Close Up (Oct 1920 - Aug 1923)

jJllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll^ lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll1’- A NEARER POINT OF VIEW “CLOSE-UP A MAGAZINE OF MOVIE-LAND | VOL. IV., NO. 7. LOS ANGELES. CALIF., OCT. 20th, 1920. FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY | mmiiiiriiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiMiiiimiiimiiimiiimimnmiiimimimmiiiinnmrmmMimip HE CLIMBED OVER HIS NOSE TO SUCCESS But Calhern’s Olfactory Organ Almost Kept Him On the Boards By Arthur Quincy A man’s nose is certainly a delicate subject — for a story. To write commensurately with the subject, one must needs be brief to be agreeable. The writer takes the risk of having his own nasal appendage given a beauty massage or of being sued for criminal libel. Libel, you know, is saying something in print that you can’t prove in court, and it would be a gas company attorney’s task to prove to a judge that a man’s nose is whatever you happen to have said it was. However, a conception of how the consequences of such a statement might be evaded has just come to me. The Camera! An unprejudiced judge wants an absolutely truthful witness, and where is there to be found a testifier with greater talent for veracity than the camera? If the camera’s celluloid testimony happened to coincide with the defendant’s, then the judge would have to decide that the plaintiff’s central facial feature was just what the defendant said it was, and there was no libel. Now — the writer, having won this case in advance of its appearance in court, may tell the story. And it’s not so bad, after all. Years ago, when he was at the creek-wading, fence-climbing, stonethrowing age, Louis Calhern got his nose broken in some boyish escapade. Presumably it occurred in a moment of reckless pugnacity, but that presumption has never been confirmed by Mr. Calhern himself. No intimation of rowdyism in this, you understand— he was probably a perfect little gentleman at that age. You should know that the fracture was located one-quarter inch below the exact beginning of the organ, approximately between the eyes. When set and healed, the bone did not readjust itself to its former outline precisely, and the organ of smell as RIGHT TO THE POINT— KING VIDOR! WE HAVE NOTICED IN VARIOUS LOCAL NEWSPAPERS, AS WELL AS TRADE JOURNALS PUBLISHED HERE IN LOS ANGELES (AND WE MUST ADMIT THAT WE HAVE ACCEPTED NEWS ITEMS OF THE SAME KIND FROM KING VIDOR PRODUCTIONS) THAT “THE SKY PILOT,” HIS PRESENT CURRENT FEATURE, IS A KING VIDOR PRODUCTION. TO SET MINDS AT REST IN THIS PARTICULAR INSTANCE WE STATE EMPHATICALLY THAT “THE SKY PILOT,” WRITTEN BY THAT FAMOUS AUTHOR, RALPH CONNORS, IS A CATHRINE CURTIS PRODUCTION. INASMUCH AS THE KING VIDOR DIRECTED VEHICLE IS BEING FINANCED BY THE CATHRINE CURTIS CORPORATION, IT SEEMS INVIDIOUS TO US THAT KING VIDOR SHOULD ATTEMPT TO “HOG” ALL THE PUBLICITY AND CREDIT TO HIMSELF. • IT SEEMS TO US THAT CATHERINE CURTIS, WHO IS SO WELL KNOWN IN OUR MIDST, SHOULD BE GIVEN SOME PART OF THE CREDIT FOR HAVING PRODUCED THE NECESSARY SPONpULICKS TO FINANCE A PROPOSITION OF THIS KIND, SO AS A PARTICULAR WARNING TO KING VIDOR, OR HIS PUBLICITY AGENT, WE SUGGEST THAT HEREAFTER, IN SENDING OUT DATA CONCERNING “THE SKY PILOT” THAT THEY WILL STATE IT AS A DIRECTED PICTURE BY KING VIDOR, BUT PRODUCED BY THE CATHRINE CURTIS CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. sumed an appearance of uniform width from top to bottom. But a year after donning khaki he found himself in France, and there, while going through a sham handto-hand fight one day with a campmate as preparation for similar encounters with Boches, he rebroke the ETHEL BROADHURST Rolin Film Co. nasal bone. When he came back to the stage as the Morosco leading man in Los Angeles, Calhern found that it still had no effect on his stage looks, but the footlights did not hold the goal of his ambition. The screen, he had decided, gave greater opportunities to dramatic talent, and greater scope, than the stage — and a broken nose is hardly a screen asset. The exceptional performance of Mr. Calhern in the local theatre, particularly in his final big success in “The Clam Digger,” attracted attention from many directors. They wanted him for leads and for characters — but who could expect the fault-finding camera to pass that nose up? Such a little difference in outline, but directors couldn’t “see” that nose. But one day Lois Weber and her leading lady, Claire Windsor, were watching the young leading man’s portrayal of a difficult role, and Miss Weber exclaimed, “Why, I can’t see anything wrong with that nose. He’s your next leading man, Claire, if he can come.” Much red paint around that thick section and some special light effects overcame the camera’s antagonism. Now we look for Calhern’s portrayal of some big, living roles on the screen. PLEASE PATRONIZ E— W HO ADVERTIS E— I N “CLOSE-UP