Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1928)

If You Wont a Job Lift and Let Lift or a Hobby ihatPays WeR Whei-eYbu canbeYowr OwnBoss cmdl^pYom OwnHowrs learn lUustratii^ SEND for our free catalog "A Road To Bigger Things." Learn how former Federal School graduates now earn big money. See the work and comments of famous artists like Clare Briggs, Norman Rockwell, Fontaine Fox, Neysa McMein and over fifty others. Opportunities in drawing have never been better. The Federal Course includes illustrating, cartooning, lettering, window card illustrating, etc. If you like to draw, train your talent. We inclose a test chart with our catalog. It finds out your ability. Fill out the coupon. L/of Illustrating Federal School of Illustrating, 9088 Federal School Bldg., Minneapolis, Minn. Name Age. Occupation Address {Continued fr rhance of great fortune. George M. ('ohati read it and tliouglit it promising enough to reroinmend. William Brady ga\e Mr. Dunning the usual rtve hundrrd dollars retaining fee and kept it fur over a year finally returning it to the author with the notation that he felt it wouldn't get over. (3ne of the biggest i)roduccrs in the dramatic field approached Dmniing after the play ojiened with the reproach that he should have had a chance to read it. "Why you had it in your office for over three months," Dunning replied, "and then you sent it back to me saying you didn't like it." "My God." exclaimed the producer. "I never saw it ! Wait till I get at that reader in my office. He sent it hack without even showing it to me," and at the thought of all the fortune he harl missed through his play-reader's fault, his face turned pale. No Four-Flushing Here T~'nK idea was finally sold over a .stud l)oker game in Chicago. Jed Harris, Dunning, and several others were having a game while a plaj they were directing was going on. Dunning, in between hands, told the plot to Harris. Finally, the latter said: "All right! I'll put it on if you will let ficorgc Abbott in as co-author, anrl let him go over it with you." DuiiTiing, of course, agreed. H(' was assistant stage director at the time for Dillingham, and earning about a hmidred dollars a week. However, he stipulated that he had tlic cast airearly. Nobody had ever heard of a single member in" it. When the play opened, most of the actors and actresses became targets for contracts immediately. 'Si\ months afterwards, when the horn of fortune was pouring golden shekels into Dimning's lap, he still kept his job as stage fh'rector with Dillingham. I have known many liabitues of the street of white lights, but outsifie fif GcMie Ruck, I )ic\cr met a man more untheatrical and nn-actory than Philip Dunning. Tlis whole life has been si)cnt behind the footlights. lie traveled at twelve with a small-time vaudeville magician. He was lied haiul and fool and locked up in a big trtnik, and then imder the Houdini law, escaiied free four times a day for about eight dollars per week. lie knows Hroadway and everything connected with it as well as, if nut better than, the oldest inimimer. He doesn't even know how much money he has made out of the play, although it has already netted the I)roduccr alone something over a million flollars, and he fDinnniifi) still lives in Brooklyn. "God's Gountry," he calls it. and his family life with his young wife and children, is that of a fairly comfortable yoimg business inati. Nine hundred and m'nety-nine otit of a tliousand of hi.s colleagues, under the same eirciunstances, would have Iwught a yacht, a home nn Park A\enue, and spats. And listen to the latest dramatic prodigy on the subject of the movies : "How do you feel about selling your darling brain-child to the cinema dragon," I f|ueried. A Pessimist's Optimism ' O"' ' f'on'l know," he replied. "I suppose it will be all right. I expect alinost anything will hapiien to it. There uni page 26) isn't any way to tell. I've only seen : ct)uple of good pictures. 'Chang' and 'Th, Underworld,' and, of course, 'The Parade.' The rest are terrible. Person. ii I don't think they've even begun to niaki pictures yet. They don't know how. It in the wrong hands. Too much of this bi^ director and star and snper-productiot business. ; "Some day, maybe, .somebody who isn'i I an.xious about having his name in eight ' foot type on the title screen will take hok of a story and turn out a picture that will I start the ball rolling. Mo.st of the directors1 haven't sense enough to ajipreciate theit I opportunities. Look at 'Broadway' ! The ' reason it was a success was that I madt 1 characterizations that nine out of ter people would recognize. How often dc | yoti sec a real characterization on the i •screen? Never! It's like the bootlegging | game. Too many gang leaders watching! the pot for the money and handing out cut stufT. They're all too interested in th( box-office cikI to know what they've reall\ got. You ought to see some of the films I've made." "What !" ".Sure! I've got about two thousand fe^t of film that I took myself. Jtist for fiitl you know. I got up a little scenario aMi took .some of the cast from 'Broadway' am< made a movie. Great fun," he added. "I bought a little Hrll camera, and fver^ time we have a party, I show my stufif. ' Of course, I make lots of movies of the kids, too. Finest family album on the market now. They eat it uiJ." Back-Stage Fascinates H'ni J-Iii went on to tell of how he had written another scenario on circus life, and had gone down to the Piannim and Ha i ley slunv in Brooklyn and crankerl the can;(-ra. The story was fascinating. "The back, stage angle on life from every point interests me iTiore than anything else,'' he 'i.neluded. ".So I made a movie of the things that go on behind the scenes when a hi^ cii-cus is being put on. Vou know, ilic clowns .shooting crap, the little boy wl-.o hasn't the money to see the show, pecking through a hole in the canvas and seeing the hare -back riders before they go on, and the acrobats, the horses, and so on. It turned out jiretty well, too," he added. 1 wmdered where he found the time to do all this. }?esides writing plays, directing and staging them, he informed me most casually, that he wrote scenarios, while going to and from P,rooklyn in the subway ! He has just sold one iov a pretty stiff price to De Mille. Another is being negotiated for In a famous film orjianizalion. He admitted it was a cinch to write a movie scenario. In fact, he had been surprisef! how easily and (|uiekly he coidd write them. And the prices he gets fon an original scenario would luake most professional story-writers pale with envy. As uni(|ue a young playwright as I have ever seen, for, besides being modest as to his talent, he is the (lossessor of enough good looks to make Iiim a film hero any dav. To me. the most unusual thing about him is the fad thai he has written and sold to Cecil B. De Mille a story without a single golden bathtub scene in it! 80