All these problems we have considered, humanly and sincerely. We have tried to lay open before you every detail, no matter how small, which will aid you, and we have considered every question humanly possible and had that question answered by a man or a woman who knows. We can do no more than this for you and we doubt if anyone has ever done as much.
In this book, executives, famous in the motion picture industry, have disclosed their inmost thoughts, that you may know. Actors and actresses, who have achieved the very thing you seek, have given you counsel and advice that is invaluable. Their lives, their homes, their thoughts, their feelings, their ambitions, their struggles, their triumphs, are here for you to read and think about and discover whether you, in turn, have the divine spark, the ambition and the determination, the beauty, the brains, which animated them. Before you, in rapid succession, will march the greatest personalities in the greatest amusement enterprise that the world has ever known.
When you have finished reading this book, carefully and thoughtfully—as one must read it—you will know whether you have emotionalism, expression, ambition; in fact, it will dawn upon you, that you have the key to a treasure house of absolute and accurate knowledge about the motion picture industry, which will settle your problem, whatever that problem may be. You will realize that the men and women who have triumphed in this business, have laid bare their very hearts before you.
They want you—the public—to realize their gratitude and their consideration for you.
The editor and originator of this volume is placing the same at your disposal with a disinterested purpose in view. After all, any human purpose is high and disinterested. The artists who have sought to amuse and entertain you know the trials and tribulations of the numerous motion picture aspirants. The long trail to Hollywood has been watered by many tears and much suffering and mental anguish. And yet again, it has been illumined by the never dying spirit of Hope, that mysterious emotion which springs eternal in the human breast! Each year, the pilgrimage to Hollywood will be augmented.
All great artists are human. They want to help you. They want to lighten for you the darkness of that rocky pathway. They want to save you the heartaches and anguish which, in many cases, they have had. They want to show you how you
