Close Up (Oct 1920 - Aug 1923)

16 Bright Hints For Human Beings By “US” or “WE” ALL-STAR CAST SIGNED Several pen points were badly worn and inkwells were drained dry at the Metro studios in Hollywood when the complete cast for “The Eagle’s Feather,” the first of the Metro all-star specials, were all signed up in a single day. Among the notable players who attached their signatures to contracts to appear in this Katherine Newlin Burt story under the direction of Edward Sloman were James Kirkwood, Mary Alden, Lester Cuneo, Elinor Fair, Barbara La Marr, William Orlamond. Charlie McHugh, Adolph Menjou, George Seigman and John Elliott. Miss Fair and Miss Alden only recently returned to Hollywood from New York and this picture will mark their first work before the camera since they came back. Miss Fair appeared in the leading feminine role in “Driven” while in the East and also in “Has the World Gone Mad? which is soon to be released. Miss Alden had a leading role in “Notoriety” and also in "A Womans Woman.” James Kirkwood is a'lso a recently returned resident to Hollywood. While in New York he appeared on Broadway in “The Fool.” “The Eagle’s Feather” is a western story adapted for the screen by Winifred Dunn. After about two weeks’ work in the studio the entire company will go on location near Bishop, California, where a stampede with 4000 cattle will be staged. ANOTHER “FIND” Thomas H. Ince has made a new screen “find.” Lucile Rickson, a fourteen-year-old beauty who plays an interesting character “bit” in Mrs. Wallace Reid’s anti-narcotic film, “Human Wreckage,” has signed a three-year contract with Mr. Ince. Her first appearance under the Ince banner probably will be in “Country Lanes and City Pavements,” the big “special” featuring Madge Bellamy, which will be directed by Mr. Ince in person. Production work on the new feature will begin as soon as Miss Bellamy returns from her crosscountry “camera tour.” In the meantime Miss Rickson has been loaned to Marshall Neilan to play a part in “The Rendezvous.” THE HEART OF THE PICTURE Do you like facts? Do you revel in statistics? Here’s some regarding Norma Talmadge’s production, “Ashes of Vengeance,” which is now being made for Associated First National release at the United Studios in Hollywood: “Ashes of Vengeance” will take six months to make. Three French chateaux of the Renaissance period must be built. It will be released in eleven reels and 1,500,000 feet of film will be shot for the cutting room to assemble. Thirty draftsmen and assistants are now at work under the direction of Stephen Goosson, graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts of Paris, making the sixty sets required for the production. More than 1100 photographic reproductions have been made of plates in old French books for data. More than 2,500 swords, 4,000 match-lock muskets and 5,000 costumes with all accoutrements, have been made at the United Studios from photographs of old costume plates. Three Grand Rapids period furniture experts are making the furniture for the sixty sets. More than 1,200 people dance the minuet in a ballroom scene which is a duplicate of the Louvre Palace grand ballroom of the time of Charles I. A whole French quarter of the Paris of 1572 has been built for the picture. The gardens of William Millard Graham, a Santa Barbara millionaire, have been used for exteriors. The Huguenot massacre of 1572 is being filmed with 700 horsemen and horses and 2,000 “Huguenots.” , Director Frank Lloyd’s assistants and a special New York and Washington staff working in co-operation with him, have consulted every book in the New York Public Library as well as the famous Huntington library in Pasadena and the Los Angeles Public Library in a search for data for the picture. Enough power will be used on the lights employed for the big Louvre ballroom and the night massacre scenes to light the city of Los Angeles for two hours. Every generator in Los Angeles will be used to light the sets. A duplicate of the bell of the church of St. Germain l’Auxerrois in Paris will give the signal on the United “lot” for the massacre. Seventy-four electricians, four cameramen, seven “still” cameramen and a technical staff of more than 300 men is now at work on the production. All music played is of the period and will be used later for theatre orchestra scores. Forty hairdressers, twelve wardrobe men and mistresses and five special make-up artists are working with the “mob” of extras. “Ashes of Vengeance” will be Norma Talmadge’s greatest photoplay. The all-star cast now includes, besides Norma Talmadge, the following: Conway Tearle, Wallace Beery, Josephine Crowell, Betty Francisco, Claire McDowell, Courtney Foote, James Cooley, Andre de Beranger, Boyd Irwin, Winter Hall, William Clifford, Murdock MacQuarrie, Hector V. Sarno, Earl Schenck, Lucy Beaumont, Forrest Robinson, Mary McAlister, Kenneth Gibson, Howard Truesdell and Jeanne Carpenter. Lasky recently used some real ice in a snow scene. Probably had some of their dramatic actresses look coldly at a tub of water. BROWN ^ CALDWELL s4ND LADD PKoto-ei\draVe r\S LA J 5. BDWY; LOS ANGELES