Camera (May 1922-April 1923)

Page Four "The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry" CAMERA I PARAMOUNT TO START TWO MORE FILMS NEXT MONDAY AUTHOR PICKFORD SELLS HIMSELF A STORY Jack Pickford has just proved that as an author, lie is a great salesman. Mr. Pickford has always been interested in writing. A few years ago he produced on the screen a story of his own creation and since that time, he has been more and more concerned in the preparation of his own photoplays. The other day he mentioned his interest in authorship to a writer friend who had gone through the mill and was fully acquainted with the hazards of the writing profession. This skeptical man voiced the opinion that Jack couldn't even write a two-reel comedy, if he took a year off in order to prepare it. "Is that so?" said Jack, considerably affronted. He paused for an indignant moment. Then, "I'll tell you what I'll do," he said. "I'll bet you a hundred dollars I can write a story tonight and sell it for a good price before tomorrow noon." The skeptical friend promptly took him up. The next day they met for lunch. "Well," said the friend, "hand over the money." "No," answered Mr. Pickford, "you pay me. Last night as an author I write a story for the screen. This morning I submitted this story to myself as a pi-oducer, and after giving it a careful and critical reading found that it was full of merit. So I purchased it at once. In fact, it was such a good story that I gave myself five thousand dollars for it!" SCHENCK NOW CONTROLS BIG UNITED STUDIOS In order to realize his ambition to produce more and larger productions, Joseph M. Schenck last Wedne.sday purchased the controlling interest in the United Studios, involving an expenditure of $2,500,000. At the present time, Mr. Schenck is producing pictures starring Norma and Constance Talmadge, but with this new deal consummated it is understood he will sign several other stars with whom he has been negotiating for the past two weeks. The personnel affiliated with the organization under the old regime, including the art director, head electrician, costume director and other technical heads, will remain. A Caesarian born baby girl arrived in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Barthelmess, Wednesday, February 1st, at the Sloane Hospital of New York. The child will be christened Mary. May, the name by which Mrs. Barthelmess is promineiitly known on the stage and screen. Monday, February 12th, has been set as a starting date for two new Paramount Pictures. The first of these is "Hollywood," which will be a James Cruze production for Paramount, adapted by Walter Woods from the novelette by Frank Condon. Mr. Woods will also be production editor. "Hollywood" will boast one of tl^ greatest allstar casts ever seen in a single film. It will include Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Jack Holt, May BABY PEGGY WILL STEP UP TO FEATURES It is very probable that Baby Peggy's appearance in two-reel comedies will soon be over. Like the other infant prodigy, Jackie Coogan, Baby Peggy will soon be going in for the big league stuff and preparations are being made for securing some of the greatest stories with the biggest dramatic punches for suitable vehicles for the Jitney Juliet. She will soon be starred in a series of five-reel features-de-luxe. Dickens' "Ye Olde Curiosity Shop" is being considered for Baby Peggy by J. Travers Montgomery, her father, and Julius Stern of the Century Comedy studios with which organization Baby Peggy is now under contract. The officials of the Universal Film Exchange in London are now negotiating with Maurice Maeterlinck, the famous Belgian poet, for a special story to be written expressly for Baby Peggy. Mr. Montgomery announced that negotiations have practically been closed with Maeterlinck for the child story. If this is secured in time it will of course be given preference over any story that may come to hand. The Cinema Players have resumed rehearsals on their fouract play, "Within the Law," scheduled to open the first week in March. The production has been delayed owing to two members of the cast going away on location. Ben Sharpe is handling the direction. Jacqueline Logan returned to Hollywood this week to play the featured feminine role opposite M''alter Hiers in "Seventy-five Cents An Hour," a Paramount picture which Joseph Henabery is directing. Miss Logan had been away for two weeks on a vacation trip to Colorado Springs, Colo., her old home town. Molly Gordon, a pretty little blonde of 14 years, is playing in "Seventy-five Cents An Hour" at the Lasky studios, as the sister of Jacqueline Logan. McAvoy, Agnes Ayres, Jacqueline Logan, Conrad Nagel, Walter Hiers, Theodore Kosloff, Lois Wilson and others. The second picture to start on that date will be "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife," a Sam Wood production for Paramount starring Gloria Swanson, which was adapted by Sada Cowan from Charlton Andrew's adaptation of Alfred Savoir's play. Julia Crawford Ivers wil] bf production editor. FINE ARTS PLANT WILL SOON BE IMPROVED According to plans which have been completed recently by the officers of the Fine Arts Studios, many changes and improvements in this plant will be made within the next thirty days. A new enclosed stage, with 95 feet by 275 feet floor space, is now in construction at the east end of the "lot" and as soon as this is made ready for occupancy the entire row of wooden structures now facing on Sunset Boulevard will be razed. In their place a row of cement buildings of Spanish architecture will be constructed for use as stores, operated by private individuals. "These buildings will extend from where the Chester Bennett laboratories now stand to Lyman Place, a distance of one city block. The entrance to the studios will be in the center of the block. The studio buildings will be 75 feet back from the street and occupy a space covering twelve and one-half acres of ground. According to John Rikkleman, secretary and treasurer of Fine Arts, the new improvements will greatly facilitate production and make the studio one of the most up-to-date film plants on the west coast. Harry Todd, having just finished in Jack Ford's latest Tom Mix picture, has been cast by the Halperin Productions in their all-star feature, "Tea With A Kick," now in production at the Fine Arts. Sada Cowan has been engaged by Paramount for six special productions. At the present time, she is preparing the script for Gloria Swanson's next vehicle. J. L. Frothingham announces he has loaned Marguerite De La Motte to Louis B. Mayer for the leading feminine role in "Captain Applejack," the next Fred Niblo production. This will be Miss De La Motte's fourth picture with Mr. Niblo, the other three being "The Famous Mrs. Fair," "The Three Musketeers" and "The Mark of Zorro." "HAZEL" FILM IS A SATIRE ON HOLLYWOOD Three hundred members of the Hollywood Business Men's Club caught a glimpse of the new world-famous Hollywood seen from a comedy vein when the girls of the Studio Club showed them a special preview of Christie's latest production, "Hazel From Hollywood," a satire on the movies. The business men, who are accustomed to view Hollywood Boulevard from the point of view of so many dollars per front foot, saw their city, made famous by the movies, as pictured in a little town of the Middle West, where Hazel, pride of the Nutt family, tears away without a pang of parting from her old folks at home and hies her to the cinema capital to become a noted star. One of the big kicks in the picture is the scene of "Hazel" hashing in a Hollywood Boulevard cafe, while writing her "sap" lover back East that she lunches daily with Rodolph Valentino, Mary Miles Minter, Gloria Swanson, et cetera. The Hollywood men saw their town — at least the motion picture part of it — kidded a little, but they took the joshing goodnaturedly as they realized that the funny side of picture-making had been caught on the celluloid. The first showing of "Hazel From Hollywood" was given as part of the Hollywood Studio Club's entertainment of the business men and was appropriate because the Studio Club's membership is made up partially of girls who are breaking into the pictures. Miss Marjorie Williams, executive manager of the Studio Club for the National Board of the Y. W. C. A., is in charge of the campaign to enlarge the scope of the studio girls' organization, and she declared after the preview showing that every girl who hopes to come to Hollywood and get into the movies should see this picture, but that she should not take it too seriously as a real picture of breaking in. Christie's "Hazel," in other words, is purely for amusement, and while the experiences of a movie struck maiden getting a job in a Hollywood studio are more or less enlightening, it is not to be supposed that every girl can get into the movies as easily as does the "Hazel" of the satirical comedy. Alvin Wyckoff, pioneer cameraman, resigned from the Famous Players-Lasky forces last week and signed a contract to photograph "Captain Applejack," Fred Niblo's next production. He has been connected with Paramount for the past eight years.