Motography (Jan-Mar 1916)

108 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XV, No. 3. the leading role and Priscilla Dean as ingenue, has been shown to exhibitors and declared to be the style of slap-stick desired. It is a story of one who yearns to be a fireman and he gets the chance, permitting the staging of some unusual thrills as well as side-splitting comedv situations. BUILDING BLOWN TO ATOMS Producer Ince Stages Big Explosion for Scene in Coming Triangle Production That Will Feature William Collier Inceville-by-the-Sea, where Producer Thomas H. Ince is turning out feature photodramas for contribution to the Triangle program, was, this week, the scene of what is expected to be pronounced as the most spectacular explosion ever staged in the history of motion pictures. A solid three-story building, constructed of timbers, concrete and brick was dynamited and then burned to the ground for realistic effects in some scenes for the current Triangle-Kay-Bee subject in which William Collier, the noted American comedian, will be starred. Three hundred persons took part in the filming of the scenes, yet none suffered injury. Nine cameras were focused on the explosion, yet none missed any detail. Twenty-five sticks of dynamite and three kegs of black powder were used to shatter the structure, yet the surrounding buildings remained virtually unharmed. The building which was sacrificed graced a corner of the extensive plateau within the Ince domain and so substantially was it constructed that six weeks were required for its completion. It was designed to represent an office building, and. hence, the chief material employed was concrete. Steel girders and timbers formed the framework. In preparing to film the scenes. Producer Ince. assisted by two of his subordinates, Raymond B. West and Walter Edwards, instructed each of the three hundred men and women appearing therein to race away from the building in all directions, the moment the signal was given. Each of the nine cameras was safely concealed behind heavy oaken planks, only the lenses being unobstructed. While the last of the crowd was only fifty feet from the building, the word was given to give the dynamite the spark. Then, with a thundering boom that could be heard for miles, the building was rent asunder. A moment later tons of sticks, stones, cement, glass and steel rained from the sky and littered the ground for several hundred feet with debris. The concussion rocked the surrounding country as far as Santa Monica, where for a time there was some consternation among the citizens. When the smoke had cleared away, it was found, much to the surprise of Ince and his mechanics, that the skeleton of the building still stood intact. This was an unexpected turn in the events of the day, so the producer resolved to make the best of it. He hurriedly revised that part of the scenario dealing with the explosion and set fire to what remained of the structure. Slowdy it burned to the ground and now all that is left is a black, charred mass of ruins. George Baird Passes Away George H. Baird, one of the stockholders of the Photoplay Releasing Company, died on Thursday, December 30, of double pneumonia at his home, 5112 Cornell avenue, Chicago. Mr. Baird had made a Christmas trip to his old home in Canada, and there he contracted a cold the day before Christmas and returned to Chicago on Monday, December 27, in charge of a nurse. He was immediately put to bed. physicians were summoned and a zone of quiet was established around his home by police authority. All efforts to assist him, however, failed and he passed away quietly on Thursday. On Friday afternoon brief services were held and the body shipped back to Canada for interment. Ivan Publishes "Filmessage" Another house organ is being sent out into the trade by Ivan Film Productions, Inc. The little fourpage paper is attractively handled and modestly sounds the praises of Ivan features, which include "Should a Woman Divorce?" "Sins of the Parents," "The Unwelcome Wife," "A Mother's Confession," "Concealed Truth" and "Forbidden Fruit." "A Fool's Paradise," with Christine Mayo, is in the making.