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You Ought to Be in Pictures: Cecil B. DeMille Makes Lila Lee a Star
From: Columbia University
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Columbia University Oral History Research Office |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
Hollywood star Lila Lee acted in nearly 100 films, including Male and Female (1919), Blood and Sand (1922), Lone Cowboy (1934) and Country Gentlemen (1936). Lee was only 13 years old the first time she appeared onstage. "I couldn't recite, I couldn't dance, I couldn't sing, and I had a tremendous lisp," she told Columbia University's Oral History Research Office in 1959. In this portion of the interview, Lee talks about how she became a child star. |
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| Lila Lee talks about her career in films. | |
Lila Lee: My name is Lila Lee. I was born Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel. If that's too complicated, there you are, you're stuck with it. My mother and father were both German. They came over here. I think I just made the "being born here" by one day. My father was in the restaurant and hotel business. When I was around 4 years old, he had a hotel called the Hudson Hotel in Union Hill, New Jersey--now called Jersey City. At that time, there was a theater more or less connected with the hotel. The producers used to bring new acts and shows over to try them out. One time, Gus Edwards--whom you must remember as the author of "School Days," "Sunbonnet Sue" and songs of that type--and a great producer of shows with young people--came into our hotel. They were staying there, and I was playing around.  Certainly at that time I had no ambition to become an actress. I don't think I'd had time to think about it, as I was only around 4 or 5. Gus Edwards was staying at the hotel, as a guest, and apparently he did a number in his new act, "The Song Revue of 1910," and one of the little girls was supposed to come out of this safe. They did a travesty on "Look Out for Jimmie Valentine," which at that time was a very successful play. He needed another little girl to come out of the safe, so he looked at me and I guess he thought I was kind of cute and round and sassy, so he said, "How would you like to do it?" |
I don't know what I said; however, the next thing I knew, there I was. |
Well, believe me, I had none of the talents that are supposed to go with children as actors or actresses. I couldn't recite, I couldn't dance, I couldn't sing, and I had a tremendous lisp. I still do have it to a certain extent, but I try to watch it. But the next thing I knew, there I was, with a ribbon in my hair, coming out of the safe. |
Question: Who let you out of the safe? Can you remember? |
Lee: Oh, there were wonderful people in this particular show. Georgie Jessel, Walter Winchell--I believe Eddie Buzzell was in that. Now I am not too sure. They were all youngsters--probably 12, 13, 14. Georgie Price. Eventually he and I became partners and we worked together. He had the talent, and I was outs. He would work like mad, and he'd always say, "I don't know, you get all the applause ..." and I'd say, "Well, I'm a girl." I suppose that was the reason why. |
This went on for some time. We were in the "Song Revue" and then several other acts that Mr. Edwards did. By the time I was about 13, I think, we were in California. We were playing the Orpheum Circuit, and all the picture people used to come down to the Orpheum Circuit on Sunday nights. It was sort of a thing that they all did, to see the show. They'd come backstage and say to me, "You ought to be in pictures." I thought: This is wonderful! |
Q: About what year is this? |
Lee: Well, I was born in 1905. I was 13; I think it was 1917. |
So when we came back to New York--Mr. Edwards was not in this particular act, we were in a show called "Bandbox Revue"--when I came back I said, "Everybody in Hollywood said I should be in pictures." |
He said, "Well, maybe you should." |
So I tested. At this time--and this is probably the most interesting part of the story--Mary Pickford, who had always played these very young parts, was having trouble with Paramount (or it was then called Famous Players Lasky), because she wanted more money than they wanted to give her. Also I think there was a trend--Charlie Chaplin and a few other people were starting to get away from companies and make their own pictures. In other words, they figured, why should anyone make more money than they're making? |
So she was having trouble with them, and they were looking for a young girl to take her place--which sounds almost like heresy, because nobody could have taken her place. However, they made a test of me and they signed me up, and they put on this tremendous campaign, in which they said that the greatest and newest and best find of the century would be Lila Lee--a name which they gave me. I still don't know how they put that name together. I had nothing to do with it and was most amazed when I found that that was my name. |
They sent me out to California. I'm sure I wasn't aware of the responsibilities that went with it. However, there I was--I was plastered all over the country and on every magazine cover. |
Q: You were then about 14? |
Lee: By this time about 14, yes. |
So we made several pictures, and I'm sorry to say they were not very good and I was not very good. I didn't have the vaguest idea what it was all about. |
Q: You didn't make any films in New York? Or with Thomas Meighan? |
Lee: No, not in New York--and this was long before I worked with Thomas Meighan. I was started in my own right; I was supposed to be the successor to Miss Pickford. I repeat: I know that's heresy! |
Q: Did they create for you the same sort of roles that she'd had? |
Lee: Yes--we did pictures like The Secret Garden and Puppy Love. They were all about young girls in their adolescence. |
Q: Did you have long black ringlets? |
Lee: Oh, no, that was the thing--you see, I had long black straight hair, and this was supposed to be the difference. Every other little inginue had been blonde with curls. Those who had copied Miss Pickford had naturally done the same thing with the curls, and I was so completely different. My hair's straight as an Indian's. This was the idea--this was a different kind of an inginue. |
Q: Who looked after you then? Your parents? |
Lee: Oh, no, I had a chaperone--Minnie Jule--and she was a wonderful woman. She was told to look out for me, and heavens to Betsy, she did! |
Q: How did your family feel? Did you have any brothers or sisters? |
Lee: I have a sister. My sister's just a few years older than I. She came from Germany with my parents. My father and mother were naturally very excited. They thought this was wonderful. By this time they had moved back to Chicago. However, Minnie took care of me. I wasn't allowed out of her sight for a moment. Poor woman, she really had trouble! |
Q: According to your official biography, you didn't start making films until 1926. |
Lee: Well, they're completely wrong. |
Q: They just don't mention any earlier ones. What do you recall about making films at that time, and the people that you worked with? |
Lee: Everyone was wonderful to me. They knew I didn't know the slightest thing about the camera. They would surround me with very good casts, because they knew I needed them, and great character actors like Theodore Roberts, Raymond Hatton, Charles Ogilvie. These people were wonderful--you know, they'd turn me around to the camera and things of that sort. |
I think it was about two years that I made these starring pictures. After this period--, I started to grow up. So I wasn't quite the little girl that they had brought out, in figure and face. I was then about 15. Cecil B. DeMille was then going to do The Admirable Crichton, by James Barry, which eventually was called Male and Female. I think I had an option coming up. I don't remember the details, except that my pictures had not been a great success and they said, "You're going to have to learn your job." |
It still was all very nebulous to me. |
Q: You weren't too enthusiastic about the whole thing? |
Lee: One way or another, no. I'd worked since I was little. It didn't really mean too much. But Mr. DeMille called me into his office and said, "I have a part I think you would be very good in, but, you know, you won't be starred." |
Q: Could you make your own decisions, or did you have a business agent? |
Lee: At that time, no, I had no one. We'd had a little difficulty, family-wise ... |
Q: You mean, as a 16-year-old girl you were making your own business decisions? |
Lee: Well, I had no choice. Somebody had to do it. |
Q: How about your father? |
Lee: My father didn't know about such things. We'd had a little difficulty with Mr. Edwards. No one was to blame. It was just one of those things. |
Q: Did he want to manage you? |
Q: He was an astute businessman. |
Lee: Not particularly, no. He was a fine man--by this I am not decrying him in anyway at all--but he wasn't what I'd call an astute businessman. Money meant nothing to him. |
Q: Do you mean that as a young girl of 15 or 16 you sat down with Cecil DeMille and negotiated your contract? |
Lee: I didn't negotiate anything. Mr. DeMille said, "Would you like to play this part in my picture?" Well, of course, Cecil DeMille was about the most important man in the business, I think, as a director and producer. |
I said, "You mean I could work with you?" |
He said, "Yes. But it means that the part is not terribly good. Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan are really the stars of it--but it's a good part, and if you're good in it, I think it's an excellent idea." |
Q: He established your salary? |
Lee: It had nothing to do with salary. My contract and salary stayed the same, as I recall--I really don't know. That wasn't the most important thing at the moment. |
Lee: I did indeed. I said I would be delighted to. Then, I remember so well, we went to a reading. Of course, Mr. DeMille always did everything with great showmanship. Miss Swanson and Mr. Meighan and Janie McPherson, who wrote the script, and a few other people and myself--we sat around, and he read the script. We sat in his office--naturally, a very elegant office. |
As he read the script, it seemed to me the part got smaller and smaller and smaller. I guess the first thing I knew there must have been tears in my eyes, and a very handsome man whom I'd never met before (but I knew who he was, Thomas Meighan) came over and put his arms around me. I almost weep when I tell about it, because I loved him dearly. He said, "Now, don't you worry. This is going to work out very well." |
Well, as it happened, Mr. DeMille was wonderful. He knew I was nervous, I was afraid, I was upset. So when he started the picture, he spent the first week just working with me in my first scene. Apparently I pleased him, and as the picture went along the part got larger and larger and larger. While I certainly did not steal the picture from Mr. Meighan and Miss Swanson, I came out very well, and it was a whole new career, you see. It was wonderful. |
Q: What can you recall about the making of that picture? |
Lee: Oh, many things ... I'm a very poor sailor. Put me in a rowboat and I get seasick. Of course, a lot of the picture was done on the ship, before the wreck. Poor Mr. DeMille--we were on this enormous beautiful yacht, and we were going to Santa Cruz, California, to an island just off the coast there, and the weather was horrible--just horrible. Of course, I didn't need that to make me seasick. But they put some makeup on me and then they dragged me up, and Mr. DeMille would take one look at me and say, "Put her back where you got her, just let her rest." |
Gloria was all done up--she looked so beautiful--and even she wasn't feeling very well. I remember one day the two of us were leaning over the rail of the yacht--everybody was pretty miserable--I think Mr. DeMille was the only one really who was up and going, but that man was indestructible. Nothing fazes him, apparently. Tommie dragged both Gloria and myself out of the scuppers--we were sliding around and feeling pretty miserable ... |
So we went over to Santa Cruz. We did most of our locations there, and then we used to go to another island for some other scenes. |
One of the great thrills was when John Barrymore came over to see Tommie, to go fishing, and all the gals naturally got very excited, but he paid no attention to anybody. All he did was fish. |
Actually, I think it was the first time they built a pool in the studio, and that was because I couldn't work on the ship. So they built this pool, with part of the ship in it. |
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