Camera (May 1922-April 1923)

CAMERA! "The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry" Page Seven Coming Back, Movie Mart37rs and Ben Hur By RAT H. LEEK ■■iiiitiininiiiiinniiiiimiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiii Making a second ascent of the ladder of film success seems to be a far more difficult task than the initial effort. Faithless theater audiences exhibit little readiness to return to old favorites. Which makes the accomplishment of Priscilla Bonner, who has won an important place in the big cast for "April Showers," with such luminaries as Colleen Moere, Kenneth Harlan and a long list of lesser notables, a remarkable one indeed. Slightly more than fifteen months ago Miss Bonner, who had been featured in several special productions, was called from the screen by marriage and prevented from returning to her first love by illness. When she finally answered the call of the camera again she found that new players, new directors and changed methods of casting, had altered the entire outlook. Just when the former leading lady was prepared to take the first opening as an extra, she was given a small role in "Shadows." In this small glimpse of the blonde player, however, reviewers and theater-goers recognized the qualities that once had made Miss Bonner a favorite. Because of her enthusiastic reception she was given other roles, increasing ip importance until, when the "all-Irish-all-star" cast for "April Showers" was being formed, it was agreed to include her among the brilliant list of principals. Parting with one's appendix seems to be the least popular of the growing modes in the screen colony. When it was announced that Viola Dana and Bebe Daniels had submitted to the painful separation from this superfluous organ on the same day recently, it became known that they had been martyrs to the requirements of their profession for many weeks. Each, knowing that she would be compelled to undergo a serious operation soon, delayed the ordeal solely to continue work before the camera. Theater-goers nowadays take it for granted that considerable research work precedes the making of every big picture. It is unlikely, however, that many patrons of the film have any conception of the magnitude of this preliminary work. Months have been consumed, for instance, by the experts who will contribute stray bits of knowledge to be used in the screen production of "Ben Hur." A board of military experts was used during ilic entire period of photographing "The I'\)ur Horsemen of the Ai)ocalypse." Hut it is i)robable that the most unusual rosoarch work ever carried on was instigated l)y Tom P'orman to be used in just one phase of his latest picture, "The Girl Who Came Back." The story has to do with the colorful adventure of a girl who through a .■■il range combination of circumstances bec(mies a, member of that mysterious element ill the poi)ulation of every great city — the horde of "missing girls." Although this particular episode comprises but a small part of the story, the director decided that it was too important to be slurred over. So he engaged a sociological student in New York to obtain statistics from the city's Bureau of Missing Persons and intimate facts about the causes of such disappearances, the ages of the girls involved and the towns from which they come. It is probable that the complete report of the investigator and his assistants is as extiaiistive as many of those upon which municiiial bodies base their entire program of activities. And all of it to be used in scenes that Continued to Page 22 TOM FORMAN HftS SENT SLEOTHS TO NEW tORK T06ET FIVTS FOR"THE GIRLWHO CAME OflCK''