Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Aug 1919)

CLASSIC Millions oP People Can A^ite Stories and Photoplays and Don't Know It/ The Girl With the Ginger-Snap Name {Continued from page 64) making one-reel comedies which has since gone out of existence. King Vidor, who has just been directing her, was assistant director with the same company. The nearest ZaSu has come, as yet, to a philosophy of life is a feeling of intense sympathy with everything and everybody, based, be it said, more upon intuitive understanding than upon sentimentality. She has very little of the latter. She loves to have a bit of pearl gray upon her all of the time. Her little attic room at the club was done almost entirely in that color. Her earliest ambition was to grow orchids, ^ cornmercially, and she was successful in this in a very small way. Her screen career is the result of her mother’s initiative rather than her own. She is now living with her mother and two brothers in an apartment on Fremont Avenue, near Sixth Street, Los Angeles. Her father has been dead for ten years. ZaSu came to California from Kansas, her native state, when she was ten years old. She is a high-school graduate. A May Interview With June {Continued from page 65) publicity pictures — yes — I’ll tell you all about it at lunch.” “You think it can work out successfully— marriage, that is ?” we asked, in a breathless abandon of getting at least one or two more facts. “So far so good with me,” concluded Miss Elvidge. “Sorry, but I’ve got to rush along. Have a luncheon appointment, you know. Good-by — awfully glad to have met you — hope the interview turns out all right.” Two seconds later the photographer, dragging a huge camera, burst into the room. “Where is she?” he demanded. “Gone !” we answered, fanning ourselves. “Why didn’t you hold her? Did you get your interview?” “Darned if I know,” we replied. And as we departed we heard the camera-man moralizing, “Aint temperament awful !” Taking Motion Pictures to the Cannibals {Continued from page 70) British government intends to keep the islands clear of snakes. “What sort of clothes am I taking? You’ll laugh. Nothing but dozens and dozens of pajamas. That’s all I wear. Mostly I go barefoot. The salt in the air and the intense sun burn up my hair, but it’s all fun.” And — “I love the lure and adventure of it,” she explains. “No matter what happens, we shall always know that while we have lived, we lived.” ( Seventy -nine) This is the startling assertion recently made by one of the most famous writers of to-day, E. B. Davison of New York, said to be the highest paid man in his line in the world. Is his astonishing statement true? Can it be possible? Are there countless thousands of people yearning to write, who really CAN and simply HAVEN’T FOUND IT OUT? Well, come to think of it, ’most anybody can TELL a story. Why can’t most people WRITE a story? Why is writing supposed to be such a rare gift? Isn’t this only another of the Mistaken Ideas the past has handed down to us? Yesterday nobody dreamed man could fly. To-day he dives like a swallow ten thousand feet above the earth and laughs down at the tiny mortal atoms below! So Yesterday’s Skepticism doesn’t count any more. “The time' will come,” writes ■ the same authority, “when hundreds of thousands of people will be able to write — there will be countless playwrights, novelists, scenario, magazine and newspaper writers — they are coming, coming — a whole new world of them!” And do you know what these writers-to-be are doing now? Why, they are the men — armies of them — young and old, now doing mere clerical work, in offices, keeping books, selling merchandise, or even driving trucks, running elevators, street cars, waiting on tables, working at barber chairs, following the plow, or teaching school in the rural districts; and women, young and old, by scores, now pounding typewriters, or standing behind counters, or running spindles in factories, bending over sewing machines, or doing housework. Yes — you may laugh — but these are The Writers of Tomorrow. For writing isn’t only for geniuses as most people think. The Creator gave you a storywriting faadty just as He did the greatest writer! Only maybe you are simply “bluffed” by the thought that you “haven’t the gift.” Many people are simply afraid to try. Or if they do try, and their first efforts don’t satisfy, they simply give up in despair, and that ends it. T h e y’r e through. They never try again. Yet if, by some lucky chance, they had first learned the simple rules of writing, and then given the Imagination free rein, they might have astonished the world! But two things are essential in order to become a writer. First, learn the ordinary principles of writing. Second, learn to exercise your faculty of Thinking. By exercising a thing you develop it. Your Imagination is something like your right arm. The more you use it the stronger it gets. The principles of writing are no more complex than the principles of spelling, arithmetic or any other simple thing that anybody knows. V’^/riters learn to piece together a story as easily as a child, playing on the floor, sets up a miniature house with his toy blocks. It is amazingly easy after the mind grasps the simple “know how.” A little study, a little patience, a little confidence, and the thing that looks hard turns out to be just as easy as it seemed difficult. Thousands of people imagine they must have a fine education in order to write. Nothing is farther from the truth. The greatest writers were the poorest scholars. People rarely learn to write at schools. They may get the principles there, but they REALLY LEARN TO WRITE from the great, wide, open boundless Book of Humanity! Yes, seething all arourid you, every day, every hour, every minute, in the whirling vortex— the flotsam and jetsam of Life — even in your own home, at work or play, are endless incidents for -stories and plays — a wealth of material, a world of things happening. Every one of these has the seed of a story or play in it. If you went to a fire, or saw an accident, you could come home and tell the folks all about it. Unconsciously you would describe it all very realistically. And if somebody stood by and wrote down exactly what you said, you’d be amazed to find your story would sound just as interesting as many you’ve read in magazines or seen on the screen. Now, you will naturally say, “Well, if "Writing is as simple as you say it is, why can’t I learn to write?” WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T? "'Listen! A wonderful 300-page book has recently been written on this very subject — a book that reveals a startling New Easy Method of Writing Stories and Photoplays. It explains all this so simply and clearly that anybody can understand it. It was written by a man who has criticised THOUSANDS of stories and plays. This amazing book is called “How To Be a Sticcessfiil IVriter.” It is the FIRST and ONLY book on Story and Play Writing to be enthusiastically praised by writers, editors and film folk everywhere. We cannot begin to describe this book, but will make it so easy for you to get and examine it, that you will send for it at once. YGu may have it ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR FIVE DAYS’ EXAMINATION. The book has over 300 pages, is elegantly cloth bound in royal green, and stamped in gold. You don’t obligate yourself and you don’t send a penny. After you get the book, look it over for five days to your heart’s content, then return it or simply send us $3 for it. And then! Then you w’ill just naturally pour your whole soul into this masic new enchantment that has come into your life— STORY AND PLAY WRITING! The lure of it. the love of it, the luxury of it, will fill your whole being from head to heel. No more wasted hours, dull moments, unprofitable evenings. You will have this noble, absorbing, money-making new profession! And you can do it all in your spare time, without interfering with your regular job. Who says you can’t make money with your brain! Who says you can’t coin dollars out of your Imagination! Who says you can’t turn your ideas into cash! Who says you can’t do it and make your dreams come true! Nobody knows — not even yourself: BUT THE BOOK WILL tell YOU. So no need to waste any more time wondering, dreaming, waiting. Just fill out the coupon below — your’re not BUYING anything, simply BORROWING it. A book that may prove the Book of Your Destiny — yours for FIVE WHOLE DAYS. A Magic Book through which countless ambitious men and women may learn to turn their spare hours into cash! Get your letter in the mail before you lie down to sleep to-night. Who knows — it may mean for you the Dawn of a New To-morrow! THE AUTHORS' PRESS, Dept. 48, Auburn, New York I would like to look at your book, ‘^How to Be a Success' ful Writer.” Will return it within five days or send you three dollars. fsfame Address City and State LETTERS LIKE THIS ARE POURING IN! "With this volume before him. the veriest novice should be able to build stories or photoplays that will find a ready market. The best treatise of its kind I have encountered in 24 years of newspaper and literary work." — B. Pierce Weller, Managing Editor, The Binghamton Press. "If anyone wants to make money writing, the first thing they should do is get this book — and study iti through and through.”— itf. G, Wynn, St. Paul, Minn, "I sold my first play in less than three weeks after getting your book." — Thelma Aimer, Helena, Mont. "It is the most sensible thing X over read on the subject."—./’. P. Burleson, Hereford, Tex, "Mr. Irving has so simplified story and photoplay writing that anyone with ordinary intelligence ought to master it Quickly. I am having no trouble in selling my stories and plays now." — B. M. James, Dallas, Texas. "Received the book. I could give myself a shaking, if possible, for not sending long ago. Why, everything is so plain a blind person could see."— Posa Beard, Nelsonville, O. "I have already sold a synopsis — written according to Mr. Irving's instructions — for $500.00, and some short sketches for smaller sums." — David Clark, Portland, Ore. '^Your book opened my eyes to great possibilities. I received my first check t o d a y— $175.00." — Barlow, Louisville, Ky. 'Tt is the most complete and practical book ever written on the subject of writing." Harry ScUults, Kitchener, Ont. "The book is all, and more, than you claim it to be." — w. T. Watson, Whitehall, N. Y. *T am delighted with the book beyond the power of words to express." — Laura Davis, Wenatchee, Wash,