“Why is it that when one wants to go on the stage that one’s folks always seem to object? Why, I have met the best people on earth in the profession – always ready to help a fellow when he is down, always ready to give half of what they have got if necessity arises. In any case, my people objected strenuously and wanted me to go into business, but I couldn’t see it their way. They are reconciled now – one’s folks are always proud of one when they see success ahead.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Bess Powers (1914)
“At last I persuaded a manager to let me appear in the chorus of an obscure comedy company, and he let me go on. That was all I wanted, and I practiced singing and dancing all the time and invented a lot of new steps, which brought me to the attention of the manager of another musical comedy show, and I started out to make real money – it was fifteen dollars a week, if I remember rightly. In any case, I thought I was getting a fortune.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Bess Powers (1914)
Photo: 1914
“Neither David Belasco nor Charles Frohman ever summoned me to their respective offices and told me to write my own contract. And it is no wonder. I wasn’t an instantaneous success on the speaking stage, and that’s letting myself down about as lightly as I can.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: K. Owen (1915)
“My first engagement was with the Rex Company. Funny thing how I got that first job, too. I was marching down Broadway one morning when I met my old friend Archie MacArthur, of the Motion Picture World. We chatted and Mac inquired why I didn’t make a try for motion pictures. He was firm in the belief that they were ‘coming.’ Frankly, I had my doubts at the time, but he kept pressing his point and offered to give me a letter of introduction to Edwin S. Porter, who then controlled the Rex Company. I didn’t want to offend Mac, so I took the letter he gave me and called on Mr. Porter. The result was that I was engaged. That’s how it began.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Cameron Pike (1918)
“Next I went with Nestor, then located on Staten Island and later at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, with them before eventually coming to California.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: K. Owen (1915)
Motion Picture Magazine in 1917.
“When I finished up with the Rex Company, I was engaged by another outfit. I was to play leads and Dorothy Davenport was to work opposite me. Our company had its studio on the West Coast and we were told to report there. As there was no expense money forthcoming, we paid our own railroad fare. Pullmans, and incidental traveling expenses out of our salary, which was the munificent sum of $25 a week.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Cameron Pike (1918)
“Al Christie, who brought the first company of what is now Universal to the Pacific Coast, was mentor and guide of this trip. I was especially fortunate, as I have played leads from the start. From Nestor I went to Broncho, then called ‘101 Ranch,’ and later drifted to the Selig studio at Edendale. This was after the amalgamation of the independent companies into Universal!” — Harold Lockwood
Source: K. Owen (1915)
“You may not believe it but I used to do one reel Westerns like all the rest of them. We would take a small company of five or six people, not including the director and cameraman, out into the California hills in the morning, and more than once, we returned to the office at night with a complete picture. And if ever anybody earned his $25 a week by the sweat of his brow, we moving picture actors did! I’m glad there aren’t many that have to do it today.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Cameron Pike (1918)
Photo: The Ball Player and the Bandit (1912)
“You know, I want to be one of the boys. I don’t want any of them to think that I feel that I’m the star and they’re just working with me. I admit that I did not always have this viewpoint. Back in the early days when I was doing my first big picture, I thought it good business to swell up a little for the sake of making an impression. I wanted to make people believe I was good; that is, until something happened to wake me up. Since then, I don’t harbor any notions about my ability. I let others judge….I had just finished my first big picture – it seemed big to me then – and I could hardly wait until it was released so that I could see it in a theatre and learn if the audience accepted it as I hoped they would. My big day arrived. The picture was being shown downtown and I was restless for the day’s work at the studio to be over so that I could get away to see it. To leave out the details, early evening found me expectantly seated in the theatre. Behind me sat a party of four. I didn’t notice them until I heard one of them – a man – saying: ‘Wait until you see this fellow Lockwood – he’s great.’ Covertly I looked over my shoulder and perhaps I flushed a little with pride. It seemed that he had seen the picture before and now brought his friends because he liked it so well. I settled myself comfortably in my seat as the picture was flashed on the screen, with an attentive ear for any complimentary remarks that might be made. But none came. I was ‘panned’ upstairs and down, and all over the place. My sponsor tried to uphold his views but his friends overruled him on every point. The climax came when toward the finish of the picture, I fell over an embankment and lay in a gully – supposedly dead. ‘He’s supposed to be dead, and look at him pant!’ one of the party criticized. ‘Dead?’ came back another maliciously. ‘Dead? Why, he should have been dead long ago.’ That settled my notions of how good I was. Later on, I came back to the theatre and saw the picture over again. I admit I made mistakes. The ‘panning’ didn’t do me any harm; on the contrary, it helped me in two ways. It brought me back to earth again, where I’ve remained ever since, I hope, and it also pointed out some of my faults in mannerisms which I have since rectified.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Cameron Pike (1918)
“I like the pictures best, though. I was never very stuck on studying up three to six parts a week and playing one-night stands, even with bigger engagements in between. I get all the variety I want playing for the screen, and I have bigger audiences and larger opportunities. Yes, I like it much and hope to get right to the top and stay there.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Bess Powers (1914)
“I believe in making the best of the opportunities I have and as I am honestly in love with screen work, I intend to devote all my energies to keeping the position among Motion Picture artists that I have worked so hard to attain.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Richard Willis (1915)
“I have always felt that I must live up to any reputation I have, and that the public have the right to expect me to put the best there is in me into my acting and, honestly, I have this in view all the time and know that I cannot afford to become careless. I read every scenario carefully and go over all the points in it and study the, out and endeavor to act the part as though I were really living it; in other words, to make it as natural as possible, to dress it in the right way and to give the character I am playing to the public more than to give them myself.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Richard Willis (1915)
“In the near future, this photoplay business, which is now in a more or less chaotic state because of the intermingling with the people of the stage is going to become stabilized. The unfit will be weeded out, by the law of supply and demand. The great essential, especially in romantic parts, is youth, and drink can transform youth into age almost as quickly as the makeup box. And cold cream won’t take out the lines. I came to a realization of this three years ago, when I found myself a comfortable seat on the sprinkling cart, and I have stayed there so long now that I can look a cocktail in the eye without the faintest desire to destroy it. It’s just a case of conservation and a matter of business with me. It’s my hobby – taking care of myself. I can get plenty of excitement doing stunts before the camera and shooting around the country boulevards in the machine.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: K. Owen (1915)
“They call me Harold around here in the studio. Over in the Metro office, a few of them call me Mister Lockwood and the only reason I let them keep it up is because I like to hear what it sounds like once in a while.” — Harold Lockwood
Source: Cameron Pike (1918)
A Man of Honor (1919)
