Motion picture studio directory and trade annual (Oct 1916)

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October 21, 1916 STUDIO DIRECTORY 149 Dorothy Dalton, the Ince-Triangle Star, in A Trio of Poses, Illustrative of her Screen Work DOROTHY DALTON— REVOLUTIONIST She Wants to Play " Sweet Young Things," But Nature Can't See It That Way — And Ince Believes in Letting Nature Alone — The Girl Who Came Near to Being a Society Belle Is Now a Shining Film Star — Her Beauty Shown in a Supplement to This Issue By Kay Anthony AN added starter has been entered in " The Vampire Sweepstakes." A new heart-smasher has gone to the post in the struggle for supremacy among screen sorceresses. Another enchantress has been recorded on the books and though she is " on scratch," the odds against her have found an army of takers. " Watch her travel ! " the wiseacres are warning. " She'll pull down those handicaps at the first turn, leap into the lead on the back stretch and breeze home a winner under wraps." Her name is Dorothy Dalton. What Shelley did to poetry; what Raphael did to painting; what Mozart did to music — Dorothy Dalton has done to the " siren brigade " of the moving pictures. She has revolutionized it. With but a single performance — that of " Tecolote " in " The Captive God " — she has introduced to the screen a new type ; one that is certain, they say, to enjoy a greater prestige among photoplay patrons than does the now popular garden variety of " vampire." She has brought to the screen a strange comingling of sensuousness and purity — a mixture that is in nowise offensive to the finer sensibilities, yet possesses those uncanny physical allurements that command riveted attention. *' A VAMPIRE," says the dictionary, "is a blood-sucking ■**■ ghost ; one who lives by preying on others ; an extortioner." This— Miss Dalton is not. Nor, to be true, is any of those of her contemporaries who have come to be commonly referred to as " vampires." But, along with them, she is, figuratively speaking, a " vampire " in her studio activities. Yet, she is different. They constitute one class, she another. And until her advent, there had been but one class. That is why she is a revolutionist. The asset that has brought Miss Dalton fame as a new type of " vampire " is her face. The roles in which she has appeared have assisted her in the rise. Here is not a " wickedly beautiful face"; it is just beautiful. Its remarkable adaptability to the camera may be seen by a glance at the picture which forms the supplement to this issue of Motion Picture News. Without the wickedness, without that sinister something ever present in the feminine countenance, a " vampire," the analysts claim, cannot be. Miss Dalton has repudiated this claim. 1 OOKING at the Dalton face is like being held spellbound by *-* the master creation of a master sculptor. Only when it is expressing emotion does it betray its vitality; at all other times it is as a work in white marble, delicately chiseled by tiny tools in the hand of an inspired genius. When Ince, who himself has been termed "the Rodin of the films," first set eyes upon the face of Miss Dalton, he felt that he had seen a " find." Intent upon giving to the new art a creature such as it has never known before, he engaged her, but when she learned his motive she hesitated. Her silken black eyebrows crept together, her breathing quickened, and her ruby-red lips parted in surprise, as she quietly asked : " Aren't you going to let me play girls? I can't play women!" But Ince had the courage of his convictions and stood firm in his intentions to provide Miss Dalton with parts of a bolder nature than that of mere girls. So he cast her in the role of " Mary Houston," the erring wife in " The Disciple " with William S. Hart. The part did not require of her to do any more " vamping" than just allowing her natural beauty to attract a man who was not her husband, and yet, so alluring, so bewitching, so entrancing was she in her delicate interpretation of the role that it was but natural for her to be regarded a " vampire." FOLLOWING this introductory part, Miss Dalton played " The Queen " with Orrin Johnson in " D'Artagnan " and " Dorothy Haldeman " with H. B. Warner in " The Raiders " and, like her maiden screen characterization, neither of these was a " vampire " on paper ; i. e., the author, in neither instance, prescribed " vamping " as part of the action. Notwithstanding this, Miss Dalton " vamped " unconsciously. Not because she wanted people to think she was a full-fledged shatterer of hearts before the camera did she make pulses beat hard and fast, but because she couldn't help it: "I guess I just must have been born that way!" Then came " Tecolote " — and also her rights to " vamp " all she wanted to. For, it was a part intended for a " vampire," such as Miss Dalton had proven to be. And in her exquisite rendition of the role, she was what the author described her as being — a voluptuous bauuty, in whose eyes lurked the fires of an unquenchable passion." THE newest vehicle in which Miss Dalton beams from the screen is entitled " The Jungle Child." It is a weird drama of the Brazilian forests and New York City and concerns the adventures of a Spanish beauty whom Fate rears as a Tupi Indian maid. Miss Dalton's part is one that like her Tecolote sets off her striking beauty to advantage. Dorothy Dalton came mighty near being a Chicago society belle — her father and mother are Mr. and Mrs. J. Hamilton Dalton and upon her graduation from finishing school they began to make preparations for her debut in the upper circle of the ballroom— but a good judge of the feminine happened along and told her she belonged on the stage. She had some stock company experience and then Ince took a look at her. Inceville immediately became blessed with a new Goddess. She hankers to play dainty ingenues but in this she regards herself in the wrong light. Ince is making her do what he thinks she was destined to do.