The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch | Page 5

this time, money being very scarce. They had really entered upon a
period of "hard times" when Russ, a manly young fellow, whose first
acquaintance with the girls had quickly ripened into friendship, made a
suggestion.
"Why don't you try moving pictures?" he had said to Mr. DeVere. "You
can act, all right, and you won't have to use your voice."
At first the veteran actor was much opposed to to the idea, rather
looking down upon moving pictures as "common." But his daughters
induced him to try it, and he came to like them very much. The pay, too,
was good.
Thus Mr. DeVere became attached to the Comet Film Company. Mr.
Frank Pertell, as I have said, was manager, and Russ was his chief
operator, though there were several others. There were, too, a number
of actors and actresses attached to the company. Besides Ruth, Alice
and their father, there were Miss Laura Dixon and Miss Pearl
Pennington, former vaudeville stars, between whom and the DeVere
girls there was not the best of feeling. Ruth and Alice thought that the
two actresses were of a rather too "showy" type, and Miss Pennington
and Miss Dixon rather looked down on Alice and Ruth as being "slow"
and old-fashioned.
Pop Snooks, as I have intimated, was the efficient property man. Paul
Ardite, whom Alice liked very much, was the juvenile leading man.
Wellington Bunn was the "old school" actor already mentioned. He and
Pepper Sneed were rather alike in one way--they made many objections
when called on to do "stunts" out of the ordinary. Mr. Bunn always

wanted to play Shakespearean parts, and Mr. Sneed was always fearful
that something was going to happen.
Of a contrasting disposition was Carl Switzer, the jolly German
comedian. Nothing came amiss to him, and he was always ready for
whatever was on the program, making a joke of even hard and
dangerous work.
Mrs. Maguire was the "mother" of the company. She often played "old
woman" parts, and her two grandchildren, Tommy and Nellie, were
sometimes used in child sketches.
Ruth and Alice really got into moving picture work by accident. One
day two extra actresses failed to appear when needed, and Mr. Pertell,
who was in a hurry, appealed to Mr. DeVere to allow his daughters to
"fill in." They did so well that they were engaged permanently, and
very much did they like their work.
Alice was like her dead mother, happy, full of life and jollity, and her
brown eyes generally sparkled with laughter. She was a rather
matter-of-fact nature, whereas Ruth was more romantic. Ruth was a
deal like her father, inclined to look on the more serious side of life.
But her blue eyes could be laughing and jolly, too, and between the two
girls there was really not so much difference after all.
Soon after getting into moving picture work they became aware of a
bold attempt to get away from Russ Dalwood an invention he had made
for a camera. How Ruth and Alice frustrated this, and how they "made
good," as Mr. Pertell put it, in an important drama, is fully told in the
first book.
The second volume was entitled "The Moving Picture Girls at Oak
Farm; Or, Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays." The manager
had made the acquaintance of Sandy Apgar in New York. Sandy
managed his father's farm, in New Jersey, and Mr. Pertell took his
entire company there, to make a series of farm dramas.
A curious mystery developed at once, and did not end until the

discovery of a certain secret room, in which was concealed a treasure
that was of the utmost benefit to the Apgar family.
"The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound; Or, The Proof on the Film,"
was the third book. To get a series of dramas in which snow and ice
effects would form the background, Mr. Pertell took his company of
players to the backwoods of New England. There they had rather more
snow than they expected, and were caught in a blizzard.
Also Ruth and Alice made a curious discovery concerning a dishonest
man, and not only frustrated his plans to swindle a certain company,
but also were able to save their father from paying a debt the second
time. In addition they took part in many important plays.
From the cold bleakness of New England to the balmy air of Florida
was a change that Ruth and Alice experienced later, for on their return
to New York from the backwoods the members of the company were
sent to the peninsular state.
In "The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms; Or, Lost in the Wilds of
Florida," is related what happened when the company went South.
Exciting incidents occurred from the first, when the ship caught