Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Dec 1920)

MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC The Cinema Comes to Carleton— (Continued fro Ho .elected me because I feel so look seventy-one all right, bi.t how about the twenty,' I answered. "You know the advertisement, 'Is she twenty or eighty?' Why didn't you consult them ?" we asked. ■■Dont be tlippant. It is a serious subject. .\ man who was the original 'Shade of the Sheltering I'alm' man in 'Floradora' doesn't look twenty. You know that. But I got busy and worked with spirit gum and juvenile powder until I had done mv darndest and when I went down they all agreed that angels could do no more. So I went back and tried the old man and for my pattern I used a picture of mv revered grandfather. He was a kindly' soul and his make-up was not difficult to copy. I found it far easier than the other. My efforts met with equal success, too, and Mr. Maigne said 'The part is yours,' just as tho I had been begging for it.'" "An incident that occurred in the studio made me think that perhaps I possessed latent powers of make-up which I never suspected. On my way to the dressing room I asked one of the men in the studio if Mr. Barrymore had come in yet. He hadn't so I went upstairs to experiment with my juvenile make-up. When I came down I asked again and he said 'Xo, he isn't in. Your father was looking for him awhile ago.' Later, after I had ]>ut on the old man's make-up, I stood talking to Lionel Barrymore and the man saw me and said, 'They have got the whole family in this picture, haven't they?' " "How many pictures have you made?" we asked. "Only a half dozen — no, not that, only five." "How does it happen that you have waited so long to get into pictures? You have been such a success and it might have happened long ago." "I wasn't ready," answered Mr. Carleton. "I wanted to sing." "But, look at Caruso and Mary Garden and — and Geraldine Farrar !" we added, hastily, as being, perhaps, a happier illustration. "Yes, I know, but I had inherited the Carleton voice, they said, and I was sort of expected to sing. Had been doing it ever since I was a choir boy at the age of ten. And then, you know, I was in Boston most of the time and in Europe part of the time and to tell the truth I never had any particularly brilliant offer made me." "But you certainly are a good actor on the screen and you have that peculiar something which has nothing to do with beauty and which is, to us, at least, far more essential, ^^iss Ferguson has it, too. That is why you arc so delightful opposite her. That 'peculiar something' is what some people call 'class,' which would be a very good word if it were not such an overworked one." "Thank you for them kind words. Particularly for 'class.' The word does not "No strongly on the subject." Here Rubv de Kcnier stopped at the table and we presented Mr. Carleton. "Meet Miss de Kemer." we murmured, just like a movie title. One of our friends said that nobody ever introduced anyone that way in real' life and we are going to prove to him that he is wrong. We do. That's how devoted we are to the cause. I f the movies do not talk like real people, let real people talk like the movies. The effect will be the same. Miss de Kemer joined a party at another table and the waiter brought some hot com muffins but it seemed as tho evervone we knew was at the Knickerbocker that day. As they say in the movies "came Robert Warwick" and "came Edward Earle" and "came Percy >rarniont" and to each we said boldly. "Meet Mr. Carleton." "You know them all, donl yuu," he said, when we had returned to our muffins. "Oh, yes I" we assured, "and it is fascinating to go around with them and have people stare at you. One day when we stopped to talk to .Mice Joyce in front of Claridge's the crowd got so thick we had to call a traffic policeman to get us thru." "You don't see any such demonstration over me, do you? I haven't made enough pictures yet to become internationally famous." "Dont worry; anyone who saw you in •The Society Exile' with Elsie Ferguson, isn't likely to forget you. But the trouble with you is no one would recognize you. We were all prepared for a dark man with a moustache, wearing a uniform, and here you are — " "Dressed in tweeds with a smooth face and also red-headed. But, you know, red hair takes black on the screen." "YoUjand Petrova," we said musingly. "But you do look, oh, so different in real life." "So it seems. I went over to the studio on Fifty-sixth Street the other day and the boy at the door held me up. 'What do you want?' he said. 'I want to go to work.' 1 answered. 'We ain't doing any casting today. Come in Monday.' But wait until you see me in 'The Copperhead !' I have to portray a boy of twenty and an old man of seventy-one. When they were casting the i)lay they told me of their quandary and asked me to look around for a good actor who could look twenty and make up to look seventyone." ".\ good actor?" we said. "Yes," answered William, Jr., "and, of course, that let me out. But 1 scoured the country and couldn't find anyone who wished to undertake the job. When I reported this to Charlie Maigne. he placed both hands on my shoulders, looked me straight in the eye and said, 'William, you and I have been friends for a good many years ; you must play it I' 'I can m paije 37) offend my aesthetic soul in the least, and if one must earn his living (and one must) there is no more congenial way of doing it than by working in front of the camera. I love the work." "If it weren't for the cinema field days," said we, "and the community acting," said he. THE SCREEN MOxVTH IN REVIEW Juniiita Hansen is being starred in tlie Pnthc serial, '"The Red Snows." Kathleen Clifford is pla\'in(; opposite Douglas Fairbanks in his latest picture. Macklyn Arbuckle has returned to the screen, with the San .\ntonio Picture Corporation. Alan Forrest, long Mary Miles Minter's lead, is plavint; opposite May Allison in "The Walk Offs." l.ieut. I'rank C. Badgley has brought suit for divorce, in the New York Supreme Court, against June Elvidge. Bessie Love's Vitagraph contract has expired. Lew Cody is now making his own pictures at the Astra studios in Glendale, Cal. Noah Beery and Mabel Julienne Scott have the leads in the forthcoming Paramount revival of "The Sea Wolf," being directed by George Mel ford. King Vidor has severed his connection with Brentwood and will produce for himself, featuring his wife, Florence Vidor. The Vidors were recent visitors in New York. Bernard Burning, in private Ufe Mr. Shirley Mason, made his screen debut in "When Bearcat Went Dry." Now he's under a long term contract with the C. R. Macauley Photoplays, Inc. Miss Mason is the featured player in Maurice Tourneur's forthcoming visualization of "Treasure Island." Edgar Lewis productions are to be released thru Pathe. The first will be Andrew Soutar's "Other Men's Shoes." Pauline Frederick has been visiting in New York. Also another Goldwynner, Tom Moore. F.arle \Mlliams is producing for Vitagraph in the East. He will make "The Fortune Hunter'' and two others at the Flatbush studios. Harold Lloyd is rapidly recovering from injuries sustained, on Aug. 24, in an accidental bomb explosion. Jay Dwiggins, long a Famous Players-Lasky character actor, died on Sept. 8 in Hollywood. Kay Laurel heads her own film company, with J. M. Shear as executive head of the organization. Jack O'Brien will direct. Syd Chaplin has returned from Europe. Marshall Nielan has purchased Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories and will present Wesley Barry as the boy hero of the tales. David Griffith is now producing in the East. He arrived with his staff early in October and has recently been in Florida. E-ugene O'Brien has recovered from a severe illness and is busily engaged on "The Broken Melody." The Carter de Havens have been signed by the Famous Players-Lasky, going over to that organization, in November. DEATH OF BILLY PARSONS. "Smiling Billy" Parsons died at his home, in Los Angeles, on September 28. Mr. Parsons was founder and president of the National Film Corporation, the maker and star of his own comedies and long an active figure in the film world. Before invading the screen, Mr. Parsons was highly successful in the life insurance business. It was after fourteen years of success in that field that Mr. Parsons turned to pictures. His first picture, "Tarzan of the Apes," was a big money maker, definitely deciding him to take up the screen in earnest. Mr. Parsons was 41 years old. He was recently married to Billie Rhodes. (Seventy)