Camera - April 14, 1923 to February 16, 1924 (April 1923-February 1924)

Camera's Weekly Wake-em-up SPECIAL NEWS SECTION SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1923 ~~~ UNITED IS READY FOR GREATEST I SUMMER With the $800,000 iruprove|l ment program now nearing completion at the United Studios, t| arrangements are being made by M. C. Levee, President of the plant, to handle the greatest summer producing activities in ■ the historyof the studio. Contracts" have already been J signed by Mr. Levee to house I the producing of eleven coraI panies this summer and negotiations with five other producers of prominence are practically closed. This will mark I a new summer producing record I for any leasing studio in the industry and is made possible through the building improvements and enlargements in the big leasing plant which have I been under way for the past two Ij months. This announcement is another definite indication that the present producing boom in HollyI wood will continue through the summer, contrary to the usual July and August let-up in proI duction evident the past four j years. Foremost in producing activities at the United Studios this I summer will be Joseph Schenck and Associated First National Pictures with the largest number I of companies. Among the proI ducing organizations who will I "shoot" at the United during the I next three months are the NorI ma and Constance Talmadge I companies, Maurice Tourneur, I Sam Rork, Arthur Jacobs, Edwin I Carewe, Frank Lloyd, Joseph De I Grasse, Jack Dillon, Lynn Reynolds and John McDermott. As soon as the new buildings and other improvements on the United lot are completed, the eleven organizations already signed, will be in full operation. Others will closely follow as soon as additional studio facilities now in work, are provided. Bowers Misses Ocean John Bowers, often called the "water spaniel of the movies," is having a dry time on location at Prescott, Arizona, with the company producing "When a Man's a Man," from Harold Bell Wright's novel. Not that Bowers has a hankering for the beverages Mr. Volstead tabooed. But Bowers is used to his daily dip in the Pacific, and it is too far from Prescott to motor to the ocean and be back by nine o'clock in the morning, made up ready for work on the set. When in Hollywood he rarely misses a morning for a plunge at Santa Monica. AL CHRISTIE RETURNING FROM EUROPE JULY 1 Al Christie cables from Venice, Italy, where he is presumably looking over boats and gondolas, judging from his interest in yachting at home. He has recently joined the California Yacht Club, and is studying the best types of cruisers in home and foreign waters. Mr. Christie will return to his studio about the first of July and in the meantime his directors are working on pictures which were planned for fall release. Mr. Christie reported from London last week that Betty Compson has created an enormous popular following in the British Isles, and her forthcoming pictures to be made over there are an important topic of conversation in film trade circles in London. 250 CHARIOTS IN UNIQUE RACE ON DESERT The fastest and largest charge of chariots in 3,000 years took place at sundown Monday, on the 120-square-mile dry lake at Muroc. It is said that not since the days of the real Pharaohs has there been an equal to the dash across the huge flat expanse of two hundred and fifty chariots, five hundred horses and five hundred men. These represented the hosts of Pharaoh Rameses II in pursuit of the Children of Israel, and the scene was a climax of Cecil B. De Mille's film production of "The Ten Commandments." Residents from all portions of the.Mojave Desert gathered on the great natural speedway to watch the reproduction of ancient military greatness. The chariots were driven by soldiers of the Eleventh United States Cavalry and the 76th Field Artillery. Each carried a civilian. Ten teams ran away and were not stopped for four miles. The scene is said to have been the largest equestrian stunt ever staged for motion pictures. The racing horses gained a speed of nearly 45 miles an hour on Muroc Lake, the largest absolutely flat expanse in the world. Eileen Percy has been signed by the C. B. C. Film Sales Corporation for a leading role in "Yesterday's Wife." This feature, from the novel by Evelyn Campbell, to which C. B. C. has purchased the screen rights, will be the first of the series of Columbia Pictures which that company will distribute. FORT RETURNS HERE , TO PURSUE HIS FORTE Garrett Elsden Fort, scenarist and playwright, whose one-act sketch, "Moonlight,' made a favorable impression at the Screen Writers' Play Room last Saturday night, has returned from a prolonged stay east. Mr. Fort intends to devote himself to free lance continuity work and titling. He has recently finished "The Critical Age," Ernest Shipman's picture, which is being released through Hodkinson, and has also completed a contract with Archie Comedies, Inc., an eastern independent concern formed to film P. G. Wodehouse's novel, "The Indiscretions of Archie." Mr. Fort was formerly assistant scenario editor for R-C Pictures Corporation, and did a number of scripts for Pauline Frederick, Sessue Hayakawa and Doris May. GLORIA REALIZES LIFE AMBITION IN "ZAZA" Gloria Swanson began the fulfillment of the most cherished desire of her screen career at the Paramount Long Island studio this week when she started work in the title role of "Zaza" under the direction of Allan Dwan, who has made preparations for this picture that insure it being one of the most spectacular he has yet produced. Ever since Miss Swansoi: became a star she has had a desire to play "Zaza." Her interpretation of the role in this new screen play, which has been adapted from the opera and play by Albert Shelby LeVine, will have all the fire and zest that the famous "Zaza" has had in the past if her enthusiasm has anything to do with it. "Zaza" will be the first Paramount picture Miss Swanson has made in the east, all her work heretofore having been done at the Lasky studio in Hollywood. A cast of stellar proportions has been selected by Mr. Dwan to support Miss Swanson. H. B. Warner, who is at present playing the lead in the Harvard prize play, "You and I," will play "Bernard DuFrene" opposite Miss Swanson. Ferdinand Gottschalk, another member of the "You and I" company will play "Dule De Brissac." Lucille ■ LaVerne will be "Aunt Rosa," and Mary Thurman will have the part of "Florianne." Other members of the cast are Riley Hatch, Ivan Linow, Marie Sheldon, Edna Wheaton, Eleanor Dell, Fern Oakley and Hazel Webb, a dancer. FRISCO TO HAVE FILM FINANCE COMPANY It has just been announced that San Francisco is to have a new moving picture financing corporation on a very large scale. In fact the actual paid-in capitalization is one million dollars. Louis Graf, President of the Graf Productions, is at the head of the new organization, and he has just returned from the South, where he spent a week on business connected with its formation. Mr. Graf has returned to San Francisco to confer with his associates on the project, the details of which will be whipped into shape at once. The object of the organization is the financing of picture producers, but owing to the fact that no two pictures are alike in their varied needs, and conditions, no set policy can be announced. However, it is stated that the arrangements will be such as to let the producer live and give him a fair chance. Although Mr. Graf has studied the picture production situation through first-hand experience in making pictures, the Graf Productions will not in any way participate in the benefits of the new corporation, as their future productions are already fully financed, with surplus laid away, and the money of the new organization will be used entirely for the needs of other producers. SULLIVAN SEEKS PLOTS FOR TALMADGES IN N. Y. C. Gardner Sullivan, who was recently appointed head of the scenario department of both the Norma and Constance Talmadge Film Companies, is in New York looking for material. Mr. Sullivan will not only be in charge of the continuities of future Talmadge productions, but will act ; in an advisory capacity as to what type of production shall be produced. "I am a firm believer," said Mr. Sullivan, "in Constance Talmadge's ability to portray emotional roles and serious drama quite as successfully as her delightful comedy roles. I am bearing this particularly in mind in buying new Constance Talmadge material, so any of your readers, who have a good story up their sleeve, with comedy .treading on the heels of tragedy, and laughter intermingled with tears, may send it to me at the Hotel Gotham." Mr. Sullivan will be in New York only ten days, returning to the Schenck Productions at the United Studios, Hollywood, the early part of next week.