Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1924)

Photoplay Magazim Aim rtising Si < now The Romantic History of the Motion Picture [ CONTXNU1 i' ntOll PAG] 59 1 of the onward destiny of the motion picture It is clear indeed that tin destiny of the screen .1^ .m institution i-. .mil has always been, greater than any or .ill of the men and minds engaged in the industry. The motion picture has swept on. successively outgrowing its apparent mast) The Story of Zukor So, because of tin movement which was soon to find a considerable part of it expression through him, Zukor ami his story are worth considering for a moment, a he >it there waif ing on the threshold of the Motion Picture Patents Company. Twelve years ago, unknown, an under -i ed, self effacing wisp of a man with a voice just above a whisper, sitting on a waiting room bench hopeful of a chance to ask a favor! Tin' human mind can look backward for five thousand vcars, i>ut it can not see five seconds ahead Fancy stands feeble in the face of fact. The dice of destiny were loaded for a long roll that day in toi-v The man waiting outside was as insignificant a Thomas Edison the telegraph operator or a certain little corporal from ica. Great endeavors and great industries have a way of putting a name at the top. a personified symbol of things. Morgan means money. Gary mean steel, Lever means soap, Rockefeller means oil. Ford means motor cars anil Zukor means motion pictures. Twelve yeardid that for the man on the bench. Twenty-tWO years before Zukor. a lone immigrant boy from a tiny hamlet in Hungary, landed at Castle Garden and found a job uptown sweeping a fur shop. The year 1903 found him leaving a prosperinglittlefurbusine-s of his own in Chicago to come back to New York in an effort to salvage a loan of S.?.ooo a relative had sunk in a penny arcade of peep show pictures and slot machine phonographs. Out of this Zukor had evolved into a tidy success in the amusement business. He had estal> lished a line of contacts and connections with various showmen. William A. Brady, who operated Hale's Tours, Marcus Loew and his Automatic Vaudeville Company in 125th street. New York, and Lee Shubert in the Grand street theater. Zukor had arrived at last in the po-t of treasurer of the Marcus Loew Enterpri-e-, which had absorbed most of his amusement interest.-. Zukor Gets a Big Idea This might have been enough, if there had not been a certain inward drive behind Zukor. After all he was just a part of the Marcus Ix>ew Enterprises, and what he really wanted was Adolph Zukor Lnterprises. Zukor was in his thirty-ninth year. That is not a retiring age. An idea and what might grow into an opportunity had come his way and he was read)' to see how far he and the idea might travel together. The idea was rather hazy then. It is the Famous Player-Lasky Corporation today, risen from a thought to the most powerful institution of the motion picture industry. Unravelling the tangled skein of events in that evolution we can trace back to what appears to have been the genesis of that idea, a series of commonplace facts and happenings — entirely commonplace save for the magic pattern that they made. At just about the time when Adolph Zukor began to find himself in New York with less to do than was comfortable, the production of a certain motion picture began in Paris. The picture was in no way especially remarkable as seen from the view point of today. It was a four reel story entitled "Queen Elizabeth," with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role, directed Irons BestLasts Longest THE SMART IRON FOR SMART WOMEN Class tells in the electric iron you use in your home just as it does in everything else. Smart women prefer the SUNBEAM, because IT IRONS EASIER QUICKER BETTER It costs a little more than some irons — but it lasts years and years longer and does so much nicer ironing. It also does the ironing easier and quicker. It is worth far more than the small extra cost. The SUNBEAM is truly the one best iron. This beautiful enamelled steel case comes with every SUNBEAM iron. Put the SUNBEAM away, at once after ironing — no matter if it is hot. Separate heat-proof compartment protects the cord. The case keeps the iron clean and dry — an everlasting case for the everlasting iron. At your dealers 1??^ ■■ or sent prepaid, in steel case. Send no money — just pay the postman $8.50 on arrival. SMade and Guaranteed by CHICAGO FLEXIBLE SHAFT COMPANY 5540 Roosevelt Road. Chicago 34 Yean Making Quality Products We also make the DOMESTIC electric ircn. It is known everywhere as "the best $5 iron made." irons will not born out. When you write to advertisers please mention PUOTOPLAY MAGAZIM".