The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

■THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY 9 EDDIE POLO Stunt Puller in "THE GRAY GHOST" Eddie Polo when the day's work begins. NIVERSAL serials have the reputation of going all over the world. They are shown in Japan, China, India, South Africa — everywhere that the screen has penetrated, Universal serials are sure to be projected upon it. Many things in them' are inexplicable to the various publics who go to see them, for ideas on even such fundamental subjects as manly honor and feminine beauty differ in different parts of the globe. But there is one thing that is universally understood, and that is daring. Therefore, the "stuntpuller" wins the full appreciation of any audience in the world, for he speaks to them through a medium which they fully comprehend. Eddie Polo, who has furnished a large proportion of the thrills for several .serials, including "The Broken Coin" and "Liberty," is the acknowledged king of stuntpuUers, and that is why his mail comes to him bearing stamps from all the out-of-the-way governments of the globe. He is as popular in the interior of Japan as he is in the interior of Brooklyn, for his intrepidity and physical prowess appeal to spectators of all colors, languages and religions. Since he was two years old. Polo has been performing breath-taking stunts in public. He was bom in Italy, and started his training almost in the cradle. At the age of two he could walk on his hands, and at seven he was an accomplished acrobat and high-diver. For seventeen years he was with the biggest circuses in the world, as diver, acrobat, animal trainer, and aeronaut. He astonished Paris by dropping from a moving airplane which was 01 me great experis in By PETER PEPPER. circling the Eiffel Tower, depending on a parachute to break the thousand-foot fall. He claims to be the only acrobat who ever caught a fellow performer after a triple somersault in the air. He holds a record of 235 feet in underwater swimming, and has performed such little stunts as an eighty-foot dive into the ocean off the bow of a swiftly moving steamer, for the camera. He is a splendid horseman, and a formidable fighter and wrestler, and one of the best all-round athletes in the films. He keeps himself in perfect physical condition all the time, and has recently become interested in jiu-jitsu, or Japanese wrestling. At the present time, Ito, one of the great experts in the art, is in Los Angeles. Polo is convinced that he can beat the Japanese at his own game, and is endeavoring to arrange a match with him. "I think I have learned some new tricks that this chap does not know," says Polo, "and I believe I can beat him, but if I don't, at least he will know that he has been on the mat." Polo's role in "The Gray Ghost" is that of secretary to the young Englishman, who is sent to America to fetch a valuable necklace which The Ghost has decided to appropriate. Jean Marco, the secretary, has his hands full protecting his em ployer from the machinations of the band of lieutenants of the mastercriminal who are seeking th§ young man's life. His part develops slowly, but once in action, he will have a chance to put over some of the toughest encounters he has ever fought for the films. In Episode Four he has a fight with a whole room full of crooks in a restaurant which is said to be the most thrilling affair ever filmed. ^ddie Polo after a fight.