Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1916)

April 29, 1916. MOTION PICTURE NEWS 2529 "God's Country" Filmed 9,000 Feet Above Sea Level Vitagraph Eight Reeler Is Photographed in Deep Snows of Bear Valley in Mountains of Southern California — William Duncan, George Holt and Nell Shipman in Cast ■'SNOW STUFF" IN "GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE WOMAN," SPECIAL VITAGRAPH BLtTE RIBBON, TO BE RELEASED THROXTGH V-L-S-E AINSWORTH, VILLAIN IN "MARY PAGE," IS "YANKO-SPANKO" WAR VETERAN Sydney Ainsworth, the villain in "The Strange Case of Mary Page," Essanay's fifteen episode series, is a native of England, having come to this country when he was three years of age. He was educated in the public schools of Madison, Wis., served in the Spanish War. and then went SYDNEY AINSWORTH on the stage, appearing with Maude Adams in "The Little Minister" and in several Broadway productions. He played leading roles in stock at Cleveland and Milwaukee. He joined Essanay in 1914, and has been seen in "Graustark," "The White Sister," "In the Palace of the King," and "The Misleading Lady." ELMENDORF LECTURES BOOKED 1,500 CONSECUTIVE NIGHTS Special to Motion Picture News. Chicago, April 15. On Monday, April 17, the Elmendorf Travel Talk Company releases the following five subjects : Yellowstone Park, Holland, The Grand Canyon, Ceylon and Dalmatia and Montenegro. These will open at the Lyric Theatre, Moline, 111. ; the Casino Theatre, Gary, Ind. ; the Grand Theatre, St. Mary's, O.; the Columbia Theatre, Muncie, Ind.; La Petite Theatre, Kankakee, 111. The road men, who have been working exclusively in the territory within a radius of 150 miles of Chicago, have already booked these pictures for 1,500 consecutive nights. JESSIE ARNOLD, BACK FROM AUSTRALIAN TOUR, WITH "U" Jessie Arnold, who has just returned to America from an extended theatrical tour through Australia, has been added to the stock company of the Universal. Miss Arnold has had a number of years' experience on the legitimate stage, and for a time played with William Collier and other notables. ur^ OD'S COUNTRY AND THE WOMAN" is a special Vitagraph Blue Ribbon Feature, an eight-reeler which was photographed in the deep snows of Great Bear Valley up in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California. Bear Valley is 9,000 feet above sea level, and is reached by a dog road over which Rollin S. Sturgeon and his Vitagraph players journeyed to camp for six months while filming this photoplay. William Duncan, George Holt and Nell Shipman are the principals who enact the drama of a girl, whose mother is overpowered by a villain and gives birth to a child in the absence of her husband. The daughter comes bravely to the front to assume the responsibility of the motherhood. To preserve her own honor the girl, just before her father returns, writes him that she is going to the northwoods to meet her "husband." The ruse works well, for a young man drifting down stream on a homeward journey from the wilds, beaches his canoe near the girl's forest shelter, and falls in love with her. She prevails upon him through his great love for her to pose as her husband, and they go back home together to protect the good name of the mother. A marriage ceremony is performed, but they live in separate rooms in a frontier home until finally the baby dies and the villain, who all the while is trying to get possession of the girl, is devoured by a pack of sledge dogs who trail him down after a sensational battle in which the arch conspirator and his fellow-outlaws in "Devil's Nest" are vanquished, and the girl, who had been made captive, is freed by her sweetheart. Thereafter, in the glow of the burning rendezvous, the hero takes the girl to his heart as wife in fact as well as name, for in the passing ordeals the violation of the mother becomes known to him and his bride becomes free to claim his love. "Gilded Spider" from Bluebird on May 8 Scenario Is Based on Ida Park's Story and Is Vehicle for Louise Lovely and Lon Chaney — ^Joseph De Grasse Directed THE Bluebird release for May 8 will be "The Gilded Spider," based on Ida May Park's story and scenario, with Louise Lovely in the star part and Lon Chaney her leading man. Joseph De Grasse made the production. Lon Chaney carries the story through a one-man vendetta that starts in Italy and finishes in New York. There are two separate kidnapping scenes, one ending in the suicide of an Italian girl, who jumps from an American millionaire's yacht into the Mediterranean, and the other constituting reprisal for the deed, accomplished after years of waiting. There are scenes depicting the private roof garden of a wealthy New Yorker, where revelry ends in the suicidal leap of the vengeful Italian from the roof to death on the pavements far below. An exciting automobile chase forms the basis for another sensation, and there are minor incidents that have been designed to furnish "thrills." Supporting Miss Lovely and Lon Chaney will be Lule Warrenton, Marjorie Ellison, Gilmore Hammond, Jay Belasco and Hayward Mack. In the projection room of Bluebird Photoplays during the past week a lady of the name of Isabel has been reducing. She has not rolled upon the floor, nor has she practiced with dumb-bells or avoided the Automat in pursuance of a prescribed course in dieting. As a matter of fact, be it said Isabel was not too fat, as some plump ladies consider themselves. Isabel was too long by three reels to fit on the Bluebird program. Therefore she was constructed in eight lengths, with a sensation every 200 feet. Then came the process of reducing. With shears, axe, paste pot, pencil, hammer and file the Bluebird editors got after the lengthy Isabel, and after several days' work reduced her to five reels, and still there remained a sensation every 200 feet. Florence Lawrence will enter the list of Bluebird stars late in May as the "Elusive" one.