Photoplay (Jan 1921)

Photoplay Magazine \ You can reduce quickly and safely, without drugs or diet or strenuous exercise. Guaranteed Fat Reducer FOR MEN AND WOMEN Used daily in the privacy of your room, the Reducer will show results within 1 I days or money refunded. Convenient and simple — not electrical. Reduces only the parts where you wish to lose. Easily followed instructions enable you to retain your normal weight after the Reducer has eliminated the unhealthful, disfiguring fatty tissue. Without discomfort any stout man or woman can obtain these results, whether 10 or 100 pounds overweight. Dr. Lawton reduced his own weight from 211 to 152 lbs. Send for your Reducer today — only $5 and remember, it is guaranteed. DR. THOMAS LAWTON 120 West 70th Street Department TS NEW YORK ^nnEL1lil£[TIMIFl!!llllimitMill1Tri[riUIMi!l!lt!l!nLII)lll1llELir!l[!ILHttUJIIiJltilE1lliiltllMIMiEllltjr.i|ll<iris: ■; l:i;.erriM;[|!'MIIJ|Ll;lll(MmiMliHH!IUIiJli1i!ll -Advertising Section "All Is Not Gold, etc. (Continued from page 46) Free Book Containing complete^) story of the origin and history of that wonderful In strument— the This Book tells you when to use Saxophone — singly. In quartettes, in sextettes or in band; how to transpose cello parts and things you would like to know. Unrivalled for i home entertainment, school, church and lodffe. In biu demand for orchestrp da music. Most beautiful tone of all wind in '"'PLAY THE SCALE IN ONE EVENING with the free chart we send you, and in a few weeks yon will be playing popular airs. Practice is a pic ore because of quick results. Send for copy of b THE FAMOUS Buescher-Grand Cornet |E The biggest tone and the most perfect of any Cornet made. Double your pleasure, popularity and income by playing a Buescher-Grand Cornet or Trombone. 6 Days' Free Trial You can order any Buescher Instrument and try it 6 days In your own home, without obligation. If perfectly satisfied, pay for it on easy payments. Ask as to send you names of user* In your locality. Bis illustrated Catalog of True-Tone Band and Orchestra Instruments sent free. Buescher Band Instrument Co. 22S Buescher Block ELKHART. Il»n. CDET AMBITIOUS WRITERS rK f f of Photoplays, Slmrt Nf.-ricH. Poems, m. J*A.U.U send today for Free, valunble, instructive book, "Key to Successful Writing;/* including 05 helpful miL'geHtinnH on writing nnd selling. ATIAS PUBLISHIHG CO., 516 Boiler Building. CINCINNATI, OHIO legion. The distributor and the exhibitor have few if any risks in comparison. So the chief selling argument of most of the promoters of motion picture companies — that is the vast fortunes made by photoplay producers — simmers down to a crass fraud. The promoters always quote what such and such a picture has made in gross bookings, which means precisely nothing because the producer may actually lose a fortune on a picture on which a distributor makes a tidy sum, and on which scores and hundreds of exhibitors make money. Even on very successful pictures, the lion's share of the profits may go to distributors and exhibitors who had nothing at all to do with making the picture, while the producer is left with a comparatively small net profit — not quite big enough to finance the next film, which, in turn, may prove a failure. Supposing Mr. Lybarger or Dr. Miller or Mr. Stoll, or Mr. McKim, promoter of the late Advanced Photoplay Company of Pittsburgh, Penn., or any one of the scores of presidents of amateur motion picture companies for which the public has been paying of late — supposing any of these gentlemen had tried to "sell" themselves and their services to Griffith or Ince or Sennett or to any other experienced and hardheaded producer or casting director. He would have been told that his earning power in motion pictures was no greater than that of an average man of average ability. For in motion picture production a man's worth is measured by his specialized knowledge or special ability or special art. Recently I was talking to one of the most successful motion picture men in the country and our conversation drifted to a certain big producing company. "What in thunder have they got?" he asked querously. "They have several million dollars in assets," I replied. "Assets be hanged," he shouted. "Real estate, buildings, studios, equipment, beautifully furnished offices don't make pictures. They've lost Smith. They've lost Brown. They've lost Jones. They are the men who made the pictures. Do you know that the people are getting almighty critical of the movies? They demand up-to-date, firstclass, distinctive pictures all the time. It's not enough to turn out programme pictures every few days and a super-production every few weeks. Unless they are tiptop, they'll flivver." I want to stress this point because none of the men whom this producer mentioned are screen stars. They are directors, makers of pictures, not actors. The motion picture industry is one 'of lightning changes, but if there can be said to be any one, single utstanding change in filmdom during the ast year, it is this: that the stars are becoming of less importance and the producers and directors of greater importance. Four of the biggest successes of the past year had no individual stars, namely "Way Down East," "The Devil's Pass Key," "Humoresque," and "Why Change Your Wife." These plays are principally the creations of the directors, who seem to be elbowing the stars out of the way. And directors are more difficult to find and more difficult to hold than stars. A prima donna with the disposition of a thundercloud is a demure and purring little kitten compared to a screen director. Let me illustrate. A few years ago a certain director came to one of the big producers begging for a chance to make some pictures. He wept, not figuratively, but literally. He was given his chance, and he made good. He has produced at least three magnificent pictures, and his tears are dry. He is now a big man and today he is laying down the law to his employer, and ready to quit, smash his contracts and smash his employer unless given carte blanc in production. Another director, after making several poor pictures, has of late produced some fine films. Backed by the faith and cash of one of the most successful producers of the country, he turned out artistic film plays, big money makers, till finally his demands became so excessive that his employer could no longer meet them. This director is now producing for himself. I am digressing on the subject of directors because I want to show how handicapped men like Stoll, a real estate agent, Mr. Lybarger, lecturer and orator, and Dr. Miller, historian, really are in the motion picture business. In order to make artistic and financial successes of their photoplays, they have to buy all their experience. They have to depend on the mercurial temperament of some director, not a really big, first-class director either, for the big ones are either under contract, or are producing for themselves. Yet Mr. Lybarger announced in his sales circulars, which helped rake into his treasury half a million dollars less commission and expenses, that there would be "no experimenting with your money." There would be no building of great factories or studios. "Our auditoriums— the theaters — are already built and equipped. The vast plains, mountains and valleys of California will be our principal studio — out in the open fields and hillsides where the battles for Democracy were fought and won." But the Democracy Photoplay Company did not avail itself of "the vast plains, mountains and valleys of California." It contended itself with the old Edison studio in New York City which cost the company a pretty penny for a year's lease. The picture was finished last February, but by the time the film had been edited and cut from about 80,000 feet down to 7,000 or 8.000 feet and was ready for the theater, it was mid-summer. Democracy was shown at the Casino Theater, Thirty-ninth Street and Broadway, for the last two weeks of August, and since then the prints have for the most part rested in the vaults of the company. As this is written, the latter part of October, no arrangements have been completed for distributing and displaying this film which cost $200,000. Mr. Lybarger is still optimistic, but he has probably changed his mind about certain things which he told his prospective stock buyers more than a year ago. He then asserted that "New York and Chicago alone should easily pay the full cost of producing 'Democracy.' " He may have learned since that theaters on Broadway and in the Chicago "Loop" cannot be commandeered by anyone who wants to rent them. He may also have learned that the old war-horses among the film producers do not as a rule expect to clean up big on their pictures in the so-called ''key cities," such as New York and Chicago and other big towns where the theatre rental is hisrh and expensive orchestras have to be furnished. New productions are exhibited in big and expensive theaters in big cities principally for advertising purposes. "It is a play that will live," said Mr. Lybarger recently. But what he promised to his stockholders was a play that would pay, and that is more than any motion picture producer has a right to promise to anyone investing money with him. "If 'Democracy' nets as much as 'The Birth of a Nation,' every $100 invested will return $3,000, and even' Si, 000, §30,000," said the Democracv sales circulars, again ''selling" the old "Birth of a Nation." Etery advertisement In FHOTCTLAY MAGAZINK ia guaranteed.