Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1911)

2yG THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD Scene from "Chief Fire Eye's Game" (Champion). With the Western Producers Los Angeles and Vicinity. The work of enlarging the Selig local studio has started. The two-story building at the corner of C and Allesandro streets has been razed and ground has been broken for the new property room. When completed the studio will be one of the most elaborate and complete in the country and will rank .far in the lead of the Coast studios. The south end of the concrete retaining wall will be extended until it will enclose a plot of land about 230 feet in length and 220 feet in width. The new wall will be built in the Santa Barbara Mission style. On the corner a concrete office structure will be erected and the present office rooms will be converted into dressing apartments. A 150-foot property room will be built in the back of the grounds. It will not be necessary to enlarge the glass-covered studio as it is now larger than is required. The local company is at present working among the Santa Rosa Islands, off the coast of Santa Barbara, under the direction of Francis Boggs. About thirty members are in the company. Numerous boats have been .chartered and some excellent marine pictures are expected. Mr. Boggs, who returned to Los Angeles for a few days in order to develop his negatives, told of a thrilling experience which he and seventeen other members of the company had while out cruising. The weather had been calm all day and the boat wa-~ well in -toward shore, when, without any warning, they were caught in a storm. The boat dashed toward the rocky shore, the occupants expecting to be thrown out any moment. The anchor was thrown overboard in an endeavor to stop the ship, but the ocean bottom was too rocky and smooth for it to gain a hold. Just in time, the sails were hoisted and the ship was pulled out of danger. Mr. Boggs states that the company will probably return at the end of the week. Fred Huntley, stage manager, was suddenly taken sick on the trip to Santa Barbara and was removed to a hospital. He is still under the care of a physician. J. L. McGee, who has been sick for the past week, is rapidly recovering. Miss Eugenie Bresserer, one of the company's stars, was recently thrown from her horse while returning home from work. She sustained lacerations about the body and the tendons of her right leg were torn. The horse became frightened, and taking the bit between its teeth, ran away. She was thrown in attempting to stop him. Miss I va Shepherd is rapidly recovering from her broken ankle and will soon be able to resume her work before the camera. The Yosemite Company, which is under the direction of Hobart Bosworth, is expected to return to Los Angeles at the end of two weeks. * * * James Young Deer, producer of the Pathe Company, has returned to Los Angeles from a business trip to New York and vicinity. He has brought back two trunks of Indian costumes which he obtained from the Indian reservation in Nebraska, where he went to visit his people. Miss Virginia Chester, formerly playing ingenue parts, will soon return to the company and will only appear in soubrette parts hereafter. Miss Chester in her unfortunate illness has received the sympathy of the local moving picture people, following so rapidly as it does her recent period in the hospital. She has been operated upon three different times. * * * The thirty-fourth birthday anniversary of William Clifford, well known in moving picture circles, was celebrated by an impromptu entertainment given by the Melies Star Film Stock Company near Sulphur Springs. Mr. Clifford gave a number of selections, most prominent being ''The Bells," Sir Henry Irving's famous work. Mr. Ford was chairman for the evening. Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. Bracken, Mrs. Hale, Miss Midgley, Mr. Stanley, Mr. Young, Miss Nichols and Mr. Haddock. * * * The Kalem Company is about to stage a number of expensive pictures of rural life. The O'Neil ranch near the ocean, which is said to be about 320,000 acres in area, will be the scene of the pictures. * * * The Powers Company, of New York, are sending a stock company West to produce Western films. They will erect a permanent studio here about September 1.