How to Write Photo-Plays (1915)

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144 HOW TO WRITE PHOTO PLAYS to editors, from diplomats to dishwashers, is in the business. "And the funny part of it is that many times the screen story of the dishwasher is infinitely better than that of the diplomat; the chauffeur's scenario puts it all over that of the champion essay builder of the brow factory; the elevator boy rudely snatches the blue ribbon from the indignant bosom of the editorial writer. "Reason? The soul of the scenario is action, and the soul of action is contact with life. That's where the cashier girl sometimes grabs the laurel-wreath plum off the brow of the insular literary lady president of the local literary society, who reads Ibsen, still considers 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' the great American novel, and thinks a Turkish corner and cigarettes spell bohemia, and that oyster cocktails are immoral. "As Frank Woods, head of one of the Mutual scenario departments, puts it: 'There may be a few people who have not written any plays ; there are possibly one or two in the world who haven't done a drama in blank verse; and there may be a Hottentot or so who hasn't written a musical comedy, but I'm convinced there isn't a person on earth that hasn't written a scenario.' " Mr. Woods probably had just finished wading through a batch of hopeless material when he made his statement, and felt that there could have been very few persons on earth who had not contributed to his misery ; but it is a fact that in the rank and file of laymen you will find three or four times as many who have written see