Motion Picture (Aug 1919-Jan 1920)

(pM°2 ion picruR Millions of People Can Write Stories and Photoplays and Dorit Know It/ Q THIS is the startling assertion recently made by E. B. Davison of New York, one of the highest paid writers in the world. Is his astonishing statement true? Can it be possible -there are 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 anybody write a story? Why is writing supposed to be a rare gift that few possess? 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 of his fellow-men below ! So Yesterday's "impossibility" is a reality to-day. "The time will come," writes the same authority, "when millions of people will be writers — there will be countless thousands of playwrights, novelists, scenario, magazine and newspapers 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 schools 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 To-morrow. For writing isn't only for geniuses as most people think. B-on't yon believe the creator gave you a sto ry writing faculty just as he did the greatest w riter ? 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 trv, and their first efforts don't satisfy, they simply give up in despair, and that ends it. They're through. The y never try again. Ye/t if, by some lucky chance they had first learned (he simple rules "f writing, a n <1 then given the Imagination f r G,e rein, they might have astonished the world ! But two things are essential in order to become a writer. First, to learn the ordi LETTERS LIKE THIS ARE POURING IN ! "Wltli this volume bcTor. the verie.at npvico should be able to bullfl stories or photoplays that will find :■ i oT its 1 d in 2-1 . _ -I literary work."--H. Pierre .Waller. Wanting Editor ' .' V. .:.*: "If anyone wants to make | il in ■ . t e first thiol? they should do is tojrot thisbonlt— a ml p.l oil v it th rough and throoi-h "-.M. G. Wynn, St. lion, "I sold my first play in lean than Ioj oftor eoito.. your nook."--The!tna Aimer, Helena, "11 ; tl o sen lib '--J. D. Burleson, Hereford, Tex. "Mr. Irvlnp; lina so simplified i photoplay writing that anyone with ordinary m: 1 1 quickly. I am I I. in nellintr my old ppivs now."--B. M. Jamos, Ii.ll.i . i • "RVr.1 I'fl book, I could i >\ . oiv .I. n h&king, If possible i.. i . ndlni lory oso. win. ... , i . Iloro' l '. ' • olinn .1 I. tin. I o 'i ..n ri.nlil . ' '. I.'. Nelsonville, O. "I have, already Hold UHvnopaii .initio ■'■.inloii: in All. hv mi-'o l:..itriirlionn--for $500.0(1, and : In" l skptcheatQ] i i..vl.i r' l^ad. Ore. I ■ I U to II. Uarlovv, Lou ". David Clink, Port Your book opet Mil, II, Br t ct k to iluy - $175.00.' frecoiv ,'-$175. vllle, Ky. "'It fs the most complete and practical book over written on the anbjeetof writing. " --Hatty Schulu. Kitchener, Ont. •'Tli.. book la oil, and more. I loo, inn el iioi il to l.,..-'..W.T. Watauh, Whitehall, N. V. "I am delighted with tho book beyond thtfpower of words to nxpromt."-Laura Davis, Wenatctacc. Waab. Copyright, Lum Miss Helen* Chadwick, versatile screen star now leading lady for Tom Moore of Golilwyn Film Company, says: 'Ann man or woman who will learn this New Method o/Writin/j oupht toselltheir stories and THO.US -with ease, ' ' nary principles of writing. Second, to learn to exercise your faculty of Thinking. B y 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 o f spelling", arithmetic, or any other simple thing that anybody knows. Writers learn to piece together a story as easily as. a child sets up a miniature house with his toy blocks It 19 amazingly easy alter the mind grasps the simple '■know how." A little study, at little patience, a, little confidence, and the thing that looks hard turns out tu lie just as easy as it seemed difficult. Thousands of people imagine they need a ftae education in otder 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 leum tu write from the great, wide, open, boundless Book of Humanity! Yes, seething all around you, every day, every hour, every minute, in tho whirling vortex — the flotsam anil jetsam ot 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. Think! 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 1'V 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 en the serein. Now, vim 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 free booR has recently been written on this very subject — a book that tolls all aboil! a Startling New Easy Method of Writing Stories and Photoplays. This amazing boob, called "The Wonder Book for Writers," slum's how easily stories anil plays an conceived, written, perfected, sold. How many who don't dream they can write, suddenly find it out. How the Scenario Kings a in Story Queens live ami work. How bright men and women, without any special experience, learn to their own amazement that their simplest ideas ma:. furnish brilliant plots foi How oin's nil imagination may provid it ss gold-mine of ideas that bring Happy Success Handsome Cash Royalties. How new writers get their m in is ion print. How to tell if you ore a writer. M in ilovi fop ■ yi in "story fancy/'weave clever word-pii ::r:il unique, thrilling, lealistio plots. How your fi may be your worst judges. How to avoid discouragement and the pitfalls of Failure. How to winl This surprising boolt is absolutely free. No charg No obligation. Tour copy is waiting for you. Writi fi il. now. Get it. It's yams. Then you can pour your whole soul into this magic new enchantment 'that Inn come into your lift — story mid plan writing. The hit' of it, tho love of it. the luxury of it will fill your wasted hours and dull moments with profit and pleasure. Ynn will have this noble, absorbing, money-mak ing new profession! Anil all in your spare time, without interfering with your regular job. Win. SR3 can't make money with your brain! Who says you can't turn your Thoughts into cash! Who says you can't make your dreams come true! Nobody knows but the booh trill tell you. So why wasti any more lime wondering, dreaming, wailing? Simply fill out the coupon below you're not buying anything, you're getting it absolutely free. 1 look Unit may prove tho Boob of 1'oui iv-iiuy. A Magic Book llnough .which men and women young ami 'lil may learn to turn their spare hours into cash I Clef, your letter in the mail before you sleep to-night, Who knows— it may mean lor you the "Dawn of a Xm ro-rnoTM<w-l .Inst address Tin Authors' Press, Dept. 39, Auburn, New York. The Authors' Press, Dept. 39, Auburn. New York Send mo absolutely free "The Wonder Book for Writers. 'r This does not obligate me in any way. 108 Afi£ City and Slatr I'll Get Him Yet {Continued from page 56) with Scoop's new job, which happened with horrifying inadvertence to be on the Rivera Board of Trade, whose first enterprise was to start a paper roasting the Standard Railroads Corporation and, particularly and specifically, "Skinflint" Jones. Scoop waxed enthusiastically indignant. "This thru train business, for example," he propounded to the downcast eyes of his small bride; "S. F. Jones must be a devil and as hard as nails. Why, it means that most of the men in this town have to walk their legs off to catch the train in the next town. Save 'Skinflint' a few pennies to gorge with, I suppose, and that's the answer. Good God, these magnates . . . with their wretched power . . . and their wretched use of it . . . socialism, that's what it turns one to . . ." "Perhaps," ventured Susy, with undue timidity, "er . . . 'Skinflint,' as you call . . . her . . . him . . . didn't know." "Didn't care is the word," scornfully informed young Scoop; "'Skinflint' doesn't have to do the walking, nor the going without because of precious energy wasted. Not 'Skinflint !' I wish you'd write up a good hot paper on the subject, Sue, you're clever at that sort of thing, and read it at the next board meeting. Give it to 'Skinflint' a-plenty. Call him names. Dont be afraid to land into him. The old brute deserves it." Susy McCreedy had a sense of humor. The sense of humor, not Susy, wrote the bitterly condemnatory paper. The sense of humor read the paper and gave it the denunciatory twang — but Susy and not the sense of humor faced Harold Packard after the meeting, as that dilettante came in to report the thing for his own paper. Susy dragged him away from under Scoop's wrathful eye. "Dont breathe !" she begged of him, "I know it's funny, but — " defiantly; "if I want to roast my own self — what of it? And it means — well, only one thing m anything to me just now, Harold, and that is that Scoop doesn't find out that / am S. F. Jones — that I have the railroads — the money — in my own hands. You see . . ." "I dont." Harold's mouth set, obdurately. Susy grasped him with both hands. She spoke quickly, almost brokenly; her new earnestness was amazing to young Packard. "That's because you have never been in love," she said; "if you had been, Harold, you would want to do what the person whom you loved wanted most, needed must. Scoop needs his pride just now— and he wont have it if he knows that 1 have millions back of me. that I dont need him, dont have to need him. It — he isn't quite ready for that, Harold. 1 know it. This is — well, pretty much life itself to me. Harold; dont take it away1 — for — for spite, you know . . ." Harold proved malleable. Perhaps, who can tell, in that pampered organ he called his heart there may have been, ready for ignition, a tiny spark of the love Susy felt for Scoop McCreedy. But Harold was only the forerunner. There was the superintendent of the Standard Railroads ... he called, in desperation, to learn precisely what the revoking of the Rivera thru train order meant. "Your word has always been your word, Miss Susy," he said, at a loss, and then he smiled at her, fatuously.