Concerning Harry Carey (1924) 🇺🇸
What has happened to Harry Carey? That is a question that more than one fan who recalls the pleasant memory of some of his performances during the days when he appeared in “Overland Red,” “Man to Man,” “The Fox,” and other pictures of the beloved Western vagabondia for Universal has been asking.
There has always been a sympathetic something about his personality that none of the other stars of the outdoor movies possessed, and his best films have comprised not only the strong-arm six-shooter stuff, but have also been colored with a bit of solid sentiment and idealism that in their way were distantly akin to the writings of Bret Harte.
In order to relieve any suspense that may exist concerning his present status and whereabouts, I may recite the fact that he is shortly to be seen in his first production under a new contract, called “High Dawn.” In this he will depart from his hobo rôles to an extent by playing a city crook adventuring, and in the end reforming, on the plains. This is probably his contribution to the propaganda for the good effect on a bad constitution of getting back to nature. For further enlightenment concerning this movement, you may look up, if you feel absolutely compelled to do so, the fresh-air writings of Gene Stratton Porter, Zane Grey, and other members of the whole-wheat school of writers.
Carey has invaded the shadow screen only at irregular intervals of late. He has suffered a loss of popular favor, like many other stars, through the poor quality of his stories, but the distributors of pictures still refer to him as “a good bet.”
Incidentally, but none the less importantly, there has been an addition to the Carey family. This is a little girl, called Ella Ada. She is Carey’s second child, and he refers to her as “a perfectly wonderful kid,” even though she is as yet not able to fulfill his idea of a youngster’s romping life as epitomized in the “he’s-a-whirlwind” antics of his boy who is now nearly four years old.
Carey never had the youthful background that would identify him with Western characterizations. His pose, to be sure, is that of a singularly rough-cut individual, and should you meet him casually, you would think that he had spent all his days breaking bronchos and herding steers. In actuality, however, he belonged to a prominent New York family, his father having been a judge. The nearest Harry ever came to going on a ranch before he settled in the West, was attending college to take a law course. Subsequently he went to sea. Once he felt the lure of pictures, he made up for the experience he lacked by buying a big place in the country at some distance from Hollywood. This seemed to provide the necessary atmosphere for the sort of rôles he was playing, and he has continued to live there to this day.
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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, April 1924