Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1927)

December 17, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD HOLLYWOOD OLLICL 29 ELIZABETH PICKETT By Tom Waller “I WANT to write and direct m> own pictures.” This, Elizabeth Pickett told us recently, is how she replied to Winfield R. Sheehan when he asked her, in 1923, to name the capacity in which she desired to enter the motion picture industry. Miss Pickett told us that smiles accompanied the granting of her wish. NOW, writing, directing, editing and titling on the average of eight short subjects each year, collaborating on big features and finally being assured of screen credit on an original which has just been accepted, Miss Pickett expresses this opinion of her first declaration to Sheehan : “Before I entered the picture business professionally, I learned enough from a series of one-reel propaganda films I made for the American Red Cross Society to be convinced that in order to achieve the utmost satisfaction as a writer for the screen, one would also have to be able to translate such writings directly to the screen. “I am certain that the time is not far off, in this business of ours, when the writer will have to be the director as well, in order to survive.” jV/f ISS PICKETT was just as frank in her augmentation of this statement when she said that story ideas as conceived by the writer could not hope to be brought to the silver sheet as conceived, when they had to pass from the mind of the originator through the conceptions of seven or eight people of different mental calibre, before they reached the director, and another version. Before Miss Pickett got her wish, she told us, she spent four months giving, as she described it, “my ideas to cameramen.” THEN, she told us she found out later, Sheehan decided to play a little joke on her and at the same time “cure” her of the idea of writing and directing. She was instructed to make a tworeeler in Kentucky ; to write and direct her own story. As the result her first Fox Variety was “King of the Turf,” out of which later sprang John Ford's “Kentucky Pride.” The Ford picture was inspired by locations and the theme which she had selected for her short subject. The record shows that so successful was her first short subject for Fox, and so pleased were Fox executives with her ability as a “location scout,” that she also realized in “Kentucky Pride” her first opportunity to edit and title a big feature. “ W 0LF FANGS” and “Wings ’ ’ of the Storm” are also Fox releases which won their locale through the locations and themes selected by Miss Pickett for two of her other Varieties. In both of these features her hand played an important part, so that during the past year alone, she has titled ten Fox features as well as taking care of her job as West Coast Supervisor of Fox Varieties. “I have written with the camera on some thirty or forty Varieties,” she said, “and I can see that the whole trend of production today, both from the standpoint of real economy and artistry, is with the person who writes with the camera.” I T N VIEW of the nature of Miss Pickett’sdebut in the production field and her courage in storming the Sheehan sanctum sanctorum, it is particularly interesting to note at this point in the interview, what Miss Pickett intends to do now that another step has been made in her career, which places her directly on the line of her observation of writerdirector for artistry and economy in production. This is occasioned by the acceptance of her first original feature story for the screen, tentatively titled “Fleetwing.” Heretofore practically all of her stories have been for Varieties and in each of these instances her policy of writer-director has been acknowledged. T^ROM the gradually increasing inter-relationship of her work with short subjects and features, indications on the lot now are that an interesting decision will be handed down from the front offices when her present two-year contract as Varieties’ Chief, ends in March, 1928. From our chat with her we gathered that Miss Pickett is now desirous of specializing in the production field. Writing and direc'ing are her specialities, although she said that under the contract which she signed when she first came to the Coast early in 1926, she has worked in practically every department of production. Prior to coming here she spent a year in the Fox New York headquarters as editor, title writer and cutter and two years as assistant manager of the department of Fox Varieties. CUNCE coming to the Coast, Miss ^ Pickett has been so constantly on the go that she figures she has spent less than one third of her time in the studio. While searching for locations Miss Pickett said that often she has made two and three Varieties rather than the one which was her original mission. PROUD of her early life on a farm, Miss Pickett said : “I know that I can go where the trail ends and the pack horse begins. There I can get something big for Fox because I know and love nature.” For a young woman with a generous abundance of feminine charm, Miss Pickett is unusually experienced as an executive and writer of note, in addition to being so thoroughly versed in production as her record with Fox proves. Graduating from Wellesley in 1918, Miss Pickett hastened back toher farm in Lexington, Kentucky, where she assumed command, due to the shortage of labor caused by the war. It was not long after her huge tobacco crop had been harvested that Miss Pickett, who had written and produced numerous plays while at college, found herself in the publicity department of the Red Cross in Washington. Before her experience with the Red Cross had been completed Miss Pickett had her first taste of film work in making propaganda pictures. Her three years’ active association with this organization were terminated by her writing 1100 of the 1500 pages comprising the noted History of the Red Cross. Just before joining Fox she revised this edition into a book of 200 pages, which is now in its fourth printing. Director Of Fox Varieties Has Highest Aspirations