Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1920)

January i -j , i g 2 o 847 4( Selznick Plans to Invade South Africa Selznick pictures are about to invade South Africa, it is announced, a deal having been recently closed byLouis Brock, Export Manager, whereby the South African Film Trust will distribute Selznick pictures in its market. The deal involves the entire star series of the Selznick studios for he coming j-ear and is considered one Df the biggest transactions in the foreign market this season. Mrs. Sidney Drew, who has signed to produce for Pathe Doubleday to Prepare Series of Comedies According to a report from the office of the Doubleday Production Company, F. L. Smith and Harry Owens, who are handling the sales of the two-reel westerns, featuring Vera Mack, state that the films are selling very favorably on the staterights basis. Their communication further advises of a heavy demand among state-righters for funny and fast-action comedies, and in response to this call C. Mack, production-manager of the Doubleday Production Company, has arranged with HarryMoody to direct and write stories for fifty-two one-reel comedies, featuring popular comedy players. Congressmen Patronize Pictures Regularly Even our Congressmen in Washingon are motion-picture fans, according 0 Congressman D. J. O'Connell, of Mew York, who declares that members )f the House form theatre parties each week to see the newspaper comments bout world events, flashed on the picwe screen in The Literary Digest 'Topics of the Day." This reel is proluced by Timely Films, Incorporated, ind distributed by Pathe. Shirley Mason's First for Fox Finished Fox Film Corporation announces hat Pearl Doles Bell's story of circus ife, "Her Elephant Man," in which Vliss Shirley Mason makes her debut IS a star on the Fox program, has been ■.ompleted at the Hollywood Studios. Jcott Dunlap directed the production. State Rights News will be \ound on Page 881 . Bringing Up Father''in Film MacManus Cartoons Being Hrought to Life Under the Direction of Christie tiDklXGINt; 11' FATHER,"' that classic of the " funny section," In being transformed into real living comedies at the Christie Studio with .\l Christie, pioneer among comedy director-producers in charge of Mr. Jiggs and family in their celluloid debut. ' It will be great news for the kiddies and the grownups too, as the McManus cartoon characters are by far the best known of all cartoon creations. " Jiggs," the browbeaten hero of the famous comics, will be pLiyed by Johnny Ray, of vaudeville fame, an Irish comedian, who would be the selection of nine out of ten persons delegated to choose a man to portray Jiggs. Mrs. Jiggs, or " Maggie," will be played by Margaret FitzRoy, a well known stage and picture character player. Miss FitzRoy has made a long t.mi; siiuly oi the lios> ol tlu JigK^ iiunie and she will bring to the screen a characterization that will be faith ful to the cartoonist's ideal. Mi^^FitzRoy conies from an old theatri family, the Cullingtons, her stage nanii having been Margaret Cullingtoii. There was quite a contest in the se lection of the heiress to the Jiggs fortunes, that pretty marcelled debutante, who has never been called upon to do much except just look beautiful. .\fter the artist himself had cast a vote, Laura LaPlante, one of the prettiest and youngest of the Christie beauties, was chosen. Miss LaPlante is just sixteen and recently out of school. Producer Al Christie promises a series of two reel comedies that will be true to the artist's conception of the noted characters and as funny as ;iiiy " Jiggs " fan could hope for. Goldwyn BuysTwoStageHits " Milestones," Klaw and Erlanger Presentation, and " Officer 666," Secured <<]y MILESTONES" by Arnold Ben the interest of the public in the screen i»* nett and Edward Knoblock has production, it is stated. been purchased by Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. It will be given an elaborate production according to the reports from the Goldwyn offices. For a long while producers have recognized the great picture possibilities offered in " Milestones." Bids for the screen rights have been insistent. " The play created an artistic and popular sensation when it was presented by Klaw & Erlanger at the Liberty theatre, New York, September 17, 1912," says the Goldwyn report. .\t the conclusion of the New York engagement, the play visited the leading cities throughout the country. The broad publicity " Milestones " has received over a long period both in this countrv and in England assures Among those who appeared in the cast of the original stage production were : Leslie Faber, Auriol Lee, Eugenie Vernie and Warbtirton Gamble. The players for the Goldwyn picture have not yet been selected, but it is announced that in everj way the play will be handled as a genuine .special. " Officer 666," reputed to be one of the greatest farce successes of the modern stage, has also been purchased b\ Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and will be given an elaborate production, it is said. GoldAvj n has not announced who will play the characters originally interpreted on the stage by Wallace Eddinger and George Nash. Lionel Barrymore's greatest screen role is said to be that in The Copperhead," the historical feature produced by Paramount-Artcraft and about to be released United Theatres Purchase Women Men Forget President J. A. Berst of United Picture Theatres of America, announces that the organization has purchased outright the feature photodrama, "Women Men Forget," starring Mollie King, and which was produced by the .American Cinema Corporation. The feature is in six reels, directed by John M. Stahl from the original scenario by Elaine Sterne. It presents -Miss King in a role to which she is particularly well suited — one that shows her as a New York society girl. This fact, of course, permits Miss King to wear an elaborate wardrobe. Supporting Mollie King in "Women Men Forget" are Frank Mills, Lucy Fox and Edward Langford. As yet it has not been decided when "Women Men Forget" will be released, but an announcement setting a definite date and outlining exploitation details will be forthcoming within a short time. Willemsen's CameraMan Back from Guatemala Dr. J. D. Stickler, one of Willemsen's camera men, has just returned to the States from Guatemala with additional negatives for the above company's "Tales of the Tropics" series. Dr. Stickler has spent the last month, it is said, collecting Indian curios and tapestries among the Guatemalan natives. Cissy Fitzgerald Busy on Her New Comedies A statement from the offices of the United Picture Theatres of America, Inc., reports that Cissy Fitzgerald and her company are making comedies in California, and that Bobby Burns and Tobyna Ralston are producing two-reel comic pictures in Florida. Making a supreme comedy for Robertson-Cole release with Jimmie Liddy and Molly Malone Real Forest Fire Scenes in "The Sagebrusher" One of the most terrible and destructive forest fires of recent times, that which swept the Sierra Madre and San Bernardino Mountain Ranges north and east of Los Angeles, raging unchecked for nearly tw'o weeks last September, is seen in Benjamin B. Hampton's second Great Authors production, " The Sagebrusher," the photoplay of Emerson Hough's novel.