Motion Picture Mail (October 28, 1916)

October 28, 1916. MOTION PICTURE MAiL. Page 7. T 1 • C 1 the Balboa favorite, is Jacque- p Jackie launders , ine m rea , Ilfe . S h e was born 0 in Pennsylvania, of German-French parentage, on October 6, | 1892; has eyes of cerulean blue, and is a sure 'nough blonde, p Miss Saunders was a dancer before invading the movies, p Also, she posed for several well-known artists and was brief- P ly in stock. Miss Saunders has been with Balboa for three years, and P her work in "The Grip of Evil" made her universally known. The star can swim, skate, shoot, ride and even play billiards, 0 besides driving her own runabout. She is one of the favorite P stars of screen serials. i of “the five Brothertons.” Each is an expert, standing at the very fore front of the profession, and Balboa is proud to claim them. May Brotherton, superintendent of the assembly depart- ment at Balboa studio, is one of the experts of the profession. Miss Brotherton does her work easily and is never “flustrated.” She is acknowledged among those informed to be one of the best woman assemblers in the business. Robert Brotherton, chief chemist of Balboa studio, is a photographer par excellence. When a film leaves Mr. Broth- erton s hands it is as nearly a work of screen art as they get to be in these days of high pressure. He is by birth English, but Old Glory looks good to him. Why Balboa? The Horkheimer Brothers concede that Balboa discov- ered the Pacific ocean. H. O. Stechhan conceived the name of Balboa for a film corporation and the brothers discovered Stechhan. Hence the suggestion of Balboa as the name of the Long Beach studios. Up to that point, remarks the Horkheimer brothers, the discoverer had been little recognized in business activities, but, since the coming of the Balboa Company, a beach resort, a shirt manufacturer, several hotels, a number of stores, a bank, etc., have utilized the name. The fact that his total cash at the start was only $7,000 did not deter H. M. Horkheimer in the least. “I’ve found the freest commodity in the world to be ad- vice,” says Mr. Horkheimer. “If more people would only try to do something instead of sit back and tell others how the things they long for can’t be done, we’d see progress slip into the high gear and all past records of achievement would be shattered. ‘I Can’t’ never did anything.” The Storj) of Little Mary Sunshine : : “Little Mary Sunshine,” the play by Dan F. Whitcomb, was filmed by Balboa studio for the house of Pathe in 1915. Its success has been so unparalleled that Pathe has contracted with Balboa for six additional plays all to star the same baby artiste, who gave the play "Little Mary Sunshine” such a vogue. This child is Helen Marie Osborne, and she lives at Long Beach, Cal., in the shadow of Balboa, but through- out the Americas she is known as Little Mary Sunshine. The difference between Little Mary Sunshine and the other children in motion pictures is this: Other children come and go appearing in a few scenes, being entirely incidental to the story, but the Balboa child actually takes the leading lady’s part, carrying the story through five reels of film, the action written around her and she being the star in fact and name. This baby star is only four and a half years old, and she is as much a baby now as the first day she stepped before a camera. There isn’t anything stagey about her at all. Her director, Henry King, himself a moving picture headliner, sees to that. To see Mr. King at work with his charge before the camera is a joy What he seems to do is to get right into the scene with her and prevent her from acting. The minute a child begins to act she gets self-conscious, and it’s “all off." Answering an inquiry as to what special training Little Mary Sunshine had been given that her ability seemed so marvelous, E. D. Horkhemer, of Balboa said: “Our baby star doesn’t seem to have been given any partic- ular course of training by her parents to fit her for any special line of work. The baby broke into the movies through frequenting the Balboa studio, where her mother and father were employed in minor parts. Producers and directors are always on the lookout for talent, and the thing that especially attracted me to this child was that there seemed to be no self- consciousness about her. She was just plain baby. Henry King, director of all Little Mary Sunshine plays, said that he at first gave the baby to understand that he was bossing the job and that things must be done according to his direction. In the first place, he won her confidence, and she knew that he would not ask her to do anything that was im- possible. Of course, like other children, she is inclined to be a bit temperamental. For instance, sometimes she strenuously objects to a certain costume, but a bit of persuasive talk almost always bends her to the will of the director. Having confidence in her director, she of course is not afraid, and goes about her work as naturally as though she were living the scenes. Mr. King believes that kindness and firmness, backed by belief in the child’s ability to properly interpret any reasonable scene that she may be cast in, will bring the proper result. I I I i 4 , i i 1 A thrilling scene of “The Yellow Bullet ,” directed by Harry Harvey. Two glimpses of the Balboa “starettelittle Mary Sun- shine. In the scene below is Henry King, who directs and co-stars with the tiny actress. The Story of Balboa is continued on Pages 21, 22, 23, 24.