The Moving picture world (October 1920)

October 30, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1231 When Lillian Gish Goes on Location On an Ice Cake in the Arctic Sea IT has not been settled that Lillian Gish is to make a picture at the North Pole, but one thing is positive — if she ever does start on such an expedition or the scenario demands that she drift across the Arctic Ocean on a cake of ice, she will take an extra large supply of grease paint with her. The Eskimos will imagine the beautifully pink tinted sticks are a superior brand of candles and will proclaim them a great delicacy. The promise of a grease paint feast at the end of the trip will secure the help and devotion of as many members of "The Order of the Sons of the Midnight Sun" as can crowd aboard the Gish Ice Cake Special. The above statements may sound like a wild flight of the imagination; on the contrary, they are sober fact. After her experience in making the ice "stuff" for "Way Down East" Lillian Gish is not to be frightened by such a simple bit of business as a two-years' drift in the ice packs of the frigid zone. She is the sort of girl who goes where duty and the scenario send her. Besides, she will have her trusty sticks of grease paint with her and will be able to laugh at the cold when it chases the mercury out through the lower end of the thermometer. For she has made a valuable discovery: Grease paint will not only prove an enticing article of food for the gentlemen in fur pants, but a liberal coat of it on the tip of her nose will prevent that useful organ from freezing in the iciest' of Arctic weather. How to Ice Cake Plane Sitting in the corner room of her suite in the Savoy Hotel, one afternoon last week, Miss Gish gave me her rules for safely enjoying the new mid-winter sport of ice cake planing in a blizzard. "Of course," she admitted, "it isn't quite so pleasant as sea planing in summer behind a fast motor boat, and it isn't at all likely that you'll grin any if the cake upsets and spills you into the water. But I've found out how to. prevent your face from freezing, even after it becomes coated with ice. Whether or not you are a moving picture astress, put a good, heavy grease paint make-up on your face and you can defy the cold. That is what saved me from getting frost-bitten cheeks while I was floating down the Connecticut River last January. Mr. Griffith hadn't any such protection on his face and it was badly frost-bitten before the ice scenes were finished." wonder if — " exclaimed I, and then paused. It isn't safe to describe all one sees nowadays. "If what?" asked Miss Gish. "If the lovely painted ladies I passed on Fifth avenue or. my way up here expect to take to ice cake planing next winter. If so, they're rather rushing the season, don't you think?" Miss Gish agreed with me. Olive Thomas and Bobbie Heron Her suite is on the eleventh floor of the hotel, and a glorious view of Central Parkdrew me to one of the windows the moment I entered the corner room. Last winter I stood at one of the front windows of Olive Thomas' apartment on Central Park South and watched the same scene, while she chatted light-heartedly about her plans for the coming year and told me of a little nephew she was having educated and of the amusing things he was always saying when he came to New York By EDWARD WEITZEL to visit her. Snow and ice covered the lawns and the lakes of the park, as Olive Thomas sat curled up on a big sofa before a blazing fire, and I spo-e of the lovely view she would have when summer came. A reference to our conversation brought words of deep regret for her tragic death in Paris, and for "Bobbie" Heron's sad end. "Poor Bobbie!" said Miss Gish. "Mother and Dorothy were in Italy when the accident happened and the poor boy was dead and buried before we could get word to them." From an Anxious Enquirer The entrance of the private secretary, whose chief duty is answering the fan letters that arrive on every mail, changed the trend of conversation, and I was handed a note from a youthful admirer of the "Way LILLIAN GISH Playing I he heroine in "IP' ay Down East," made by D. IV. Griffith Down East" heroine. The writer had been told that the Gish sisters were twins, but she was still a little doubtful as to the truth of her information. "I wish you would tell me if you really are twins," she wrote. "A girl I know says she is sure that one of you was born in Massillon, Ohio, and the other in Chicago, so I guess you can't be twins after all." A difference in age of one year and five months further complicating matters, the secretary was instructed to inform the anxious inquirer that she had guessed right about the Gish twins. Somethinq About "The World of Shadows" A knock at the door and in walked Jerome Storm, the director who is to have the distinction of directing the first of the Lillian Gish pictures to be made by the Frohman Amusement Company. Mr. Storm looked at peace with himself and the writer of "The World of Shadows," which is the working title of the scenario selected for the new star. "We arc both greatly pleased with it," re plied Miss Gish, to my question as to how she and her director liked the story written for her by Madame de Gresac. "It is an American story, of course?" "Oh, yes I Madame de Gresac is French, but she has been in this country long enough to make a thorough study of conditions here. Under the name of Fred de Gresac she has written a number of successful plays, and 'The Purple Road' was played here at the Knickerbocker Theatre by Fred Terry and his wife several years ago." The elder of the Gish girls said this with great seriousness, but I was not to be imposed upon. "I trust you are not trying to make me believe that you are speaking from personal knowledge of the Terry engagement," I remarked. "Oh, but I do remember it quite well!" she protested. "You forget that I have been acting for over sixteen years, and I always read the theatrical news in the papers. I recall the engagement quite well." "Please tell me more about 'The World of Shadows,'" said I humbly. "I think the story, because of its powerful theme, will be bigger than the ordinary run of screen dramas. It's not what wou would term a melodrama, yet we believe it will be full of thrills." "And your own part — will it resemble your last role, or be like the character you played in 'Broken Blossoms'?" "It will be nearest Anna, in breadth of experience. It is an intensely dramatic story and there will be situations that I think will absorb and stir the audience — at least, I hope so. The story is the laying bare of a woman's soul!" Harry Levey Will Speak Before Advertising Clubs Harry Levey, president of the Harry Levey Service Corporation, producers of industrial-educational motion pictures, and of Harry Levey Productions, which makes feature photoplays, has been invited by the New England Association of Advertising Clubs to address a conference of the clubs to be held at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, Friday afternoon, October 22. Mr. Levey wi'.l speak on the industrialeducational motion picture, its production, its uses, and its results. It is planned that several industrial and educational motion pictures produced under his supervision, will be shown at the meeting. DeMille Starts on New Play Will iam DeMille has started work on his production of the J. M. Barric play, "What Kvery Woman Knows," for Paramount. The first scenes arc being taken in r set representing the interior of an old Scotch home. Olga Printzlau wrote the scenario and is said to have preserved all the intimate incidents of Scotch life which made the Frohman stage production so delightful when presented at the Empire Theatre, New York, more than a decade ago. Lois Wilson has the role of Maggie Shand, which Maude Adams immortalized on the stage, and Conrad Nagcl plays John Shand, the part created by Richard Bennett. The production is being filmed at the Lasky studio.