Camera (May 1922-April 1923)

DDI IDDCE IDDini IBB IBII Copyrighted 1922, by Ted Taylor ^^^^ rfitP^esi of ikeMoiioii filature /ixfusir) • T/i€ ff^est of iAs Motion fiioture //Kfuslr/DEVOTED TO THE NEWS OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY TED TAYLOR, PUBLISHER Entered as second class matter, August 11, 1918, at the postoftice at Los Angeles, Cal., under act of March S, 1879. Ruth Wing Managing Editor Doris Mortloctc. Assistant Editor Fred W. Fox Advertising Manager Ora Brooke _ Circulation Managai Price 10 cents per copy, $2.00 per year in Los Angeles County. Outside Zone, $2.50 per year. Canada, $3.00; Foreign, $3.50 Edited and printed on Saturday afternoon of each weeit at 4513 Sunset Boulevard, in Los Angeles, California. Phone 595-179 IQQ Vol. V. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1922 No. 20 Benefits and Detrimentt THE kindheartedness of picture people was submitted to severe strain last Saturday. Response of player folk to pleas of aid has always been prompt and sacrificing. It is a tradition of the stage that those who act for the screen have upheld. But the tradition is likely to become a legend in the face of such experiences as that of the "mammoth benefit" at Philharmonic auditorium. * * * DAYS before, advertisements in Los Angeles daily papers read : "Mammoth Benefit Given by the Profession to Victims of Automobile Accident. Screen-Vaudeville-Drama Stars Personal Appearance." Forty or fifty names were printed. Motion picture players were in the majority, many popular stars included. Many of these knew nothing of the prospected benefit until they read their names in this ad. Some of them, and justifiedly, declined to have anything to do with it. Presumably the benefit was to aid Georgie Sewell, vaudeville actress ; Rothstein Cornblatt, William Bleet, and Sam Liebster, who were injured in the accident in which Edna Kuhn, said to have acted in pictures, was killed a few weeks ago. Jay Herman and Eddie Kane, a vaudeville team, together with Mrs. Kane and Jane Croxsen, were also in the car, but were uninjured. The benefit was advertised to be under direction of Herman L. Roth, attorney, while B. Anderson Smith was master of ceremonies and Lew Kane was stage director. * * * ON the night of the benefit Philharmonic auditorium was filled with people who had paid from 50 cents to $2 a seat to see in person the long role of stars recited in the advertising. A loyal little handful of film folk swallowed their pride at the arbitrary way in which they had been drawn into the project, remembering that, after all, fellow professionals in distress were to be aided. They were there : Helen Ferguson, May McAvoy, Virginia F'ox, Bessie Love, Clara Horton, Hank Mann, Larry Semon, William Russell, and James Young. With fine acceptance of the emergency they did their best, although no program had been arranged and there had been but a meagre rehearsal in the afternoon. The audience, naturally, was infuriated when it suspected it had been hoodwinked. There were cries from the auditorium for missing performers and hisses directed at the master of ceremonies As it appeared to tiiem the missing motion picture players had simply fallen down on an engagement — worse, an engagement for charity to which, apparently, they had pledged support. That view of the proceeding was retailed to ten-fold the number present. It was a black eye for all motion pictures in the public mind — although pictures were not to blame. * * * ' I ' HERE is a lesson in this matter. No actor should have anything to do with any benefit performance not sanctioned specifically by at least one of the many film organizations in the profession. If his or her name is used without permission in connection with an unauthorized benefit performance vigorous protest should be made at once — complaint made to the city prosecutor's office if necessary. There are city laws against untruthful advertising, and they may be invoked in a case of this kind. And to the loyal few who represented motion pictures at the fiasco, let them have all credit for doing the best they could under adverse circumstances. TED TAYLOR. Relativity Explained O ETWEEN the rail strike, McCormick's glands, the Irish *^ war and Will Hays, Einstein seems lost to public attention. That, perhaps, is one practical illustration of the theory of relativity. German film producers have been busy preparing a cinema exposition of Einstein's theories, however, using animated drawings, motion photographs of homely illustrations, and subtitular explanations. * * * Information Wanted ANYONE know what hai)pened to the briefly famous Paramount School and Stock Company? Has it taken its ])lace with the runaway Turkish heiress, "Virgin of Stamboul" ; the famous Japanese girl suicide note; Mr. T. R. Zan and his tame lions; Mrs. Leslie Carter's tanbarkcd street and Anna Held's milk baths?