Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

32 The Observer favorable to capital, why can't they bar pictures that deal with the advantages of electing a Democratic president, if they happen to be Republican in viewpoint? Why can't they throw out scenes showing the eating of meat, if they happen to be vegetarians? "The Whistle" was shown in New York City just as Bill Hart turned it out originally, and the struggle between capital and labor does not seem to have been affected in any way whatsoever. It may surprise the Pennsylvania board to know that the human race is so constituted that all the propaganda in the world won't make a laborer believe bosses are benevolent, unless his particular boss is so. And if he is being treated right, he can look all the rest of his life at pictures showing bosses who "belong to the past," as the Pennsylvania board puts it, and he never will become restless about the wrongs that he is told are being perpetrated upon person who work in other parts of the country. Jack Reads Jack Dempsey's favorite magazine apPirfurp pears to be Picture-Play, according rtcmre Heywood Brown in the New York Play Tribune, which news caused a hasty change of certain plans that The Observer had for this issue. We had thought of making a few remarks about Jack's acting, as demonstrated in the films showing him in training at Atlantic City, but if Jack is going to see it — :ihat's a different matter. /It might be that some day we would meet this Dempsey and somebody would remark : "Mr. Dempsey, shake hands with Mr. Observer." And Mr. Dempsey would say, with a wicked, laughless chuckle : "Ah, Aa-ah ! So you're the guy that said I wasn't as good an actor as Bull Montana, are you. Well, let me " And then — well, we might as well be honest and admit that the chances are that the publishers of Picture-Play would be looking around for some one else to write The Observer until we got out of the hospital and could hobble about. So we merely pause to call attention to the fact that the prize fighters are becoming more discriminating in their literary tastes and will omit the remarks we had prepared along the lines that the motion-picture producers were becoming less discriminating in selecting their actors. Why Not The Cleveland School of Education Include added a "Course in Visual In Theaier struction" to its summer school courses, ■n ' 9 this being, we believe, the pioneer in ivianagers. starting to teach teachers how to use pictures in educational work. The course includes instruction in the operation of motion-picture machines, selection of films, and when a teacher finishes the course he knows what films he should get for his students, where to get them, and how to show them — which is more than some theater managers know. Most teachers are eager to use the motion picture in helping to teach their pupils, but they are helpless in not understanding the method of showing them. This course should help start things going. The Is Cecil B. De Mille the man who is Pi Milh 'taking the American woman gown herue LViiue prettily? That's a first-class Influence question for a debating society. Somebody brought it up at an author's luncheon the other day. "De Mille shows women that in order to capture and hold the male, they must fix their hair prettily and be sure their stockings don't wrinkle at the ankle. He's a public benefactor." The speaker was a bachelor. "Don't fool yourself," said a married man, "he gives the wives an excuse for buying more clothes, and the husband, therefore, hasn't any money, and the home is wrecked." What do you think? No There is only one type of actor who J p^Jjyig. is not going to be forced to take a sub* stantial cut in salary as a result of the Men slump in the making of motion pictures. That fellow is the leading man, the good leading man, and you can count all of them on the fingers of two hands. What's happened to the fine-looking young fellows who used to make love to the women stars ? Some have become stars themselves and the remainder seem to have grown old or have lost their charm in some other way. Mainly, the young men who have had their chance and who have failed have let their popularity go to their heads. "Swelled up" is a brand that has killed many prospects. If the flappers once get the idea that a leading man thinks he is all that they think he is, out he goes. Only the unspoiled remain popular with the girls who do everything in their power to spoil them. Think over the leading men who have supported our best women stars. Who was the last film sweetheart for Mary Pickford, the Talmadges, Elsie Ferguson? Go down the list and see if you can pick out as fine a lot as when Wally Reid, Tom Meighan, Eugene O'Brien, Richard Barthelmess, and the other nice young stars of to-day were nothing but leading men. It's a desperate situation. Where are we going to get our men stars when the present crop grows old ? Are the likable young fellows passing out? There are a lot of five-hundred-dollar to fifteen-hundred-dollar jobs waiting for the right ones. Why? We Ask Boston saw "The Birth of a Nation" when it was first released. Now that it is being reissued, it is decreed by the authorities that it shall not be shown there, since the negroes object to it. The question of censorship seems to be one of moods. If the picture was all right for Boston five years ago, why isn't it all right for Boston now? The film has not changed. The people of Boston are about the same. But evidently the folks in control aren't. The Here's a new way of using motion • pictures as a lure. Out in Lecompton, ivlOVie Kansas, it was found that something Lure had to be done to get the farmers and their wives into town on Saturday afternoons, as they do in most places. The idea wasn't so much to help the farmers as it was to help the local merchants, for when farmers come to town, especially with their wives,' they spend money. Somebody thought of having a free motion-picture show. It was done. The free show was advertised, and the farmers in their cars, with their whole families, came chugging in to see the pictures. The show was open only to out-of-town folks, and enough came to fill the theater. And they liked the idea so well that they said they'd like to have it repeated. Now it is to be a regular thing. The performance starts plenty early, so that the wives will have time to do their shopping after the performance. And no one loses by it !