Moving Picture World (Dec 1920)

December 4, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 601 American Enterprise Is Busy Filming Picturesque India , Land of Mystery AMERICAN enterprise has carried the frontiers of American motion picture production to the Orient. Famous Players’ new studio in India is practically completed and the beginning of actual production now awaits only the shipment of staff and equipment from New York and London. Representing Famous Players, Tarkington Baker, well-known film man from New York, arrived in Bombay in June. Four months later he had performed the herculean task of selecting a studio site, acquiring the property, incorporating the (Famous Players Indian subsidiary company under the laws of India, remodelling the buildings already erected on the studio site, building new structures and laying the foundations for beginning the distribution of Famous Players films in India, Burma, Ceylon, Mesopotamia, Straits Settlements, Java and adjacent territory. Meyer Special Agent Here Frank Meyer came to India with Mr. Baker but remained only a little over two months. He returned to America and to the New York office of Famous Players to resume his former tasks there, and, in addition, to act as the New York special agent of the Indian concern. In addition to the huge task assumed and carried out by Mr. Baker, the latter likewise has made a thorough tour of the leading Indian cities, has visited Burma and Ceylon, and is now setting out for other I and remoter sections of the territory under his immediate jurisdiction. He is the managing director of the Indian company, and in addition to the pioneer work he has already accomplished, he has assembled a native staff of workers, all to take their proper places in due time under the direct foremanship of the experts who will be sent out from America and England. In Lowji Castle The Indian company is housed in what is known locally in Bombay as “Lowji i Castle.” It and the huge compound surrounding it was a famous place in its day. Here, when King Edward, as Prince of Wales, visited India, a great entertainment was prepared for him and in the marble floored room where, in this modern day, studio carpenters will shortly begin erecting “sets,” the prince danced merrily with some of the handsomest of the native princesses. The Famous Players’ Indian offices are all housed beneath Lowji’s roof. Mr. Baker has installed all modern conveniences. Dressing rooms are provided for the players and their comforts have been well looked to. “Punka” fans keep the rooms cool and numerous electric lights conveniently placed illuminate every corner of the main building. Unlimited Possibilities Outside, the electric plant is housed and the laboratory is complete in every detail. Equipped with a battery of Sunlight arc lamps and with a truck generator, the companies working in India can be sent anywhere on location — into the deepest jungles if necessary — and interiors likewise can be made of the great palaces still standing as reminders of the glory of the days of the Great Moguls. Mr. Baker is enthusiastic about the possibilities presented ir India. “Not only as a producing center,” he says, “but as a distributing center, its possibilities and oppor tunities are unlimited. In India alone there are 400,000,000 people. They are all potential motion picturegoers. Indeed, the demand for motion picture entertainment exceeds the supply. There are not enough theatres in India by a fifth to satisfy the picture appetite of the people. Multiply the present number of theatres by five and still the demand would not be met. "India Is Virgin Soil " “And this does not take into consideration the huge possibilities of adjacent territory. China, for example, is up and coming. It is my firm conviction, in short, that the next ten years will see such developments of motion picture amusement enterprises in the Orient as will startle the industry. What is needed now is more theatres — the enterprise to build them and the enterprise to organize native capital to finance them. The capital is here. It will not hesitate to invest, but it requires organization to set it to work. And a crying need, too, is for some able American architect to design theatres suitable for this country. “As for production, India is virgin soil. It is a land of tremendous contrasts. Desert as bleak as Sahara lies only a few miles removed from jungles into whose depth no white man has yet penetrated and in the shadows of which, according even to the official British publication on the subject, dwell tribes who have never seen a white man. Wonderful Ruins “The highest mountains in the world lie along India’s northeastern frontier. Along its northwestern frontier is Afghanistan. Another near neighbor is Thibet — land of mystery. Beautiful hills, or ‘ghats,’ are miniatures of the lofty Himalayas. Ruins that were ancient ruins even when Christ was born still stand, enshrouded in mystery. “The grandeur of the flourishing days of the Mogus still reflects its glory in the huge architectural piles their builders left as memorials. The most beautiful building in the world, the Taj Mahal, is only a day’s ride by train from the ancient capital of India, Delhi — and once more the capital under British rule — and in Delhi are ruins innumerable, silent evidences of the vast riches of ancient days. And beside the ruins are wonderful buildings, untouched by the ravages of time — palaces, mosques, forts. A Civilization Unknown to Us “Rivers, streamlets, the sea; temples of every description; pagodas; crowded bazaars, teeming with native life; brilliant color arrays in the streets; bullock carts, camel-drawn vehicles, elephants as draught animals ply beside modern tramways; in the forests and on the plains are tigers, wild elephants, jabbering monkeys. And all this within forty hours of Bombay and our headquarters at Lowji Castle! “It seems incredible, yet I state scarcely the bare facts. And everywhere, on every hand, in country, in city, in village, in ham Some day some really snappy mind will invent a word to replace the flip and not overbright term, “meller.” It may take yars and yars but it will happen. let, untold thousands of people in untold varieties of color, habit, custom and even of language. The Punjabi is different in all respects from his neighbor the Rajputana; the Madrasee differs from the Bengal; the Ceylonese is as distinct from the Burmese as a rabbit from a dog. Picturesque Material “Some are Hindus in religion, some are Mohammedan, a mere handful are Christians. Native rulers hold absolute power in some sections. The Nizam of Hyderabad, for example, only a day’s journey from Bombay, is absolute lord and master over his subjects. He is wealthy beyond estimate— a potentate who measures his pearls not by counting them, but by pouring them out in pint cups 1 “And the picturesque army! The fighting Sikhs, who distinguished themselves on the battlefields of France, and their comrades of other sections — all different, all differently uniformed. What can’t the wise director do with such material ! There is no limit to the possibilities. And, all the while, it must be remembered that India, land of mystery, is today and always has been of the deepest and most appealing interest to the Occidental. About its very name is woven a spell of magic. And now, through the medium of the screen, depicted in interesting story, India — the real, genuine India — is to be brought to the western world.” The scope of production in India is being arranged by Mr. Zukor and Mr. Lasky. Personally selected by these two chief executives of Famous Players, a staff of players, directors, cameramen, scenarists, expert studio workers and laboratory employes are to be sent out to Mr. Baker. By the time they are landed in Bombay, the native staff will be at work laying the foundation for the operations that will follow. Editor of ‘Postage” Talks to Associated Advertisers Speaking before members of the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers, assembled at luncheon at the Cafe Boulevard on Thursday, November 18, John Howie Wright, editor and publisher of “Postage,” the magazine of direct-mail advertising, advocated the greater use of direct-mail advertising in the motion picture business. Mr. Wright devoted the greater portion of his interesting and enlightening discourse to good and bad direct-mail advertising, and to support his claims, presented valid arguments in favor of good directmail literature. Direct-mail advertising, he pointed out, was not alone inexpensive, but at times considerably more effective than other forms of advertising. Mr. Wright related some of his personal experiences with direct-mail advertising, and cited many cases to prove his contention that good direct-mail literature was profitable if well-directed. Preceding Mr. Wright, Mark Larkin, chairman of the Press Comittee of the A, M. P. A. rendered a detailed report of the proposed cameramen’s contest to be conducted by the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers in conjunction with the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts. The terms of the contest were submitted by Mr. Larkin and later unanimously adopted by the organization. Fuller details regarding this contest will be announced shortly.