The Moving picture world (May 1922)

May 20, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 267 Paramount Breaks All Precedent; Gives Six Months Advance Schedule of Films FOR the first time in the history of the motion picture industry a leading producer and distributing organization places before the exhibitors of the country a complete advance schedule of its productions and their releasing dates for six full months. This is the achievement of Paramount, which today announces its schedule of feature releases from the beginning of the new Paramount season, August 6, up to and including the month of January, 1923. With this announcement the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation submits to exhibitors for their consideration forty-one Paramount productions — titles, stars, featured players, directors, actual dates of release, casts, accessories, exploitation suggestions— nearly three months in advance of the beginning of the half year's program. Furthermore, full information concerning the authorship and character of the stories is presented, and in the majority of cases even the players chosen for the most minor roles are named. This has been an epoch-marking accomplishment, made possible only through the employment of all the tremendous resources of a tremendous organization. For months this gigantic program has been in preparation. For months every resource of the production department, under the supervision of Jesse L. Lasky, has been directed toward its completion. Following the recently adopted Paramount policy of centering the company's eflforts on big special productions of assured box-office value, the first step was the acquisition of stories and plays of such character that the task of "following through" would be the easier. Under Supervisor-in-Chief Frank E. Woods the system of supervision of productions has been completely reorganized. The directorial force at the Lasky studio is headed by Cecil B. DeMille, directorgeneral, who stands at the very top of his profession as a producer of moneymaking pictures. There are eight special directors — William deMille, George Fitzmaurice, George Melford, Penrhyn Stanlaws, John S. Robertson, Irvin Willat, Sam Wood and Fred Niblo. Other directors constantly employed in producing Paramount pictures of super-quality are James Cruze, Joseph Henabery, Alfred E. Green, Philip E. Rosen and Paul Powell. Among the brightest of all the stars in the firmament of the films are those who shine under the Paramount banner. They are Gloria Swanson, Rodolph Valentino, Betty Compson, Elsie Ferguson, Thomas Meighan, Wallace Reid, Dorothy Dalton, William S. Hart (who produces his own pictures), Agnes Ayres, Jack Holt, Bebe Daniels, May McAvoy, Mary Miles Min.ter, Alice Brady, and Wanda Hawley. These lists do not take into account those responsible for the splendid output of Cosmopolitan Productions, made especially for Paramount and released through its exchanges as Paramount Pictures, nor the product of the Hamilton Theatrical Corporation, which releases its Europeanmade productions through the same channels. Marion Davies heads the list of Cosmopolitan artists, while Pola Negri and Ernest Lubitsch, respectively star and director, are prominent among the celebrities whom the Hamilton organization presents to the American public via Paramount. The Paramount Stock Company may well be termed the backbone of Paramount pictures. Flere is a permanent organization of many of the best-known players appearing on the screen. The list of these artists is as follows : Lila Lee, Lois Wilson, David Powell, Conrad Nagel, Theodore Roberts, Sylvia Ashton, Walter Long, Charles Ogle, Clarence Burton, Kathlyn Williams, Ethel Wales, Helen Dunbar, Anna Q. Nilsson, Milton Sills, Theodore Kosloff, Walter Hiers, T. Roy Barnes, Julia Faye, Guy Oliver, Lucien Littlefield, Lillian Leighton, Robert Cain, Mitchell Lewis, Casson Ferguson, George Fawcett, Harrison Ford, Tom Moore, Edwin Stevens, John Bowers, Alan Hale, Herbert Standing, Betty Francisco, Winter Hall, Edward Martindel, Frank Campeau, Adele Farrington, James Kirkwood, Mabel Van Buren, Nita Naldi, Maude Wayne, Fred Huntley, Maym Kelso, Claire McDowell, Will R. Wallington, Adolphe Menjou, William Boyd, Tully Marshall, . Edythe Chapman, James Neil and Clarence Geldart. Here are leading men, heavies, leading women, ingenues, comedians, juveniles, character ortists — each a leader in his particular line. Wiih this wonderful personnel at its beck and call, and with the remarkable list of stories and plays already started through the channels of production, the studio staff started systematically to map out its program in detail. Today, fully half of these forty-one productions are entirely completed or in actual work of filming, while the remainder of the program is so accurately mapped out that the studio executives can tell at a glance just what each individual in the organization will be doing at any specified date during the next few months. Here is the complete list of the fortyone productions comprising the schedule for the first six months of the Paramount year : Wallace Reid in "The Dictator," supported by Lila Lee. From the play by Richard Harding Davis. Directed by James Cruze. Scenario by Walter Woods. Marion Davies in "The Young Diana," a Cosmopolitan production. From the novel by Marie Corelli. Directed by Al bert Capellani. Scenario by Luther Reed. Thomas Meighan in "If You Believe It, It's So," by Perley Poore Sheehan. Directed by Tom Forman. Scenario by Waldemar Young. Betty Compson in "The Bonded Woman," based upon "The Salvaging of John Sumner," by John Fleming Wilson. Directed by Philip E. Rosen. Scenario by A. S. LeVino. May McAvoy in "The Top of New York," by Sonya Levien. Directed by the late William D. Taylor. "The Loves of Pharoah," an Ernest Lubitsch production, with Emil Jannings, Dagny Servaes and Harry Liedtke. Gloria Swanson in "Her Gilded Cage," a Sam Wood production. By Elmer Harris, suggested by Ann Nichols' play. Scenario by Percy Heath. "Nice People," a William deMille production, with Wallace Reid, Bebe Daniels and Conrad Nagel. From the play by Rachel Crothers. Scenario by Clara Beranger. Rodolph Valentino in "Blood and Sand," a Fred Niblo production. From the novel by Vicente Blasco Ibanez, author of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Adapted by June Mathis. "The Valley of Silent Men," with Alma Rubens. A Cosmopolitan production from the story by James Oliver Curwood. Directed by Frank Borzage. "The Siren Call," an Irvin Willat production, with Dorothy Dalton, David Powell and Mitchell Lewis. From a story by J. E. Nash. Jack Holt in a Peter B. Kyne special, "While Satan Sleeps." By the author of "Cappy Ricks." Directed by Joseph Henabery. Scenario by A. S. LeVino. Cecil B. DeMille's production, "Manslaughter," with Thomas Meighan, Leatrice Joy and Lois Wilson. From the novel by Alice Duer Miller. "The Mysteries of India," a UFA production, presented by Hamilton Theatrical Corporation. "Pink Gods," a Penrhyn Stanlaws production, with Bebe Daniels, James Kirkwood, Anna Q. Nilsson and Adolphe Menjou. Adapted by J. E. Nash and Sonya Levien from the novel by Cynthia Stockley. "The Old Homestead," with Theodore Roberts, T. Roy Barnes, Charles Ogle and Fritzi Ridgeway. Directed by James Cruze. Adapted from Denman Thompson's play. Scenario by Julien Josephson. "The Face in the Fog," by Jack Boyle, creator of "Boston Blackie." A Cosmopolitan production. "Burning Sands," a George Melford production, with Wanda Hawley by Arthur Weigall. Scenario by Olga Printzlau. Wallace Reid and Lila Lee in "The Ghost Breaker." From the play by Paul Dickey and Charles Goddard. Scenario by Jack Cunningham. Directed by Alfred E. Green. "The Cowboy and the Lady," a John S. Robertson {Continued on page 269)