The Moving picture world (February 1920-March 1920)

2132 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD March 27, 1920 Winchell Smith Believes Screen Offers Greater Creative Field for Dramatist "No, I Ain't Gotta Union Card!" Herbert Rawlinson. however, is some driver in his Flynn picture, "The Silltless Banknote," a Republic release. WINCHELL SMITH, who recently joined Metro's staff of authors at its studios in Hollywood, disclaims any special gen-ius for writing, in spite of the notable list of successful stage plays to his credit. "No, I never had any newspaper experience," he said. "Sometimes I feel that the less a man knows about the mechanics of literary work, the better he is equipped for dramatic writing. A man who writes phrases as people speak them and not as the copy books construct them is the man who gets the best dialogue." Mr. Smith is now personally supervising the picturization for Metro of "The New Henrietta," the comedy he and Victor Mapes adapted from a play by Bronson Howard. Mr. Smith was first an actor and then a producer. He told how he came to write as well as act and direct for the stage. "The man who was to dramtize a story which I was to produce backed out at the last moment. I got another man in with It succeeded Sex," Starring Louise Glaum, Scheduled by Hodkinson Corporation jor April Release STARRING under the management of J. Parker Read, Jr., is resulting in one success after another for Louise Glaum, whose newest production is, "Sex," a drama from the pen of C. Gardner Sullivan and directed by Fred Niblo, through an arrangement with Thomas H. Ince. W. W. Hodkinson Corporation, the distributors of Mr. Read's Louise Glaum productions, announces the pre-release of "Sex" in the larger first run cities of the country as of April 11 and a vivid, intense advertising campaign is now launched for the production. "Sex" is the drama of the sorrow and suffering that refines the soul of woman; the drama of experience without which no life is complete and of the great unknown, the great gamble that is life. It ranges from being before the eyes of audiences a drama of a hundred persons, these hundreds being typical of millions of men and women throughout the world. In a flash it narrows down to the life of two or three persons who live within reach and touch of your elbow. Has Richnes of Pageantry. In color, in crowd, in costuming it has the touch and richness of pageantry at moments and the next is confined with force to the picture of two women fighting the battle of their lives for their happiness. Sex" is not the physical in life, but has been made to throb and live by Louise Glaum as the great allure; the great appeal of love, of heart-hunger. Louis Glaum shows the liberality and democracy that have been responsible for her great success in the past year in the excellence of the cast of supporting players that she and Mr. Read have engaged for this production. Her supporting cast includes Myrtle Stcdman, Peggy Pearce Irving Cummings, and William Conklin. ' To Be Given Wide Exploitation. The Vy. W. Hodkinson organization has distributed the J. Parker Read, Jr., productions under the selective system of distribu iii>»iiiiiiiii>iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii tion. Each picture has received the attention of specialists. Each one has been kept free and clear of other pictures and handled as if it were the only picture to which the organization was devoting its nation-wide energies. "Sex" now in its turn receives such promotion and management. The picture is not available except in its most restricted form as of April 11. It is protected against such rush showings or imperfect exploitation by being turned over only to such first runs as guarantee it exclusive and liberal showmanship of the highest grade of advertising. Prints of the picture have been shipped to thirty-two Hodkinson branches and trade showings are to be held in this number of cities on March 25. me and we wrote that play, and I became a playwright." Hit Plays Most Successful. The play was "Brewster's Millions." Other plays credited in whole or in part to Winchell Smith are "The Only Son," "The Fortune Hunter," "The Boomerang," "The New Henrietta," "Turn to the Right," and "Lightnin'." Very successful productions in which he has had a hand, but which he has hitherto not been credited with writing, are "Officer 666," "Hawthorne of the U. S. A." and "The Three Wise Fools." "Mostly rewrote them," he smiled, referring to his work as a playwright. "We did our real writing during rehearsals." "The picture method will be slightly different for you," was suggested. "Yes," he sighed, then laughed. "Do you know, I used to rehearse Miss Mathis in my stage productions. This morning I took my preliminary script for the picture to her and after she talked to me for a time about scenario writing I came out of her office feeling like a bloody schoolboy! "I'm going to like motion pictures immensely," he confided at the end of his first day at the studio. "Here is a wonderful range for a man. On the stage there are only two or three ways of doing a thing where there are two or three thousand on the screen. The whole earth is here on your stage." "The House of Toys" Under Production. "The House of Toys," a society drama, is the "Flying A" special now under production at the Santa Barbara studio of the .\merican Film Company. Daniel F. Whitcomb, himself the author of numerous original film stories and continuities, adapted the novel by Henry Russell Miller, and George L. Cox is directing the filming of this new photonovel. Assisting Mr. Cox is Sidney Algier, and S. A. Baldridge is the technical director. National Association to Move Soon to New Home in New York Theatre Building THE National Association of the Motion Picture Industry will on March 31 remove its offices to a suite in the New York Theatre Building, 1520 Broadway, from its present headquarters in the Times Building, where it has had a home since its organization in 1916. The increased activity of the association in all phases of the industry made it imperative that larger offices be obtained. The new offices are on the Forty-fourth street side of the New York Theatre Building and are admirably arranged for the purpose of the association, which for a long time has been handicapped in its work by lack of room. Because of the present limited space it has been necessary to hold many of the important committee meetings away from the office. The association is performing many functions which were not contemplated and solving many problems which had not been presented when it was organized. Its activity during the war days won the highest commendation from President Wilson and other officials, and its peace time activities, while perhaps not so conspicuous, are quite as important to the industry. Expansion of Activities the Cause. As an illustration of the increased activities, the film exchange committee and the committee on fire prevention regulation are co-operating in the work of finding suitable and adequate quarters for the exchanges in all the exchange centers. Thomas H. Butler has been placed in charge of this work and he and his assistants are in daily consultation with architects, builders and financiers who are coming to New York. The work of the committee which is handling censorship matters had increased so much that last year it was necessary to change its plan of operation. Royal K. Fuller was named as executive secretary of this committee. The Americanization committee, of which Franklin K. Lane, formerly secretary of the interior, is chairman, will have its offices on the same floor with the national association, and in that way there will be closer co-operation. The association is generally recognized as the strong factor in the industry in this country, representing as it docs 95 per cent, of the production and distribution of motion pictures. William A. Brady has been president of the association since its organization, Walter W. Irwin has been chairman of the executive committee and Frederick H. Elliott has been its executive secretary.