Amateur Movie Makers (Dec 1926-Dec 1927)

can always be readily hocked, and second hand they bring very good prices. "Then there's the lighting. But the simple solution of that is to take all your pictures out of doors on bright days until you are ready to invest in Kleig lamps. "The advantages of the amateur motion picture over amateur theatricals are obvious. In the first place, no one will forget his or her lines on the opening night. There won't be any lines, and, furthermore, the movie will represent the best of the . rehearsals. The first night of a little theatre is usually far worse than the worst rehearsal. "The movie can be shown as many times as relatives and former friends can be dragooned into seeing it, instead of merely on the nights when all the cast can be rounded up. "As for scenery, the little movie people can go as far as they like. "But mostly think of the psychotherapeutic value of a little movie movement on a Nation that has lost interest in being Mrs. Fiskes and Mr. Drews but wants very much to be Pola Negris and Douglas Fairbankses. What would a little movie movement have done for Merton? Nothing good, probably, but he would have had a nice time. "AND finally, think of ART. ■** You and I know what the Washington Square players have done for the theatre of New York. I've forgot exactly what it was they did, but it was very important, wasn't it? Who knows but what a Eugene O'Neill of the movies is waiting to revolutionize the Silent Drama through his daring experiments with a little movie? And who cares? Well, personally I don't, but maybe you do, seeing as how you have to go and look at the Silent Drama." To which the learned critic added: "To be right truthful about it, this notion strikes me as being about as silly a one that has come out of Fleet Street in months. Think what would befall the poor reviewer if little, privately made movies ever came In California T Olive Borden into vogue and were presented for public showings. As if the row is not hard enough to hoe already! If Mr. Mitchell clings to this perfectly insane obsession let him give expression to it in England, where nothing much matters in the movies anyway." As To Hollywood OWN your own theatre is the slogan in Hollywood, the Associated Press reports. Officials of the big companies there are quoted as saying that fully two-thirds of the executive and personnel talent own their own projection machines. Some have gone so far as to have small theatres built in their own homes. Antonio Marino has a fully-equipped theatre in his house. He takes pictures not alone for fun but to study the technique of his make-up and acting. Marion Davies has two such theatres, one in her Beverly Hills home and one in Santa Monica. Others who are amateur as well as professional cinema magnates are Louis B. Mayer, producing head of the Metro-GoldwynMayer studio, Fred Niblo, Mae Murray, Lillian Gish. Claire Windsor, Conrad Nagel. HE Motion Picture Club of San Diego, growing out of a benefit performance which Art F. Gaynes filmed last winter with the assistance of an amateur theatrical club, stands upon the brink of a great adventure — its first official film. The scenario has not yet been chosen but Mr. Gaynes is casting about for talent. Charity \ TOT even the usual Christ*■ ^ mas charity drives were conducted this year without the amateur movie camera. From practically every city in the country have come reports that the little cameras were playing their part in the subscription of vast sums of money for every conceivable charity. ' Particularly useful were they found in taking movies of impoverished families so that the urgency of their needs might be more graphically impressed upon large groups of men and women. In Hartford, Conn, amateur movies were used to raise money for the Community Chest. Pictures were taken of Hartford's charity organizations by a number of amateurs and the best films were consolidated in two films of 400 feet. These films have been offered to members of the League who want help in organizing drives of this sort. C Communication In building up a Family Album of amateur motion pictures, I need a film showing the grave of my father, the late, Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim. His grave is in the cemetary at West Dulwich, London, England. If any amateur who happens to be in London, could make a 16 m.m. exposure of this grave for me, I would be very glad to pay the costs. — Hiram Percy Maxim, P. O. Box 2102. Hartford, Conn. Twenty-five