Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1918)

February 2, 1918 i^ * u THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 647 ^.«_ «. i i * ■ u ». >. »i^ A^u;5 o/Los Angeles and Vicinity By G. P. HARLEMAN '■ '.|lr'"U| .-N> Edith Roberts Again with Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran. ANEW-OLD addition has been made to the Lyons-Moran comedy company at Universal. Miss Edith Roberts, who was formerly the leading woman for that team of laughmakers, has rejoined. She arrived from New York after having been separated from "the boys" for four months, part of which time she worked in a couple of Bluebird photoplays. She will appear in a series of de luxe comedies. Miss Roberts is busy on "Other People's Money," by C. B. ("Pop") Hoadley, another old stand-by of the comedy team, formerly head of the comedy end of the Universal scenario department, and who was engaged to write exclusively for Lyons and Moran upon their recent return from a vacation spent in the east. Mary Miles Minter Has Two Directors. To insure the best results Mary Miles Minter, the American Film Company's star, will hereafter make her pictures under the two-director system. To collaborate with Henry King Director Edward Sloman has been assigned to supervise the making of the next feature following the completion of "Extra! Extra!" a newspaper story by Will M. Ritchey, the new head of the American's scenario department. Mr. Sloman, who recently signed a contract with the American, has just completed a series of twelve successful photoplays in which William Russell was the featured player. Los Angeles Brevities. Mai (Slim) St. Clair, who has become famous for his delineation of beanpole characterizations in Triangle-Keystone comedies, has resigned from that organization in order to take a long vacation while considering several offers for his future services. * * * Harry Snyder, well known in Los Angeles photoplay circles as a scenario writer, has taken the position of writer at the local Metro studios formerly occupied by H. Keeler. Previous to this affiliation Mr. Snyder was on the scenario staff of the Signal Film Corporation. * * * Miss Gladys Brockwell has completed the making of a brilliant and unusual photoplay for William Fox at the Los Angeles studios. Miss Brockwell plays the dual role of two sisters who are utterly unlike in every way except looks. In the cast are Colin Chase, Bertram Grassby, Joseph Singleton, Cora Rankin Drew and Nancy Caswell. The play was directed by Bertram Bracken. * * * Bert Ensminger, who has been assisting Howard M. Mitchell in the direction of the Anita King company, will have entire charge of the next King picture, owing to the fact that Mitchell is engaged in directing Miss Sophye Barnard. * * * Tom Mix is nearing the completion of a drama for William Fox. The story has to do with the early pioneer days and presents a piece of history that has for some strange cause up to the time escaped the screen and the printed page. The character portrayed is romantic and vivid. Enid Markey plays opposite to Mix, and she is the big sister to eight youngsters played by George Stone, Lewis Sargent, Buddie Messinger, Raymond Lee, Virginia Lee Corbin, Violet Radcliffe, Marie Messenger, Buelah Burns and Vivian Plank. Others in the cast are Sam De Grasse, Pat Christmas, Jack Plank and Charles Stevens. S. A. Franklin directs. * * * Bob Brotherton, chief of the Balboa studio laboratory, who is also considerable of an oil painter, recently presented two of his canvasses to the Red Cross. * * * Things are humming in the scenario department at the Triangle Culver City studios. Several well-known magazine stories are being picturized and three new men have been added to the department. The new faces include Charles Mortimer Peck, well-known scenario editor and special writer, who is picturizing Norman Sherbrook's magazine story, "Smoke"; Frank Condon, magazine writer and continuity expert, who is picturizing "The Veil," also by Norman Sherbrook, and Charles Wilson, who is making the screen adaptation of W. Carey Wonderley's magazine story "Another Foolish Virgin." Jack Cunningham is finishing the picturization of "The Siren in the House," also a magazine story by W. Carey Wonderley. Catherine Carr and George Elwood Jenks. * * * Alexander Ritz, a former jockey who once rode with Tod Sloan and who has since worked well up in the motion picture industry, is again an assistant to Howard M. Mitchell at Balboa. Years ago Mitchell and Ritz worked together in Thanhouser productions. * * * Gloria Swanson, who has appeared in Keystone comedies in the past, has returned to the fold and will begin work at once at the Culver City studios in one and two-reel TriangleKeystone comedies. * * * The picturization of Larry Evans' widely-read story, "His Own Home Town," which Thomas H. Ince has just produced for Paramount, with Charles Ray in the stellar role, will afford newspaper men of the present generation a good idea of what a newspaper office in a typical small town looked like a score of years ago — and what many of the "print shops" in some villages and towns still resemble. In making the story into a screen production much care was taken to retain all of the principal characters. * * * Texas Guinan, former Winter Garden favorite, who made a flying trip to New York, has returned to the Triangle studio. * * * Dorothy Dalton will again be seen in a role that has the big Canadian Northwest country for its background. * * * Two more writers have been added to the American's scenario department this week in William Parker and Karl Coolidge. Both were members of the American's staff some time ago. Mr. Parker returns after a year's work at the Universal, Fox and Metro studios, while Mr. Coolidge has been connected with various picture companies in the capacity of continuity writer. Mr. Parker is the author -of more than two hundred successful screen stories. * * * Enid Bennett will be a very happy young woman next week. Miss Bennett is an Australian actress who has been associated with Mr. Ince for the last year. During her American career she has had the company of her younger sister, Marjories, who also has attained some success in filmdom. Soon Miss Bennett is to be joined by her mother, her twenty-year-old brother, and another sister to help her pass the hours when away from the studio. * * * Margarita Fischer and her American company, directed by Lloyd Ingraham, has been in Los Angeles taking exterior scenes of a girl's private school for the production of "Ann's Finish," the fourth of a new line of comedy dramas written by Beatrice Van and adapted to the screen by Elizabeth Mahoney. Jack Mower plays the leading masculine role opposite Miss Fischer, and the supporting cast consists of David Howard, John Gough, Robert Klein, Perry Banks and Adelaide Elliott. * * * Anita King, Balboa star, will be featured in a story by Captain Leslie T. Peacocke, as a fifth in the series of six to be released by Mutual. Work will be started soon under the direction of Robert Ensminger. Percy S. Pembroke will be leading man and Patrick Calhoun will be the "heavy. A strong supporting cast includes Daniel Gilfether, Corenne Grant, Gordon Sackville and Bruce Smith.