Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

12 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. VI, No. 1. writer in an office, but this did not appeal. A desire to earn more money, coupled with her ambition to shine behind the footlights, caused her to resign her office position and seek the stage door. She found it at the Girard Avenue Theater in Philadelphia and remained in stock in that city for almost three years. Then a season in vaudeville on the Keith and Proctor circuit ended her stage life in the east. The health of her mother necessitated a change, and they decided to go to California. Her first coast experience was with May Mannery, playing the artist's model in "The Devil." At the close of that season she determined to have a company of her own, and they started out with two plays. Towns were well billed and her hopes were high, but on the second night the leading man "broke up the show" by becoming intoxicated, and she closed the next day, a short and sorry experience, as her own manager. Then Los Angeles and moving pictures. She secured an engagement with the Selig company in August, 1909, and with playing ingenue Wolves Chasing Deer in the Selig Pond. and many leads she has been a busy lady ever since and likes the work immensely. Charles Clary, leading man of the eastern stock company, takes pride in claiming Illinois as his home, having been born in the quiet little village of Charleston. Stage ambitions filled him at an early age, and his first experience was gained in amateur theatricals. "In those days," says Mr. Clary, "my ambitions were to be able to blow the living daylights out of a horn, and wear a red uniform with brass buttons and kick up all the dust from Charleston depot to the town 'opery house.' Of course, I would have perhaps considered an engagement with Bernhardt, Nat Goodwin, or Lew Dockstader. Finally luck favored me, and I was taken on by the Burbank stock company in Los Angeles, and later in Portland, Seattle, and Spokane. Then the call of the road seized me with a rheumatic trip, and I found my pay envelope read 'from "The Road to Yesterday" company.' Later 'Glorious Betsy' claimed my attention. Then I became leading man for Mrs. Leslie Carter. During the summer vacation that followed I paid a visit to some friends who were in the Selig company. At once the 'canned drama' appealed to me like getting money from home and I fell a willing victim, and have indeed been very happy in my decision. Two years have now passed and only pleasant memories are recorded with my experience." Mr. Clary's popularity is attested by the voluminous number of messages he receives from admirers among the fair sex. Surely one of the most adventurous careers which ever found its way into the motion picture profession is that experienced by Miss Eugenie Besserer, one of the leading women of the Selig western company. Miss Besserer was born in Paris, France, but early taken to Ottawa, Canada, where at a tender age she was left an orphan and placed in a convent. Irked by the convent restraint, she ran away when only twelve years old. She found herself in the Grand Central Station, New York, with but twenty-five cents in her purse. A street-car conductor assisted her in locating a former governess, whose name only she remembered. Through her she discovered an uncle, at whose home she took up her abode. When fourteen years old Miss Besserer took fencing from Prof. Senac, the world's champion, and became wonderfully proficient. For several years she enjoyed the woman's championship, and many a lively bout she had with Alexander Salvini. Her first theatrical experience was with McKee Rankin and Nance O'Neil. Then followed engagements with Wilton Lackaye, Frank Keeman, a season with the Pike Stock of Cincinnati. She also played opposite Henry J. Kolker for a season. Leaving the stage she returned to fencing and was instructor at Madame Thurber's and the Berkeley Lyceum, Alice Roosevelt being one of her pupils. After four years of teaching Miss Besserer returned to the stage, playing emotional parts, and it was not long before her ability was recognized and she was selected to accompany Margaret Anglin as understudy on her Australian tour. At eighteen she had written a successful play in which she was starred. She also wrote the fencing playlet "An Accident." The illness of her sister took her to Los Angeles, where she became acquainted with the moving picture business, and desiring to remain on the coast, she decided to try her luck in pictures. She is delighted with the work and expects to remain in it indefinitely. Miss Besserer is especially adapted to the work, as she rides and swims as well as fences. While on the subject of Selig actors, mention certainly must be given to the troupe of animal actors which form one of the most interesting features of the entire establishment. There are 12 lions, 9 cub lions, 1 elephant, 3 camels, 10 leopards, 7 leopard cubs, 5 pumas, 1 monkey, 3 bears, 2 deer, 10 eskimo dogs, 8 grey wolves, not to mention mules, geese, dogs, horses, etc. This menagerie gives the Selig plant a distinct character among the places of its kind, and has enabled it to lead all others in the production of animal stories, or what might be termed the drama of the jungle. Lions growling in the path of a heroine alone in the wilderness, a bloodthirsty leopard leaping upon the prostrate form of the same heroine, a battle royal between two leopards and a lioness, the tracking of two deer by a pack of hungry wolves— these are some of the elements that are interwoven into picture dramas throbbing with life and human interest. The plays of this character already released by the Selig company ("Back to the Primitive" will be remembered as one of them) are but forerunners of many more which were staged in the Florida jungle last winter, and others which are now in process of making at the Chicago plant. Will they make a hit, these pictures?