Picture-Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

Plays and Players Octavia Handworth. /^\CTAVTA HANDWORTH, widely known for her good looks and versatility as an actress, is one of the latest leading women to join the Lubin players, and is to be featured in a number of dramas especially suitable to her type. Miss Handworth has had a long and thorough training as an actress — six years of her professional life having been spent in pictures and thirteen years on the legitimate stage. Miss Handworth was born in New York, but most of her girlhood days were spent in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she was educated in all the arts. When she re turned to America she took a postgraduate course at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and then did concert work. Miss Handworth achieved quite a reputation as a soprano and concert pianist, and was making rapid strides ahead in her work when she was suddenly taken dangerously ill. It was months before she was able to leave her bed, and during those months she completely lost her singing voice. Lew Fields persuaded Miss Handworth to go on the stage, and gave her a part in one of the Weber and Fields shows. From then on she played in a long list of dramatic productions. Eight years ago Miss Handworth was not only leading woman in, but directed the Dallas Stock Company, at Dallas, Texas. Six years ago she went into pictures, and discovered that the screen was the best medium of all for the expression of her artistic ideals. She has been in pictures ever since, and lias played leading roles in a number of different companies, not only in this country, but abroad as well. Miss Handworth is a type well adapted for photo plays. She is tall, gray-eyed, blond, with unusually well-modeled features, and a rhythmic grace that denotes much time spent out of doors in athletic pursuits. Miss Handworth is enthusiastic over golf, tennis, skiing, swimming, ice boating, and long-distance walking. As an actress she has achieved success through her hard work, her et.thusiasm. and her versatility. Riley Chamberlain. GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, is the place, and 1854 the year, that Riley Chamberlain, for forty years a famous entertainer on the legitimate stage and the screen, first saw the light of day. But Riley — his legion of friends always call him Riley, despite his sixty-one years — isn't ready for the old men's home by any means. Just the contrary, for, like good wine, he seems to improve with age. It was a big day for Riley, a husky, smiling lad, when he left Cornell University with his prize diploma tucked under his arm. But in his graduation, Cornell not only lost a star pupil, but one of the best all-round athletes of the university's early history. It was a big problem Riley faced after graduation. Where should he begin to turn his talents into money? The stage! Riley had plenty of ambition and some talent. Once a member of the legitimate, it wasn't long before he began to make a name for himself. During the thirtyfive years he was connected with the stage, Mr. Chamberlain appeared in support of stars in such successes as "The Blue Mouse," "Tillie's Nightmare," "Lulu's Husband," "Madame X," "Excuse Me," and others too numerous to mention. When Edwin Thanhouser organized the New Rochelle studios, Riley quit the legitimate for the pictures, and has been there ever since. As the chief comedian of the Thanhouser forces, Mr. Chamberlain has won for himself an enviable reputa tion, often being referred to as the "Jefferson of the screen." Character leads in Falstaff releases has been his chief work for the past few months. Riley spends his spare time in a handsome home in New Rochelle. He is an enthusiastic golfer, and the host of almost every child in town. In the way of improving the slapstick comedies, we suggest less slapstick and more comedy.