Motion Picture Classic (1923, 1924, 1926)

Hoover The most famous of early blunders was made by the Biograph Company when it gave the wizard, D. W. Griffith, his release, rather than grant him a small increase in salary BY Their Blunders Ye Shall Know Them." These few words, paraphrasing a wellknown proverb, sum up to a large degree the successes and failures of most of our film personages and companies. The Blunder Mile-Stones o blunder is human, and the careers of nearly all of our famous stars, directors and producers are marked with blunders of one sort or another that have played an important part in their professional lives. In many cases it has not been the blunder itself which has had such a disastrous effect upon their T William S. Hart made the mistake of quitting the screen at an inopportune time. In his absence Tom Mix and others stepped into the limelight Famous By Tamar Lane careers, but the celebrity's failure to perceive quickly the effects of his blunder and take drastic steps to offset it by corrective measures. Blunders have been in vogue with the motion picture world almost from the very inception of the industry. In fact, hardly a year passes that one or two of our most prominent film personages do not commit a faux pas of some kind which does them great and lasting damage. This is but natural with such institutions as the screen or stage, catering as they do to the fickle public. The Griffith Blunder Ane of the most famous of early blunders was that made by the Biograph Company when it gave the wizard, D. W. Griffith, his release, rather than grant him a small increase in salary. Griffith was then in the heyday of his career and had built the Biograph Company into the greatest film organization of its time. The advance in salary which Griffith had demanded would have amounted to a few thousand dollars in the course of a year. By not granting it to him Biograph Company eventually lost millions. When Griffith left the concern, along with him went not only most of the firm's most popular players, but the. master mind which had been really responsible for the company's success. After "D. W.'s" departure, Biograph went rapidly into decline until finally it passed entirely out of existence. Vitagraph was another of the old companies whose successful career was vitally affected by lack of foresight and poor business judgment. At one time Vitagraph had what many consider the greatest aggregation of screen favorites the film industry has ever known. This was in the day of the one and two-reeler. Vitagraph's decline came with the arrival of the feature-length photoplay. The Famous Players-Lasky had just come into existence and were presenting famous Broadway stars in films produced on a more lavish scale. The five and sixreel pictures featuring famous stage stars quickly became the vogue. Vitagraph failed to see the importance in the new trend of affairs and stuck to its old policies. Vitagraph's Error "The company's *■ films soon lost their popularity with exhibitors, because they could not compete with the elaborate productions being presented by Famous Players-Lasky and other new companies that had rushed in to offei features. Vitagraph finally saw its mistake and took hasty steps to get into the swim. But it had waited too long and never regained its lost prestige. Vita Rudolph Valentino's mistake was in allowing the term of "sheik" to become too firmly attached to him. He is still suffering from this term 16