Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1928-Jan 1929)

/ 'mous producer of Clarence Budington Kelland, after he had permitted the author to see the screen version of one of his stories. Falling into the producer's own idiom, Kelland replied : "I ain't a-going to kiss you !" Dorothy Farnum reminds one of Anita Loos. She looks like a schoolgirl, a very pretty blonde one, and has the brain of a literary Napoleon. She tripped out of magazine writing and insinuated her way deftly to the very peak of scenario writing. Only master scripts are assigned her. "Beau Brummel," "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," the Garbo opuses, are from her pen. Like Frances Marion, she is possessed of exceptional beauty and brains. Frances Marion, incidentally, is without a doubt the greatest of the scenario writers. She is also a novelist. Winifred Dunn, who wrote for the better class magazines before the movies captured her, looks like what we imagine Jane Eyre did. It seems incredible that this fragile girl is responsible for that epic of a pug, "The Patent-Leather Kid." "Sparrows" is another original of Miss Dunn's. Donald McGibney stayed long enough to adapt his Saturday Evening Post story, "Two Arabian Knights," and hurried back to New York. But Hollywood had gotten into his blood. He is back now. He says he is competing with the butcher, the janitor, the mayor, the plumber and every other person in Hollywood as a scenarist. Doty Thought Dotty |~)ouglas Doty, be-spectacled, scholarly "high-brow writer and editor of the Century Magazine, startled the sober and respectable world of which he was a prized ornament by suddenly breaking the chains and shackles that bound him to his editorial chair and home. He shot out for Hollywood. There he appeared with all the bubbling spirits and jazzy clothes of a college youth. What an exhilarating season followed. The former editor dropped ten years of his age, and even acquired height. He no longer indites high-brow editorials, but sparkling scenarios, and, moreover, he has acquired the prettiest little movie wife imaginable and an adorable Doty Junior. This, however, is only one and an unusually exceptional instance of a professional writer's successful assimilation into the motion picture industry. The average literary man finds himself quite unable to cope with the viewpoint of the film-makers. Too, he is not infrequently aghast at their conception of him and his work. Was it not Arthur Stringer, who submitted "Perils of the Deep" to a well-known producer, and was nearly paralyzed when said producer threw it back at him with: "Naw ! Don't want no more stories about pearls !" Said an Eminent Author to an Eminent Producer : "May I have the honor of dedicating my new book to you?" "Certainly," replied the flattered producer. "When do you wish me to be ready and where does the ceremony take place?" The_ author was young and he had been born in Australia. The supervisor was also young, and he had been born on Ellis Island. Said the supervisor: "You come from Australia?" "Yes, sir." "Hm. Speak Austrian, heh?" ]jWhy, no, sir." "How long have you been in this country?" "One month." "What ! Where you learn to speak English so quick?" Do you buy advertised goods? Of course you do; everybody does. Just run over in your mind the various articles that you have purchased in the last week or the last month. How about foods? Your breakfast fruits, cereals and bacon are all advertised. Probably that is how you first came to know of them — through advertising. Probably the shoes you are wearing, or the dress or suit you have on, are equally wellknown advertised makes, and you are proud of them. In the home. On the floor are rugs and linoleum — the better wearing kinds are extensively advertised. What about the kitchen? Aluminum ware, gas ranges, hot water heaters, dish and clothes, washers, cooking utensils of all kinds — practically everything you use is advertised. You buy advertised products because you have confidence in them. You know that a manufacturer cannot afford to advertise shoddy or unworthy merchandise. Advertising is one form of insurance. It gives you a feeling of perfect confidence and safety when you ask for an advertised brand, for you know that you will get the quality and service you expect. The name is the guarantee. The more you read advertising the more you will know about human progress. You will become well posted in almost every line of human endeavor and a canny judge of values. Reading advertisements is a fine habit. Cultivate it. « ■s « Read the advertisements in Motion Picture Magazine and buy advertised goods. They are the safest investment 111