What Kind of a Fellow Is — Smith? (1918) 🇺🇸

Being a glance at the real human side of the big men of the picture game — caught in action!

by William A. Johnston

“Hiram Abrams, shake hands with Albert E. Smith. Mr. Smith, Mr. Abrams!

“What! You’ve never met before? Well, that simply goes to prove our point.

“Gentlemen, we’ve brought you face to face to let each of you see a film man who avoids publicity, who is really retiring in disposition.

“We thought we had made a live discovery in Mr. Abrams; Mr. Smith we now take pleasure in adding your name to the Fameless Hall of Film.”

Business of smiles and admiration all around.

Mr. Abrams, ironically: “I suppose you’ll stage Mr. Smith now as the hermit of Flatbush just as you pulled that Portland stuff on me. Of course,” added Mr. Abrams, hastily, “I’m not comparing Portland with Flatbush.”

(Mr. Smith’s secretary, sotto voce: “One place is as dead as the other”).

“Mr. Smith,” we went on hastily. “You’ll excuse us if we indulge in a little admiration of you. We can’t help it.”

We find some singular and admirable facts about you.

“You avoid publicity, as we say.

“You don’t resent criticism of your own pictures and you give full credit to the other fellow’s successes.

“You’re a good listener.

“You’ve never played up to the exhibitor.

“You don’t pose.

“You don’t gossip. You attend strictly to your work and have never been seen in a Times Square restaurant.

“Frankly, Mr. Smith, we don’t understand what brought you into the motion picture business. We recognize you as a pioneer; that, indeed, it is twenty-one years since you started out — and we believe went broke — with a picture show.

“Think hard, Mr. Smith, and tell us what your trend really is?”

“Well,” confessed Mr. Smith, “when I was a boy I built an automobile.”

“That’s it. You’re really an automobile man.”

“Wait a minute,” interposed Mr. Abrams. “Don’t make Mr. Smith out to be an automobile man. Say something about Vitagraph and pictures. My interview was nothing but Portland and baseball. Not that I care, but I’m trying to protect Mr. Smith.”

“As a matter of fact,” objected Mr. Smith, “I’d rather be a farmer.”

“Because farming is more lucrative than filming?”

“No,” said Mr. Smith, “I was born on a farm. I like the life.”

“Still you must like filming to spend so much time in Flatbush? “

“I do,” said Mr. Smith, seriously, “but I thought we couldn’t talk about films in these interviews.”

“No, that’s not true. Now what shall we say of the film business, its future —”

“Just a moment,” warned Mr. Abrams. “If you keep on with this foolishness you won’t have room for those nice things that ‘others say.’ They were crowded out of my interview. And I gave you a box of cigars,” he concluded thoughtfully.

“By the way,” said Mr. Smith, hastily, “here’s another box.”

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What Others Say

• “Even his lawyer speaks well of him.”
• “His word is as good as his bond — something said of many men, but here an outstanding characteristic.”
• “Never took advantage of friend or foe.”
• “Pugnacious; but never goes out of his way for a fight. Wants his rights but does not step on the other fellow’s toes.”
• “Listens to the other fellow’s argument and gives way if the other fellow is right.”
• “A self-made man.”
• “Has a mechanical trend. Orderly in business.”
• “Eminently fair. Hates a liar.”
• “His take-up invention was vital to pictures. Yet few think of him as an inventor.”
• “A good man to work for — if you know your business.”
• “Loves to talk of ‘the good old days’ — but just as ready to talk up-to-the-minute film progress.”

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Illustration by: Harry Palmer (Harry Samuel Palmer) (1882–1955)

Collection: Motion Picture News, January 1918