We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
September 20, 1913
MOTOGRAPHY
193
Where the "Biographs" Are Made
A Film Studio de^Luxe
H i
ii
it
THE Fourth Avenue L will take you there, or almost, for there remains a walk of ten minutes which is apt to develop into a tramp of one-half hour or more if you attempt to go through, instead of around, the hilly little park which is still in the making
For blocks the glass top of the studio is visible and you fasten your gaze upon it and march steadily forward through the "600" block, the "700" block and when you reach the "800" block, you're at the Biograph studio. It's address is 807 East 175th street ; the factory and heating plant are separate buildings, and occupy a large area back of the studio.
The entrance is a most impressive one ; the building's four stories are of stone with fancy brick trimming and little balconies extending around the second floor's windows. A monstrous revolving door admits you to a lobby amply provided with seats and where many people are ever in waiting for conferences with the A. B. powers that be.
A wide and graceful marble staircase ascends to a balcony on the left of which the firms' offices open and on the right is a carpeted reception-room with a smoking room attached. It is only "the survival of the fittest" that decides who attains to the honor of the balcony reception room. Here, there are papers, magazines and comfortable chairs in which to bury
one's self and while away the wait; and then, there's the smoking room.
Swinging doors — to be swung only by authorized hands — open the way to the inner inners of the studio There is
waitng-r o o m equipped with reading table, ash-trays,
building. _ large
The Biograph Plant.
stationery, and many chairs where the men of the Biograph company, in a variety of make-ups, wait for the director's call and talk business, politics and baseball. .
A commodious, airy dining-room caters to the wants of the actor-folk and, from the latter's point of view, is one of the best features of the company's new home. The kitchen is directly across the hall and has the best equipment obtainable ; also the best chef, say those who know. Anyway, he seems to keep everybody happy and in good health and is responsible for the from-eleventhirty-to-two o'clock popularity of the big dining-room. The third floor is divided into two sections by a wide corridor, the left half providing dressing-rooms for the men, and the right section dressing-rooms for the women. The members of the stock company have their own rooms and the extras make up in a general room. These quarters are all white; white walls, white-framed mirrors, white metal "dressers" and white tile floors ; there are four showers for the use of the stock players. The lockers afford the only contrast to the white scheme of things, they being black, and much roomier than the average locker.
The fourth floor, doors that unlock instead of swinging open, and the great glass studio is reached. If it is
during working hours, there are apt to be three scenes in the course of making; there is room for all of seven, but three is the greatest number attempted at one time. The daylight up here is usually sufficiently strong for the making of pictures, but there is an equipment for the provision of artificial light of such quantity and quality as to insure light perfection.
Should you remark on the spot