Photoplay (Apr - Sep 1918)

56 Photoplay Magazine of the relation between music and human emotion than Miss Bernardine Whalen, sob-musician-in-chief at the Triangle studios at Culver City. Miss Whalen uses bits from various pieces for the varying emotions and in some instances finds music for the different emotions and situations in the same selection. For example, in Dvorak's "Humoreske" she plays the first part when the player is registering caprice or happiness, the second part for sorrow and the third part for intense emotion. She is also a devotee of Massenet's "Elegie," as a tear wringer, and for parting scenes she usually gives them Tosti's "Good Bye." To accompany scenes of happiness and joy, she plays bits from light operas and for anything depicting mystery, Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King." Brahms' "Hungarian Dance" and "Hungarian Lustspiel" come in handy for exciting scenes and for quiet, tense dramatic cal sleuth discovered, however, that the selection that was being picked on the harp was a more or less modern dance by one Gabriel-Marie billed as "La Cinquantaine," in English, "The Golden Wedding." Anyhow Cleopatra never celebrated anything like that. Miss Bara is also partial to Verdi &jcT! and occasionally she Miss Bernadine Whalen is the chief tear-inducer at Triangle's big Culver City studio. She says she can get the whole gamut of emotions out of Dvorak's "Humoreske," playing the first part for happiness or caprice, the second part for sorrow, and the third part for intense emotion. Above: Director Raymond Wells bossing Jack Richardson, Claire McDowell, and Josie Sedgwick in "Man Above the Law." At right: Director d'Elba is getting some emotion out of Charles Gunn and Laura Sears. scenes, Miss Whalen's music plot calls for "My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice" from Saint-Saens "Samson and Delilah." For modern love scenes she says she gets good results from Cadman's "At Dawning," Victor Herbert's "Kiss Me" and that old standby. "Believe me if all those Endearing, etc." Music became the vogue at Fox's western studio when Theda Bara came west to do "Cleopatra" and "Du Barry." While the redoubtable Theda vamped Marc Antony. Octavius Caesar et al, a young lady in modern garb and solemn mien picked the strings of a harp with grim determination. The theme was usually the same for the intimate scenes and to the open'y curious it was declared that it was an old Egyptian chant that had been dug up with some mummified Rameses, or carried down through the ages by Cleopatra's posterity, if she had any. A musi called in a string orchestra to play airs from "Aida." Miss Bara was never in doubt as to the sort of music she wanted and quite often interrupted a selection to get a change of air, so to say. In "Du Barry," the court scenes were usually filmed to the sound of Paderewski's "Minuet" and the "Elegie" was played for the death of Charles XV, DuBarry's meal ticket, as it were. Children are even more responsive to music than adults and the Fox Kiddies always have it. In filming "Ali Baba," a snare drum, cymbals and bass drum were used with the piano, producing all the strange combinations of sounds that seem to typify the music of Arabia and Persia. In the making of "The Mikado," the pianist had a Japanese samisen to help bring out the flavor of the Japanese airs — composed chiefly by Caucasians— that were used. (Continued on page 120)