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January 26, 1918
THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD
491
Mastercraft Forming Producing Company
General Manager Wolper Arranging Details in New York — Will Have California Studio.
ISAAC WOLPER, vice-president and general manager of the newly formed Mastercraft Photo-Play Corporation, spent several days in New York City last week arranging many details for the new company and left for Boston, where the Eastern studios are being built.
For a number of years Mr. Wolper has been one of the foremost men of affairs in the city of Boston. A little over a year ago he became interested in the motion picture industry and since then has devoted his entire time making a careful study of the business.
In speaking of the Mastercraft company, Mr. Wolper said, "After spending a great deal of time and money in carefully investigating the motion picture industry, I am thoroughly convinced that there is ample room for a picture organization operating on purely business lines and making productions of exceptional magnitude. The men who are my associates in Mastercraft Photo-Play Corporation are men of not only sound financial standing, but men who have really achieved distinction in large business enterprises and who are now going to devote their entire energies to the development of this enterprise upon which we are launched. In all our departments strictly business principals will be followed out. It is our intention to make no less than four nor more than seven productions a year, but in making these productions we will spare neither effort or expense in securing the finest talent obtainable to make photoplays that' are really superior in all that the term applies.
"In addition to our studios in Boston, which when completed will cover over fifty acres of ground, we will also have large studios in California. F. Eugene Farnsworth, president of our company is in California at the present time looking after these details and as soon as they are completed he will return to New York where he will arrange the final details for the filming of the first production.
"Dr. Thomas Dixon, Jr., whose 'Birth of a Nation' is without exception the finest offering the screen has born, will be a member of the new organization, and I believe our first production will be an elaborate picturization of one of his works. Ever since the making of 'Birth of a Nation' producers have been making Dr. Dixon most flattering offers for his other works, but up to the forming of the Mastercraft Photo-Play Corporation he has steadfastly refused these offers, as he wanted to be assured tha tthe visualization of his stories would be of such magnitude as not to depreciate his work, after the making of his initial photoplay spectacle.
"I hope to be able to announce within the near future the names of other writers who have won a high place in the world's literature, whose stories will be visualized by Mastercraft. but I want to assure the exhibitors and the general public throughout the world that we are not 'boasting' when we predict that Mastercraft Photo-Play productions are going to mark an epoch in the history of the silent drama."
/'Bill" Russell Entertains Press
Enjoyable Luncheon Tendered by Popular Screen Player Meets With Appreciation and Live Appetites.
MEMBERS of the press who attended the luncheon given at the Hotel Claridge by William Russell on Thursday, January 10, enjoyed the pleasant informality of the affair. There were those present who brought with them the best of appetites to enjoy the culinary excellencies, et cetera, provided; and there were there those whose fondness for food gave way to the charms of Terpsichore; for be it known that there was also present a welltuned orchestra which unintentionally cheated several of the guests out of more than one tempting course. William Russell, ably assisted by Mabel Condon, received the guests and placed them at the prettily decorated tables, after which the chatter of tongues and the informal moving about of guests bespoke the spirit of true jollity which pervaded the occasion.
_We were all glad to see "Bill" Russell, and— let's say it right here — he's one of those fine, clean physical types that the screen has produced and kept, and he's got a little news story for us pretty soon that's going to be of real interest. He's going back west in the near future, and he will take with him the good wishes of his many eastern friends.
Among those present at the luncheon were Lynde Denig, Dramatic Mirror; Edna Earle, Pathe studios; Herbert Howe, representing Photoplay; Joe Reddy and O. Watts, Morning
Telegraph; Messrs. Cooper and Mason of the Trade Review; Peter Milne, Moving Picture News; Charles R. Condon, Photoplay; James L. Hoff, George Blaisdell and Margaret I. MacDonald, Moving Picture World; Harriet Underbill, New York Tribune; Miss Nomence, Vanity Fair; Mrs. Case; T. E. Oliphant, Evening Mail; Lawrence Reid, New York Review; Mrs. Burness, Film Fun; Edwin M. La Roche, Moving Picture Magazine and Moving Picture Classic; James Beecroft, Exhibitor's Trade Review; Alice Glenister, Saucy Stories; and Milton Lowenthal, Theater Magazine.
Exposition to' Have Aircraft Exhibit
On Show Will Be a Scouting Plane With Army Officers in Charge.
AS the resulf of a flying trip to Washington last week General Manager Frederick H. Elliott, of the Motion Picture Exposition, and Executive Secretary of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry, arrangements have been made for an official exhibit at the forthcoming exposition which should attract wide interest. This exposition will take place in the Grand Central Palace February 2 to 10. Mr. Elliott conferred with Howard E. Coffin of the Aircraft Board and the Council of National Defense, with the result that when the exposition opens one of the big attractions will be an army airplane from which motion pictures have been taken at the front. This scouting plane will have mounted on it an observer's motion picture camera, as well as a Lewis machine gun, and it will be in charge of army officers from the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, who will demonstrate to the public how motion pictures are made by airplane observers for military purposes.
Mr. Coffin is now making arrangements with the Secretary of War to secure a detail of officers throughout the week. Another feature of this exhibit will be a collection of enlargements of official army photographs showing flight scenes of airplanes taken from other airplanes, also aerial battles and machines going through sensational acrobatic evolutions in the air. The Aircraft Board realizes the value of the co-operation of the motion picture industry in helping to perfect machines suitable for military reconnaisance work, and has shown a cheerful willingness to co-operate in making this coming exposition an intensely interesting one to all patriotic Americans.
Arrangements are now being made to reproduce a modern film studio in one section of the Palace, and each day one of the prominent producing companies will "shoot" interior scenes of some big production. Special scenery and interior decorations for these will be brought into the building for the. occasion and the famous stars being featured will appear. Furthermore, these scenes are not to be enacted before a mere empty box with its crank buzzing, but the regular lights will be used and film actually exposed. These sections of film will be developed, printed and shown at the exposition the following day.
Another "stunt" will be to permit amateur aspirants for a motion picture career to secure a try-out before the camera in a scenario especially written for the purpose.
Various exhibitors will enjoy special days at the show. Sunday, February 3, will be Pathe Day; Tuesday, February S, is to be Universal Day, and other special days are to be selected by the other big companies.
A Bit of Ancient Egypt Revived by Denishaun (Paramount-Bray).