The theatre of science; a volume of progress and achievement in the motion picture industry (1914)

268 Cfie Cljeatre that Thomas Ince and WilHam L. Clifford (one of the Mutual Company's scenario experts, and a director and author as well) have written a four-act drama, modern in theme, which is to be presented in New York City, if the Los Angeles trial production at the Majestic Theatre is triumphant. The combination of Ince and Clifford, with Charles Baumann as financial sponsor for an important stage production, has been widely discussed in film and stage circles, and the outcome will be known long before this volume is published ; in fact, the writer is inclined to the belief that the next theatrical season will reveal many similar efforts of photoplay producers, authors and players, with plans more or less elaborate to compete with those gentlemen who have finally recognized the status of the motion picture and are now producing for stage and screen alike. I have heard a persistent rumor that Oliver Morosco is interested in one forthcoming production of a high-grade melodrama, written and directed by a screen star, in which the latter is financially interested and for which a cast, composed exclusively of photoplayers, is being recruited. Just as this volume goes to press it is announced that Al. H. Woods has purchased an interest in the Ince-Clifford play and will produce it at the Eltinge Theatre in New York. Russell Bassett, of the Nestor Film Company, had been on the stage for well-nigh half a century before he was lured into the film studio. Though his career has recorded many notable successes, and at least two stellar achievements, Bassett will be remembered most for his truthful portrayals of the Jew in "The World," and "The Black Flag." The greater portion of Bassett's film career has been