The Moving picture world (October 1920)

October 16. 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 953 News of the West Coast #2? A.H.GIEBLER Van Cur.en Company Leases Space at the Hermann Studios The Van Curen Productions Company has begun production on "The Waif of the Wreck" at the studios of the Hermann Film Company, at Santa Monica, this week. The play is being made from a story written by the producer. Ted Dixson and Norris Johnson play the leading roles, and in the cast are Harry Lonsdale, Jane Watson and Willie Ellingford. First Bible Film Completed The Sacred Films, Inc., of Burbank, Cal., after a year of research and preparation for filming the Bible from the creation to the ascension, have completed the first episode of the Bible series in two reels, and will begin immediately on the second of the fifty-four or more episodes to follow. The Sacred Films, Inc., has acquired 3,600 acres of land near Burbank which includes practically every scenic requirement for exterior and location, and also affords ample room for large studio, administration and technical buildings. Raymond Wells is director-general of production for the company, and has chosen experienced and able film men as his assistants. New Comedy Company The Kewpie Dorety Comedy Company, with a capital of $500,000, has entered the West Coast film production field, and will ma'-e twelve two-reel comedies a year, according to announcements. Allen Watt, formerly a director with the Christie Company, will be director-general. William Dorety is president of the new company; Edwin Barker, general manager, and Theo dore Johns, sales manager. A Scenario Construction Board B. P. Fineman, vice-president and general manager of the newly organized Katherine MacDonald Pictures Corporation, has aupointed a scenario construction board to pass upon and select stories for the use of Miss MacDonald as future screen vehicles. The board consists of J. A. Barry, Gerald C. Duffy, Reed Heustis, Mrs. A. C. Bender antf Miss Macdonald herself. The chief duties of this board will be to keep the stories logical and human and to eliminate bromides and rank melodrama. Stories will be selected from famous plays and books, or from original stories for the screen, if these are found suitable. Ormsby in Town A. B. Ormsby, Canadian steel magnate and president of the Ormsby Film Corporation, has arrived from Toronto to confer with Captain Leslie T. Peacocke on the next production to be made for the Ormsby corporation. Captain Peacocke is now at work on the scenario for the new picture. Child Actor Gets Contract Frances Carpenter, hero of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and other pictures featuring juvenile players of a few years ago, has been given a flattering contract by the Famous Players-Las!<y, and will leave this week with his mother for New York, where he will work in pictures made in the eastern studio of the company. M. C. Levee Father of Son M. C. Levee, vice-president of Brunton Studios, Inc., is the proud father of a son, Michael Charles, Jr., who arrived on September 24, and gurgled in no uncertain tones his intentions of entering the film industry. Sennet t Comedies for Associated Having completed his second five-reel comedy for First National, which is called It isn't the photography, the story, the star, the cast, the scenario, the laboratory or the director which makes the great photoplay. It's all of them put together and after that the publicity and advertising have somewhat lo do with a success. "Love, Honor and Behave," Mack Sennett states that all his future five-reel comedies will be distributed by the Associated Producers, of which organization he is treasurer. The two-reel Sennett comedies will also be handled by Associated Producers as soon as Sennett's contract with Paramount expires. New Studio Manager for Special Joseph J. Lane has been appointed studio manager of the Special Pictures Corporatinn, succeeding Earl D. Shanke, who resigned a short time after Special Pictures moved into the J. D. Hampton plant on Santa Monica Boulevard. New York Slate Sees Slump in Companies Incorporating There was a slump in the filing of firms incorporating last week in New York State to enter the motion picture business, witnessing only six as compared with many other wee;s during the year when from ten to twenty firms filed their papers in Secretary of State Hugo's office. The six incorporating last week were: White-Hamilton Comedies, Inc., $100,000, Arthur W. Britton, Samuel B. Howard, A. Roy Myers, New York City ; Motion Picture Booking Corporation, $25,000, Michael Hoffman, Marie Shelton, New York, Henry C. K. Mattison, Montclair, N. J.; Wvckoff Theatre, Inc., $20,000, Louis Goldberg, Nathan Mass, Sophie Goldberg, Brooklyn; the International Church Film Corporation of Eastern New York, $50,000, Thurman Hull, Troy, Thomas C. Brown and Mason W. Hall, Schenectady; Odeon Pictures Corporation, $42,000, Jack J. Ratcliffe, Mabel Strauss, Marion D. Kendall, New York; Upper-Brooklyn Trading Corporation, $5,000, David Heyman, Henry J. Hammond, Leo Grossbard, Brooklyn. Edith Stockton Filming Interiors Edith Stockton, who has already been featured in three Plympton Epic productions of which the latest was entitled "Through the Storm," is now playing the leading female role in support of Alice Brady. ' THREE VIEWS OF "THE TIGER'S COAT," MADE BY THE DIAL FILM COMPANY FOR RELEASE BY IIODK1NSON