Film Fun (July 1915)

, , JT’R INSTANCE,” remarked the Film Fan amiably, ‘‘here’s this little what's her name in your comedy pictures — she’s great ! Why don’t you feature her? Let’s have her name and a few stories about her. Great stuff!” ‘‘Let me tell you something,” said the Big Boss of the best known picture-producing company in the field. ‘‘That girl’s too good to be advertised prematurely. She’s got a future, and it doesn’t pay to advertise ’em too soon. The public does it quickly enough.” ‘‘You feature the other comedy stars,” began the Film Fan. ‘‘Yes; but too much and too early featuring goes to their heads. After a while they begin to believe the advertising themselves, and when they do, it’s time to make a change; and if you make a change, then some other fellow gets the result of your training of your comedy people. See? Now please keep the name of that little comedy girl out of Film Fun for a while and give us a chance to make a really good star out of her in time. She isn’t worth the price she would demand right now if she got her head swelled. See?” It may be that the Big Boss is right. Is Vaudeville Being Depleted? There were two of them, and both vaudeville actresses of the comedy type. They told the whole story coming down from the tenth floor on the elevator in a building on Forty-second Street and Broadway, and they didn’t care a snap who heard them. ‘‘Maybe,” snorted the blond actress, ‘‘maybe I do; but I don’t think. Cheap skates, that bunch! Offered me an en¬ gagement to open in New Haven and last for three weeks — huh !” ‘‘Times is parlous, dearie,” suggested the little brunette. ‘‘Don’t turn it down until” ‘‘They may be parlous, girlie,” said the blond one; ‘‘but they’ve changed, at that. I had an offer to go as comedy juve¬ nile with a moving-picture company yesterday — Sis Hopkins make-up, you know; I’m good at that. It means steady work the year round and a chance to get your name on the paper in every town. A girl don’t have to put up with the line of talk these fresh guys in the vaudeville offices hand out nowadays, believe me. Come! We get out here. ” ‘‘And the worst of it is that she’s right,” murmured a booking-office man, who had listened unashamed to the con¬ versation. ‘‘They are stealing ’em all from vaudeville. Some of the best of the stars take a picture engagement to fill in for the summer and get to liking the work so well that they stay with it. We gotta get out with a dragnet and get in some new vaudeville stuff, the way the comedy films are grabbing them.” ‘‘Shucks!” said the Film Fan politely. Few Comedy Women in the Movies ‘‘Why are there so few women in comedy pictures?” said Mabel Normand, who is doing some clever work with the Key¬ stone Company. “Because comedy in the movies depends too much on rough-house work, and women cannot do the funny rough-house work that men can. The best field for the comedy woman in the films is in character stuff — the very fat woman, the Irish make-up, the country girl and so on. Any comedy woman who can evolve a comedy idea in which she can make the movie fans laugh, without subjecting herself to the terrible strain the comedy men must go through in their rough-house stuff, has a fortune ahead of her — she has the whole field to herself. ” Fat But Capable A coming comedy woman is Myrtle Sterling, who is in Raskey’s Road Show, sharing honors with Ham and Bud. Miss Sterling has a gift of versatile expression and knows every trick of the film and just when to register quiet comedy. Like John Bunny, her face is her fortune, because she knows how to manage it. Any one of her grimaces, in itself, is laugh¬ ter provoking, and her stunts get their full share of the laughter provided in the Ham Comedies by the audience. As Madam Duffy in the Trained Animal scene, she is remarkably clever. Billy Van and the Hens “D’jer hear about Billy Van?” said a companion fan to the Film Fan. “I’ve heard a lot about Billy Van.” “ Bet you haven’t heard this. You know Billy. He has a farm up at Van Center, N. H., and he’s going to spend his vacation running some comedy films up there. He’s got a reg¬ ular theater built on his place, and he’s going to try the com¬ edies out on the farm stock.” “Yes, I see,” said the Film Fan. “If he can make the old hens cackle over them, he thinks he has a chance to hear the chickens scream at his jokes next winter in the city, huh?” To-morrow Hy LUIS ZELLNER POOR movie editor sat in his lair; His eyes were all bloodshot And sunken with care. His fingers were twitching; His face a sad sight — Just hark to the why Of his pitiful plight. From Shakespeare to Ibsen, From Chaucer to Hall, His feature productions Had pictured them all. He’d used all the dramas And novels there are. And peace he had pictured And the horrors of war. He’d taken the Bible and made it a script. And into the tales of the prophets he’d dipped. What wonder he worried and cussed like the deuce — There was nothing on earth left for him to produce !