Motion Picture Story Magazine (Aug-Dec 1913)

CHATS WITH THE PLAYERS 109 "Imagine my feelings when I struck a match and by its flickering light gazed inio the white face of the dead man, but an arm's length from my trembling body. How I got down the stairs without breaking my neck will ever remain a mystery. So completely rattled was I that, missing the office floor, I plunged down the cellar stairs. "Here the climax of the night of horror was reached, when, quaking with fear, I lighted my last remaining match and peered into the face of a big, black negro, who, it developed later, had been stealing coal, and who made off thru the coal-chute, leaving me standing with five of my six senses absolutely paralyzed." Optimistic regarding the theatrical future, Mr. Wilson expresses the belief, shared by many others, that the Motion Picture industry is still in its infancy and that the goal sought will be reached when the camera is so perfected that stereoscopic effects will be secured. J. McA. FLORA FINCH, OF THE VITAGRAPH COMPANY TALK about your hero-inc.9, soulful-eyed, "" with curving lines ; I met a queen the other day — beats any card that you could play — the comedy lead of Vitagraph. Say, wait a moment while I laugh! 'They call the lady Flora Finch, and she's a winner on a pinch ; six feet two inches tall (she says), and just one hundred pounds she weighs ; her eyes are green, her hairs are each a yellowish yellow (Query: bleached?). But it isn't how she strikes the eye that makes you laugh until you cry ; it's the twinkle in her merry soul and the way she makes her gestures droll, her elbow-art and bony grace and the strange gymnastics of her face. Oh yes, oh yes, I know I rave, but I just cant make my pen behaVe! "How long upon the screen?" says I. "About three years," w^as her reply. "Before? Of course, upon the stage, when beauty-shows were all the rage — American Beauties, Cracker jacks ; but, I can tell you for a fact, I'll never leave the photoplay ; it's a splendid thing, well, I should say! Of all the jobs, it's at the head — on Sundays, I can eat in bed ! The favorite parts that I have played are Camille, La Tosca and the maid, so lonely, helpless and alone, in the sad play, 'AVhy Girls Leave Home.' I never learn lines or rehearse, think that only makes things worse. I fall in each scene, and then I just fall gracefully out again, without a care, without a fear. In fact, I simply act by ear." "Do you believe," I asked Miss Flo, "in censoring the films, or no?" "Yes, let them have their little fling—/ can find fault with anything! Improvement in Motion Pictures? O! And O! and O! And O! O! O! We'll soon win the dramatic game, for the movies have the creme de la creme of all the actors, certainly ; they have Flora Finch, myself and me." "Tell us a bit about your life." "All right ; here's tooting my own fife! Hoboken's the place where I began; my parents, IrishAmerican ; education, minus; talent, plus (nothing backward about us). I'm a great traveler, certainly — I know -every bit of the B. R. T. I love to cook and to drink tea, and darning is ifiy specialty. If I could only have my way, I'd darn twelve stockings every day." "Were you ever in print," I put in here, "because of deed or happening queer?" "Well, no-o-o, but I had an uncle go to Coney Island to see the show ; at least he almost went, they say, or thought of going, anyway. "My religion? Well, now, I'll tell you; it's 'Be good, and you'll be lonely, too' ! My fad's my husband and my child, and 'Votes for Women' drive me wild. An antisuffragette? No! no! Why cant I vote, I'd like to know? Some day I expect to need to vote. I may own an acre and a goat!