Motion Picture News (Apr-Jul 1915)

June 19. 1915. MOTION PICTURE NEWS 63 Valeska Suratt Makes Aerial Flight for Fox Film Actress in Aeroplane Drops Red Roses Astonished Boardwalk WILLIAM FOX has been keeping something under cover. Two weeks ago, Valeska Suratt made her motion picture debut under his management in a new, brilliant and sensational picture written by Herbert Brenon, which bears the speedlimit title of "The Soul of Broadway." Miss Suratt has entered into her moving picture work with vim and vigor. She declares that she is "perfectly crazy"' about posing for the camera. Just by way of giving her a good start, Mr. Fox, who is paying this spritely star a salary so large that it takes your breath away even to mention it, sent her up in an aeroplane on Memorial Day at Atlantic City. From an altitude of three thousand feet Miss Suratt showered the boardwalk paraders and other celebrants of the holiday and Engraved Announcement Cards on the Crowds at Atlantic City known people, Sheridan Block, the aforesaid William E. Shay, Gertrude Berkley and other equally well-known players. It was announced at first that Mr. Brenon had visited the resort for the sake of his health, as the Fox Film Corporation did not wish to announce just at that time the engagement of one of the most sensational stars who has ever appeared upon the screen. As a matter of fact, the engagement of Miss Suratt to appear in motion pictures was only engineered after most complicated proceedings. It was, therefore, deemed advisable to keep dark the fact that this celebrated actress had consented to make her motion picture debut under the William Fox management. "The Soul of Broadway" will be completed shortly, and is destined to make a new mark in the history of pictures. In "The Soul of Broadway" Miss Suratt, so it has been figured out, wears a different gown for every forty feet of film. As the picture is a six-reeler, and will run approximately six thousand feet, Miss Suratt will have to wear at least one hundred and fifty gowns, each of which must be the last word in fashionable women's tailoring. With each gown, Miss Suratt wears an especially designed hat, boots, stockings and parasol, and women's walking sticks. Ten automobiles, each designed especially to suit the exigencies of the scenes in which they are utilized, have been bought. VALESKA SURATT READY FOR HER FLIGHT AT ATLANTIC CITY with two thousand large, red rose?. To each rose was attached an engraved card, hearing the inscription : "From Valeska Suratt, 'The Soul of Broadway' to Atlantic City, with the compliments of William Fox." E. K. Jaquith, the tallest aviator in the world, was the pilot under whose tutelage Miss Suratt teak her first voyage into the upper air, has especially designed an aviation costume for Miss Suratt, in which the fifteen thousand spectators who lined the boardwalk and gave the Atlantic City police force all they could do to handle them, voted that she looked "simply stunning." The hang of the story upon which the (light of the valiant Valeska was based, deals with the adventures of a chic woman of society whose enamorata she suspects is enjoying himself in Atlantic City with somebody other than the party of the first part. So what does the dashing heroine do but engage the lanky Mr. Jaquith and go soaring over the boardwalk armed with a pair of field glasses and discovers the perfidious person in question just coming out of the Alamac Hotel with somebody she hates to see him with. Herbert Brenon, the director of the picture, has been acting kind of mysteriously all along about his sojourn in Atlantic City with the company engaged to support Miss Suratt, which numbers, among other well BRULATOUR WINS COMET SUIT After a three days' trial before Judge Ransom, the jury brought in a verdict for Jules E. Brulatour and against the Comet Film company on June 1, 1915. The dispute grew out of the affairs of the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales company in 1912. Brulatour sued the Comet company for a balance due on raw stock sold, and the Comet company interposed a counterclaim alleging that Brulatour had made an agreement with it to pay it onetenth of the net profits of the "Animated Weekly," which was put out by the sales company in 1912 in competition with the Pathe Weekly. William B. Gray was the witness for defendant in support of the counterclaim. The plaintiff" produced a number of witness, including Ingvald C. Oes, Herbert Miles and Edwin Thanhouser. PIERCE BANQUET WAS A SURPRISE On Friday evening, June 4, several intimate friends of Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Pierce tendered them a pleasant surprise on their fifteenth wedding anniversary. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were lured to Rciscnweber's, New York City, where a party of friends greeted them with congratulations. After dinner a speech by Julian M. Solomon, Jr., disclosed another surprise in the presentation of a pair of handsome silver candlesticks. Those present were: Mr. and Mrs. Tom Wiley, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Lakin, Jeanctte Ehrenberg, Julian M. Solomon, Jr.. Leah Beluck, (ieorge K. Menken, Margaret Ganss and Pete J. Schmid. BERNHARDT'S LEADING MAN SIGNS WITH LASKY Lou Tellegen, who made his first American appearance as leading man for Madame Sarah Bernhardt during her last tour, has entered into an exclusive screen contract with the Lasky Feature Play company, by LOU TELLEGEN the terms of which he binds himself to appear in a series of photodramatic offerings to be produced by this concern. Mr. Tellegen's legitimate engagements are not to be interfered with unduly by the time devoted to photodramatic posing. Mr. Tellegen will make his first appearance before the Lasky camera in Hollywood, California, this summer, and will devote a protracted period to this work. Lou Tellegen was born in Amsterdam, Holland, the son of a Greek general and a Dutch dancer. He first went on the stage in his native country at the age of eighteen, appearing as Romeo and in Ibsen's "Ghosts." From Amsterdam, Mr. Tellegen finally removed to Paris, and there the young artist studied under Paul Pouret for a couple of years, after which he made his debut at the Odeon. After a few days of this, however, he received a letter from Sarah Bernhardt's manager offering him a contract to appear with Madame Bernhardt for a short season in London and for the American tour. Lou Tellegen became Bernhardt's leading man and remained with her until he produced "Dorian Gray" in London. ASSOCIATED SERVICE WILL ADD CARTOONS AND EDUCATION ALS The new Associated Service, which is shortly to enter the field with a complete program of twenty-one reels a week, will not only consist of single, double and triple reel dramas and comedies, but animated cartoons and educational subjects of general interest will also be given a prominent place. Arthur Bard, the general manager of the Associated, has under consideration several pen and ink artists of note.