“Screen or no screen, one must play.” — Julia Dean
Source: Ada Patterson (1916)
“Screen work is taxing, particularly if you are not inured to it. The change of hours is as hard as, we will say as hard as for a man who is an habitual drunkard to stop drinking. The actress on the speaking stage has turned say into night, and night into day. Here she is compelled to revolutionize her habits, to turn day back upon itself, and the night likewise. The tension is great in both cases, but being longer in the case of motion pictures, is of course to that extent greater. But there are compensations. Yes, I know you are thinking there are mercenary ones. So there are. But I would place them last in rank. Chief is that there are longer rests between scenes and because the atmosphere is more natural, more playful. Most of the pictures are taken out of doors, which is a delight, especially in glorious California. And one can untie her muscles, which have gathered into a hard knot, and play a little between scenes. It is not,as it may seem to the uninitiated, a continuous say of hard work. The motion picture actress does not work continuously, as a wood chopper does.” — Julia Dean
Source: Ada Patterson (1916)
“It may be trite to say to work well we must play much, but we are justified in repeating it until all the working world is converted to it and practices it. We must play much to do good work. Our play muse be varied. It is one phase of our lives in which we can afford to turn our backs on the bogies of consistency and continuity. In our play it is right that we indulge in whims. Watch children play. They are as constant as a weather vane.” — Julia Dean
Source: Ada Patterson (1916)
“I enjoy out of door life, but always on wheels. I hate cities. I loathe New York. I am happiest when I am in semitropical countries. In Bermuda and in Hawaii I took all the drives known and repeated them again and again. In California, which I adore. I used to drive out into the hills alone and not speak a word for six hours at a stretch. It is play to me to keep my simple little housekeeping apartment with things I love about me. That, like my drives, must be quiet. I keep a maid who speaks but seldom. I can’t cook. The other morning I got breakfast….I don’t drink coffee. No one should. And I don’t care for eggs….Oriental clothes for home wear. I like the feeling of relaxation their looseness gives. Besides I know that I am not the fluffy kind of woman and I never wary frilly things at home….My fourth plaything? My herd of toy elephants. I have two hundred of them. I began to collect them ten years ago when I dropped into a tea shop to buy a consignment of Orange Pekoe for my mother. I saw two ebony elephants on the counter. I was attracted by their white hoofs. I bought them. The heard grew. I picked them up wherever I saw any that interested me. My friends contributed.” — Julia Dean
