Maria Cooper Janis Discusses Wings (1927):
How a Plane Crash Launched Gary Cooper’s Career
When my father applied to the Grinnell University Drama School in Iowa, they saw fit to pass on him so he decided to seek his fortune elsewhere and in 1924 went straight to Hollywood. From his cowboy buddies in hometown Helena, Montana he learned that he could get paid $5 by falling off a horse in front of a camera. The more dangerous the fall, the more dollar bills went into your pocket. It sounded like a good deal for a while - more lucrative than trying to sell encyclopedias door to door. He then made his own screen test, paid for himself with $64 which included renting a horse. That must have paid off because he found himself in a real movie – The Winning of Barbara Worth. In it, there was a crowd scene in which his character dies and director Henry King coached him how to fall dead on the floor. Ronald Colman, already a star, caught his falling body before it hit the floor and as my father lay there in his arms, Colman gave him some major advice, “Good scenes make good actors. Actors don’t make scenes. My own feeling is that all you have to do is take a nap and every woman who sees the picture is going to cry their eyes out.” My father admired Colman as an actor and they remained friends for many years.
In 1927, when talking pictures were just about to debut on the silver screen, the director William Wellman, who had a passion for flying himself, directed a film titled Wings. My father’s career really started or “took off” due to a plane crash in the movie.
Wellman had a keen eye and spotted an unknown extra standing around. He knew a potential star when he saw one and put this handsome young man in a brief scene of only 90 seconds. The public wrote in wanting to know who this young man was who gets killed in a plane crash. One of the amazing visual cinematics in Wings is the combat photography. There were no “trick” shots – what you see on the screen was really taking place.
This moment truly changed film history as well as Gary Cooper’s future. Cooper became one of the iconic stars of motion pictures and established himself as one of Hollywood’s leading men revered around the world. This early silent film was the recipient of the Motion Picture Academy’s first Academy Award for Best Picture.
It wasn’t until 1929 that sound really began to be integrated into film and my father’s first “talking” movie was from the famous novel by Owen Wister, The Virginian. With the full arrival of “talking” pictures, many of the silent stars were unable to successfully transfer to the new technology – they couldn’t manage their voices. My father always said that he learned his voice control and power from hollering at the cattle and the horses out on the family ranch near Craig, Montana – so he did not fall victim to the perils of early microphone technology.
Years later, my father visited Grinnell while on a publicity tour. In the fuss and clamor, they wanted to present him with an honorary degree from the drama school. My father gently refused it saying, “Thank you, but you were right the first time!”
