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

ESTABLISHED 1918 — A FILM MAGAZINE AND A FILM NEWSPAPER IN ONE Entered as second class matter, August 11, 1918, at the postofflce at Los Angeles, Cal., under act of March 3, 1879. S. W. (DOC) LAWSON Publisher and Manager DELBERT E. DAVENPORT _ Editor JOHN CORNYN Advertising Manager FRED W. FOX Advertising Copy GENE WOOLWAY Studio Representative Marbridge Building NEW YORK CITY H. H. CONGER COMPANY, National Advertising Representatives First Nat'l Bank Building CHICAGO Holbrook Building SAN FRANCISCO Price 10 cents per copy, $3.50 per year in Los Angeles County. Outside Zone, $4.00 per year. Canada, $4.50, Foreign, $5.00. Issued on Saturday afternoon of each week at 6318 Hollywood Boulevard, in Los Angeles, California. Phone 439-869 Address All Communications to Camera I Vol. VI. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1923 No. 10 As the Editoria 1 Mind Works Fortune smiles on the one who smiles on misfortune and everything in all creation frowns on any frown. So, why frown? Occasionally there is reason to doubt someone, but as a general rule, doubts are uncalled-for. Filmland is no place for Doubting Thomases just as it is no place for Cheap Johns. The chap who is most welcome is the Tom, Dick or Harry who's in earnest and will work assiduously and honestly. Troublesome times are ahead in the Ruhr nor is the Chinese situation encouraging and the Balkan question is up again, all of which is mentioned merely to remind one and all just how lucky a fellow is to be living amid the glories of Southern California, where peace and prosperity rule supremely. "Opera de Photoplay" is one of the possibilities of the early future and in fact it is being tried in a practical way right now. What, with musical movies, can be the next goal for those ever in quest of something new under the sun which is supposed to shine upon no such a thing! Although you do not hear so much about it any more, the high cost of living is still well elevated. We bought a new straw the other day and if we had bought it one day earlier we would have saved fifty cents. We're not complaining, but we are pointing out the incontrovertible fact that prices seem as reluctant to come down as wages are to go up. Motion picture people will find much to appeal to their artistic desires in the symphony concerts to be given in the Hollywood Bowl this summer and it is to be hoped that they will prove their willingness to support something so worth-while in musical uplift. Meanwhile it will help prodigiously to have it become known generally that photoplayers as a body are more interested in the best there is in music than they are in "wild parties," which have been so greatly exaggerated by the press at large. Liquor is getting more plentiful in Prohibition America every day. In fact, it is getting so plentiful that the prices are being reduced amazingly. Practically none of the best citizens are helping in any way to have the liberty-denying law enforced and as a consequence it is the greatest farce ever written as legislation. Now why in the name of very ordinary common-sense doesn't the populace of the nation arise in its might and obliterate all this illicit traffic by legalizing light wines and beers whereby the fabulous fortunes boot-leggers are making would be diverted into the federal treasury in the form of taxes, automatically reducing several totally unfair taxations under which the people are now struggling so valiantly! According to reports emanating from those "in the know," this is no time for anyone in any branch of the picture-making business to make a "blind jump" to New York City with the idea of getting an engagement there, because conditions are decidedly bad throughout Gotham so far as filming activities are concerned. It is estimated that practically ninety per cent of all filming is being done in Southern California and this is the place to stay if the wolves of poverty are to be kept away. Other conditions in the business world in general are good throughout the east and there is a more rapid movement towards normalcy than ever before since the war, but Los Angeles and environs constitute the center of photoplay-building and it is therefore the center of jobs in this line of work. Those who make motion pictures and those who take them are both important, but those who pay for the making and the taking — the great army of patrons of movie theatres — are even more important and should be at the bottom of every consideration more than ever now. It is no longer to be accepted without reservation that no one knows what the public wants, because it is being demonstrated that it is not difficult to ascertain this pretty accurately. Most everybody should know the public wants good pictures and most anybody who knows anything at all about the various elements entering into the making of a good motion picture should know just about how to go about supplying the demand. Frankly, there is seldom any excuse whatsoever for a bad picture in these days of abundance of all kinds of film-wise brains. It is utterly beyond the normal comprehension why Los Angeles newspapers are so ready to present news of inevitable tragedies in the film world in ways so derogatory to film folk in general. Is it not enough to have out-of-town papers take advantage of opportunities to scandalize? Verily, it would seem the part of the most fundamental prudence and simple conservation of civic pride to adopt policies such as would at least avoid unsavory intimations founded entirely upon some reporter's conclusions. If the Detroit newspapers defamed people in the motor car industry with as much reckless abandon as Los Angeles newspapers defame people in the motion picture industry, there probably would be a protest of national scope if such scandalizing tended to interfere with the efficiency in automobile factories and the morale of those upon whom the legions of people depend for dependable motor service. It is certain the proclivity of the local dailies for making mountains out of mole-hills every time a screen celebrity breaks into print unfavorably has a detrimental effect upon the morale of the big army of earnest men and women upon whom the great public depend for the best humanly possible in the way of motion picture entertainment. Is it just or is it right?