"Skippy is a swell guy, no less."
That's what Jackie Cooper, the youngest, and suddenly the most famous child-actor in pictures had to say about the role that catapulted him into stardom overnight.
Jackie's newest picture, "Donovan's Kid," opened yesterday at the Orpheum. It is only the second one in which he is featured and I went out to the R-K-O lot to see what changes the last three mad months had wrought in him.
When we were introduced, I remarked that I had met Jackie on location for "Skippy" at San Bernardino. When I said it, I wondered if Hollywood had taught the boy, in any case, to say, "Certainly, of course I remember you very well."
Jackie didn't. He was frank to say that he seldom remembered all the people he met.
Then I asked him what he thought of the mythical character, "Skippy."
"He's a swell guy, no less," answered Jackie. "I enjoyed that part on account of it didn't seem like acting at all. It wasn't any work to do that part.'
I asked him if he knew Sam Mintz, the man who had written the story and built the character.
"He must be a swell guy, no less. I guess he sure understands boys. He's going to write 'Sooky' and I bet that will be a good story, too."
Jackie Cooper was in school during the interview. That is, he was in his school room on the R-K-O lot. He is required by state law to take three hours tutoring a day. But these movie schools are the kind little boys dream about. When an interviewer comes along, school breaks up.
Which is the more painful of the two, however, is hard to say.
Interviewing Jackie Cooper is like a romp on the lawn, Jackie sprawled on his back on a lounge most of the time. Then that ceaseless energy of a growing boy surged through him and he was kicking his legs in the air, climbing on the arm, sitting up, lying down, moving around.
Withal, Jackie is a very serious-minded young man, with an eye cocked anxiously to his future. He likes to act. He likes drama better than comedy.
"What about those crying scenes?" I wanted to know. "You don't look to me like the type of a boy who cries."
"Well, they're easy enough. Except after lunch I made a crying scene in 'Donovan's Kid' and thought it was all finished. Then I went out and ate a big lunch - Rich (Richard Dix) and I had three box lunches between us and I ate most of the hard-boiled eggs. Gee, it was awful when we went back to work, 'cause I had to do that crying scene all over and you can't cry on a full stummick."
Jackie Cooper is pretty much the same in real life as he was when he was playing "Skippy." He is healthy, normal, full of animal spirits. His big, gold-topped moon face seems turned everywhere, watching everything in a wise, confident sort of way.
"Some day I'm going to be a writer," quoth Jackie. "I've written a story about Rich - that's on account of I think Rich is the swellest guy I ever saw - want to see it?"
I read Jackie's story and, if he were not such a conscientious young man, I would have printed it here.
"Can't give it to you," said Jackie. "I wrote it for another man and I don't think he'd like it very much if I gave it away. I'll write you another."
It is at once easy and difficult to catch the essential outlines of Jackie Cooper. He is a typical boy, eager, anxious, brimming with life, a little sophisticated for his age, which is quite natural, but otherwise just like Billy and Charley and Freddy that you know.
He has an exquisite sense of fairness and freedom from jealousy.
"Mitzi Green is my favorite actress," he said, apparently oblivious to the fact that, in a sense, every other juvenile film-player is a competitor. "We play together a lot. Most of the time we run races and I can beat her all hollow.
"Gee, Jackie Searl ain't no sissy. I can't beat that guy at anything. Except maybe rasslin'. That's because I'm heavier."
A real fire-cracker of a boy. You can find his counterpart - except for the unusual ability to act - on every sand-lot in the country. As he talked, I thought.
"Skippy is a swell guy, no less."