“Well, you already know that I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and that I was educated there, and in Chicago and Philadelphia. And that my first picture work was with Essanay. I have never played anything but star parts, though – my first one was in ‘The Loan-Shark,’ and I was with them for three years. Then Mr. Bushman joined joined Metro, and I was asked to co-star with him. I have been very happy in my work with Mr. Bushman, and we get along beautifully together, so I see no reason to suppose that we shan’t always work together. And that’s all.” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Roberta Courtlandt (1918)
“Near us lived my best girl friend, Grace Taylor. Grace and I, quite unbeknown to our families, decided that we would be extra girls in the pictures. I had never been on a stage, knew no theatrical people, hadn’t the slightest idea what a picture studio was like. Neither did Grace. But we both possessed the same adventurous ambition. We went out to the Essanay studio on Argyle street, and there we were received very kindly, and, after a wait, we were put to work. We were told to return, and presently I got a letter, asking me to call at the office. Grace didn’t get any letter, and I remember that our feelings and opinions on the reason for this were very very much mixed. I thought that I had been found just plain worthless, as an actress, and was about to be dismissed…I arrived at the office, and Harry McRae Webster said to me, with a little smile: ‘How would you like to sign a contract, and stay with us awhile? Someone might present me New York’s Empire theatre, or a Kaiser might propose to me – and I wouldn’t receive such a thrill as I got then. I had life’s greatest moment, right there! Well, after that, there seems so little to tell. I had the job, and Grace didn’t. In my own happiness I’m afraid I forgot to be sorry for Grace.” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Johnstone Craig (1915)
Photo: 1915
From 1913.
Wearing a wedding dressing for her film Under Royal Patronage (1914).
Beverly Bayne brownies recipe. From Photoplay Magazine, 1914.
Ingredients:
2 cups of white granulated sugar
1/2 cup of melted butter
2 eggs (unbeaten)
4 squares of melted chocolate
1 cup of chopped English walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients in the order listed above. Place mixture on buttered baking pans. Make each brownie mix the size of a dessert spoonful and separate each dab approximately a half inch apart from one another. Bake in “fairly hot” oven about 15 min. until a fine crust forms on the outside. The middle of the brownie should be soft.
“Mr. Bushman was, and is one of the best friends of my life. We often laughed at the people who thought us lovers, but in the fact that no romantic sentiment ever sprang up between us lay, I think, the secret of our successful work. We planned together, we discussed every play, we thought alike. Acting with us was a matter of give and take; we were just a couple of partners in a business venture – art that’s successful is a business venture, isn’t it? – and we devised situations and business for each other, helped each other, in every way that we could. In that way, I want to say that Mr. Bushman helped me far, far more, I think, than I helped him. Mr. Bushman became my leading man before I had been so very long in the studio, and so you see I sort of ‘grew up’ in his plays!” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Johnstone Craig (1915)
Photo: Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne in Romeo and Juliet (1916)
“I think that there are just two things which make for success on the screen: fair intelligence, and an unflagging desire to follow competent instruction, and to learn. When I first went to the Essanay studio I listened intently to every word of my director. I tried to do as he told me. As I look back, in the light of what I’ve learned since, I think some of them told me some very unreal things; yet a girl will learn to discriminate, in time. The right thing will come to her, some day.” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Johnstone Craig (1915)
“I see too many girls coming to Essanay, nowadays, quite sure that they are better actresses than Maude Adams! Self confidence is not egotistical vanity; without the first a girl can’t succeed; with the second, she probably won’t, and it’s the besetting sin of most of the girls of today. They’ve been told that anybody can be a screen actress; that it’s ‘easy money;’ that ‘there’s nothing to it,’ if you will pardon my repetition of the slang. I know a girl must have a fair amount of looks, but the main things are patience, and work.” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Johnstone Craig (1915)
“There is no touchstone or magic sign that I know of. It’s a case of hard work, adaptability, and expressive face that suits the camera, and a certain amount of emotion feeling, real or simulated.” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Roberta Courtlandt (1915)
Photo: 1915
“It is very difficult for me to address an audience personally. I suppose, never having been on the speaking stage makes it come harder to me. It is twice as terrifying as facing a camera.” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Hazel Simpson Naylor (1917)
“I suppose you know that I’ve just gotten back from a tour of the picture theaters, movie halls and expositions. I enjoyed it tremendously. Letters are all very well to carry applause, but it’s wonderfully stimulating to meet the people who wrote them face to face, and to know that they really like you. It scares me to face an audience, but the way they treat me is worth the excitement and terror.” — Beverly Bayne
Source: Roberta Courtlandt (1918)
Photo: Their Compact (1917)
