Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

October 21, 1916 STUDIO DIRECTORY 9 Ollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllll^^ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUII^^ NAPOLEON AND SALLY, THE ONLY CHIMPANZEES IN MOTION PICTURES HAVE ROMPED THROUGH FORTY E. & R. COMEDIES THIS was to be an interview. On the day the writer called at the E. & R. Jungle Film Company's studio to meet the leading players, the two principal ones were in an exceptionally temperamental mood — way up stage, so to speak — and refused to so much as utter an understandable syllable. Had they been so disposed they could not have made themselves understood, because their language is spoken only in the jungles of Central Africa where Napoleon and Sally, the only chimpanzees in motion pictures, were born. Napoleon, the comedian extraordinary, playing in motion pictures made by the E. & R. Company, came to the United States about six years ago. From the first he was considered the brightest of his race to come to this land. Today he is spoken of by Professor Richard Garner, a most able student of anthropology, late of the Zoological Society of New York, and who has spent twenty-three years in the jungles of Africa, as the most intelligent ape that has ever been captured and trained. Originally, Napoleon went into vaudeville in an act in which Little Hip, an elephant, was the principal, but the chimpanzee soon learned the ways of the stage, and in less than six weeks had " stolen the act." At first he did his roller skating stunt, then he learned to ride a bicycle, was taught table manners, and took dinner with the elephant and the trainer on the stage. He developed a liking for the horizontal bars, and became an expert on eight-foot stilts and an eight-foot frame bicycle. He trouped for five years over the " big time " vaudeville circuits of the country. While on the tour through Australia, the elephant was taken ill and died. For several weeks Napoleon was heartbroken, and it was necessary to bring him back to America. Back in America he went to work with a will, and learned new stunts, including the driving of a specially constructed automobile which he can " jaz " and put in working order himself. On Christmas Day of 191 3, Napoleon was publicly married, the wed"Napoleon at St. Helena" ding taking place on the stage at the Pantages theatre, Los Angeles, in the presence of 2,000 people, the bevailed bride being Sally, his mate of the E. & R. Jungle Zoo. Sally is of an absolutely different nature from Napoleon, and dislikes company very much. She is a little " homey " woman, taken up with her affairs of looking after the domicile, a palm leaf hut at the zoo. Since first coming here, Sally has shown a liking for children. Three years ago when a baby was born in the household of the caretaker, she immediately became the nurse, and has continued in that capacity almost ever since. She is an excellent washerwoman, and keeps her kitchen as neat as a pin. Napoleon and Sally have played in more than forty motion picture subjects, in all of which they have been featured. The first of these releases were made early this year, and include " Haunted," " Aunt Hepsey's Heir," "Teacher's Pet," "Jungle Brats," "Discovered," "When the Clock Went Cukoo," "When Jones Went Wrong," " Nap's Night Out," " Perils of the Beach," and others equally as good. Most recently they have been working in a series of comedies which are shortly to be released. Some of the individual comedies in this series are " Film Fairies," " Their First Flivver," " As Others See Us," " Stopping the Bullets," all of one reel, and " Napoleon and Sally Desert the Army," which is in two reels. While Napoleon and Sally are the leading players at the E. & R. Jungle Film studio, Messrs. J. S. Edwards and John Rounan, the owners, known the world over as the greatest collectors of rare animals, have a very large variety of such specimens, every one of which has taken part in the making of motion pictures. The collection includes lions, pumas, educated leopards, forty-five monkeys consisting of twenty-three varieties, including " John D," the only white monkey in captivity ; armadillos, elephants, Cuban tree rats, regal black and royal pythons, Alaskan martens, arown pigeons ; the only Brazillian capabara in America ; Colby's Vulture ; enus and a Tasmanian devil ; and " Congo," the West African uncivilized man, who, scientists say, is a representative of the connecting link between monkeys and human beings. The E. & R. has a very successful organization for the making of one and two-reel comedies, or even larger subjects. The comedies are released through independent exchanges in every part of the country. Napoleon. iy Nap kno ws how to hook Sally's dress, too. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin^^ iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ Be sure to mention " MOTION PICTURE NEWS " when writing to advertisers