The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

18 -THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY Franklyn Farnum and his first cigar. FRANKLYN FARNUM'S ORDEAL. piTY the plight of a picture player who has never smoked a cigar and finds himself compelled by the exigencies of the script to keep one alight through many long scenes. Franklyn Farnum is the victim, and the occasion of this atrocity was the Bluebird Photoplay "The Car of Chance" in which he and Brownie Vernon were playing the leads. A heartless scenario writer had included cigar-smoking in several of the scenes, and an equally heartless director insisted upon his leading man's going through with the ordeal. The picture gives an idea of just how much the actor enjoyed the experience. "I ought to have had all these .sensations over with by the time I was twenty, I suppose," he said, ruefully contemplating the weed, "but my education has been sadly neglected. I almost wish I were too young to learn." Farnum has just celebrated the anniversary of his picture debut. On the evening of Decoration Day he gave a dinner at one of the Los Angeles cafes to a number of his friends. Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran, who live at the same club as the Bluebird actor, occupied places of honor, and Farnum's new director, Elmer Clifton, was also an honored guest. He has gladly given up Broadway, New York, for Broadway, Los Angeles, where in his free evenings he may be entertained instead of being one of the entertainers. A Little Gossip About RUTH STONEHOUSE AND THE "EXTRA.' R UTH^ STONEHOUSE, one of the featured players at Universal City, arrived at the film capital a few days ago convulsed with laughter and went as fast as possible to the office of her director, Louis Cliaudet, to tell him of her latest experience. It seems that Ruth had been a passenger that morning in a jitney buss as her car was undergoing repairs, and sat next to an extra girl new to Universal City. Turning to Miss Stonehouse, she remarked: "What make-up do you use?" "Five and one-half," replied the little actress. "You ought to use more powder," said the girl with an air of confidence. "All right, I will," replied the popular star. "Say, do you ever work for .Julian?" was the next question, adding, "but if you do you will have to use more pink." Miss Stonehouse averred she never had worked with this director. "Getting much work?" continued the girl; "I find it kind o' slack." "Well, I'm getting my share," answered Miss Stonehouse. As the buss drew up at Universal City all alighted and the only comment the girl made was, "Well, so long — see you on the lot." Since then Miss Stonehouse has been hunting for the extra girl in the hope that she could give her a part in one of her productions when, perhaps, the youthful one will discover whom she had been interrogating. ONE OF "THE GRAY GHOST'S" VICTIMS. ty of his grief and bewilderment at the shooting of his father. He has had much experience in pictures, having played leads for Thanhouser and Famous Players, and before that he was on the legitimate stage, in Shakespearean roles. He was bom in San Bernadino, Cal., so that joining Universal to play at Universal City was for him going home. He is a graduate of Stanford University, and an all-round athlete. Foster received an unusual letter in his mail the other day. This was from a man in Pennsylvania, who believes the actor is his long-lost brother. MORRIS FOSTER plays a mysterious role in the first episode of the new serial "The Gray Ghost," which as all the world knows by this time is an adaptation of the Saturday Evening Post success "Loot," by Arthur Somers Roche. Foster, as young Olmstead, is one of the tools of the master-criminal, having lost heavily to him at cards, and taken the money from his father's bank to cover his loses. By means of this indebtedness, the Ghost engineers a bank robbery, resulting in the fatal shooting of young Olmstead's father. Then the son is spirited away by an agent of the Ghost, leaving the police to suspect him of the double crime, and the last thing we see of him is the repression of his effort to find out where he is being taken. He does not appear again for several installments when we find that his story is linked, after all, with the main plot. Foster handles this role with absolute conviction, and succeeds in arousing all our sympathy, in spite of his weak^ . . ■ ■ um ^ /-t * ness, by the reali-^wo views of J. Moms Foster, playing in The Gray (jrhost.