American cinematographer (May 1937)

178 American Cinematographer • May, 1937 pages accurately reflected his mes- sage. It may have been noted by the general reader our April issue appeared in a new dress. Which statement may sound like an attempt- ed alibi. Who would know ? T Si Snyder Leaves Us S I SNYDER, former editor American Cinematographer, two-termer on International Photographer, has re- signed from the latter publication. He has left Hollywood, left it flat and left flat his host of friends. “Host” is no figure of speech when talking about this Snyder man, for better men are not made. He has gone back to Texas, arriv- ing there simultaneously with the flowers of May, and with which he will divide the honors of welcome. In Waco, where he will make his quar- ters for the present, he will undertake important work. But major jobs are in his line. Just for example, when a young man he conducted with en- tire success the public relations de- partment of the Jamestowm Exposi- tion. Si Snyder has been a resident of Hollywood for many years. Natural- ly his leaving us was with deep re- gret, for here he has many ties. That regret is reciprocated by his friends, whose heartiest good wishes will fol- low him. T Ralph Ince Passes T hat was a tragic death of Ralph Ince, his passing at fifty years after a generation of work on stage and screen. It was the close of three of the four members of one family, a father and three sons, all of whom had devoted some of their lives to both di- visions of dramatic employment. The connection of the father with the screen was brief, with the stage the length of a long life. John, like his brothers, Tom and Ralph, also actor- director, alone survives. There are a number of men and women now in Hollywood who worked with Ralph thirty years ago at the old Vitagraph in Brooklyn. His friends remember him as a stripling and they recall one contro- versy into which the youngster was pitchforked when a nosey Coney Island cop accused him of abusing a woman on the beach, declining to take the word of the troupe he merely was an actor in the pursuit of his job and the woman also was an actor. A camera meant nothing in that cop’s restricted life nor was he entirely cer- tain it did in the lives of the boy and girl either. But it did nevertheless, and for many years thereafter—even yet in the life of the girl, for years a resident of Hollywood. Now It May Be Told T he Herald-Express of Los Angeles has been printing a story entitled “The First Movies—True Stories of Film Pioneer Days.” It is in series form and undoubtedly has been syn- dicated and sent over the country. It tells of Edward Muybridge and his early experiments under the employ- ment of Governor Stanford, who inci- dentally spent some four hundred thousand dollars to win a bet of twenty-five thousand that a horse’s four feet came off the ground when he broke into a gallop. It may be of interest, historical of course, to note that among the early experiments or accomplishments with multiple photographs was the exposure and recording of a “strip act,” now more commonly referred to in polite circles as a “strip tease.” To be sure, such exposure across the in- tervening sixty years always has been sniffed at and looked upon by the professionally discreet as entirely the act of a most common person. But times change—and so, too, ap- parently do conventions. Where Muy- bridge could have his strip photos bound and sold for $500, now less than one-hundredth of that sum will secure volumes the contents of which will make that Muybridge thing look like a woman in a bathing suit of the early nineties. And times change even more than fast. In New York the Gotham, the particular art of which has been de- voted to the manifestations of bur- lequew—under the chaperonage of Abe Minsky as manager—has had its license revoked for the unthinkable period of a year. • In discussing contempleted action seeking to upset the action of the courts Walter Winchell suggested it seemed to be a case of peel and re- peal. Not in vain have some of these sisters not always selected by an eye unerring in its detection of rhythm and contour, nor of charm and general s. a., bared their overexposed but un- diminished breasts to the chill mid- night winds of what once was known as the Great White Way; not in vain have they turned their broad backs upon the tired b. m. of satiated Man- hattan—the action synchronized with a flip of what takes the place of skirts of other years, a flip made famous by the cancan artistes of Maxime’s also in the early nineties—but far removed from the then bathing suit. • Plainly Gypsy Rose Lee, who ar- rived in Hollywood April 20 prepared to take on a contract with Fox, never could have been described as miscast. Also plainly—and verified by the se- quence of events—she has what it takes. When three agents declined to per- mit her to leave Manhattan without judicial determination as to where they respectively got off in the matter of their ten percents Gypsy went to woik. In about three shakes, a ritual which seemingly is right down Rose’s alley, she had the agents, their law- yers and the judge in a huddle, with the agents this time doing the shak- ing. And well they might. When it was all over even the judge was smil- ing. The agents could be pardoned if they were not. They got their 10 per- cent all right—divided between the three. Then Gypsy started for the West Coast. “Strip Tease,” a story written by Leston Huntley and Albert Barker, has been bought by Republic Studio. No, the studio is not a Hays affiliate. Very likely, however, when the tale has been passed by the successors of what in other and more irreverent years were known not without some measure of justification as the Lady Cancers not even a hurley house will find it exciting enough to risk on it any of its money. There may be some who will agree with the statement that a good story requires no such sensational title to sell it to any one. ▼ Why Belittle Good Picture? A mong the pictures seen during the last month was Universal’s “Let Them Live.” It is not a fad of this writer when emerging from a preview to look up the bowwow of a studio perhaps pretty sure to be standing in the lobby waiting for the comments of his friends, be they bou- quets or brickbats. We did take the liberty of shaking the mitt of Charles Rogers of U and suggest he had a “pip.” We realized at the moment the professional reviewers would be- moan the absence of what they would describe as b. o. (meaning “big names” in the cast). Who after all really cares so long as it be a gripping story and splendidly done by actors as good as the best, with every department in the picture at top quality and effi- ciency ? Several times in the course of twen- ty years we have taken the liberty of quoting that remark of the veteran Daniel Frohman to the effect that “No great actor was ever made without a great play.” After seeing “Let Them Live” there will be quite a number who will travel a distance to see John Howard and several others in that cast. If they were not before they are b. o. now.