Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1913)

114 CHATS WITH THE PLAYERS grasping the rope, was about to be caught between the rope and a stone projection from the building. "It was a case of losing my fingers i if I held on," he said, "but I didn't care to drop Miss LaBadie down four stories. I just hung on and yelled for them to stop pulling. They heard me just in the nick of time. My fingers were bruised, but that was all." Just then a tiny, brown-haired girl came running into the office, and leaned against Mr. Russell's knee, looking at me from under a fringe of brown hair. The man's face lighted instantly as. he lifted the child, and she smiled into his face with a look that told of perfect confidence. "Here's the little girl who does all the stunts with me," he explained ; "her name's Marie Eline, and she's the bravest little girl in the country. After a little, we will show you a film where I climb a seventy-five foot trestle and pull Marie off the track, and hang by one hand with her in my other arm, while a train goes over our heads. That was some stunt, wasn't it, Marie?" Marie nodded emphatically, but when I asked if she was not afraid, she only looked up into her partner's eyes and shook her head. "He wouldn't let me fall," she said, confidently. "It seems dreadful," I said, impulsively, "not only risking your own life, but feeling that other lives are dependent upon you — and all for the sake of the public's amusement." "In the midst of life we are in death," he quoted, "that's all there is to it. If it's time — we go! We dont go any quicker by doing our work, whatever it is." "How do you spend your leisure time?" I asked, turning from such serious topics. "I'm extremely fond of swimming and all sports. Twice a year I train with prominent boxers at the Fairmount Athletic Club. We take no vacations, except an occasional off-day." I had been studying the man as we talked, and my memory of him is a big man, a typical athlete, with brown eyes, a mass of rumpled, half-curly hair, good features and a manner that fills one with instinctive confidence. Right living and fair dealing speak frankly from his face in real life as they do in his play life. But remember, girls, he is engaged ! The Inquisitor. RALPH INCE, OF THE VITAGRAPH COMPANY ot long ago, I saw a Vitagraph photoplay called "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," in which an amazingly fine Lincoln appeared. In height, loose-limbed awkwardness, as well as in the last detail o f facial characteristic, this photo-actor portrayed Lincoln to my full satisfaction. "Is Chapin playing with the Vitagraph Company?" I asked several acquaintances who I thought might know, for I had seen Chapin in his fine portrayal of Lincoln in vaudeville. My question remained unanswered until yesterday, when I met the creator of the Lincoln whom I had so greatly admired. Mr. Ralph Ince, for five years a Vitagraph star, and, recently, an acquisition to their force of directors, modestly acknowledged himself the Lincoln, not only of the play mentioned, but of several notable Vitagraph plays based upon incidents in the life of that towering figure of Civil War days. Altho Mr. Ince has played comedy, as well as straight character parts, his Lincoln is his favorite, and, undoubtedly, his best, character work. It was rather hard to realize that this bronzed, blue-eyed, young man, of athletic build, with his air of vigorous alertness, was the Lincoln who had passed before me on the magic screen. The deep-set eyes, holding in their somber depths a reflection of the anguish and misery of those dark days, the wonderful smile with its blending of humor, tolerance, and a vast understanding for the sorrows of his people— every line was so true that I yielded to the feeling that I was really glimpsing, in a magic mirror, those storied days, and this, in spite of the fact that Mr. Ince was kindly giving me the story of the play, "The Higher Mercy," shortly to be given to the public. "It must be very difficult to do that repressed acting before the camera," I ventured. "Yes, it is hard," Mr. Ince admitted, "much harder than work where you can express your emotions thru several different channels. It takes time, too — I've been working on this%character about five years." N