WORK AND PLAY

Southland Times, Issue 24109, 24 April 1940, Page 9

WORK AND PLAY

TEACHING CHILDREN TO ACT Charles Barton is one of Hollywood s most successful directors of children. Short, chubby, friendly faced, he has the knack of making them do what he wants, a gift that many parents will envy. At present he has no fewer than a dozen juvenile charges in “Five Little Peppers at Home,” Columbia s sequel to “Five Little Peppers and how They Grew.” “The average boy or girl as. an actor,” he said recently, “is terrible. Ask him to ‘act’ or do something contrary to his inclinations at the moment and he is pretty sure to be stiff, artificial, even grotesque. In short, a child is appealing only when natural. “I’ve had my best luck by coaxing youngsters into a spirit of play. _ Make a group of youngsters feel as if they are amusing themselves on the back porch at home, with no one paying particular attention, and you are likely to catch them off their guard.” Barton approaches the task by letting his cast members behave as at home. The “Five Little Peppers” act is perhaps the most informal in Hollywood. Edith Fellows was encouraged to bring down her pet spaniel. Tommy Bond, who likes to paste boxers’ pictures on his bedroom wall, was not stopped from doing the same in his dressing room.

When Barton wants the children for a scene he calls them around and explains the assignment as if it were a game. “I ask them to pretend this or that, and, when they don’t understand, invent a little story to make the character or action clear. It helps to have the child invent his own business —he falls into the make-believe spirit so dear to children. And I never correct a youngster if he stumbles on a more natural way of saying a line. Invariably his way is better than the writer’s.”

Occasionally the director must resort to guile. Barton had a highly emotional scene in "Five Little Peppers at Home” during which Edith Fellows and Ronald Sinclair cry. He rehearsed the scene several times, then announced they would go on to another. “Let’s shoot it,” Edith begged. Barton shook his head. “Maybe tomorrow,” he replied. But the scene had already been filmed. Catching the children off their guard, he had made one rehearsal a “take.”