Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

Edwards— l\stronomer fP^< Th«.>u>:h he has perhaps nc\cr peered through a telescope, this director intimately knows stars old and new — in tact, has them framed riizhr in jiis hctme. \ >/ uikI less-fxpcriciKcd school. W lun he loli ihi stage >omc six >ears ago lo direct motion pictures lor Ihonus 11. hue, Edwards brought to the screen that essence of classicism which has obtained on the stage for lo! these many years. He had p!.i>ed with Frederick Warde in New York at the old Windsor l;ua:er in Airginius,' and again with Robert Downing in Spartacus;" later, in modem plays, with \ alerie Bergere and I'auline Markham. the famous Mazeppa. .\nd since he has been in picture production. Waller Edwards ius noted the rise of stars — Charles Ray, Alma Rubens, Dorothy 1 '.i -.on. Bessie Barriscale. William Desmond, Pauline Starke, and .iicT. Constance Talmadge. whom he calls "Connie.'' While Mr. Edwards refuses lo entertain the thought, opinion has it that the younger Talmadge owes much of her screen success as a comedienne to him. While she was with Griflilh she -howed certain charm as a hoyden, but her real thespian powers Aeri» brought out by the later direction of Edwards at the Morosco studio after she had done a pro<luction or two with Charles Giblyn. A resume of the plays -he made under the guiding Edwards hand will show her improvement, from "Cood Night. Paul," and "Sauce for the Goose"' to her latest oBering, The Veiled Adventure." Getting the Edwards reminiscences is like opening a volume of William Winter. .\nd as he tells about the stage, be takes the visitor, or the inter\*iewer. or whoever happens to be the listener, about the house, showing him this old-time photograph of Pauline Markham, that pair of bucket-top boots used by Edwin Forrest in "Much Ado About Nothing'' two decades or so ago. .\nd the boots, which are of gray buckskin, are tacked to the wall at the head of the stairs, and are used as pockets for the collection of photographof by-gone celebrities that was made at a time when '"Acting was the main thing considered on the stage : when the Theater had not become, as it has now become almost entirely a Shop, and before the public had inclined a receptive ear to Symbols and Fads." Pictures lured Mr. Edwards. as they have lured many others, from the stajje as he wante»l a permanent home. Ince was then at Inceville on the Malibu Coast when the new Ince plant — now owned by Goldwvn— was built at Culver City. The first picture to be produced there wa> "The Diviilenii," with Charles Ray ami William H. Thump.son featured. Edwards directed. Shortly afterwards he was electeil to direct Bill Desmond, whose leading woman was Dorothy Dalton, in ".X Gamble in Souls," and .shortly afterward, Dalton herself in her first starring vehicle, "The Jungle Child." Lewis Stone had just been signed by Ince as a screen star — his tirsi venture. Be>sie Barriscale was to play with him in "Honors .Mtar,' which was one of Ince's first five-reel pictures. In the production Mr. Edwards himself played a part, it was practically the last piece in which he has acted, he says. (Continued on page 128) Walt ter Ed^Airds Ku watcKcd the rix of ^uch •tar» ae CK^rlc* Ray. Dorothy Dalton. Dconic Bam«:ale. William Desmond. Pauline Starke and Constance Talmad|(c. Now he is producin|2 Marguerite Clark picturet. Here the two arc— talking over the first script.