Paramount Press Books (1919)

Advance Press Stories on “The Girl Who Stayed at Home” To Be Sent to the Newspapers Immediately Prior to and During the Display of David W. Griffith’s Latest Photoplay. An Artcraft Picture MODERN MAGDALEN IS FINELY SHOWN IN BIG GRIFFITH FILM Cabaret Singer Heroine of “The Girl Who Stayed at Home” THE story of the Magdalen has been immortalised in song, in painting and in sculpture. But the story of the modern Magdalen is more often left untold or else told wrongly in the bandied gossip of the streets or the cold type of court records. The war has brought to light a thousand stories of penitence, of sacrifice and of the pure love born of suffering, but none is more beautiful than that which David Wark Griffith has immortalised in “The Girl Who Stayed at Home,” his latest Artcraft picture, which will be shown at the theatre next She was just a little cabaret singer whose early training wasn’t just what it should have been. But she wanted to be good, and she was so in the ways that she knew best of all. And there was the boy, the spendthrift son of an indulgent father. He knew the girl, and he called her ‘Cutie Beautiful.” Came the war and separation ; the battle that the mothers and sisters of America have fought ; the battle to stay straight and to cherish the memory of the boy who went across to make the world a land of liberty. With victory came the birth of love. Robert Harron is the boy, and Clarine Seymour portrays the girl. Others in the cast are Carol Dempster, Richard Barthelmess, George Fawcett and Tully Marshall. STORY OF THE LOST BATTALION IS MOST ROMANTIC OF WAR Splendidly Pictured by D. W. Griffith in “The Girl Who Stayed at Home” NO more romantic story of the war has come than that of the famous Lost Battalion, and of the ringing answer made to the Germans by the American commander when they demanded his surrender. It has been told in story and in many columns of newspaper print. The men of the battalion have been pictured in the dailies and in the weekly news reels of the moving picture theatres, but it has remained for David Wark Griffith to immortalise that story by impressing it in the indelible celluloid of a photodrama. The new Griffith picture is not a war play. It has in its plot some things that have to do with war and there are some battle scenes shown that are said to be the best yet screened, especially one of a night attack when the parachute flares and a box barrage are seen working simultaneously. The short chapters that deal with the actual fighting, deal almost exclusively with the charge and siege of one of the lost companies that faced the Huns along the Argonne and who made that classic everlasting answer. “The Girl Who Stayed at Home” is the new production, which will be shown at the theatre for a run of days beginning It was written by S. E. V. Taylor and is played by Griffith players, headed by Robert Harron, who presents a character he has never before attempted, but which is said to show a versatility in this actor that even he himself had never dreamed existed. HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW WHO TRIED TO EVADE THE DRAFT? You May Recall the Number When You See “The Girl Who Stayed at Home” HOW many persons do you know who tried to evade the draft? What excuses did they make? How much influence did they have? The question is not by any means as popular as it once was, but when David Wark Griffith’s new Artcraft production, “The Girl Who Stayed at Home,” is shown at the theatre next many spectators will recall instances that may not be far different from the picture itself. The boy was the son of a man who owned a string of shipyards, but when his card came through Uncle Sam’s mill it was found that he wasn’t any larger, any wiser or any better than the son of the poorest laborer the shipyard owner employed. Despite the fact that the son was placed at work in the shipyard at a job the old man decided was essential, the war squad detectives insisted that a woman could file time cards just as well as he could, and a few days later the young man awoke with a stiff back and sore feet, due to drilling about eight and one-half hours the preceding day. After some days of torture he learned how not to weaken. The part is taken by Robert Harron. It is said to be one of the finest performances ever seen on the screen, and gives Mr. Harron a new line of honors that he himself did not know he deserved. Others in the cast are Richard Barthelmess, Carol Dempster, Clarine Seymour, Tully Marshall, George Fawcett, Kate Bruce, Edward Peil, David Butler and Adolphe Lestina. 13