We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
December 23, 1922
EXHIBITORS HERALD
65
Star Comedies Zest of Bill
Says VIVIAN M. MOSES
THE successful exhibitor has realized that no program is complete without its due proportion of star comedies according to Vivian M. Moses, director of advertising and publicity of the Fox Film Corporation.
The first motion picture that attempted to tell a connected story was of a comedy nature, and this class of films has improved steadily in scope and entertaining qualities ever since. We read a great deal about the remarkable advance made by the motion picture in the last twenty years ; these words of praise apply to the one and two-reel comedies quite as aptly as they do the drama of serious purpose.
In screen comedy the comedians can appeal only to the eyes of the spectators. As a consequence, they are obliged to follow one piece of business with another in rapid succession. Each phase of their pantomime must be pointed with the keenest sense of humor and constructive skill. No series of comedies ever has succeeded in maintaining its grip on the motion picture public that did not offer a quick and generous stream of humorous incidents that appealed to a wide range of taste and intelligence.
Of all classes of screen comedies the series of one and
Scene from Fox Educational.
Interesting
Shot
from a
Fox Educational
two reelers of a humorous nature that can boast of a star at the head of its cast takes first place. In practically every instance the star performers in these short subjects possess that combination of surprising physical agility and grasp of the art of comic pantomime that make the spectator hold his breath with apprehension and wrinkle his face with smiles at one and the same time. To watch a ludicrous looking young gentleman climb the sides of a building with the ease of a monkey, balance himself in an extremely perilous position or take a fall that threatens to dislocate all his bones without losing his air of calm confidence or look of comic surprise, and to have these antics occur in a "rapid-fire" comedy in which the fun is clean and clever, is to share in a species of mental realization that is a priceless tonic to the average man and woman in this bustling world. Fox Film Corporation, pioneers in this branch of picture production, can boast of three series of Star Comedies that are constantly growing in favor with the screen public. The trio of laugh makers starring in these pictures consists of Lupino Lane, Clyde Cook and Al St. John. All three are distinctly different in their method of fun making, and exactly alike in their ability to "put over" the comic incidents in each one of their respective releases. Representing, as they do, long and thorough training in the several branches of dancing, pantomime and acrobatic skill, the three started their careers at widely separated points of the compass. Lupino Lane is a product of the London stage and has played all over the world. Clyde Cook is an Australian, and was a leading performer at the Hippodrome, New York, when engaged by William Fox. A I St. John is a true son of the land that has developed the motion picture to its present high standing, and received his training under the stars and stripes.
Second Series of Educationals Has Been Published