Motography (Jan-Mar 1916)

January 15, 1916. MOTOGRAPHY Pictures Benefit Legitimate Stage SO THINKS BRADY IF THERE is one man more than another qualified to discuss the relation between the motion pictures and the stage it is William A. Brady, the prolific producer of successful "spoken dramas" and one of the main contributors to the World Film Corporation program. Contrary to many managers and actors who see in the advancement of the motion picture industry a menace to what they are pleased to term "the legitimate stage," Mr. Brady believes that the screen will prove ultimately a great boon to the real drama. "It is true," said Mr. Brady the other day, "that motion pictures have dealt a severe blow to one phase of the theatrical business and for that alone we should be duly grateful. I refer to the death of the old No. 1, 2, 3, 4, companies that usd to flit about the country perpetrating outrages in the name of histrionic art. Motion picture dramas have taught the public the folly of being buncoed out of $1.50 or $1.00 to witness a fourth-class performance of a big New York dramatic success. No longer can the New York producer, who achieved a tremendous hit at one of the metropolitan theaters with a new play and fine cast, organize half a dozen cheap companies of inadequate players and scatter them broadcast throughout the land, raking in the dollars on the strength of the widespread comment aroused by the original production. "Of course this has worked disastrously for a certain element of the theatrical profession. It has been a serious matter for actors of inferior ability and for those managers whose one idea of their business was to make a killing with a play in one season, a cleanup, one grand sweep of every possible dollar. But after all, these are the least desirable elements in the busi Pavlowa to Appear Again Is Anna Pavlowa "picture" struck? Now that the great Russian dancer has had her first experience in cinematography, and has personally witnessed her debut in the silent drama with considerable satisfaction over her first effort, she has become so enthused over this new form of entertainment that she is personally working on a Nippon love story in which her dancing will again be featured, which she proposes to complete before the end of the present theatrical season. Then she will go over the scenario with Lois Weber, her personal director of photoplays, and they will then put on an original production for the Universal far exceeding even the massive production of "The Dumb Girl of Portici." For the new play which Pavlowa is now writing, Harry McRae, formerly general manager of Universal City, will have charge of technical details, and will leave on the ship Tenyo Maru, sailing from San Francisco January 8 for Japan, where he will seek the proper setting for this new Pavlowa masterpiece, which will cost the Universal, it is estimated, something like $300,000 to produce. Mr. McRae's idea of going to Japan early is to have plenty of time to look around the country so that when the producing company arrives there, everything will have been prepared in advance, as Carl Laemmle, president of the Universal, wants to have this scenario from the hands of Pavlowa, produced under the most ideal conditions. ness and it will be just as well when they return to the more prosaic occupations for which they are fitted. "But to attempt to argue that motion pictures have seriously affected the stage in its highest and truest aspects is absurd. This is a boom season throughout the country. Motion picture houses are swamped with patrons, and yet there has been no worthy play or musical entertainment staged this' season that has not met with prompt and substantial support on the part of the public. Good plays, well presented, do not fail today any more often than before the motion picture was invented. It is merely that the motion pictures have taught the public not to waste its money on inferior theatrical attractions. "As for the future of the motion pictures, I do not consider myself enough of a prophet to attempt a forecast. But if I have at any time a vision of what the future of this great industry will bring, it is this : I look for a tremendous advancement in the educational aspect of the motion picture. There is no limit to the possibilities of motion photography in the way of disseminating knowledge in a form fascinating to the young and old. "I also can conceive the day when the motion picture as a distributor of news will run the daily paper a close race in popular favor. "In the realm of the drama, the motion picture industry has only scratched the surface of its possibilities. Thousands of ingenious minds are concentrating night and day upon mechanical and artistic improvements and the great writers of fiction and drama are just beginning to realize that in motion pictures lies a great and fertile field for their imagination and creative power. "The day of the melodramatic 'thrills' on the screen, with its shipwrecks, train collisions and desperate deeds of daring and peril is rapidly drawing to its close. So, too, is the era of photodramatic adaptations of popular novels and old-time plays. Virile and vital dramas of modern life, written by men and women who have given the best of their brain to the study of the possibilities and limitations of the film, are rapidly coming to the fore. "Some day, soon perhaps, a mechanical genius will find a way to adapt to the projection the principles of the old device through which we used to look at collections of photographs and which used to bring into bold relief the contour of all the objects in the photograph. When such a device comes to the motion picture and we can get the now missing third dimension, thickness, on the screen, then, perhaps, it will be time for those interested in spoken drama alone to fear the encroachment of the new art." Who's Got These Reels? The Associated Film Sales Corporation wishes to announce that four reels have mysteriously disappeared from its office — "The Woman He Married," two reels ; "Beyond the Trail," one reel, and "Fatty's Nightmare," one reel. A liberal reward will be given for their return or for information leading to the apprehension of the guilty parties.