Motion Picture News (May-Jun 1923)

3186 Motion Picture News Male Stars of the Universal " Sixty": Reginald Denny, Herbert Rawlinson, Hoot Gibson and Jack Hoxie. Big Plans for International News Reel : S/^VNE of the most striking conclusions that v_y has come to the executives of the International News Reel Corporation, makers of the International News Reel, distributed by Universal, is the fact that the reel has become a nationally known product, just as a well advertised commercial article," was the recent comment of E. B. Hatrick, general manager of the corporation. " We have found that people go into a motion picture theatre and ask for the International .News just as they go into a drug store and ask for a nationally known toilet article or other household necessity, just as they go into a grocery store and ask for a popular food product. " In analyzing this remarkable situation, we have traced it to two causes — the growing popularity of the International News reel because of its general excellence, and its country-wide exploitation in the Hearst newspapers. " It is the most exploited one-reel subject in the motion picture industry. Every Hearst newspaper has a special section devoted to pictures and news of the International News Reel. These papers are read by more than one-fourth the entire population of the United States, or from 35,000,000 to 40,000,000 people daily. These papers cover the country and include such representative dailies as the New York American and New York Journal, the Chicago HeraldExaminer and the Chicago American, the Atlanta Georgian, the Boston Advertiser, the Boston American, the Rochester Journal, the Syracuse Telegram, the Detroit Times, the Los Angeles Examiner and the Los Angeles Herald, the Wisconsin News, the San Francisco Call and the San Francisco Examiner, the Oakland Post-Intelligencer, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Washington Herald and the Washington Times and the Baltimore News and the Baltimore American. " The fact that advertising a news reel is cumulative and is good for all successive news reels, as compared to single picture advertising, has gone far to make International News the standard product it now is. The other factor, mouth-to-mouth advertising, has been built up by the long list of news beats and special and exclusive subjects which International News, by reason of its vast and world-wide organization, has been able to get. " The extent of the news reel field, and the great demand for International News is best indicated by a few figures concerning the output in the last twelve months. For the 104.000 feet of negative film finally used in the 104 issues, more than one and a half millions of feet of negative film were exposed. This means selection and concentration of real news pictures to a great degree. In other words, the finish news reels have contained only the very choicest of the many subjects sent in by our many cameramen." To Start New Hoot Gibson Drama Casting of the players for Hoot Gibson's next starring vehicle for Universal has been completed by Fred Datig, casting director, and Edward Sedgwick, director of the Gibson unit, and production is due to start on the play soon. The Gibson play will be a screen adaptation ol 'lie western novel, "The Ramblin' Kid," by Earl Wayland Bowman. E. Richard Schayer wrote the screen transcripton. " The Ramblin' Kid " is the third of a new series of Universal-Gibson Productions and will afford the versatile star one of the biggest roles of his career. Gibson's growing popularity and the strength of his last two pictures led to his new contract with Universal, to appear in Hoot Gibson Productions. The first of these was " Blinky," a story of cavalry life along the Mexican border. Production was recently completed on " Out of Luck," a comedy drama, built around the adventures of a cowboy who joined the navy. Laura La Plante, who played the feminine lead in " Out of Luck," has been chosen to support Hoot in the coming production. Others in the cast are William Welsh, Harold Goodwin, W. J. McCulley, Charles K. French, Carol Holloway, C. Raymond Nye, George King, John Judd and Goober Glenn. Harold Goodwin will In remembered as the boy who took the leading juvenile role in "The Flirt." He took a big step upward in his career by his sympathetic portrayal of that ro c. William Welsh is a veteran character actor and hn^ been in strong roles in many Universal productions. The new Hoot Gibson Productions are to take a new place in the film firmament, it is promised. He won his promotion to special production by reason of the great success of his recent pictures and the rapidly growing popularity of Hoot as one of the leading western actors of the screen. Edward Sedgwick, whose direction of these successes won for him the leadership~of the Gibson production unit, was the man who brought to light Hoot's latent talent for highclass comedy. This comedy ability of the western star was a surprise. Known as a daring rider, a fearless producer of stunts, and a clever actor, Gibson happened on a role where he could work in a little comedy. Filmdom was immediately surprised to find he had a line of comedy of his own. This comedy, mingled with daring stunts, has made " Blinky " and " Out of Luck " famous with those who have seen pre-reviews of these two Hoot Gibson productions. The other six productions to be made by Gibson for the coming Universal Sixty will be similarly treated from a comedy angle. Baby Peggy Reaches Feature Stardom BABY Peggy, four year old starlet of Century Comedy fame, has become a full-fleged feature star_ with the finishing of "Whose Baby Are You?" This picture, which will go to exhibitors as a Universal-Jewel, will go down in history' as Baby Peggy's first full length production. It was sponsored by Julius and Abe Stern, the producers of her two reel comedies, and Carl Laemmle, president of Universal. King Baggot, co-author and director of this production, has gone on record as having said Baby Peggy is one of the most capable "troupers" he has directed to date. Among the more famous in the supporting talent given Baby Peggy are Gladys Brockwell, Sheldon Lewis, Max Davidson, Frank Currier, Betty Francisco and Carl Stockdale, as well as J. Gorman Rex. With "Whose Baby Are You?" now in its editing stages, a recently purchased story, "Edith's Burglar," is now being whipped into script form. It is believed a very fine light comedy director will be assigned to this story so that director King Baggot and Ray Schrock, who collaborated on the first Peggy story, can follow their picture through to its complete finishing. Other stories are being read. Several features will be made. When "Whose Baby Are You?" is released as a Universal-Jewel it will make the first super-feature in the annals of the motion picture industry in which a mere babv is starred.