Talking Screen (Jan-Aug 1930)

Lest We Forget Just to arouse your memories of the dear dead silent days which have gone forever and forever and a day THH BECHTELS William and Jenny — were the scars of the old Edison company twenty-five years ago, working in a make-shift studio in the Bronx, New York. Betchel, leading man to Lillian Russell, was one of the first to desert the stage for the flickers. He still IS in pictures, playing character roles. LMA RUBENS made her hrst starring picture, Diane of the Green Van, eleven years ago. Nigel Barrie was her leading man. Alma now is attempting a comeback after a year in a state institution, where she was cured of the narcotic habit. iONT CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND, starring Gloria Swanson, with Lew Cody and Elliott Dexter and directed by Cecil De Mille, was causing them to line up at the box offices ten years ago. TWENTY-ONE years ago, , Alec B. Francis left the stage and joined the old Vitagraph company, his first screen role being that of the Czar in The Bell of Justice. Francis never returned to the footlights and has averaged twenty roles each year in the studios. Despite the fact that he is past seventy, this year will be no exception. His income for 1929 was almost $70,000. THE American Film company was bally-hooing Secretary of Frivolous Affairs in 1915 as an all-star production. The cast included Harold Lockwood, Hal Clements, William Ehfe, Carl von Schiller, May Allison, Carol HoUoway, Josephine Ditt, Lucy Payton and Lillian Gonzales. Thomas Rickets was the director. All these have now retired — either from life or from the BEAUTIFUL Martha Mansfield, who left the Ziegfeld Follies ten years ago to seek fame in Hollywood, was burned to death just after she attained stardom six years ago. The end came while she was working before the cameras. PAULINE FREDERICK gave her age as 33. Alice Brady refused to be definite, but admitted she was in her middle twenties. Bert Lytell said he was "about thirty". Norma Talmadge supposedly was twenty-two and no foolin'. Here we have the very latest in fashions for evening wear in the year — well, figure it out for yourself. The lady whom this creation adorns is none other than our own Gloria Swanson. She was in the pie-throwing game at the time and certainly made a hit. But chat vvas eleven years ago, so hgurc t out for yourself. HEN Oiphuns of ih^ S lot in was premiered in Washington, D. C, in 1922, David Wark Griffith and Lillian and Dorothy Gish were luncheon guests of President and Mrs. Warren G. Harding. They were the first members of the film colony to crash the White House gates. EWSPAPER files reveal that Mary Pickford celebrated her twenty-sixth birthday ten years ago. Her mother, the late Mrs. Charlotte Smith Pickford, gave a dinner in Mary's honor. SALLY was made in 1922 with Leatrice Joy as the star. The title, however, must not be confused with that of Marylin Miller's Sally. LON CHANEY was a cowboy / extra with Universal in 1911. His pay was $5 a day — when he worked. THE old Senneit bathing beaut i es came into being in 1917 — the result of the war. The government had asked the studio to produce some food propaganda films. In order to inject some entertainment value into the first one, which dealt with fish — dead ones — Eddie Cline, the director, dressed all the girls on the lot in beach attire. They were a hit and brought Mack Sennett fame. IT WAS fourteen years ago that Wallace Beery introduced Gloria Swanson to his fellow players on the Sennett lot, and she got her first picture role. jONALD CRISP, now a director, played the leading role in The Battle of the Sexes when D. W. Griffith produced it for the first time in 1913 ILL HART was starred in Riddle Gaume in 1918 with Katherine MacDonald as his leading woman and Lon Chaney as the villain. FTER severa;! sad (financially) experiences, Hollywood producers vowed against engaging any more New York stage stars for their pictures. And this went for every star. But that was twelve years ago, and that's a long time. 9