MY LIFE EAST AND WEST BY WILLIAM S. HART WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON AND NEW YORK, HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Comfctfiige 1929 COPYRIGHT, 1939, BY WILLIAM S. HART ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO RB3 RO3 tTCX THIS BOOK OK FARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM WILLIAM S. HART From the painting by Charles M. Russell Seepage 176 CONTENTS I. WHITE GOLD 3 II. THE UNBROKEN WEST 14 III. A BOY RIDER 31 IV THE BACKBONE OF THE Sioux COUNTRY 47 V. Two FUGITIVES AND A CIRCUS 68 VI. THE EAST 73 VIL ATHLETICS AND ROUGH CORNERS 83 VIIL THE YOUNG ACTOR 103 IX. A STARRING SUCCESS WITHOUT CAPITAL 131 X. JULIA ARTHUR AND BEN HUR 144 XI. OuT, OUT, BRIEF CANDLE 154 XIL CHILDHOOD DAYS REBORN 166 XIII. THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY PICTURES 198 XIV. THE BIG SALARY AND THE BREAK WITH TOM INCE 226 XV. WAR WORK 245 XVL THE FORMING OF UNITED ARTISTS 274 XVIL WILL ROGERS 3 O1 XVIII. N THE BEAT OF THE LIVING SUN 318 XIX. TUMBLBWEEDS 33 XX. A LONG, LONG TRAIL 347 INDEX 353 ILLUSTRATIONS WILLIAM S. HART Colored Frontispiece From the painting by Charles M, Russell THE AUTHOR AT THE AGE OF THREE 4 SCENE IN TUMBLEWEEDS HAND TALK 14 Sioux INDIANS ABOUT TO HOLD A WAR DANCE 48 From an old photograph by D. F. Barry A TYPICAL SCENE OF THE WEST or MY BOYHOOD 66 THE MANHATTAN ATHLETIC CLUB HAD TAKEN ME IN 88 THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK 132 IT WAS A FAR CRY FROM THE WESTERN PRAIRIES TO ROMEO 144 ORIGINAL CAST OF BEN HUR 148 A RANGE RIDER OF THE YELLOWSTONE 172 From the bronze statue of William S, Hart by C, C. Cristadoro un veiled at Billings Montana, July 4, 1927 TO-DAY ON THE HORSESHOE RANCH 198 THE GREATEST ALL-ROUND HORSE THAT EVER LIVED 210 DOUG MOVED TOO FAST FOR THE RAYS OF THE SUN TO HIT HIM 214 MY COSTUME WAS HALF A PINT OF BOLEARMENIA AND Two FEATHERS 222 MY WELCOME TO THE LASKY STUDIO WILLIAM S. HART, MARY PICKFORD, JESSE LASKY, CECIL DE MILLE 242 MAKING A MOTION PICTURE FOR THE LIBERTY LOAN BILL, DOUG, MARY, JULIAN ELTINGE, AND MARSHALL NEILAN 246 THE LADIES PET THAT BECAME A BLACK DEMON 258 THE GATHERING ON WALL STREET 264 vii ILLUSTRATIONS ANNA Q. NILLSON AND WILLIAM S. HART IN THE TOLL GATE a88 BILL HART AND BAT MASTERSON ON THE ROOF OF THB TELEGRAPH BUILDING 308 A GOOD SCENE IN WILD BILL HICKOKL 318 WILLIAM S. HART 336 From a painting by James Montgomery Flagg SCENE IN TUMBLEWEEDS JUST BEFORE THE FIRING OF THE SIGNAL GUN 342 AT THE CUSTER BATTLE-FlELD, JUNE 25, 1 926 348 I SEE MYSELF A LAD MY LIFE EAST AND WEST MY LIFE EAST AND WEST CHAPTER I WHITE GOLD A black night on the Western prairie a fear-crazed, unbroken colt lunging along a dimly marked trail a ten-year-old boy, his only garment a nightgown riding bareback, one hand tangled in the mane of a flying animal y the other clutching the rope of a hacka more a frightened boy dragged from sleep and sent on a wild mid night ride seeking help to prevent a murder. A black night pierced dimly and intermittently through a misty fog by street gas-lamps a heavily loaded ice-wagon its scale irons clanking dismally against its sides, lumbering over rough cobbled pavements a man and a dozing boy of fourteen the first and second hands on the drivers seat. The man jerks his lines and clucks to his team. An hour s journey brings dawn and the man will be at the back of the wagon weighing ice and the boy climbing New York tenement stairways, with ice upon his back. I WAS bom at Newburgh, New York. My first recollec tion is of Oswego, Illinois, My father was a miller, and we lived near the flour mill on the Fox Riven There were only two houses. It was springtime. The ice had broken up and was cumbrously and slowly grinding its way down-river. The out-of-banks torrent was still raging, however, and here and there a large slab of ice would be picked up by the very force of the current and dashed hurtling through the air, 3
