Motography (Jan-Jun 1914)

14 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XI, No. 1 up to the moral plane established for moving pictures, or will we allow the pictures to drop down to the level of grand opera." And then in his next calm moment he said : "There is only one good thing about grand ^^ jji W k 1 m k' ■ ■"' 1 JOyl K^ 4i W' 1 An important scene in Hepworth's "The Vicar of Wakefield." opera. It doesn't reach the number of people that the moving picture does. We have to be thankful that the prices make grand opera just as nearly prohibitive as it could be." Now, everybody, three cheers for McCormick ! * * * Grand opry is O. K. in an Edison disc phonograph, I betcha, eh, McChesney ? * * * Maude Murray Miller is still nursing the Buckeye state executive's pet measure. That she is doing the job effectively is proving up. Maddox has already resigned and Vestal, another member of Ohio's censorship board, is' champing at the bit. Maude is some regular terror as a censoress. * * * Mental note for George Balsdon : St. Louis and Kansas City are both "out west" according to my Rand. * * * And so Joe Brandt is back. Well Joe, here's a welcome. Your going across the pond never raised a ripple on Lake Michigan and we haven't been able to change the David Bclasco visualizing a scene of Famous Plover's "A Good Little Devil." opinion of your boss since you left. He still believes in you and insists on spending his money his way. You have a lot of copy around 1600 Broadway that would look good to us — a lot of pretty girls that would look good to the trade as front cover subjects of Motography. As a New Year's resolution, put yourself in our place for five minutes and get our point of view. We've been at it for a half decade and have been able to get away with it. Five minutes of your time isn't a lot. * * * Joseph Edmond Robin doesn't sound like a name to me. That's the Missus' calling card stuff. bird At last we have a blonde on the front page — a great big blue-eyed baby made with black and red ink. It was that beautiful smile that did it. Kathlyn, you have my congratulations. * * * I have just been reading the epic of the m. p. business — the trade journal that ventures a guess that $2,000 would be a small price to pay for a solid gold dinner set. That may be the reason for my immediate discontent. It is barely possible, too, that I will know how to spell a man's name after he sends me monthly checks totalling something like $3,600 a year! Had the Editor Puzzled In the publicity campaign attendant upon the production of its great fashion serial of fifty-two reels, "Our Mutual Girl," the Mutual's press department sent to a well-known magazine several photographs of Norma Phillips, the actress who plays the title role. The art editor selected for publication a "head," in which the "Mutual Girl" was wearing a chic little fur-trimmed hat. As he intended to use it for a color reproduction on the front cover, the editor sought to determine the kind of fur that adorned the hat, so that his coloring of it n)ight be true to the original. A guessing match with his staff then ensued, with the result that wagers were laid ini favor of mink, raccoon, sable, chinchilla and fox by the various editors. To settle the matter they wired tjie Mutual and it was referred to Miss Phillips, who promptly informed them that they were all wrong. The fiir used was skunk. Authors for Mutual Film In its effort to raise the standard of moving pictures the Mutual Film Corporation has contracted for the stories by many of the most prominent authors of novels and magazine stories and they will be condensed into scenario form and produced upon the lighted screen under the direction of D. W. Griffith, the Mutual's famous director. Among the authors whose work has been contracted for are Thomas Nelson Page, ambassador to Italy ; Paul Armstrong, playwright, whose drama, "The Escape," a romance of the underworld, is now being produced by Mr. Griffith personally ; John Kendrick Bangs ; George A. Birmingham, who wrote that very successful Irish comedy, "General John Regan," now playing in a long run at the Hudson Theater, New York ; Daniel Carson Goodman, author of "Hagar Revelly," the publication of which Anthony Comstock attempted to prevent ; Zona Gale, Eleanor Ingram, author of "The Car Behind;" Robert H. Davis of the Munsey Magazines ; Paul West of the New York World; H. R. Durant, playwright and associate editor of "The Cavalier;" Gardner Hunting, editor of the People's Magazine; Homer Croy, the humorist of Judge, Leslie's and Collier's; George Pattullo and Roy Norton, both of whom are famous writers of Western stories; E. Phillips Oppenheim, the celebrated English novelist; Mary Roberts Rinehart and Roy McCardell.