Moving Picture World (Mar-Dec 1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. 245 engaged in minor parts or other young men who meet the requirements and are willing to pose. Occasionally, from one or another of these sources, they get precisely what they want ; more often, as happens in so many other pursuits, they must be satisfied to get as near to it as they can. The young man who finds himself selected to pose for a series of pictures for an illustrated song may be taken to be photographed a little distance into the country or perhaps to the seashore, there to be posed and pictured, for many of these song pictures are shown with a nature background, and it is sought to make this true to the song. If a city background were required the subject would be posed and photographed in city streets. For some songs a figure in uniform may be required, as the man in the song might be adetter carrier, or perhaps a military officer. If uniforms are required they are supplied by the lantern supply people who make and supply the pictures, and they pay also all expenses where the figure is posed and the pictures taken out of the city. For this work of posing for illustrated song pictures the pay is $4 a day, which may not seem like very large pay, but it isn’t so bad when it is considered that the hours are short and the work easy; and really it is likelv to be so much velvet for those who can fill the requirements and who have the time for it. Frequently there may be required for one series of pictures more than one day’s sittings, perhaps a day and a half, or it might be two days, making the work at the price paid fairly remunerative. It cannot, however, be followed as an occupation, but only as occasional work. For if there were shown in the pictures displayed with illustrated songs always the same figures and faces the eye would quickly discover that sameness and it would destroy the illusion ; the pictures must be made for and belong to one song only, and so not only must new pictures be made, but different figures must be posed for every song. The lantern slide makers keep a catalogue of all the The lantern slide makers keep a catalogue of all the subjects that have posed for them, and in this catalogue are jotted down not only names and addresses, but such personal characteristics as might serve as a guide in the selection of subjects to be called upon to pose in the future as occasion might require, but commonly, to avoid repetition in the pictures, once in say six months would be as often as subjects would be called upon, and so posing for pictures for illustrated songs is an occasional employment only. Women are posed for pictures for illustrated songs as men, and, of course, handsome women are far more numerous than handsome men ; but still it is not so easy as it might seem it would be to find handsome young women exactly suited to the requirements of this work. The young women required are found among artists models, and sometimes, as in the case of young men through theatrical agencies. One might think that among the artists’ models a sufficient number of subjects might be found without trouble, but among these one might be especially admirable and in demand among artists because of ber beautiful eyes, and another because of her beautiful mouth, but for song pictures the subject must fill a sort of all around requirement. Still, it 'is easier to find handsome young women for song pictures than it is to find handsome young men, and in this work the young women may find somewhat more frequent employment, for their pictures may be used on the title pages of sheet music, and young women may be rather oftener pictured than young men in song pictures because of the greater variety that may be imparted to such pictures by woman’s more varied attire. — (New York Sun.) Alan Dale Sees the Simple Dramatic Life of Verona. It is fete day in Verona, and it is lovely to feel feted. (If this appears as “fetid” I shall cable a curse.) Naturally, my idea of fete is concerned with special matinees at the theaters and gala evening performances, and the real American idea of fete. And that is precisely where I go to pieces here. For if the 61,000 good people (including, of course, the usual sprinkling of bad ones) 111 this garrison town want to go to the theater, all they have to do is to don their “glad rags” and hie them to the Teatro Ristori. Well, say you, what’s the matter with the Teatro Ristori? Wasn’t Ristori the most illustrious of Italian actresses, and isn’t it nice to think that a theater should be named after her? To which I reply: Even so. But the beautiful Teatro Ristori— and it is, indeed, a very handsome, modern play-house — is given over entirely to— you’ll never guess — the American bioscope, the king of cinematographs! Imagine the population of a big town, with shoals of naughty soldiers in its midst, being compelled on a general holiday to rush for its drammer to the bioscope ! Bills all over the town announce this great dramatic event at the Ristori, and the bills were so long and contained such a lot of promise that I felt bound to sample the entertainment that was to begin punctually at 21 o’clock. We are accustomed to just a dash of biograph in our Keithian-Proctor entertainments, and as a mere incidental figure. But here was drama in Italy beginning and ending in speechless motion-pictures. Soldiers and children were allowed to enter at halfprice rates, the military mind in Italy evidently being considered as non-adult. Ordinary mortals had to buy the usual “ingresso,” and pay extra for any seat they might elect to occupy. It was funny to see the big Teatro Ris tori filled with people anxious to sit through biographic drama, all studying programmes a yard long, and quite as interested as we should be at the first production of a new play. The various sets of pictures, in fact, were treated as dramas, and thoroughly explained on the programme. For instance, the first picture was announced as a “grandly impressive social drama,” called “The Romance of a Derelict,” in eight parts. Each part, of course, was a picture, and it was labeled on the programme as we label events in melodrama. Like this: “In Seach of Fortune!” “Fido, the Loving Dog!” “Help from a Beautiful Lady!” “A Perilous Misadventure!” “Kidnapping the Child!” “Flight !” “The Dog Follows !” “Arrest !” “Recompense !” The guileless Veronese applauded rapturously when the “loving” Fido, having jumped into the river after the kidnapped child, swan with it to the shore, deposited it at the feet of its tortured mommer, and was recompensed by wholesale endearments. We, fn our superior way, should have sniffed contemptuously at the ingenuous prettiness of the thing. Even as bioscope, it wouldn’t have suited us. We should have clamored for something more movingly moving-picture. Even the soldiers went into raptures over this “Romance of a Derelict,” and the little Veronese children had the time of their lives. The clicking biograph then proceeded, in its nervous,