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

an ra! L 'The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry' Page 19 Price Marks and Hokum By EDITH M. RYAN Bp with price marks on them are an bmnation. Functions that send realism into a vacuum ■Me night mares of the industry. M enters ivhen the box office is forgotten. m\ real actor of today is the star of to Muoitation covers a multitude of had pic m Skeleton in the closet of the industry Mso-called 'box office attraction!' m can lead the public to the box office, mou can't fool it's palate with a punk pic Max Graf, supervising director of the Graf Productions, scattered a few myraids of brilliants in a recent conversation and the above are some of the samples. "Money in America has always been noted for its vocal powers and in the silent drama of motion pictures the way it has talked has been remarkable," said Mr. Graf, as he chatted over a luncheon table the other day at the Hollywood Hotel. "Bigger and better pictures as the slogan of the producer having been regarded suspiciously for some time by the public is now only a humorous line in its opinion. When we are invited to a dinner does the host have to tell us how much each item of food costs? The public has been introduced so much to the price mark that it is no novelty. Without any discourtesy it certainly could reply: 'Excuse me, but I think we have met before!' The price mark more than anything else will keep pictures in their infancy. "Sets that flaunt cost are bad business. I have been in the homes of many millionaires, but in no single instance were any so magnificent as those depicted on the screen. Money has talked too loudly, too vulgarly in the past. Now let art talk and let realism assert itself!" Then Max Graf made an interesting admission. "There is a silent partner of the bulk of producers, directors and even actors. No dragon of old ever threw a greater fear into a human than this same silent partner — the box office," he laughed. "When my brother Louis, who is the president of the Graf Productions and myself started out on our own, we agreed to snap our fingers at this kill-all art. Yes, that's what it is — a kill-all. We said if we have to genuflect to the box office, we'll just let the other fellow do it instead. "Now we know the public. We know that it is human and we are making human pictures. But we have not insulted our public ever by thinking of our product in the terms of the box office. Since there is so much about box office attractions why not use this a-, the title of all pictures. Think of the drawing power in electric lights! "There is a word that should be eliminated from motion pictures if we want to make 'em better — that same word — "drawing power.' We buy stories because we fondly imagine the author has 'drawing power.' We cast actors whom we believe have 'drawing power.' All we are doing is to keep the industry in swaddling clothes. When an actor with a name is cast in a role in which he is in no way suited, he is not a drawing power at all. The public sees him, goes away and spreads the report that so and so is mivcast. There is resentment against the producer who performs this breach of confidence and a question raised in the mind of many people if after all the actor is so miscast but instead, slipping. Stocks of an actor drop every time his name instead of his adaptability to a part, is considered. "Pictures will improve when producers look for real actors. The star is the actor who really can scintillate. There are a lot of actors who are of stellar calibre, but unfortunately for better pictures, producers are the last by whom the new are tried and again the last to lay the old aside. There are only a few fixed stars in the heavens, but the industry registers a different finding! "Bit by bit the hokum is being banished. Some day there will be a grand holocaust for the price marks. Some day it will be wretched form to say how much a production cost. And some day into the obsolete phrases will pass — what has been for years the touchstone of thousands of pictures— 'a box office attraction !' Some day exhibitors will advertise with pride (that may cause somewhere a tear) — 'yes, wo have no box office attractions! Just pictures that are artistic transcripts of life. Yes, the theaters are crowded!" A SOOO'tO'X ^/VlH By GEORGE LANDY ftoite the title of this tale, it should not ■rly be on the sporting page, although — I play on words may be permitted, it is fry of the human race — ■tead of the usual oval race-course, the Hnts in the Screen Sweepstakes start at Hent points geographically and socially. Bpeasont girl in Sweden, the cabaret Ittr in Moscow, the farmer's daughter in if, the New York society queen, the lict of a New Orleans convent, and the ■girl in a l.os Angeles department store Bse are some of the fillies that have I the blue ribbon heretofore Each of I girls broke through the field and finally Hie tape, a winner — the prize being a fat fcn picture contract. Huistics prove that the girl who comes to KWood and starts as an extra, has odds Ifer 5()00-to-l against her ever becoming jltured player on the screen. Naturally, Burse, every girl who comes to Holly II figures she is that one, for this is the In reaction to statistics Despite hardI and even despite realization of the licaps, hope still springs eternal in the i in breast. In fact, it is a champion high ler in the heart of the extra girl. A over a year ago, a school teacher in glas, Arizona, whose name was Rosei Cooper, had the mumps. As a consece she was away from her pedagogic :9 for three weeks. When the mumps her, she found that she had been ked" for the period of her absence by an over-mathematical school board. Whereupon, she was naturally incensed, and decided to fulfill an ambition which she had secretly cherished in her heart for many years. Even with the deduction of the three weeks' salary, she had enough money to get to Hollywood and just a little hit more— although it was very little. After the usual tramping around the studios and employment agencies, she finally succeeded in securing extra work here and there, and managed to keep the wolf a couple of inches away from her door at most times, although there were several occasions when she could distinctly hear him scratching at the portal. Appropriately enough, her first real part was given her as "the extra girl" in "Mary of the Movies," one of those supposedly intimate revelations of the screen world which have been so popular of late. Her next chance came in a fairly small part as a young mother in "The Mail Man," starring Ralph Lewis. If you saw this picture, you will remember the attractive young matron who gave the mail carrier the oddest job of all the numerous chores which he was requested to do on his route. She got him to help her button her bungalow apron, and the screen gave us a flash of a provocatively dimpled and rounded shoulder. (My secretary says this is a good ilace to stop this paragraph, and like every well-trained "dictator." 1 invariably yield to her suggestions.) And now it seems that Rosemary Cooper has finally reached the winning line. She i> playing the second lead in support of Mary Carr in this star's present production for the F. B. O. Studios. The race is on. Rosemary Cooper wines at 5000-to-l!