Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

14 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS Mr. Steiner is the practical head of the North American Film Corporation which is shortly to assert itself as a potent factor in the motion picture business of the world. With Mr. Steiner there are associated good practical picture men and makers. These men under Bill's guidance have been quietly at work for months past making stock in various parts of the country. I went down to the North American studio the other day. It is the old Reliance studio in working order. I was greeted, by many film friends there who are basic parts of the North American organization. I saw prints of some forthcoming releases. These are well-acted pictures built around fine stories, well photographed. They will please the motion picture public of the world because they are good motion pictures. The North American controls twenty of its own exchanges. Now the owning of twenty exchanges makes any combination a powerful factor in the business. And the North American is to be also, I think, a good factor. I am betraying no secrets when I say that Billy Steiner's vicissitudes in this business have been almost contemporaneous with my own. "A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind," and I freely say that I feel friendly disposed toward Mr. Steiner. There are many less worthy than he, less experienced than he, less deserving' than he, but who have been well advertised who are more successful. But Billy should and will get his. Mr. Steiner has hosts of well wishers throughout the world. He is loyal, free handed and good natured. He is a good fellow and a good man and beyond all he is a good film man. Some of Mr. Steiner's pupils are doing exceedingly well. He knows how to train them. Many an actor, actress and producer owe their first chance to him. He has helped them to success in the film business. He is a thoroughly practical man and a hard worker. Above all things, if popularity be an asset, the subject of this sketch has a large stock of it. So large indeed that it would be difficult to estimate the number of his sincere well wishers. He has a band of loyal helpers. A better and more experienced director than Pierce Kingsley you could not find in a day's march. And Pierce is loyally helping the North American by producing some fine well-acted pictures. But Pierce himself, good boy, will form the subject of a separate sketch by and by. Then there is Jimmie Maher and he, good boy, will figure in these pages. Moreover, there are other prominent men of affairs taking a hand in the business end of the North American. Their names and ratings, when they are made known, will inspire the fullest confidence in the efficiency of what is designed to be a great film organization. But chiefest interest, of course, centers this moment in the practical figure, and that is W. F. Steiner. You cannot put a good man down. The fact that he is a good man is almost a certainty as it as an assurance that he is bound to make good. He is making good pictures, and is going to distribute them throughout the world. The North American program isn't ready — but it is nearly so, and when it is ready it will be seen that it is worth handling, and that the pictures are being shown in the best motion picture theatres. There is always room at the top, and there is room for W. F. Steiner and his organization to take a topmost place in this great business. " 'Tis not in mortals to command success, but we will do more. We will deserve it." This line was written by William Shakespeare. It is applicable to the subject of this sketch. It seems very repellent to write of such an eng-aging personality in this form and style. He is just plain Bill. He always was Bill and always will be Bill to his friends. He is one of the few men in the business of whom you never hear a harsh or unkind word said. When adversity came he faced it like a man and paid up. Some men face adversity and don't pay. The offices of the North American are at present in the Exchange Building. I believe that new and large offices are in course of being taken. The old Reliance studio at present, well adapted for the work of staging and developing, is to be enlarged. There is plenty of spare ground space round about it. It is down there at Coney Island, facing the water. It is well situated. Within short distances from the studio, you may get material for a variety of settings. Small beginnings have great endings or rather very frequently have great developments. There is no reason at all why this Reliance Studio should not vastly expand and become as I think it will become, as big as any similar building in the country. You need a big studio and printing plant when you start in to make a program of motion pictures. The North American has made a good start, as I can testify. The world is all before it, where to choose, and in my opinion it has chosen a path which will lead it to great and every expanding success. ^ ^ ^ ^ T T is all the more desirable that pioneer men of the type of Steiner should be encouraged in this stage of the motion picture business because of the entry into it of many who have neither his knowledge nor experience. To the pioneer belongs or should belong the spoils. The newcomers will "get theirs" in course of time when they have brought or paid for their experience. The fittest will survive and Bill is one of the fittest. In course of time, we shall have a central institution devoted to the archives and records of motion picture progress and Billy, good man, will surely figure in those archives. It must be nice when you die to feel that you are going to form part of the history of the place you are leaving. Some certainty about that. After you leave the earth there is still, it seems, some uncertainty as Mr. Law is finding out. Good luck, Bill !