Motion Picture News (Apr-Jul 1915)

62 MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 11. No. 24. IN AND OUT OF LOS ANGELES STUDIOS (Cu,:tinued from page 48.) fornia Motion Picture company, is now a member of the Los Angeles colony of filmers, and will soon take up the production of "Peter Pan" for one of the local companies. Director Francis A. Powers and a. company of Reliance players composed of William Lowery, W. Freeman, Matt Deverick, Elmo Lincoln, George Walsh, Daisy Robinson and Violett Wilkey are spending this week at Victorville making scenes for a western melodrama "The Bad Man and Others." In order to reach the location it was necessary for the photoplayers to cross two deserts in autos and on horses. The story deals with the kind offices of a bandit who risked his life when closely pursued, in order to aid a woman dying with Mexican fever. New Reliance and Majesties A one-reel Reliance subject of the week is that entitled "The Choir Boys," written and being produced by Frederick A. Kelsey. This tells the story of two brothers and their various adventures in life. One becomes a minister and the other follows the path of least resistance and becomes a tool of robbers who enter the horhe of his brother. Learning of this he tries to effect an escape and attacks all the other members of the gang of crooks. In the fight he is mortally wounded and dies in the arms of his brother, the minister. The members of the cast are Bobby Feuhrer, Ben Lewis, Paul Willis and Howard Gaye. A story of innocence abroad is revealed in the two-reel Majestic subject "Children of the Sea," being filmed by George Siegmann. The children are the daughter and granddaughter of an aged fisherman. The daughter is induced to go to the city, where she first becomes the model for an artist and later makes herself famous on the stage. Her only daughter is born prior to the time she gains fame and is left with the old fisherman. Later, when the artist, who loses his model, returns to the island home of the fisherman in order to use the second member of the family as a model, he is given a. very unkind reception. Later, upon the arrival of the mother lie becomes the hero of the family, as well as the friend, by inducing the child to remain pure by retaining her home with her grandfather. The cast for this subject includes Francelia Billington, Wilbur Higby, H. Moody and Joseph Henaberry. Miss Billington appears in the roles of mother and daughter. How Money Sometimes Travels "The Show Down" is the story of a youth who serves a term in a reform school and ever afterwards is tortured by his conscience when he breaks the promise he gave the chaplain upon his departure. Unable to obtain work he takes money from a shop girl who accepts funds from a drummer, who desires to get her in his power. Later, the lad, unable to lead a happy life, returns the money, when he is successful in securing employment, and thus prevents the shop girl from becoming the victim of the bird of prey. The children of the Majestic juvenile company are appearing in "Little Dick's First Adventure," being a detective story featuring George Stone as a user of the Sherlock Holmes methods in rescuing his sweetheart, my lady the stenographer who has been kidnapped and is hidden by those holding her for ransom in an ash barrel in the alley. The ash man puts in an appearance at the inopportune time and loads the barrel on the wagon, human contents and all. The disappearance of this cause the members of the band of child criminals to run down the ashman, and they overtake him just after he has cast the barrel into the sea. But the girl has made her escape and when the band see her in the flesh they come to the conclusion she is a ghost. Besides little George Stone the members of this cast are Carmen De Rue, Violette Radcliffe, Harry Essman, L. Perl, Jack Hull and Betty Marsh. C. M. and S. A. Franklin are in active charge of the production. Crooks stealing the invention of a small town bank cashier that adapts electricity in the destruction of steel, make possible their successful destruction of the safe in the bank where the young inventor is employed. This casts suspicion on him when his apparatus is found in the rear of the bank the following morning. This is a one-reel Reliance melodrama, "The oilent Witness," being filmed by Sheriff Arthur Mackley. The daughter of the president of the bank and sweetheart of the cashier, left her kodak at the bank the preceding day, and the shutter of this is accidentally opened by one" of the robbers just as the building is illuminated as bright as day by the use of the steel destroying electrical apparatus. When the film is developed by the bank president's daughter she easily proves the innocence of her sweetheart and fixes the guilt on the crooks. In the cast are Arthur Mackley, George Pierce, as the bank president, and Vester Perry, as the inventor, Claire Anderson as the banker's daughter and Mrs. Arthur Mackley as the banker's wife. Mr. Mackley appears again in the role of the sheriff, the two hundred and fourteenth time. Mae Marsh, the D. W. Griffith Majestic star, has made her first stage appearance, she having been recognized .in a San Francisco theatre, while in the exposition city last week with her mother. She was so generously applauded when seen in the Majestic subject "The Victim," that she was literally forced to make a short speech from the stage. Later the management presented her with a very pretty selection of orchids which she later distributed among her numerous friends at the R-M studio. Fichtenberg and Oldknow Shine as "Supes" Christie Entices Southern Film Men Into a Trunk Carrying Stunt Without Explaining That the Innocent Looking Object, Filled with Sand, Weighed 500 Pounds Special to Motion Picture News New Orleans, June 7. ONLY half the story of the adventure of Herman Fichtenberg and William Oldknow, screen magnates, has been told regarding their star "suping" parts at Universal City recently. The full story became known on Mr. Fichtenberg's return to New Orleans this week, and film men when they heard it all agreed that it was a joke that will go down in history as the greatest and funniest ever. Herman Fichtenberg and William Oldknow, the latter manager of the Consolidated Film and Supply company at Atlanta. Ga., were innocently traversing the well oiled streets of Universal City when they were hailed by Al. Christie, director of Nestor comedies. Each was "ordered" to don laborers' clothes ; given a truck to trundle and were instructed to deliver a trunk back of the stage. Herman with his funny cap, and Oldknow looking like a guy, did very well in "A Day at Universal City," and after three or four rehearsals they were complimented by Director Christie. All well and good. Now came the moment for real action, and Christie gave the order, "Ready!" (Business of Fichtenberg and Oldknow carrying the trunk.) It was a small trunk. A full-sized child might have carried the thing through successfully, but not so the two new and green supes. Herman tugged ; Oldknow tugged. Both put all their strength into the scene. The trunk didn't budge an inch; Christie cussed a blue streak. Five hundred persons, amongst them many exhibitors and ex change men, friends of the two, laughed anl laughed, until suspender buttons broke under the strain. It is a well known fact that an object weighing in the neighborhood of five hundred pounds is rather a hard proposition for two men to tackle. When applied in copious quantities, sand makes a very good ballast. After the laughs subdued, Christie explained the joke and proceeded with the regular order of things. Mr. Fichtenberg and Mr. Oldknow both got a dollar for their services. Outside of this incident Mr. Fichtenberg enjoyed himself gloriously during his several weeks' stay away from New Orleans. He left New Orleans June 2 as a special escort to Mabel Jackson, the young lady who captured the Universal-New Orleans "Item" popularity contest, and has announced that he hopes Al. Christie doesn't read this Jssue of the News, for he has something up his sleeve for that practical joking gentleman. A. Jules Benedic. LUBIN CARTOON IS MIRTHMAKER A cartoon comedy, drawn by Carl Francis Lederer, of a somewhat different sort, and introducing a droll addition to the pen and ink creations of the screen, wil be released by the Lubin company on July 6. The comedy is called "Ping Pong Woo." Ping is a Chinese urchin whose grimaces and gyrations are extraordinary examples of the camera's power to make a line of ink seemingly take on life.