Breaking Into the Movies

New York: The James A. McCann Company. Fair. (c.1921). First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [covers heavily edgeworn, especially along spine; hinges a little weak, binding still intact, but frontispiece photo is starting to pull loose]. (B&W photographic plates) Advice for would-be film artists (mostly actors), from the most famous husband-and-wife screenwriting team of their day (although by all accounts Miss Loos brought a lot more talent to the partnership; as she herself later put it, "what a terrible let down it [was] to find out that I was smarter than he was"). This was actually the second book they co-authored, following "How to Write Photoplays," published the previous year, and focuses more on what one might need to know to be a success in front of the cameras rather than behind them. Representative chapter titles: "Would You Film Well?"; "How to Dress for a Picture"; "Inside the Brain of a Movie Star." There are also short chapters on scenario writing and amateur movie-making. The second half of the book contains the couple's full scenario for the film RED HOT ROMANCE, directed by Victor Fleming (later to helm THE WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND) and released in 1922 by Associated First National Pictures. . (Inventory #: 25317)