The Moving picture world (December 1920)

December 18, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 891 Rubberneddng' in Filmland ALTHOUGH production activity is at a low ebb in our Fair City, just now, there is considerable activity of another sort going on most of the time. For instance, there is a big Shriners' Ball scheduled to be pulled off tonight at Brunton. The new big stage, the largest in the world as far as is known, will be used as the ballroom, and the committee on arrangements bought up all the wax in town to make the big floor slick enough for the dance. , The Masonic order is well represented in the film colony, and the ball is a big charity benefit to which the public has been invited. Melrose avenue from Western to the Brunton plant will be gaily lighted up with colored electric lights for the guidance of the guests. Another big social event of the week was the formal opening of the new Mission Theatre on Broadway near Ninth street. The public opening took place on Thursday, December 2, but on the night before, a private pre-opening performance was given to more than a thousand invited guests, composed principally of the leading lights of Filmland and a few newspaper and trade journal representatives. All Were There I couldn't possibly give the names of all the film celebrities in the Mission that night,, but beginning with Mary and Doug, Nazimova, the DeMilles, Tom Ince, Mack Sennett, Dorothy Phillips, Charles Murray, Jesse L. Lasky, Allan Dwan, Earle Williams, May Allison and on through a list that would include every studio in the colony, I can assure you that very few of the important members of the film industry were absent. "The Mark of Zorro," the new Fairbanks production, was the feature attraction. Hickman Stages Emotional Scenes of a Raid on an Egyptian Tomb By NORA B. GIEBLER John Fleming Wilson, noted author, drove in from his ranch to see how Metro is getting along with the filming of his story, "Uncharted Seas," now in course of production. Stuart Holmes went out rabbit hunting and took his pet parrot along, thinking, no doubt, to give the parrot a treat. But Polly took French le.ave while Stuart was not looking, and despite all pleadings and entreaties on the part of her master refused to return. After having mastered the art of talking, it was probably too humiliating to the parrot to have to learn to hunt rabbits. Multum in Parvo Broncho Billy Anderson is in town and is organizing a producing company; Wallace Worsley, Goldwyn director, is the proud papa of a baby son, and the baby son is the proud possessor of a brand new savings account presented to him by his dad's studio associates. Viola Dana and Shirley Mason have lost their cook and are now taking turns in the kitchen; Bill Desmond has returned from Cleveland to play in the Morosco film version of "The Half Breed." Albert E. Smith, president of Vitagraph, has gone back to New York. Kenneth McGaffey is Harry Carey's new production manager, and Bill Keefe is rounding up a reception committee to meet Florence Lawrence when she comes from Frisco to begin on her picture, "The Unfoldment," for Producers Pictures Corporation. Larry Semon and Vitagraph are on speaking terms again and Larry is at work on a new comedy; Jack Pickford is going to help direct his sister Mary in her coming "raggedy" picture, and Bryant Washburn, who has just returned from England, is editing and titling "The Road to London" and incidently making preparations to begin on a new picture. A Studio Orchestra? I had a hard time finding anything to rubberneck this week, but I unearthed the Betty Compson company making closeups for Miss Compson's new picture for Goldwyn. Arthur Rosson, the director, was so tensely absorbed in his work of directing the action, or rather the repressed action of the close-ups in his barricade of lights and cameramen, that I did not disturb him nor Miss Compson. I listened to the sweetly sad strains of "Till We Meet Again," played soulfully by the orchestra till I was almost on the verge of tears myself, then left hastily, because I am not one of those women who can weep charmingly. They were doing emotional stuff. On the Benjamin B. Hampton stage, however, where Howard Hickman was making underground scenes of a raid on a tomb, the. action was thrilling and emotional, too, but not sad. The picture is being made from the story by Norma Lorimer, "There Was a King in Egypt," and all the action takes place in Egypt. Mr. Hickman is really making the finishing scenes for his picture, having filmed all the exteriors and desert scenes during the past few weeks. WITH WIFE AND CARPET BAG "THE NECK'' GOES VISITING Left to right: Harry Todd, King Vidor, Colleen Moore, Mrs. Giebler (Mrs. Neck) and A. H. Giebler himself Real Egyptian Stuff Joseph J. Dowling plays the part of an Egyptologist, a man who spends his time excavating and digging around old ruins for inscriptions and tablets and other antiquities, and Claire Adams is his daughter. Bob McKim is some sort of foreign prince who hears that jewels and treasure have been discovered by the old explorer, and with the assistance of Maude Wayne, an adventuress, and a couple of henchmen, he plans the raid on the tomb. The interior of that tomb, by the way, was made after exact copies of inscriptions and pictures found in Egyptian tombs, which the technical staff of the Ben Hampton organization obtained from a museum of antiquities. The tomb was at the end of a long passage, perhaps seventy-five feet long, and Director Hickman had set up his cameras at the end of the passage to get what he called a "long shot" of the action. Bob McKim is in the tomb with his assistants, and is looking for the jewels and treasure in the casket of a mummy, when the hero, played by Carl Gantvoort, steals out of another passage opening into the main one, and creeps up on the villains and holds them up before they have a chance to get away with the treasure. Carl Gantvoort, the leading man of the company, is a coming screen favorite. He is somewhat new to the films, but has had considerable stage experience and I heard nothing but praise of his work from his (Continued on page 902)