Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

September 9. 1916 MOTION PICTURE NEWS 1521 Hughes Sees Pictures in the Making at ^^U'' City Candidate for President on the Republican Ticket Is Met at the Gateway of the Film Municipality by Carl Laemmle and General Manager Davis, Who Give Him the " Key of the City " — • Troop of Cavalrymen, Cowboys and Cowgirls Act as Escort CHARLES EVANS HUGHES, candidate for president on the Republican ticket, visited Universal City on Sunday, August 20, and spent four hours there watching the filming of scenes in the new Universal serial, " Liberty," in which Marie Walcamp is featured. Mr. Hughes was met at the gateway to the city by President Carl Laemmle and General Manager H. O. Davis, who turned over to him the key to the city. Mr. Hughes smiled in amusement as he took the massive gold key and unlocked the bronze gates of the city. A troup of cavalrymen, cowboys and cowgirls met the candidate's party with a whoop just inside. Mr. Hughes's party numbered sixty. Mr. Davis showed them all the interesting sights of the only moving picture municipality in the world and, although it was Sunday, many of the companies were at work on the big stages. Mr. Hughes was all attentiveness while being taken through the film laboratory, noted with interest the hundreds of bungalows built by Universal employes in the vicinity of Universal City and smiled as he saw the baker's dozen of children who have been born within the confines of Universal City cooing in their carriages and toddling about " back on the ranch lot." Presidential Candidate Interested in Picture Making The sets recently erected for the big Universal submarine photoplay, " Twenty * Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," particularly attracted Mr. Hughes's attention. He closely noted the construction of the mosques. Oriental towers and the city beyond the great Hindu gateway. Some hurried telephoning brought many of the Universal stars flocking to the city to meet Mr. Hughes. Among these who were introduced were Stuart Paton, director of " Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," Ella Hall, Cleo Madison, Warren Kerrigan, Carter De Haven, William Garwood, Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley, Pat Rooney, who assured Mr. Hughes that he would get the vote of every Irishman in the country; Gretchen Lederer, who, although a German, said that she thought Mr. Hughes would receive an overwhelming German vote; Billie Ritchie, Louise Lovely, Marie Walcamp, Harry Carey, Myrtle Gonzalez, Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran, Douglas Gerrard, Adele Farrington, Rupert Julian, Mary MacLaren, Hobart Henley, Ben Wilson, Dorothy Phillips, Allen Holubar, Herbert Rawlinson, Agnes Vernon, Eddie Polo, Jack Holt, Irene Hunt, Edith Roberts, and a host of lesser Universalites. Mr. Hughes later met Wallace Beery, chief of police, and Ben Wilson, chief of the fire department, who ordered his men to slide down the brass poles in the fire house for Mr. Hughes's entertainment. Jacques Jaccard, then working on the burning of a replica city representing Co lumbus, N. M., sent in an alarm of fire and the engines and apparatus responded. The fire was put out under Mr. Hughes's eyes. Later, in the City Hall or Administration Building Air. Huges met the head of the Public Utilities Department, the " wire chief " at the head of the Universal City Phone Exchange, the representatives of the Western Union and Postal Telegraph stations, whose wires were used to send out the story of Mr. Hughes's visit to Universal City all over the country, and 200 Navajo and Pueblo Indians taking part in the Universal serial " Liberty." A visit also was made to the carpenter and cabinet making shops, the ice plant, the great wardrobe and propert}' department, the arsenal, blacksmith shop, the dormitories and dwellings and the great exterior stages. Mr. Hughes marveled at their size. It was pointed out to him that one measured 500 by 125 feet, another 300 by 100, another 400 by 100, another 125 by 100, and his particular attention was called to four interior electric lighted studios, each 400 by 100 feet. Mr. Hughes and party took dinner at the palatial Universal City restaurant, the Ocean Casino, after which a visit was paid to the recently erected picture palace where the party witnessed a private showing of the seventh episode of " Liberty " and the underwater scenes from " Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." Gretchen Lederer, who formerly sang in the Royal Opera House, Berlin, sang several arias from Wagner's opera for Mr. Hughes before he left the theatre, while other veterans of the legitimate, including Carter De Haven and Flora Parker De Haven, did very briefly the funniest bits of their vaudeville turns. Before leaving, Mr. Hughes registered in Universal City gold-leaf register reserved for celebrities. His name followed that of Thomas Alva Edison who recently laid the cornerstone of the great electricity building, and that of William Jennings Bryan. Weekly Single Reel Comedies from Paramount Pictures Producing Companies Signed by Abrams Are the Klassic Pictures, Inc., and the United States Motion Picture Corporation, Making Black Diamonds ' I well remember when I saw the first Klassic Komedy, and then the first Black CONTRACTS were signed Friday, August 25, by Paramount with two comedy producing companies for single reel comedies to be released weekly by the Paramount Pictures Corporation. The producing companies are the Klassic Pictures, Inc., producing the Klassic Komedies and the United States Motion Picture Corporation, producing the Black Diamond Comedies. The first release will be issued September 25. The addition of comedies to the single reel releases of Paramount Pictures Corporation rounds out their service. They are already releasing in connection with their four, five and six-reel features, produced by the Famous Players Film Company, the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company and Pallas Pictures, three single reel features each week, the Paramount Pictographs, the magazine-on-the-screen, the Paramount-Burton Holmes Travel Pictures and the Paramount Bray cartoons. Since the inception of Paramount just two years ago, the officers of the Corporation have been using every means to obtain a class of motion picture comedy that would blend with the quality of their features and weave itself into the exhibitor's regular program scheme. " It was a pleasure at last to have reached the stage where a type of Paramount Comedy was produced," said President Abrams, when speaking of the new releases. " We had looked at hundreds of them and it was becoming a sort of second nature to say, ' They don't come up to the standard of pictures set by the Paramount Program.' Diamond Comedy. It was a different kind of joy I experienced, than ever before, and I was a happy man, to say the least. " These comedies are of the highest class and are not dependable upon burlesque characterization and the like, or even upon that over-indulgence of slap-stick work that is so prevalent in most comedies. " They are comedies of action, backed by stimulating comedy suspense, which although rarely found in the comedies of today, is indeed the life stimulant of the new products. Every one of the productions contain these four fundamental requisites of good photoplay comedies, action, comedy, heart interest, comedy suspense and the ever necessary ultimate comedy justification." PRODUCING COMPANY PLANNED FOR KANSAS CITY The Kansas Film Corporation has been organized at Kansas City, Kansas, and proposes to erect a studio at Kansas City, Kansas, and in addition to making all kinds of pictures will include feature films. John B. Born is general manager, A. D. Allison, assistant general manager; L. E. Barnard and H. J. Kaelin, assistant directors. CHAPLIN AT WORK ON HIS FIFTH RELEASE FOR MUTUAL Charlie Chaplin is now at work on his fifth Mutual feature at the Chaplin-Mutual studios in Los Angeles. As yet the title is unannounced. Edna Purviance will play opposite him.