Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

November 20, 1915. MOTOGRAPHY 1055 Marguerite Clayton of Essanay Marguerite Clayton, who is so well known as leading woman with "Broncho Billy"— G. M. Anderson—at Essanay's western studio at Niles, Cal., now is at the eastern studios at Chicago, where she is taking leading parts. Miss Clayton, who is 21 years old, has been in motion picture work but two and a half years, but rose rapidly from an extra girl to leads. She joined the Essanay company by answering an advertisement for a position. She is a girl of the western plains, having been born and raised in Ogden, Utah, where her father is a civil engineer. Her first play with the eastern company is "A Daughter of the City," a five-act feature, which is released on the V. L. S. E. program in December. Miss Clayton plays the lead, the part of a daughter of the city. E. H. Calvert plays the leading masculine role, that of the wealthy business man, who has become a vulture. The hero role is taken by John Junior, well known for years on the speaking stage. Miss Clayton is remarkably well fitted for her part, that of a young and innocent girl, poor and beautiful, who easily falls into the clutches of the vulture, but whose inherent goodness and horror of evil finally extricates her from the net set for her. The play itself is a strong morality drama and one that sounds a note of warning to all girls to keep far from the primrose path. The play was directed by E. H. Calvert. Universal Fort Lee Studios Ten years ago the little borough of Fort Lee, New Jersey, was in every particular a rural hamlet. But great change came with the advent of the motion picture industry. One day not many years ago some prominent motion picture men from New York, casting about for a place to erect a studio, decided to come to New Jersey and look about for a desirable spot. This visit was the beginning of the motion picture business in Bergen county; and in a very few years, eight or ten of the representative motion picture companies had studios and finishing plants in Coytesville and Fort Lee. What is claimed to be the greatest of all, however, is not yet finished, but is so well under way that in two weeks' time Fort Lee will have what is said to be the greatest motion picture plant in the world. It is the Universal Film Manufacturing Company which has chosen a site in South Fort Lee for its largest buildings and greatest equipment for the manufacture of motion pictures. The new plant consists of two enormous buildings and one smaller one. The largest of all contains the studios, with huge glass roofs, where pictures are taken, and great scenes are stored; in the other building is the developing, finishing, perforating end of the business, where the exposed films are turned over for the various processes they must go through before they are sent to the distributing agencies. The plant is equipped with newly invented film tanks, perfected modern cutting, developing, drying and shipping departments. Just to show to what ends the film manufacturer has gone to perfect his products, it might be mentioned that he has installed a complete modern ice-making machine to cool the air in summer in the drying room, so that the film may not lose an atom of its original brilliancy and smoothness. In one of the departments certain valuable chemicals and minerals, such as silver, are used. In order that not a speck may be wasted, the tables on which these minerals are used are equipped with vacuum pumps. The left-over shavings of silver are sucked into pipes and transferred into a retaining vault in a separate building, where they are refined and again rendered usable. Perhaps one of the greatest features of the new Universal plant is its absolute immunity from fire. In the first place, the studios and developing and finishing departments are constructed of fire-proof materials. But this is not the only preventive ; a complete sprinkler system has been installed. One end of a room can be completely shut off from any other part of the building by a sheet of water. Flames can be raging in one place, while the rest of the plant can be made completely free from danger. The plant will, however, be insured. In order to convince the insurance companies that there is practically no danger of destruction by 'flames, a test was ' arranged at which the chief the New York fire department and many other prominent fire experts were present. The test was made essentially to explode the old theory that celluloid films are capable of bursting into flame by spontaneous combustion. But the test also showed that the building in which the Universal films are stored is fireproof. While a host of experts watched, an electric button was pressed which set fire to the films stored in a small building in the rear of the great finishing building. Flames shot out from the room as the combustible material went up in smoke, but not an atom of damage was done to anything else, except a tree near a window of the building, which was badly scorched. The test was succcessful ; it proved that even _ if fire should occur, the modern equipment installed will prevent any serious damage. The Ghent theater of Norfolk, Virginia, a Paramount house, recently ran a question contest which, it has been announced, was won by F. L. Russell of 908 Redgate avenue. The burning question was : "What is the greatest advantage of the neighborhood house?" and Mr. Russell's answer follows : No street car fare. Good pure fresh air. Clean, comfortable seats And the people one meets Make the Ghent Picture Show The best place to go.