Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Dec 1916)

MOTION PICTURE desire to tread the boards obsessed us. And then, one day, about two or three years later, Bud excitedly told me that people were wanted for the mobseenes in a Shakespearean production about to be given at a theater not far from our homes.” Hamilton grinned. “This time it was my mother who broke up the show,” he chuckled. “You see,” Kalends famous comedian continued, “she was a member of the church and wasn’t very strong for theaters. Of course I didn’t dare to tell her that I had been taken on as a super and that I was to carry a spear in one of the early scenes. Consequently, it was with a feeling of terror that I heard my father urging her to take in the performance with him. My heart went clear down to my shoes when she finally consented. “Nevertheless. I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to pass up my chance of going on the stage, even tho all I had to do was carry a spear. “The night of the performance came. 1 stole out of the house and hastened down to the theater. The show started, and I could see my mother seated out in the third row of the orchestra. For a time she failed to recognize me, but finally T felt her eyes riveted upon my face. “I can imagine the horror which filled her. I can picture all that passed thru her mind. The next instant she rose in her seat, pointed her finger straight at me, and declared : ‘ Lloyd Hamilton, you get into your clothes and go right home!’ “But even this failed to quench the desire to he actors that burned within Bud and me. At that time the ‘brother’ act craze was at its height, and so we teamed up and played at entertainments and other private affairs. “Even as is the case in the ‘Ham’ comedies today, people laughed the moment we appeared. The difference in our sizes was responsible for this. Bud hadn’t grown an inch, while I had shot up like a weed. And, because we took to the business like ducks to water, we couldn’t help but make good. “Later came a chance to join a burlesque troupe. This experience proved of immense value to us. You see, the people who patronize burlesque performances like rough stuff. The harder I knocked poor Bud about, the better they liked it. If you will take notice, this is exactly the case in the Motion Picture comedy field today. “We eventually graduated into vaudeville, playing theaters from coast to coast. About a year ago we played Los Angeles. One of Kalem’s comedy directors saw our act, and shortly afterwards we joined the Kalem forces. “One of the reasons which, in my opinion, has helped us make good in the ‘Ham’ comedies, is the fact that Bud and I have played together so many years that we can safely introdime funny business not contained in the original script, knowing the other will play up to it. “AYhat generally happens is this: Our director, giving us a general idea of the business which takes place in the scene, orders us to go ahead and make him laugh. If we succeed in doing this, we know that our work is funny. And it’s a pretty safe bet that the photoplay patrons will be of the same opinion. “To what do I attribute the wonderful popularity of the ‘Ham’ comedies?” Hamilton concluded. “Simply this: Bud and I have originated a style of our own. We do our best to keep our work free from anything which might be deemed offensive. To our minds, these are the two things which every person who desires to succeed in the photoplay comedy field should never forget.” ^7 JZ? AM I ALONE? By A. JERROLD TIEJE Where are the pictures I held most dear? The glad grotesques of the haunted vale : Dragon and griffin and Thing of Fear. Throated with fire and of triple scale? Where, too, the knights whose cheeks, ash-pale, Told not a whit of their courage sheer, Spoke not of swords oversharp to fail? — Where are the movies of yesteryear? Where are the pictures I held most dear? The men who slid up the ninety-foot wall ; Clown and barmaid, peasant and peer. Thrown not just one, but ready to fall Scores of times should the scene not pall? Here’s ho for the comics at which “they” sneer (They who “uplift” and smile not at all) — Where are the movies of yesteryear? Where are the pictures I held most dear? Avaunt, ye novels that Frohman arrays ! Sorry, indeed, is this “dramatized” cheer (For novels are novels and plays are plays). Let me not yawn thru a five-part maze ; Give me the pictures that show me the mere Folly and farce that my boredom allays — Where are the movies of yesteryear? i.'exvoi. As well might I ask, like Villon the frail, Where are the snows when the roses appear ! Yet still be my quest, as was Lancelot’s Grail — Where are the movies of yesteryear? f Forty-two)