The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

12^ ■THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY Ben Wilson. |NE of the "Old Guard" of Universal players is Ben Wilson, who has been associated with the company for several years. Wilson is an actor of vast experience, having been connected with some sort of "Show business" ever since he was a boy. He says that he cannot remember, as a child, being interested in anything else. One of the keenest memories of his early days is the time that "Hamlet" came to Corning, Iowa, where he was born, and he, like a spendthrift, had squandered all his pocket money on a baseball catcher's mitt. "I had to see the play," he says, "so I sneaked into the 'Opera House' during the day, while it was being swept, ■and hid in an elevator shaft, where the dust kept me in an agony of apprehension lest a sneeze might give me away. I stayed for hours in that shaft, but I've always thought that the play was worth it." That is the true "theatre blood." Wilson declares that everything he did as a boy was done with the stage in view. He read books about the stage, practised "elocution" in the bam, made gestures at himself in the glass for hours at a time, and learned the longest poems by heart in record time to make himself a "quick study." At last the eager boy had an opportunity to join a repertoire organization. After valuable training, he became a member of the Spooner Stock Company in Brooklyn, where he played innumerable parts. Then he became manager of the Park Theatre. Al Ben Wilson Plays Best Role Thus Far most as soon as his occupancy began, the building caught fire and burned to the ground. So Wilson went back to playing, this time to Broadway. He was connected with several successful plays, among them "Paid in Full" and "Seven Days." It was while playing in the former that he became so seriously interested in motion pictures that he was tempted to give up the stage for them. But his friends raised a howl of protest. "Pictures?" they cried contemptuously. "They are the last resource of the broken down actor, unfit for anything better!" So Wilson postponed his screen debut, and joined the "Seven Days" company which enjoyed a New York run of fifty-two weeks. Meantime, the contemptuous friends had been watching the development of the "infant industry" with something akin to alarm. So when Wilson again declared his intention of playing for the films, they exclaimed "Go to it!" He went to the Edison company, where he had an immediate success. Since joining Universal, Mr. Wilson has made a reputation for himself as a director, which rivals his success as an actor. His tremendous experience stood him in good stead here. He has seen so much that he has a vast store of impressions to draw upon, as well as the imagination to use them. He served in the Spanish-American war, among other things, and his experience as a soldier has been invaluable to him. Wilson is a home-loving, easy-going sort of chap, who refuses to get excited about the changes and chances of the actor's career. He possesses the invaluable quality of adaptability. When the Universal players were moved out of the old Imp studio over to the brand-new building at Fort Lee, Wilson, with his usual foresight, built himself a house there, and was comfortably installed before the snowy weather made the daily trip a matter of difficulty to all the other players who lived in New York. Then came the exodus to Universal City. Every one was excited over that except Ben Wilson. He sold his house, packed up, and was again one of the first to be settled in Hollywood. Since reaching the Coast, Wilson has been adding to his laurels as a director. He put on two three-reel photoplays, "Honor Thy Country" and "Society Hypocrites," which won him the unstinted praise of the professional critics and the public. Wilson also directed a five-reel feature with Neva Gerber in the lead, which has not yet been set for release. His talents as an actor were quickly recognized by the Universal City directors, and they all made bids for his services. Lois Weber asked him to portray the husband in the prologue of her splendid production, "Idle Wives." Then Conway asked him to take the dual role in the present Red Feather. But the role of the "doubles" in "The Mainspring" is the best part that Wilson has ever had, so he is reconciled to his temporary deprivation of authority. Ruth Stonehouse and Raymond Wells directing a scene in "Kinkaid, Gambler," next Red Feather.