Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

January 21, 1922 631 Paramount’s Tenth Anniversary Playgoers Makes Progress in 1921 In announcing the continuation ■of its policy to release features on the basis of thirty-six a year, Playgoers Pictures have issued a statement calling attention to progress made during 1921, which shows that over 500 theatres have contracted for their product on that basis. A complete list is not included in this statement, but it is evident that exhibitors in every section of the country have taken up the Playgoers’ proposition and are showing their features at regular intervals. The system was inaugurated last September and has shown consistent progress. The Playgoers product at present is : The J. P. McGowan features, “ Discontented Wives,” “ The Ruse of the Rattler ” and “ Reckless Chances,” the latter behm scheduled for January 15th; also “Tropical Love,” the big production made in Porto Rico by Ralph Ince, with Reginald Denny, Ruth Clifford and Fred Turner “Anne of Little Smoky, the Wistaria production, with Winifred Westover (now Mrs. William S. Hart), Joe King, Dolores Casinelli and Frank Sheridan. Artistic Brochure Is Published by R-G We have before us a copy of the handsome brochure just issued by the R-C Pictures Corporation, in which are described the organization’s personnel and the company’s plans for the first quarter of the new year. From the viewpoint of content, the booklet is highly illuminating. In addition to giving accounts of the company’s executives and their policies, there are also included photographs of R-C’s leading stars and directors and members of the sales staff. Attractive views of the R-C studio in Hollywood, Cal., are also shown. Three doubletruck ad displays, as prepared for leading fan publications, on R-C’s early 1922 releases are also presented in the booklet. From the typographical angle, the R-C brochure is a work of art. Printed on heavy, coated stock, with an abundance of white space, the text is accorded a high degree j of legibility. The cuts are noteworthy for their detail and artistic finish. Inserted in the booklet is a folded broadside dealing with the coming R-C Week, February 5th to 11th. The special productions available for this week are described and half-tone views given of scenes from these pictures. Elaborate Press Book for “Theodora” A campaign book of most elaborate proportions has been prepared by the Goldwyn home-office for its production, “Theodora.” Special effort has been made to compile material in the shape of press stories, attractive cuts, etc., that will be of practical service to the exhibitor in selling the picture to his patrons. In addition to the serviceableness of the book, the most prominent feature of the compilation is the wide variety of text and cut material offered. PARAMOUNT is going to celebrate its birthday. Ten years ago Adolph Zukor founded the Famous Players Film Company, the parent company of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation known throughout the world wherever pictures are shown as Paramount. The birthday celebration will start Sunday, March 5, and will be of two weeks’ duration. Following the lines of the annual Paramount Week, it is planned by General Manager S. R. Kent and his assistants in the Department of Distribution to book theatres throughout the country solid with Paramount pictures. Paramount District and Branch managers have been apprised of the general plan and are already enthusiastically at work mapping out the details to be followed in their respective territories. Spurred on to greater endeavor instead of being daunted by the success of the last Paramount Week, when all records for the annual event, both as to gross business and the number of theatres participating, were broken, the entire sales organization is determined to at least appropriate twice that business during the two weeks of the anniversary. For March 5, the opening of the anniversary, Paramount announces day and date release of some of its biggest productions. These include Cecil B. DeMille’s “Fool’s Paradise,” Gloria Swanson in “Her Husband’s Trademark,” Wallace Reid in “The World’s Champion,” and “The Dragon’s Claw,” the first of the spectacular UFA series, “The Mistress of the World.” George Fitzmaurice’s production, “Forever,” adapted from “Peter Ibbetson,” will also be available at that time. Hundreds of extra prints of these productions are being prepared to satisfy the demand for simultaneous showing. Double-truck advertising announcing the anniversary event will be used in national publications and through the two weeks advertising WORD from the First National headquarters indidicate that the various producing units affiliated with that organization are already well started on their 1922 production schedule. News of various subjects just completed accompany the announcements of productions already begun. At the Mack Sennett studios work is now well under way on “ Suzanna,” an original story by Mack Sennett, which has been chosen as the next starring vehicle for Mabel Normand. A notable cast has been engaged to support the little star. “ Suzanna ” is being directed by F. Richard Jones, who also directed Miss Normand in her previous Sennett successes, “ Mickey ” and “ Molly O.” Mabel Normand is ideally cast as “ Suzanna,” a tomboy girl. Winnifred Bryson has the role of Chiquita. Carl Stockdale, who did such admirable work in “ Molly O,” is cast as Ruiz, Suzanna’s fosterfather. Eric Hayne as Don Diego, assumes the obligation of bringing space in more than six hundred daily newspapers will be utilized as part of the big campaign now being prepared by the Publicity and Advertising department. It was early in 1912 that Adolph Zukor set out boldly to reorganize the business of producing motion pictures. He did more than that — he revolutionized it. He was a successful exhibitor at the time — as successful as an exhibitor could be, for the motion picture was virtually dying if its own mediocrity. Authors and actors viewed it with scorn. Intelligent, discriminating people wearying of it as a mere novelty were turning their backs upon it. Exhibitors apparently were at the mercy of the film manufacturers who claimed a patent monopoly and refused to raise the standard of their productions. Organizing his company, Adolph Zukor plunged with vim into the task of making a reality of what most people looked upon as the dream of a visionary. The first picture to be released was “Queen Elizabeth,” with no less a celebrity than Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. It was not the first five-reel production ever made, but it was the first production to be released by any company under a fixed policy of making and distributing pictures of that approximate length and quality as a standard. Its release marked the birth of the modern film play — the renaissance of the film industry. Other features of similar length and starring such people as James K. Hackett, Mrs. Fiske, Mary Pickford, James O’Neil and Lily Langtry followed. Their appearance attracted other producers with similar ideals into the field. Among them was Jesse L. Lasky, who interested Cecil B. DeMille, at that time a successful young stage producer of the Belasco school, and others in the organization of the Jesse L. Lasky Feature play Company. Having scraped together a small amount up as his daughter, Chiquita. George Nichols, who played the part of Miss Norman’s father in “ Molly O ” is again seen in “ Suzanna” in the character of Don Fernando, a wealth Spanish rancher, with Evelyn Sherman as his wife. Don Fernando has a son, Ramon, played by Walter McGrail, who is in love with Suzanna despite his parents’ disapproval of the match. Tomaso, played by George Cooper, is another suitor for the hand of Suzanna, while Leon Barry, as Pancho, a shiftless toreador, courts Chiquita. Minnie Ha Ha, a Cheyenne squaw, known for her Indian portrayals, is also a member of the cast. With the signing this week of Doris Pawn and Donald MacDonald for important roles in “ One Clear Call,” John M. Stahl completed the cast for his latest independent unit production for Louis B. Mayer. Henry B. Walthall is also in the cast. The making of the picture has been under way now for nearly five weeks, but many of the of capital they purchased the film rights to Edwin Milton Royle’s play, “The Squaw Man.” So far as is known, this is the first instance on record of the purchase of rights to a play or story for the screen. Going to California, Mr. Lasky and his associates made “The Squaw Man,” with Dustin Farnum in the stellar role. The Lasky studio, Paramount’s huge West Coast production center of today, was built around the crude little building where “The Squaw Man” was filmed. To Hollywood at about that time went also other producing organizations, amoug them the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company and Bosworth, Inc. In July, 1916, the Famous Players Film Company and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company were combined under the name of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. The Paramount Pictures Corporation had been formed for the distribution of the product of the Lasky and Bosworth companies. On January 1, 1917, the Paramount organization was taken over by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Bosworth, Inc., and Pallas Pictures, the Morosco output, having previously been acquired. Later the Artcraft Pictures Corporation was amalgamated with Famous Players-Lasky, as still more recently was the Realart Pictures Corporation. With the absorption of the Paramount company and the turning of the product of the combined companies for release through the exchanges of the Famou* Players-Lasky Corporation, the former organization diseappered as a separate entity, but the name was wisely retained as the trade name for all the features released by the present corporation. Today, Paramount pictures made in the huge studios of the company in New York, Los Angeles and London, are distributed through thirty branch offices in the United States, six in Canada, nine in Great Britain, two in France, one in Denmark, one in Belgium, five in Australia, one in New Zealand, one in Mexico, two in Brazil, and on contract to every other country in the civilized world. big scenes, the humorous episodes and the heart throbs are still to be filmed. The cast is the greatest all-star aggregation ever assembled at the Mayer studio for one picture. Headed by Henry B. Walthall, Claire Windsor, Irene Rich and Milton Sills, the list includes : Joseph J. Dowling, who played “The Miracle Man;” Doris Pawn, Donald MacDonald, Shannon Day, Edithe Yorke, Nick Cogley, Fred Kelsey, William Marion, Albert MacQuarrie, Annette De Foe, Stanley Goethals and Richard B elfield. Anita Stewart’s new picture, “ Rose o’ the Sea,” went into production this week at the Louis B. Mayer studio with Fred Niblo directing. This will be Mr. Niblo’s second picture with Miss Stewart; the first being “ The Woman He Married,” which Mr. Niblo directed shortly after completing “ The Three Musketeers.” Constance Talmadge will, within a week, complete the filming of her ( Continued on page 632) First Nat’l Films Under Way