Motography (Jan-Jun 1913)

April 5, 1913 MOTOGRAPHY 223 "Who's Who in the Film Game WHEN Pop Rock posed for the portrait which adorns this page — for purposes of publicity, perhaps, or that the record for posterity might be the more complete, maybe — he persisted in having his fun. Pop always looks for the pleasure that will accrue to him and he seldom gets the worst of it. In this instance, he insisted on gripping between the teeth of his jaws, south by west of his nose, the best end of a Corona-Corona cigar, band and all. Pop dotes on bands ! The photographer and his partners, accustomed as they were with Pop's playful proclivities, protested the prank, but to no purpose. If they wanted his photograph they would take it, butts and all, or leave it. He had been summoned against his wishes and in the middle of his after luncheon smoke and he wasn't inclined to let go. If he was to submit to having the picture taken, his Corona-Corona would share the honors. But Pop hadn't foreseen the possibility of having one put over on him. It cost two dollars to extract that weed from the grip of those square jaws and plug up the hole in his lips. It was that good friend, Charles Schwaranki Scovern, who performed the dermatological trick and' helped to undo the mischief which Pop felt was beyond repair. While the job is reasonably good, it betrays a tiny smirk that isn't there. Pop Rock doesn't smirk. He's no half way artist. He laughs or he cries, but he never sulks. There are times when he won't rise from his chair to greet his best friend, but that can't be charged as a serious fault. Men who are much younger than Pop, and with no excuse at all, do the same thing. . Of course, his real name isn't Pop, but film men never think of that. He is Pop, the original. There are other Pops in the business, but only one William Tecumseh Pop Rock. And he's president of the Vitagraph Company of America with offices strung around the world, but more particularly on Manhattan and Long Islands. Pop is usually flitting around visiting his offices. It is a. long flit from Brooklyn to Paris and there is always some one bound for the same place. Pop finds congenial friends wherever he goes and always when he arrives. Dull care hasn't looked him in the face for ever and ever so long. If you will be careful to examine, there are some tiny wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Facts and Fancies About a Man You Know or Ought to Knowgot in on the tidal wave Pop Finds Congenial Friends Wherever He Goes and Always When He Arrives. They were caused by their eternal twinkle. But Pop hasn't always had a bed of roses. He used to work — early and late. He of motion pictures when the tides were running about as high as they do on Lake Michigan. But he stuck. When there wasn't anything better than the penny in the slot machine, Pop had all of 'em he could corral in a great hall at Coney Island, where he held concessions. Much has been written about his earlier activities in the film business. Everybody knows that Pop was in at the beginning and that he will be tangled up with pictures as long as he lives. The only inventions that are credited to William T. Rock are unrecorded at the patent office. They consist chiefly in new ways to spend money. Pop lies awake nights in devising methods to entertain his friends. He is never so happy as when wholly surrounded by guests who are there at his command and who are pledged to enter no protest when he calls for the check. The Vitagraph players and their friends never know what new stunt Pop has in store for them, but they know it is on the way. It may be recalled, a few years ago when film men journeyed to Atlantic City to air their troubles, that Pop chartered all the roller chairs and hired all the pushers. If you were to ride the board walk you did it as Pop's guest and waved a Vitagraph banner! You had your choice of doing this or walking. Nor did it matter whether you belonged to the film folks or not, for all of the chairs were under his embargo. Many stories of a similar nature are credited to him. Wm. T. Rock lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he finds the drive to the main plant particularly suitable for his limousine. The home is luxuriously furnished with the things Mr. and Mrs. Rock have picked up in many parts of the world. Pop enjoys his home when he has time for it, but he prefers travel, partly because his business demands it and principally because it keeps him in practice — spending money. The hardest work he has been known to do in recent years is to jimmy the cork out of a fifteen-cent bottle of Grove's cough cure and snip the bands from fifty-centers. He is a member of numerable clubs and is a tremendous factor in the licensed film organizations of this country.