Motion Picture Story Magazine (Aug 1911-Jan 1912)

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MUSINGS OF A PHOTOPLAY PHILOSOPHER 149 No less than eight letters were received by the Inquiry department of this magazine asking if it was true, as reported at various times, that Mr. Arthur Johnson, who is a popular Lubin Photoplayer, was dead. With pleasure we have always announced that the report was untrue, and we account for the persistency of the report only by the fact that Mr. Johnson lives in Philadelphia. Whatever may be said of other Philadelphians, those who are familiar with the quality of the work of Mr. Johnson, and, for that matter, of the entire Lubin company, Mr. Johnson is very much alive. To Miss L. T. — The best advice I can give you to help you in your literary efforts is to read Addison often, particularly just before you take up your pen to write a story. Addison's prose style is inimitable (you should not imitate, anyway) easy, graceful, full of humor — and good humor, too — delicate, with a sweet, kindly rhythm, and always musical to the ear. Dr. Johnson said of his prose: "Whoever wishes to attain an English style — familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious — must give his days and nights to the study of Addison." And Lord Lytton remarks: "His style has that nameless urbanity in which we recognize the perfection of manner ; courteous, but not courtier -like ; so dignified, yet so kindly ; so easy, yet high-bred. It is the most perfect form of English." After reading Addison, I suggest that you read some of the stories of Montanye Perry that have appeared in this magazine, particularly "Elaine," "Herod and the Newborn King." "The Story of Esther," and "Enoch Arden. " I know of no modern author better to recommend to a young writer, whose style is so pure, simple and graceful. One of the first things to give out with an old actor is his larynx. When his voice is gone — and his voice usually goes first — the stage has no further use for him, and that is one of the reasons why we see so many excellent actors in the Motion Picture stock companies. They can act just as well as they ever could, and they can speak to their present audiences just as well. The Photoplay is a godsend to those who cannot hear, and to those who cannot speak. Mr. Elias North writes me an interesting letter in which he says in part : "The sense of sight is most necessary^to our educational development. Long after the pain of an injury has disappeared, long after the perfume of a beautiful flower has ceased to exist, long after we have forgotten what we have heard, our memory recalls at will what we have seen. This is why traveling is such an education. This is why we remember 'Old Mother Hubbard, ' 'The Forty Thieves/ 'Little Red Eiding Hood.' These stories were told in pictures, more than in words, and it is the mental photographs stored away that assist our memory to recall them ; pictures that depict great letters of the forgotten past and resurrect most vividly our old studies and reflections ; pictures rehearsing in dress parade, line for line, those novels that have robbed our sleep, hold us in their magnetic spell, and we again realize the influence they had upon our minds in days gone by; pictures that bring us thousands of miles and show us in detail the various methods of manufacturing and distributing different products, instruct us on subjects that books cannot properly cover. ' '