BABY STARS’ BIG SCREWS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18017, 4 November 1920, Page 8

BABY STARS’ BIG SCREWS.

KIDDIES LOVE FILM STUDIO LIFE. All the world loves a baby’, and particularly a screen baby, with t.he exception perhaps of the producer, whose manifold anxieties are not decreased by the inclusion of an infant “star” in the cast. Many a film has been made by a bright, clever baby’ or child actor, arid producers and their assistants are ever on the look-out for pretty, intelligent, children suitable for screen work. The “casting” lists of every important producing concern contain the names of many infants whose remuneration runs into big figures. It is no uncommon thing for a screen baby to receive as much as £2O for two or three “flash” scenes. In the case of older children like little Zoe Rae, the salaries are often equal to those paid to adult stars. The film baby lives a pampered life. It is the idol of the studio, and receives all the adulation that is the recognised due of the fashionable star. At the studios of a well-known film company at Los Angeles, there is a model nursery and play-room for the film baby and child actors in charge of a matron. It is a. veritable toyland. The producer and camera man must exercise great patience in getting their baby scenes. A smile is easy enough to obtain. To get a little one to cry involves no more hardship than the taking away of a treasured toy for a moment or two. But other expressions such as delight., surprise, wonder and so forth have to be induced by all manner of ingenious artifices, and then often at the expense of several hundreds of feet, of spoilt film. The little ones soon get used to the glare of the powerful arc lights, and the fuss and turmoil of the busy studio, and they are particularly hjippy in any scene in which an animal plays a part. Baby scenes mean a lot cf work, but they never fail to attfact.