Moving Picture News (Jan-Jun 1912)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 13 SCIENCE AND ART AFFILIATED By Robert Grau "I am playing for posterity, and I am grateful that I live in an age wherein such art as yet remains with me may be preserved through science and artifice." Thus spoke the divine Sarah — the incomparable Bernhardt— who recently when remonstrated with, because she had capitulated to the inducements offered by a moving picture concern, expressed herself further as follows: "Art is art. Whether it be presented at the Comedie Francaise or at the music halls — an artist can make the excursion from one to the other with grace and dignity." That Mme. Bernhardt was actuated through public spirit in permitting herself to pose before the camera is not so certain, for the report is that she was paid fifty thousand dollars for the "canning" of the great play of "Camille." Nevertheless, it is not to be denied that this Ajax of two centuries, who at the age of sixty-seven is able to appear in the most fatiguing roles from eight to ten times a week, has established a precedent that may well be emulated by her colleagues in this country. Sarah is not the first great celebrity to pose for motion pictures. Jane Hading, the great Rejane, Mounet-Sully and all of the Coquelins have been paid enormous sums by the French film producers, and in thus allowing their artistry to be perpetuated on the screen they are merely following in the lead of the grand opera singers, some of whom are assured tremendous incomes for many years as a result of the royalties from their phonograph records. The illustrious Caruso was greatly consoled during the last two years by the knowledge that his losses by reason of his incapacity for grand opera have been more than made up by the receipt of over $150,000 in the same period from the Victor Phonograph Company, and there are those who think that the great tenor's vocal incapacity is partly due to the overtaxing of his voice in the effort to preserve for future generations the records of his marvelous voice. However this may be, the fact remains that the world's greatest players and singers are bowing with equanimity to the encroachment on their realm of science and artifice, and after all who shall say them nay? What would we all give if the voices of Jenny Lind, Malibrau, Grisi, Mano and Tamberlik were preserved in the same manner and what a blessing it would be for the younger generation if the Adelina Patti of her prime, the one real diva who for thirty-five years was queen of song, and whose successor has not appeared on the horizon to this day — ■ what would we all, young and old for that matter, give to get the vocal records of her exquisite rendition of those simple ballads, "The Last Rose of Summer" and "Home, Sweet Home?" And yet, sad to relate, the same Patti, who a generation ago -would dismiss a ten thousand dollar audience because she was slightly hoarse, and who up to the year 1904 refused offers of one hundred thousand dollars from a phonograph company, yet in this very year with her voice but a shadow of its former greatness allowed herself to be "taken" by the Victor Company in those two plaintive ballads with which she was wont to enthrall her hearers so that they would forget where they were. Alas, it was the same Patti; perhaps it was hoped that the phonograph might be merciful to the diva and that the trills and roulades would come true. Patti always, even at the age of sixty-six, deftly concealed her shortcomings, and her superb coloratura still was faultless as far as her deteriorated voice would permit, but alas! the phonograph is as merciless as it also is true. The Patti who drew tears from audiences all over the world yet draws the tears from those who heard her in her prime, but the tears brought forth as a result of her vocal records are from a wholly different impulse. LOOK AT THIS! SOMETHING NEW IN THE FILM BUSINESS! The establishment of a legitimate film brokerage for remote domestic and foreign buyers has been a long-felt want in the industry. The buyer in Brazil, New Zealand and other portions of the earth remote from the New York market has worked up to the present time under a serious handicap. In doing business with a foreign market there is at all times the danger of getting in the hands of the sharper, the man who pockets two-thirds of the money you send him to do busines for you on, and who sends you the value of the remainder in film chosen after the pattern of his own perverted tastes. To be sure there are numberless others who carry on their business in an honest, conscientious way, but the buyer who is not on the ground is forced to take his chances among more than the "27 Varieties." We are, therefore, glad to be able to introduce to our readers a newly born, and thoroughly reliable film brokerage — reliable because the busmess of the firm is to be manipulated by conscientious business men who are not alone discriminating and capable with regard to their choice of films but who have the business of the buyer at heart, realizing that in order to facilitate their own business interests, the best interests of their clients must be welllooked after. The firm which we recommend so highly to our readers is that of Maclntyre and Kerr, whose business offices are to be found in the German Bank building, 147 Fourth avenue, New York City. In doing business with this firm, who, by the way, are not in any way in league with the manufacturer, choosing subjects deemed by them suitable to the buyer from among advance releases of individual manufacturers, and who derive their only revenue from the percentage charged the buyer for time and service rendered in the work. An important point in the dealings of this firm is the fact that they handle none of the money remitted by the buyer except what their rate of percentage may call for. The money of the buyer is transmitted through his own personal broker to a New York bank from whence the money is paid as bills fall due for goods actually purchased and handled by their transport shippers at New York. Absolutely no films are handled at the office of the New York brokerage, of which Mr. James L. Maclntyre, formerly general manager of the Nestor Film Company, and of eight years' moving picture experience, and J. Willard Kerr, an excellent and experienced business man, have charge. Both the foreign and domestic trade are greatly in need of a brokerage of this sort, and it looks to us like another move toward the uplift, advancement and perpetuation of the film industry. CAPTAIN SCOTT FILMS (Handled by Sedeg Film Company by Authorization of Gaumont) These splendid films of the entrance of the land of mystery approximate to the South Pole, which, by authorization of the Gaumont Company are to be handled by, and State rights sold through the Sedeg Film Company, are among the most wonderful films ever put on the market. To be able to see living, moving productions of those frozen regions, pale and uncanny beneath the half light of the midnight sun, is something more — infinitely more — than most of us could ever have even dreamed of seeing. It is impossible to even imagine, without actually viewing it with our own eyes, the solemn grandeur, the big loneliness of those tremendous frozen barriers, those vast fields of ice that challenge the daring explorer who ventures thither. These films obtained by the Gaumont Company are truly illustrative of the trip of Captain Scott from his starting point at New Zealand to Cape Evans. Interesting scenes from the Captain Scott films are the flocks of penguins on the ice, the landing of the Siberian ponies, whose delight upon being placed upon terra firma is pathetic, the bucking of the great ice floes by the "Terra Nova," the landing of supplies, the dog teams, the midnight sun, and many other phenomena peculiar to that portion of the globe. The Gaumont Company, as announced in last issue, have joined the Sales Company and is now an important addition to that organization, reinforcing with its beautiful hand-colored films the alread}' splendid curriculum of that concern. The release days of the Gaumont with the Sales Company will be the same as before its entry into that body: Tuesday comedy day, and Saturday drama day.