Exhibitors Herald (Oct-Dec 1920)

136 EXHIBITORS HERALD December 25, 1920 ALLAN DWAN Vision, Not Luck, Is Behind The Success of Allan Dwan Big, Human Stories Are Always Selected by ProducerDirector for Picturization MEN who are weak, and, consequently, failures, have a habit of envying those who, being strong, have established themselves as successes. They know they are failures, but they will not admit the reason for their condition. So they seek to justify themselves, publicly, at least, by analyzing the career of an outstanding success in order to find in it some incident upon which they can seize to show how Fate has been kind to the success but unkind to the failure. Generally they select the turning point of a great man's life, the point that transformed an obscure and perhaps ill-paid worker into a famous and princely salaried creator. Deep down in their hearts they know that the turning point came about through hard work. Yet out wardly they cry "Luck." "Luck" is the failure's favorite recipe for the big man's success; ill luck the excuse assigned for his own stagnation. In the estimation of the failure few successes are worthy of the eminent positions they occupy. * * * A man never aided by luck, but who merits in every way the eminent position he now occupies is Allan Dwan, one of the seven directors of Associated Producers, Inc. Not even the veriest decrier of the workings of Fate can attribute a lucky happening, however remote, to Mr. Dwan's rise. The success of Mr. Dwan is genuinely merited and richly deserved. Allan Dwan is a happy combination of creative and vital temperaments — a com bination that insures success without help of fortune. He has the vision to see far ahead and the energy to materialize his visions. He is what might be called a practical artist. As an artist Mr. Dwan has always foreseen that the mechanical picture was doomed to be supplanted by the artistic effort that mirrored life. Big, human stories are his fetish. Such stories he has always selected and with his polished" skill of reproducing them on the screen he has scored one success after another. Certainly the success that comes of skill and intelligence cannot be said to be a matter of luck. * * * Though he is an artist. Mr. Dwan is also a practical business man. He realizes that unless his pictures prove profitable investments for exhibitors playing them they cannot be classed as successes, no matter how much artistry they may represent. Accordingly he seeks to always satisfy the appetite of the motion picture theatregoer as represented by the whole. He is always open to suggestions from exhibitors. He also believes that it is his duty to do his utmost to aid the men who play his pictures to make the showing of Allan Dwan productions profitable. For this reason he maintains exploitation departments in both New York and Los Angeles, where experts render every possible service to exhibitors. Luck, therefore, plays no part in his success. The ingredients arc obvious. Lucy Cotton Will Play Varied Roles LUCY COTTON, well-known leading lady and featured player, will be seen in January, 1921, in three entirely different types of pictures opposite three entirely different types of stars: With William Faversham in "The Sin That Was His"; with Bert Lytcll in "The Misleading Lady," wherein she plays the title role, and with George Arliss m "The Devil." * » * Lucy Cotton hails from Houston, Tex., and there it was that she first commenced her musical studies. On the stage she understudied Ina Claire in "The Quaker Girl," and played a prominent part in "Little Women," "Polygamy," and "Up in Mabel's Room." * * » In pictures she co-starred with Boland in "The Prodigal Wife," starred in "Blind Love," was featured in "The Miracle of Love," an Artcraft-Cosmopolitan special, and played in "The Broken Melody" and "The Invincible Foe." Now come three more pictures for issue in January, 1921, in which she plays as leading lady opposite leading artists on both stage and screen: "The Sin That Was His." opposite William Faversham; "The Misleading Lady," opposite Bert Lytell. and "The Devil." with George Arliss. In the if tadow of L the 7 Domes A David G Fischer Production