The Photo-Play Journal (Jul 1919-Feb 1921)

14 PHOTO-PLAY IOURXAL July, igig Joseph M. Schenck, president of the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, has signed a contract with Norma's sister, Constance Talmadge. whereby he becomes her producer for the next two years, and Mr. Schenck to have a further option on her services at the expiration of the two years. The new organization will be known as the Constance Talmadge Film Corporation, and will be located in the same building as the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, at 318 East Forty-eighth Street. New York City. Coincident with the formation of the Constance Talmadge Film Corporation, comes the announcement from Mr. Schenck that The First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., has signed a contract for the distribution of the Constance Talmadge features. W h i 1 e the details of the contract are not made known to the public, it is understood that First National will distribute a minimum of six Constance Talmadge productions per year, and that the amount that will be paid by First National for the negative rights to each picture totals in the aggregate one of the biggest sums ever involved in a contract of this nature. It means, according to both Mr. Schenck and First National officials, that the Constance Talmadge pictures, like the Norma Talmadge pictures, soon to be made under the First National banner, will, as a consequence of the increased latitude given Mr. Schenck in production, take on a proportionate increase in box-office value, apart from the exhibitors' advantage in booking them independently. "As soon as it was rumored that Constance Talmadge might not continue with Select Pictures," says Mr. Schenck, "she received offers from practically all the large motion picture producers and distributors, and the great increase in her box-office value in the last year is well demonstrated by the fact that the lowest estimate placed on her services was exactly double the salary she has heretofore been receiving. But no possible contract would have pleased me more than the arrangement with the First National, as it has ever been my cherished ambition to have the two sisters' releases under the same banner." In accordance with Mr. Schenck's policy of sparing no expense to make his pictures the best possible finished products, Constance, like Norma, will keep two directors constantly employed, and a minimum of eight weeks' time will be devoted to each feature. But quite the most important revolutionary measure announced in connection with the new plans for Constance is the signing up of John Emerson and Anita Loos to write all the stories, continuities and titles for the Constance Talmadge productions and to have the final say and general supervision of each picture before it is allowed to go out of the studio. "This means," says John Emerson, "Mr. Schenck is the first producer to realize that the time has at last arrived when the writer for the movies is to come into his own. Heretofore, such large prices have been paid for the rights to a Broadway play or a popular book that when it came time to put the story into working shape for the screen, the really vital and important part of the picture was handed over to an inexpensive hack-writer, who, in nine cases out of ten, diffused his own Norma Talmadge — Drawn by Bilicick negative personality into the very manuscript which had been purchased at an almost, prohibitive figure because of the author "s personality in his work. One reason for this state of affairs has been that authors have not been sufficiently well paid to find it worth their while to put their stories into proper shape for screening, and the other reason is that very few have the necessary technical knowledge of details of motion picture production to do so. It is one thing to write fiction and quite another thing to write a workable continuity. But if authors are sufficiently encouraged by financial appreciation, certainly, the man who has the brain to create the idea can learn the technique of the hack-writer, who so often ruins a good story by lack of understanding and appreciation of the intention of the original author. "Now Mr. Schenck has recognized the value of engaging writers at a sufficiently large financial return to justify them in making their own continuities, and, as it were, living day by day with their stories, watching their production, and making sure that their stories are screened as they were written and passed upon by the producer. In this way the writer for the pictures will, as he should, take exactly the same place in relation to his work as the writer for the stage. "As for myself, I am giving up directing entirely, and shall, in collaboration with Anita Loos, devote my energies altogether to writing."