Photoplay (Oct 1917 - Mar 1918)

Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section 129 Beating Them To It (Continued from page 2q) I figured out that if they on how we're getting along. By the way "I'll tell you didn't get the script from me, they'd keep on trying, and in the end they'd probably get what they were after from someone else. So I thought I might as well put an end to their efforts, once and for all. As soon as I gave them the script, they were satisfied. Began work on their production at once. I hear it's nearly done. They only put this Parker girl down here to get the exact dope on when we would be ready." "Percy!" I gasped, "are you mad? What good does all this do us? You gave them a copy of the script, didn't you? What's the use of all this talk about your motives?" Percy gave me a queer look, and then he sat back in his chair and began to laugh. It was just a low chuckle at first, but in a few moments he became almost hysterical. I saw that he was highly nervous and began to suspect that something had affected his mind. His manner did not seem entirely rational. "For God's sake, Percy," I said, "if there's anything to this that I dont understand, explain it to me. What are you laughing about?" He pulled himself together then, and began to speak. I listened, spellbound. "I gave them the script they're working on," he exclaimed, "but it wasn't the one we're doing here. It was a version of The Noble Sinner I'd been fixing up for the past three months. Wont they be surprised when they open up, expecting to crab our picture, only to find they've done something entirely different." I fell back into my chair, absolutely dumbfounded. I could scarcely grasp the whole thing, at once. The joke on the Metagraph seemed too colossal. I could hardly believe it. "Percy!" I almost shouted. "Is it true —really true?" He nodded solemnly. "But," I objected, "why hasn't this Parker girl put them wise?" "She doesn't know anything about what they're doing. She's only here to report -would you mind letting me post that letter now?" "But — what for?" I asked. "Don't you see? If we release on the 1st, and they don't know about it, they will never show their picture at all, for they will know they've been stung." "Well," I asked. "What difference does it make, if they don't show it?" "A lot, to me," Percy said, without batting an eyelash. "I happen to own the dramatic rights of The Noble Sinner. Bought them from the author last year, before the book made anything of a hit. I want the Metagraph people to make that production, because I mean to make them pay me royalties on it. Do you get me?" "Percy," I said, reaching for his hand, "you aren't a camera man — you're a financier. I take off my hat to you. Here's the letter. Post it by all means. I want to see Jerome Kurtz's face, when he takes a look at our picture, the opening night." I turned to Bancroft as I finished my story. He was grinning broadly. "You're excused," he said. "After what's happened you've got a right to laugh your head off. And who was the thief you shook hands with?" "Why," I replied, "Percy Malone, of course. The Chief has just given him a fifty percent raise in salary." "Good boy," Bancroft exclaimed. "And what about the thousand he got from the Metagraph?" "Why, he's keeping it as advance royalty on his picture, The Noble Sinner. Jerome won't dare tell the truth about it. And once the film is shown, Percy's got a perfectly good claim for royalties, because he happens to own the dramatic rights. So there you are." "Say," Bancroft remarked, as he called the waiter, "you better keep your eye on that camera man. First thing you know, he'll own the whole works. Let's have a drink." Heavens! What a Wonderful Blonde (Continued from page 102) the conclusion that musical comedy presented more opportunities and I eagerly accepted an offer to understudy one of the stars in 'Chin Chin.' I had already refused to consider a chance in the Follies. It didn't appeal to me. "Before I had progressed very far, however. I began having trouble with my voice, a sort of laryngitis, and I had to give up musical comedy. "Between times I had posed for Mr. Leone Bracker, the illustrator; Mr. Hiller and others, so it wasn't very long before the film people discovered me. Mr. William Fox offered me a splendid opportunity last March and I accepted it. I have been told that I have 'made good,' but I feel that there is a great deal of hard work in store before I can be regarded as a sure enough star. Why, for instance, I can't ride a horse, and for the next week Tom Mix is going to give me daily riding lessons, so I can play with him in a big Western feature." Miss Pettit made her debut in "The Derelict," a William Fox production starring Stuart Holmes, the well known wrecker of screen homes. She also supported him in "The Broadway Sport," and then William Farnum arrived from the West and she played with him in "The Doctor." Miss Pettit was then transferred to the West Coast studio of the Fox company. Here her first play was "This Is the Life," with George Walsh, and then she played in "Responsibility" with Enid Markey, after which she was switched to the Tom Mix company. And now the Princess Wanda, once of Seattle and New York, to say nothing of Scranton, lives in a little bungalow in one of the little bungalow courts for which Hollywood is famous and when she sings in the evening, the night watchman at the gate of Mr. Griffith's Babylon, across the way, lights his pipe, tilts back his chair and shuts his eyes. Every advertisement in PHOTOrLAY MAGAZINE is guaranteed. Sanford's Premium Writing Fluid and Sanford's Fountain Pen Ink Society of New York and Paris Society and Stage Beauties of Paris and New York have used X. 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