Motography (Jul-Dec 1914)

174 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XII., Xo. 5. "Mr. Seay is from there." I reflected upon the bravery of that Edison director and decided in favor of the Georgians. "I left home when I was very young," Miss McCoy was saying, "and I came to New York. Because I was tall and slender and blonde, I got into the chorus of 'The Gay White Way' — remember that show? — and because I wasn't afraid of the stage director when he was cross I stayed there until I got something better, in vaudeville. "But my introduction into pictures was through Ashley Miller. He gave me his card and told me to come to see him at the Edison studio. And a year later I did. I was engaged and have been here, now, four years. You would know what kind of work I like best, wouldn't you?" "Dramatic?" I guessed. "Yes, with a great deal of sympathy in them. I dislike comedy roles. It makes me ill to be cast in a comedy," she further expressed her non-preference of this variety of part. "The next picture I'm to play in is Tn Sheep's Clothing.' It promises a likeable role. And after that is to be Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night.' I can hardly wait for that one. And later, maybe, there's to be a series for me. It's not all decided yet, but I'm reasonably certain of it. So far I've most enjoyed 'The Impersonator' and 'The Shattered Tree.' I loved both of them. 'The President's Special' was the most exciting, so, of course, that, too, is among the ones I liked best doing." William stealthily entered and replaced the salad dishes with ones of cantelope. Then he smiled himself out silently, and the conversation turned to sports, though through no reference to AVilliam's display of acrobatics in his faultlessly waiting on table in the little dressing room. Rather, it came about through mention of a play in which Miss McCoy made up as a boy. "I love to wrestle. People around the studio didn't know it then, but they've remembered it since I put my opponent on the flat of his back during the making of that picture," said Miss McCoy, smiling at the remembrance. "Wrestling and horseback riding are the things I love best. And autoing." The girl across from me with the wide blue eyes and soft southern voice smiled out through the window at the top of the little car, which, though it has been ever faithful, is about to be replaced with a racer, monogramed and dazzlingly white, and capable of even more than forty-five miles an hour. "I love my little car ; I never go anywhere without it," declared the owner of the little car as she rumpled her napkin beside her plate and we rose to give William final right-of-way. "But we must progress," she amended. "We must progress." We did, Miss McCoy to relieve the little car of further waiting and I to an upstairs office and thence via devious routes — it's so easy to get off of the right car at the wrong station, coming from the "Bron-ix" back to the starting point. Times Square. Egan Joins Ramo John S. Egan has been appointed auditor of the Ramo Canadian offices. After familiarizing himself with the trade and meeting the exhibitors in Montreal, under the guidance of Frank W. Foster, Canadian manager, he will make his headquarters at the Toronto office at 11 Richmond street, West. Mr. Egan has just resigned as manager of the camera, kineclair and educational film departments of the Eclair Film Company to connect himself with the Ramo Company, and will no doubt prove himself a valuable asset as he comes from a family of practical film people, being a brother of Mrs. Agnes Egan Cobb, manager of the Leading Players Film Corporation and Features Ideal departments of the Eclair Film Company, and a brother-in-law of C. Lang Cobb, Jr., manager sales and publicity of Ramo Films, Inc. Horace Plimpton vs. Reckless Realism It is the belief of Horace G. Plimpton, manager of the negative department of the Edison Company, that there is too much risk taken in the making of pictures. The risk to which he refers is that in which the player figures, and which, so Mr. Plimpton believes, has almost gone beyond the bounds ^|^ of reason, so keen are the pub lic, the film makers and even the players themselves, for realism in pictures. "Many of the risks to life are unnecessary," stated Mr. Plimpton one day last week in his long office on the second floor of the Bronx studio building. "I don't believe in the players risking their lives," he went on. "The business isn't worth it and never would be, no matter how big it became. Why, the loss of one life at Horace Plimpton. ,1 • ' , <• 1 j i_ i this studio would be a horror that I feel could not be lived down. I would feel terribly about it, should such a catastrophe occur. I'd feel almost personally responsible. "There are ways of faking almost every risk," Mr. Plimpton continued, "and I would prefer that way to having the players taking their lives in their hands. "Straight cowardice, of course, would be a different matter. If a player came to me and said, 'I'll do this thing if you want me to, but I don't feel that I'm capable of taking this risk ; I'm not in training and don't feel fit to do it,' why, I'd feel he had done the right thing in coming to me and telling me this. But if it were simply a case of 'cold feet' I wouldn't care to have him around. "Yes, I think the risks people take nowadays for the sake of realism, when the feat could just as well be faked, are unnecessary," concluded the man who gathered an Edison stock company that brought world-wide fame to its owners. Shipman Leaves Pan-American Ernest Shipman has disposed of all his interests in the Pan American Film Company and resigned as general manager of that firm. After a few weeks' vacation Mr. Shipman will become active in connection with new plans to be announced later in these columns. Edward Rosenthal, age 69, secretary and treasurer of the Paragon Film Company of Topeka, Kas., was killed on July 13 while taking pictures near Wausau, Wis. A rock, thrown by a nearby blast, crushed his skull.