporation was Eyton, who was a boxing referee and who had managed Belasco's Morosco Theater. 1904 Los Angles clippings of the Kid McCoy and Sullivan fight have Eyton as the assistant manager of the Burbank Theater (perhaps in Burbank) at that time.

Here are two photos from the LA Library. The first is the gentlemen's lounge in 1898, and the second is the drop curtain in 1912:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015254.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015248.jpg

Here is a 1918 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/fs956

Here is a 1905 photo from the LA Library. This must have been close to the opening:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015755.jpg

Here is the location today:
http://tinyurl.com/y4uopw

Hello..in 1948/49 I worked at the Follies Theater for 3 months as a chorus girl. My sister-in-law (at the time) owned the theater (Louise Miller) and 3 of my other S-I-L's worked there too. Lili St Cyr was there when I was there. Alot of old performers used to be backstage alot... eg: Joe Yule (Mickey Rooney's Dad),etc. The performers used a back door to go to a lttle bar/grill next door, called "The Village" to eat between shows.
Divorce resulted in the sale of the Follies Theater
and all of the performers went up the street to work
at the Burbank Theater. After a year, I went to Las
Vegas, but was underage for the Desert Inn, so I returned to CA and moved to Santa Barbara, where I met
my current husband (of 56 years). I had a lot of
photos, but they were lost over the past years.
Thanks for reading...KDG

Someonewalksinla:

I can pin down the photo supposedly "Circa 1903." That's off. On the right side of the photo the Pacific Electric Building is clearly visible. That is from where I am typing this message right now (I live there). That was finished in 1905. The Kerckhoff Building, across Sixth street (closer to the camera position), was finished around 1908. If that was there, it would block the view of the PE Building. So this photo dates between 1905 and 1908.

I've put a few 'then & now' photos together of the Burbank Theater on this page for my HTC group:

http://lahtc.blogspot.com/2007/05/6th-main-showing-burbank-theater.html

This is an excerpt from an LA Times article on 5/30/20. I presume they are referring to the theater that was razed in the mid 70s:

Immediately at the close of the current theatrical season the old Burbank Theater, Main street, near Sixth, birthplace of legitimate production in Los Angeles and for many years under the management of Oliver Morosco, one of the leading American stock houses, will be razed, according to an announcement made yesterday by Fred Wolfe, manager of the house, for Gore Bros., lessees.

A December 1915 article in the LA Times discusses the imminent opening of a new motion picture theater on the east side of Main between Fifth and Sixth. It was to be called the Sherman Theater after General Moses Sherman. It may never have been built, or it may be here under another name. It's not the Burbank as that was already open in 1915. Do we have any other theaters on the east side of the block between Fifth and Sixth?

The address was 518 S. Main.

The Galway at 518 S. Main is listed.

Thanks, Joe. The full article about the razing of the old Burbank theater in 1920 confirms that the earlier building was demolished and the new Burbank built in its place. The history above suggests a remodel of the 19th century building, which does not appear to be the case.

The demolition took place in 1920? Was the entire building demolished or was it just the auditorium section? In the c1920 photo from the library collection the commercial part of the building looks to be in excellent shape. All the later pictures I've seen of the place are from after it got that deco/streamline modern remodeling, which had to have been done in the 1930s at the earliest. Nothing looking like that facade would have been built as early as 1920. If the whole building was new in 1920, then there ought to be pictures of it somewhere.

Rats! Screwed up the code for the picture link.

1920 photo from the library collection.

In the movie "Uptown Saturday Night" you can see a few of the theatre marquees that were located on Main Street. The theatres making cameos were the Burbank, Follies, Optic and the Regent theatres. The film does not take place in Los Angeles, but the section of Main Street filled in for a rundown part of the city in that film.

I retyped the whole story here, but it vanished as I forgot to log in. The article states that the old Burbank will be leveled. the new building will be ten stories high reaching back to Los Angeles street, and will cost two million dollars. They describe the features of the new theater in detail. It may be that the owners decided to remodel instead of razing and building from the ground up.

KDG, poster of 4/17/07, should note this LA Times brief dated 2/17/48:

S.C. Student Caught Firing Staples at Burlesque Girls

The ladies of the chorus at the Burbank Theater at yesterday's matinee were jumping - but not in time with the music. The dance director objected, "That's not the way the dance goes". The chorus chorused, "We know that, but something is hitting us. Something that hurts".

The management called police who soon spotted William C. Kiele, 23, University of Southern California student. From his eighth row seat, police said Kiele was peppering the dancing ladies with half-inch steel staples. He had a rubber slingshot. Police booked Kiele at County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

Ken mc....that story would make a good graphic novel episode.

The Burbank is at the bottom of this 1907 USC photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yvrtzs

Here is another view, same date:
http://tinyurl.com/2yyrpe

Part of the Burbank is on the left in this USC photo, according to the information given by the archives. I think the date is wrong, probably 1920s as opposed to 1880s:
http://tinyurl.com/37jecf

It does look later than the 1880's. Does anyone know if there is a CT page for the movie theater on the Queen Mary? I think its called the Royal. I'm going there tomorrow and wanted to see if there was any information about it.

I didn't know there was a theater on the Queen Mary.

All I've been able to find out is that it was added to the ship in the 60's or 70's and seats 150 people.

vokoban....I don't think the Queen Mary counts as a movie theater. If it did, people would start adding cruise ships and even airplanes because they have seats and show movies. Would home theaters come next? You might want to ask first before adding it.

I wasn't going to add it....just wondered since its pretty much stuck in Long Beach now.

I wonder if that would be considered a "float-in" theater.

Okay. I don't think it matters if its stuck or not, I doubt that it would count as a theater.

Well, it was built specifically to show movies as a theater...I don't think just because its on a ship really matters even though I'm not much interested in theaters built after 1950. It's not like a plane or somewhere where they happen to show movies at times.

The Queen Mary was built specifically to show movies? I never knew that. I thought it was built as a transatlantic ship. :) Your talking about the theater within the ship, right? I don't think the idea of adding it to Cinema Treasures will "float", but you could give it a try if you want to. I'd be curious to see if it would be accepted.

I never said the Queen Mary was built for that purpose....I said that the enclosed theater within the ship was built for that purpose....and i also already said that I never planned on adding it to Cinema Treasures....I think someone maybe just likes to argue about nothing...or I could be wrong. The silly thing is that there is nothing remotely controversial or debatable in this discussion.

"Well, it was built specifically to show movies as a theater..." posted by vokoban on Aug 3, 2007 at 4:21pm

Some people might think that you were talking about the ship itself. I understood what you meant. Thats why I added the :). There was no arguement on my part, just conversation about the theater within the ship.

alright...maybe i wasn't clear....let's just sink that ship

The remodeling that gave the Burbank its streamlined facade took place in 1937, according to an article in The Los Angeles Times of October 17 that year.

The airplanes didn't show movies in 35 mm. Did the Queen Mary?

Joe, how did you find the article? I keep looking through the paper for that day and can't find it.

I can't find that article either. Joe, are you sre about the date of the article?

The reference is from a card in the California Index at the L.A. library. It might be a different edition of the paper. They sometimes did several editions a day in those days. It could also be a typo on the index card. The library does make a disturbing number of mistakes.

The closest hit was when Oliver Morosco fell down the stairs. He was in bad shape. I don't know if he survived that accident.

does the card catalog list a section and page number?

vokoban: The card has only the date, alas.

Ken: Oliver Morosco died in 1945 (hit by a streetcar in Los Angeles), so I guess he survived his fall down the stairs.

The Burbank, by the way, is were Morosco had his first success- and his success was the Burbank's first success as well. Here is Time Magazine's obituary for Oliver Morosco.

He was doomed one way or another, apparently. I hope he had AFLAC.

Here is an October 1915 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2q5g9f

Known as Pelton's Burbank in 1919:
http://tinyurl.com/2s5qeu

The Burbank is featured in the opening sequences of Sam Fuller's film, The Crimson Kimono, filmed February-March 1959.

My uncle, Allen E. Hanson, was a projectionist at the Burbank in the late 40's, when they still showed movies AND had live burlesque entertainment. My aunt would bring him his lunch and we'd watch the movie in the little seating area just outside the projection booth, then, when the live "comic" came on stage and before the first stripper came out my aunt would grab me by the arm and hustle me down the stairs to the street. (I was about 6 or 7, I think.) Never DID get to see Tempest Storm's act until I took in the Palm Springs Follies a few years ago. She still looked pretty great!

Here is a June 8, 1908 ad from the Los Angeles Times for a comedy "The Wrong Mr. Wright" at Morosco's Burbank Theater:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/./photos/uncategorized/2008/06/05/1908_0608_ads.jpg

LA Times reported a major fire at the Burbank on June 5, 1897. The theater was gutted, but plans were made to rebuild the structure with improvements.

That's good news.

Ocean Park float in the parade of La Fiesta de Los Angeles, 1915, USC Special Collections

http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m11052.html?x=1226440051233

Ocean Park float in the parade of La Fiesta de Los Angeles, 1915

Description: Photograph of the Ocean Park float in the parade of La Fiesta de Los Angeles, 1915. Four people in bathings suits (all women?) sit, lay or stand on the back of the flower-bedecked float. Their bathing suits and the float itself bear the name "Ocean Park". The driver of the float is dressed in white. Two cars are parked at the curb. Residential buildings are visible behind. Legible posted bills read: "Morosco's Burbank Theatre, The Burbank Stock Co., [. . .] May". . .

Title: Ocean Park float in the parade of La Fiesta de Los Angeles, 1915

Record ID: chs-m11052; Names & Dates: 1915

In the 1974 film "Uptown Saturday Night", the by then closed Burbank is visible in several shots, towards the beginning of the film.

That is interesting. Next time I watch that movie I'll be sure to look for the theater.

I had to buy that movie because of you. It was only $9 on amazon.

The establishing shots during the opening credits are of another city, but the street scenes were filmed downtown.

Good to know.

http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m1438.html?x=1226761575402
http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m638.html?x=1226761575402
http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m2214.html?x=1226761575402
http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m1424.html?x=1226761575402
http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m2559.html?x=1226761575402
http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m2649.html?x=1226761575402

Were these links useful, redundant or irrelevant? Should I keep looking?

I haven't checked the other links on this page to see if they are redundant, but they are certainly not irrelevant. Keep looking and keep posting.

Here is a 1936 photo from Life Magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/57cyka

Thareen Aurora and Mimi Reed were my grandmothers. They both worked at the Burbank in a show with Betty Rowland.
I have some pics from back stage.
I would love to hear from KDG if she remembers them.....

My Great, Great Grand uncle John Stewart White worked at the Burbank Theatre around 1917. He was the Superintendent of Morosco's Theatre. This information was listed on his World War I Registration Card under employment.

I parked on the bones of the Burbank today:
http://tinyurl.com/c5nerj

Tihs is excerpted from the Los Angeles Times, 10/26/45:

Rubbing his knuckles across his forehead as if to banish what seemed like a nightmarish dream, Pfc. Curtis Legerton, 21-year-old soldier, yesterday in Central Jail groped for an explanation of how he shot and critically wounded Philip Plude, 37, stage doorman at the Burbank Theater, late Wednesday. Plude is in General Hospital with a German Mauser automatic pistol bullet wound in his abdomen. Surgeons fear he may die. Legerton is being held on suspicion of attempted murder.

According to police reports, Legerton, who returned home two months ago from duty in Europe with the 99th General Hospital unit, attempted to enter the theater stage door at 548 S. Main Street, and was blocked by Plude. Legerton drew a .635 mm pistol from a field boot and fired once. Legerton said he had taken several drinks of whisky during the evening, and passed the theater foyer a couple of times in his wanderings.

"I looked the billboards over in front" he said, "and laughed at the pictures of the Follies dancers because I had seen the Follies Bergere in Paris. These dames wear necklaces. In Paris they don't even wear that".

Legerton said he'd been drinking since he was 17, and frequently had to ask friends what happened when he was intoxicated. "When I'm stiff", he said, "I don't know anybody, not even my relatives or closest friends."

Legerton said his 45-day furlough was up last night and he was supposed to report to Ft. MacArthur for transfer to Camp Siebert, Ala., where he was expected to receive a discharge.

I'm reading a book called City Of Night, written by John Rechy in 1963 and a major part of the book takes place on Main street near the Burbank. Even though its not mentioned by name, there are a few references to the bars and theaters around there. I had no idea that this area was the gay ghetto back then. Also, after reading this book, Pershing Square takes on a whole different meaning when I look into the now 'dead' park.

Did you see the theater in the Cosby/Poitier film? It looked to be already closed by the time the film was shot.

Yes, I saw it. It was kind of hard to tell, but it did look kind of vacant. There's another movie on that disc called A Piece Of The Action that I haven't watched yet. I don't know if it was filmed in Los Angeles.

The Burbank was long gone when I moved to LA in 1984. I think the Art and Optic were still around, though. I lived downtown the first two weeks I was here, but I never made it over to Main Street, so I don't recall seeing any of those theaters.

Well, I just did the same thing as someone else in a previous post. Got my whole comment done here, forgot to log in and lost the post.
I'll re-do it later.

CONELRAD.com just posted this item on that concerns "atom bomb dancers" performing at the Burbank just two days after the Hiroshima bombing: http://conelrad.com/books/flyleaf.php?id=405_0_1_0_M

Here is a 1908 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/cyxd49

The Burbank is on the right in this circa 1950s photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cqooxp

Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp.
“ . . .

Chapter XV Underneath the Surface
p. 173 When I got a job as a reporter on a newpaper it was like moving into a new city . . . a Los Angeles I had never dreamed of; like going from a drawing-room through a trapdoor into an exciting and mysterious sub-basement . . . a world of crooks, policemen, actors, politicians.
I was still little more than a schoolboy when I began to write for an evening paper. Before I was old enough to dry behind the ears I was appointed dramatic critic.
The movies had not yet happened. There were two stock companies, a vaudeville house, and an occasional road show at the De Lux Theeater.
Lillian Goldsmith was then a vaudevill headliner with her exquisite little playlets: George Fuller Golden was the star monologist; McIntyre and Heath . . . Papinta, a raw-boned Mexican girl who danced with rainbow flaring (p. 174) skirts over plate-glass flushed from below with colored lights.
The Burbank Theater on Main Street was under the management of Oliver Morosco, who had been a professional acrobat. His piece de resistance was Tim Frawley’s traveling stock company. To our unsophisticated little pueblo it was rather a tony affair and the elect bought tickets for the season.
At another house down Main Street was a ten-twenty-thirty house that was considered to be somewhat beneath our notice. It thrilled the galleries with heroines who were tied by villains to railroad tracks, to be rescued by the magnificient young hero just as a teetery prop train came roaring out of the wings. The death-defying hero was William Desmond, afterward of movie fame, and the innocent heroine was Laurette Taylor. Afterward Miss Taylor married a charming young Irishman named Hartley Manners. He wore the first monocle ever to over-awe our pueblo. Under his influence, Laurette stopped dodging buzz-saws and railroad trains and moved over to the more aristocratic Burbank.
Mail service was slow in those days. One time a mauscript failed to arrive for the next week’s show and I well remember the panic at the stock compandy. I happened to be standing in the lobby of the theater wtih Hartley Manners when Morosco came out and told of the disaster. He asked Manners if he could scratch together some kind of play to tide them over for just one night. Manners consented and the little make-shift play that he scrambled together was “Peg o’ My Heart”-one of the greatest bix-office gold mines in the history of American theatricals. It has been produced three times in the movies and hundreds of stock companies have played it all over the world. To his dying day, Hartley Manners was bitterly ashamed of it.
Morosco finally moved to a new theater over on Broad (p. 175)way where he never quite repeated his triumps, Still . . .
One day they got into another panic for lack of a play, and an actress named Ann Nichols filled the gap with a piece she had written. It did not make much impression upon our pueblo. It lasted a week. It was “Abie’s Irish Rose,” which holds all world’s records for continuous runs.
Another company that came periodically to the Burbank in those days was the Frank Bacon Stock Company. Frank was from somewhere up the state. He was periodically on the edge of going broke and I recall how we used to consult as to what kind o story I could write for the paper that would get enough money into the house to pay off the actors on Saturday night. He was never more than one jump ahead of the sheriff. His favorite play was “General Grant’s Picture” . . . which he had written himself. In the Bacon family was an old farm which he sold for a song to help out the weekly play-roll. He told me that anyhow the farm wasn’t any good-couldn’t be worked -one corner was all gummed with sticky stuff. When the purchaser made a huge fortune by drilling for oil in the sticky, worthless soil, Frank only rubbed his nose and laughed.
Years after, I spent an afternoon with him in New York. He was then playing in “Lightnin,’” which was finishing its third year at standing room only. We went aroung behind the scenes and he told me in a hoarse whisper the secret. “Just the same character I’ve been playing all my life,” he said . . . “Just Old Bill who was in those plays I used to write in California. They wouldn’t have him then; now he is packing them in. Sell-out for three years every night.” He looked around cautiously to be sure we were alone; then he said slyly, “Carr, let me tell you. This play “Lightnin’” isn’t any good. Shucks, it ain’t worth a damn. Never expected it to get over at all. Now “General Grant’s Picture” there was a play.”
p. 176 Two blocks down the street from the Burbank was another stock house called the Belasco. It was under the management of a cynical, charming young fellow named John Blackwood. He had brains and sophistication. Leading ladies came and went but the pueblo would never consent to the changing of the leading man;. he was Lewis Stone, who as a movie star has held a continuous place in the affections of the public for a longer period of time than any other actor. One of his leading ladies was Bessie Barriscale. Came a young playwright from the University of California. His name was Richar Walton Tully and he had play that concerned a goddess of a volcano in Hawaii; “Bird of Paradise” also became one of the great money-winners of theatrical history.
On east First Street was a little burlesque house-admission ten cents and you could bring your own garlic on your breath. The squalid girl show produced Blossom Seeley and other stars.
One of the girls in this show was crossed in love and, embittered, forsook the stage world. She went out to Antelope Valley; took up a government claim and, at the plow, yelling at her mules, wore out her theatrical costumes-ballet skirts and all.
There was another girl show in town. This was run by Pop Fisher on Spring Street. The leading lady was a blonde of some heft and a compelling charm, although she talked so loudly you could hear her on a clear day for a mile. She came nearly every night after the show to sit with the dramatic staff in the Times office. She was continually anxious for our opinions as to whether she was too fat to wear tights. At no other period of my life have I discussed legs so earnestly or with such critical analysis. The lady was Texas Guinan. Behin the scenes was an assistant stage director who was something of a genius at make-up. His job was to see that (p. 177)the scenery was ready, that the girls were ready and that they had their tights on straight. This was Lon Chaney, afterward the movie star. To his last day he never changed. His best friends as a movie star were the ham actors who had been with him in Pop Fisher’s stock house. When any of them came to his parties in evening dress, he tore off their shirts and gave them bath-robes in which to dine.
Even in the days of his glory, Chaney had qualities that few suspected. He had studied the human face so long and so carefully that he could see souls behind. One day we were sitting at the table in a studio cafe. “That girl over there,” he said, indicating a very beautiful girl at the next table,. “Well, I only know her to speak to; but I can tell you something about her. Do you notice how she has the air of cocking her head as though she were listening to some one behind her-like a nervous horse trying to watch the driver’s whip . Well, she goes home at night and somebody tells her that the director is all wrong. It is probably her mother. She will see her greatest days when she marries.” And that was exactly the truth and his prophecy was fulfilled. She is now one of the greatest stars in pictures.” p. 177