You haven't seen agony written on the face of a man until you see a movie-maker a couple of minutes before the curtain ascends on the first sneak preview of his latest picture, writes Harold Heffernan in the "Oregonian." Many and complex are the problems attending the manufacture of a motion picture, but executives agree that the struggle for self-control on cze of these soul-searing occasions has all previous worries backed against the wall.
"First I get a pain in the pit of my stomach and then I seem to become paralysed all over," said Mervyn one of the most affable pro-in Hollywood, "After ten minutes or so I'm all right again—Im only numb,"
No one up close to the production [helm can get away from the heavy suspense attending'sreak showings. A prominent director, once fainted as main title of his opus flashed on e screen. The head of a major studio, about to watch audience reaction for the first time on a $2,000,000 epic he had been ing for more than a year, was stricken with heart trouble, His chauffeur had him under a doctor's care before the first peel was unwound, Everything can, and freaventiv does happve'at a "sneak." If the film is going to break or the sound fade out. count on it to do so at the ost dramatic moment in the story miseries, ludicrous to fir ith neither mo ey ror but torture to the ction are constantly pop-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.