Camera (May 1922-April 1923)

Page Six 'The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry' CAMERA! From U to You By malcolm s. boylan It certainly is a rare day when an actor, alone and unaided, creates such a disturbance that he brings out the fire and police departments en masse, but that is precisely what Brandon Hurst did recently. The wonder is greater when one knows that Hurst is known as an exceptionally mild-mannered man, anu plays the role of Jehan in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which Wallace Worsley is directing at Universal City with Lon Chaney as the star. It all came about when Mr. Hurst in driving down Cahuenga avenue to avoid collision with a speeder, swerved into the curb. His brakes failed to work properly and he crashed into a water plug, snapping it off. While the actor sat appalled, a stream of water shot a hundred feet into the air. Some excited citizen phoned in a riot call to the police and also sent in an alarm to the fire department. In a few minutes the modest and retiring actor found himself the center of more noise and excitement than he had ever before commanded. "Universal Fillim Corp — "Universal City, Hollywood, Calif. "Dear Sir as I am a broken Business man Started with nothing made a fortune and lost it, I think I Can furnish you some good ideas for Some Real pictures am young and full of pep. I have traveled a lot — Run away from home at 13. And no Education. Be glad to hear from you Resp yours "Rout 1, Box 4, Caney, Kansas. It would hardly be fair to posterity to print the name of the man who wrote this, but the letter is on file in the offices of the Universal Picture Corporation at Universal City. Raymond L. Schrock, scenario editor, was promptly notified of this virgin gold mine of literature and negotiations were opened at once to secure a gross of assorted experiences of the world of big business about which scenario writers know nothing. "Every time I get a vacation something happens to spoil it and I have to work most of the time." That's Patsy Ruth Miller's plaint. She has always protested against the high glory of vacations. Her faith in them has been at low ebb, with one vacation after another during her screen work turning into a round of business engagements, calls back to the studio for "retakes" and the like. But now the real, bonafide vacation has arrived for her. Right in the midst of the first three months of hard work on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," in which Patsy plays Esmeralda, she has been idle for five or six days. What's more, the indications are that she won't work for another week. Needless to say, her faith is returning. The first three or four days she passed in the various occupations that beset the path of an actress and can't be avoided, like getting clothes and costumes fitted, pictures made, interviews arranged and the ordinary, every-day bothers of life taken care of. But the immediate future holds prospects of the theater, reading, motoring and hiking. For a year Bert Roach has been doing comedy roles at Universal City with Neely Edwards and other comedy stars. He is considered excellent in that line. But every two months or so the team work of Edwards and Roach in "Nervy Ked" comedies is broken up by the request of some director for the services of Roach in feature production, in which he plays comedy char acters with an excellent sense of the difference between such roles in comedies and features. The last time he was withdrawn from comedy ranks was when Herbert Henley was making "The Flirt," a multiple reel adaptation of Booth Tarkington's novel. Bert played a very human "boob" in the story, the fellow who is "boob" enough to marry "The Flirt" in the end. Just the other day Wallace Worsley, director, and Perley Poore Sheehan, adapter, Dick Sutherland, who is one of the hits of "The Shriek of Araby," starring Ben Turpin, which attraction is held over for a second week, beginning tomorrow at the Symphony Theatre. Dick has won a place all his own as the most terrifying villain on the screen. He is now providing thrills for the Universal seripi, "The Phantom Fortune," now in the course of production. stopped shooting scenes for "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" long enough to wonder just who could do a comedy bit in the Gondelaurier ball room sequence just right. They decided on Bert Roach. So he doffed his hobo rags and donned the wig and garb of a fifteenth century gallant, and played the bit. Now he will play in anotlier comedy before he begins work on a role in Virginia Valli's Universal Jewel vehicle, "Up the Ladder," which Hobart Henley is directing. A very brief career is behind the work of one member of the cast supporting Priscilla Dean in "Drifting" at Universal City. U'\s name is Bruce Guerin and he is a rather remarkable little chap of three years of age, who finished work at another studio at midnight one day and went to Universal City for the Dean picture the next day. Bruce began his "histrionic career" as a babe in his mother's arms. He has become a sufBciently seasoned professional now to have his own little canvas-back chair and the manner of a veteran. Miss Dean has the support of such wellknown players as Wallace Beery, Matt Moore, William V. Mong, Anna May Wong and others. I<aura La Plante, who was taken seriously ill after completing the leading role opposite William Desmond in "Around the World in Eighteen Days," has recovered and returned to Universal City to begin work again before the camera. Her reward for consistently capable work with Universal in two-reel westerns, chapter plays and comedies, comes in the form of an assignment to the cast in Edward (Hoot) Gibson's next starring vehicle as his leading woman. It is her first five-reel feature lead at Universal City, but her past performances are a clear indication of her fitness for her screen leading roles. Edward Sedgwick will direct Gibson in "Katy Didd." It's his own story with a continuity from his own pen. Production will start when sets and casting are completed. Art Acord feels like following up the "dog fad" in pictures by putting a new canine star on the horizon. He thinks he has a "world-beater." Acord's dog, who has been playing an important role at his master's side throughout the Universal chapter play production, "The Oregon Trail," which is just drawing to a close under Edward Laemnile's direction, is the seventh generation of a canine clan raised by the star on the famous Acord ranch in Nevada. Acord has trained him to do all the well-known stunts and some that are new, and the eagerness of Rex before the camera is a tribute to his master's understanding and a guarantee that the embryonic star wouldn't be a ""flop." WHAT HASN'T HE PLAYED! Eric Mayne, who will play the part of Lord Carnaby, in the comedy drama, "Just Suppose" at the Mason Opera House on Monday next, has had a long and varied theatrical career. Mr. Mayne was with the Drury Lane Company in London for seven years, and played in the Drury Lane Productions in every theatre of importance in llie United Kingdom. In 1913 he arived in New York with "The Drury Lane Company of America" playing Captain Sartoris in "The Whip." In 1914 he came to Los Angeles with the same play appearing in the same part at the Majestic Theatre. He was with the late Charles Frohman for three years, playing "Bernard Dufresne" in "Zaza" in London and the provinces. He appeared in leading characters at the Lyceum Theatre, London, for five years playing in the eighteen productions which were made, during that period — such parts as "Lord Robert Ure" in "The Christian"; Philip Christian, in "The Manx Man"; Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet"; the King in "Hamlet"; Hildebrand in "The Proud Prince." Mr. Mayne was also under the management of Sir Martin Harvey, Sir Charles H. Hawtrey, Mrs. Langtry, C. B. Cochran, Robert Courtneidge and others. In New York, he was under the management of Mr. William A. Brady for several years, both in plays and pictures.