Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

82 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. VI, No. 2. A Real Fire Film St ory By H. Kent Webster EVERYBODY is a fire fan. Let the fire bells ring out, and no matter how important the task, or imperturbable the individual, there is an eager rush to windows and doors or an excited chase after the galloping horses and the sparking, steaming engine. The very vastness of the calamity, the apparent hopelessness of our efforts to cope with the terrible destroyer, add to our strange pleasure. Verily all mankind are fire worshippers. An actual fire in a big building, filled with employees at their work, is an awful thing. To turn such Rescuing the Heroine from the Flames. an event to the uses of the motion picture dramatist, and to have the actors before the camera do real work in rescuing the victims of the disaster, is enterprise almost beyond conception. When the big fire destroyed the Byrne building in Los Angeles, Cal., a few months ago, the local papers were full of accounts of the peculiar coincidence by which a camera man for the Selig Polyscope Company happened to be on the ground and was able to turn his camera crank through all the exciting period of swirling flames and smoke and thrilling rescues. "Another piece of the proverbial Selig luck" is the way motion picture men would have characterized it, if they were not initiated into the methods of the house of Selig. But most of them know by this time that Selig luck, like the luck of most successful men, depends on foresight and ingenuity. Selig's series of fire pictures have already won an enviable name in the trade. They are all produced by Francis Boggs, western manager of the "Diamond S." Knowing this, one might begin to suspect some preconceived arrangement whereby Mr. Boggs is enabled to be on hand whenever there is a fire of any importance. Strange as it may seem, there is such an arrangement. The Edendale plant of the Selig Company is connected by wire with the central fire department station at Los Angeles. Every alarm turned in at the station is communicated at once to the studio. If the fire promises well, the camera man's automobile is on its way in a moment, often being first at the scene of the fire. Indeed, the Selig producer has all privileges inside the fire lines, second only to the fire chief himself. So that is why the Selig camera was right there when the Byrne building fire broke out. And that is why the Los Angeles Herald gave a full page in its Sunday edition, April 9, to "Moving Picture Heroes in a Broadway Fire." Here is the story as the news^ paper told it : All the world will soon be applauding the hero of a big Los Angeles fire, a great tall man in a fireman's helmet and rubber suit, who, sweeping through flames and smoke, dashes up the fire-ladder and rescues from a terrible death the fair, goldenhaired heroine. Greater still will be the applause when the heroic fireman with his precious burden in his arms cautiously descends the ladder and through the debris-strewn street, black and heavy with smoke, carries her to safety. It is a thrilling piece of acting, well worthy of applause, and when you look upon it you may know that it is genuine. It is a moving picture scene of a Broadway fire and moving picture actors in roles of the heroic firemen and the rescued girl. The pictures were made during the fire in the F. J. Byrne office and department store building at Third and Broadway a few week ago. Seldom has a fire in a big city block offered such advantages for the making of moving picture scenes as did this. Officers of the Selig Polyscope Company, which operates a playproducing studio in this city, quickly secured permission from the fire department to "put on a scene" at the fire, and soon a corps of actors and several moving picture machine operators were on hand. The Byrne building is an eight-story structure. The fire started in the lower floor and soon smoke was pouring from the windows of the offices above. While the fire was at its height the moving picture men did their work. The picture hero is shown leading a group of firemen with a reel of hose into the burning building, when suddenly the figure of a woman appears at one of the upper windows. The woman screams and falls prostrate before the window. In a flash the hero-fireman orders the ladder thrown up to the window and in another instant he is climbing as fast as his feet will carry him on his errand of mercy. He arrives just in time. He grabs the prostrate figure as flames leap from the windows and hurries down the ladder. She is saved. The ladder is pulled down, the regular firemen go on with their work. Starting for the Fire. The moving picture machine operator fills another reel with scenes from the fire and the drama is made. Miss Betty Harte, leading woman of the Selig company, and Thomas Santschi, one of the leading men, are the principals in the rescue scene. Both braved actual harm in tne fire in order to put on their act and get the pictures. In working out the "story" of the fire the moving picture actors stage a department store scene representing the upper floor of the burned building. Twenty girls are shown in a panic as the fire breaks out. Some climb down fire escapes, others