Reel Life (1916-1917)

MARIE DRESSLER ORGANIZES Noted Actress Forms $2 ,000,00 0 Company ' For Mutual Productions MARIE DRESSLER, famed star of stage comedy, is forming a two-million-dollar corporation for the production of a re¬ markable series of pictures for distribu¬ tion through the Mutual Film Corpora¬ tion. President John R. Freuler of the Mu¬ tual Film Corporation has confirmed rumors of the deal, following a series of negotiations opened at the Mutual’s New York offices and closed at the Chicago executive of¬ fices between Mr. Freuler and Mr. J. H. Dalton, husband of Miss Dressier. “Contracts have been drawn,” said Mr. Freuler, “and the formation of the corporation is under way. The organiza¬ tion of the corporation for the production of the pictures is in the hands of Mr. Dalton, Crawford Livingston and Mr. Freuler. The organization plans call for a capitaliza¬ tion of two millions, this to give ample capital for the de¬ cidedly pretentious scale on which the Dressier studios will make these pictures for Mutual distribution.” It is understood that the first work of the “Marie Dress¬ ier Motion Picture Corporation” — which is the official name of the new concern, will be the production of twelve tworeel feature pictures based upon and under the title of “Tillie’s Nightmare,” the big and highly successful Marie Dressier hit in which she achieved perhaps her greatest success on the speaking stage and presenting Miss Dressier in a part in which she is known to almost every man, woman and child in America. This phase of the outlined activities of the new Dressier corporation and the Dressier-Mutual contracts, now drawn, are reminiscent of the Chaplin-Mutual contracts which be¬ came operative last March. The Freuler idea of the mar¬ keting of two-reel comedies of high feature quality, with a big star and strong promotional support, appears to be working out again in the Dressier plan of twelve high-qual¬ ity two-reelers. While the twelve two-reelers represent the immediate, first work of the Dressier-Mutual studios Miss Dressier has other important plans, including the production of a series of special feature productions starring a number of her famous artist friends from the fields of the opera and dramatic stages. These players are American stars of inter¬ national fame. Miss Dressier brings to the pictures a powerful drawing power and a following established by a career of successes hardly to be paralleled in the annals of the modern stage. Miss Dressier was born in Canada and began her dramatic career in an amateur presentation. Her first role was “Cigarette” in “Under Two Flags.” The next year she appeared in the next season in the role of “Katisha” in “The Mikado” on tour with the Baker Opera Company. She then appeared in a range of light opera parts with the Maurice Grau Opera Company, gradually increasing her repertoire to thirty-eight principal roles. Miss Dressler’s first New York appearance was in the role of “Cunigonde” in “The Robber of the Rhine,” — written by the late Maurice Barry¬ more — at the Fifth Avenue Theater in 1892. Since then her career has been a trail blazed with glory and successes, Marie Dressier. among which casual review recalls : “Flora” in “Hotel Topsy Turvey,” “Viola Alum” in “The Man in the Moon,” “King Highball,” “The College Widow,” “Higgledy-Pig¬ gledy,” “Twiddle-Twaddle,” “The Squaw Man’s Girl of the Golden West,” “The Boy and the Girl,” “Tillie’s Night¬ mare.” Then, too, she has tours abroad and international successes to her credit. As “Cigarette,” the vivandiere, in “Under Two Flags,” Miss Dressier was declared by critics all over the United States to have realized the ideal of the author “Ouida,” in her characterization of the little French girl, better than any of her predecessors. The dashing young camp follower with her little canteen of eu de vie for exhausted and wounded soldiers became more discussed as a result of Miss Dressler’s interpretation than it had ever been before since the book was written. It is not to be wondered at, since “Cigarette” was one of Miss Dressler’s first successes, that she still refers to it as her favorite part. The young actress still preserves in her cos¬ tume collection the uniform and canteen of her beloved “Cigarette.” Miss Dressier has art, friends, fame and money to put into the success of her pictures. The Dressier-Mutual con¬ tracts just drawn in the offices of President Freuler are in line with his recent declaration of policy — “Only big stars i or the Mutual.” ) REEL LIFE— 'Page One