The Photo-Play Journal (Jul 1919-Feb 1921)

February, 19 2 1 53 The Folks that Make 'Em {Continued from page 46) pugilistic every day. He punishes planked steaks unmercifully. Quite the busiest man in town is David G. Fischer. Dave is busy cutting 55,000 feet of film this month for his eight-reel feature, "In the Shadow of the Dome." He and Mrs. Fischer have taken a quiet apartment uptown for the winter. May Collins dropped in to see me before she left for the coast where she is to play the lead in John Emerson and Anita Loos' first independent picture. I accompanied her to the Grand Central where I bade good-bye to the party. May wept all fall in "The Outrageous Mrs. Palmer," but she has dried her eyes for good and is probably laughing happily now beneath those smiling California skies you hear so much about. Elsie Ferguson spent a few days in New York on her way to the coast. At her Park Avenue home, she had much to tell me about events in the Orient, where she spent some time. Last Saturday evening we visited an armory at the far end of Manhattan to see Bert Lytell and the tremendous set that Director Maxwell Karger has built for some of the scenes of "A Message from Mars." There may have been larger sets built indoors, but I have yet to see one. The entire main floor of this armory — the largest in New York — has been converted into an English street scene. Thousands of extras had been engaged to lend atmosphere to the scene and many others, including several motion writers, were called in to ride in taxis, walk about the street, etc. Bert wasn't working, but he was really kept much busier than if he had been engaged on the set. Mr. Karger consulted with him frequently about details of the production, and the rest of the time he rushed about making things pleasant and comfortable for the many visitors. There is no more likable player on the screen than Bert Lytell. Eulalie Jensen — remember her with Vitagraph in the old days — will be heard from soon again. She's just finished "In the Shadow of the Dome" for David G. Fischer, and I understand she is going to play the Nance O'Neil role in "The Passion Flower" at the Talmadge studio. At the Palace the other evening I saw Vera Gordon, the real star of "Humoresque," in a new playlet, "The Lullyby." Of course I had to say "hello" to her after the show. Miss Gordon promised faithfully that she hadn't really quit the screen, but she said she just had to get back to the stage for a short time. With Miss Gordon in the sketch is Edna Spence, one of the sweetest little girls who ever played opposite King Baggot for Universal. Edna is planning to return to pictures also. Welcome, say we. Someone told me that C. E. Millard is again planning to broaden his activities. This time, the rumor is, he is to design scenery for the screen. Naturally I rushed to the phone. No news would Claude give me, except that he'd "continue to paint Photo-Play Journal covers, no matter what happens." And that's enough good news for once, don't you think. For You and For Me {Continued from page 52) of a picture is for. There wasn't any story. It jumped all over the place so that you couldn't make head nor tail of it. It was boresome and there wasn't a single beautiful thing nor a beautiful thought in the whole business. It didn't give one anything to think about and altogether I was mad that I had paid my good money to see it. I only stayed in because there was a scenic after that I wanted to see. All those people scurrying through cellars and having operating rooms fixed up in the basement seemed to me like a story for little boys that like to read about murderers and brigands. It wasn't a story for grown up people or anybody else. Then those women fixing the pedals when he pretended to play the piano. O boy! That sure was ridiculous. But I liked "Way Down East" and I liked Miss Gish. I'll send in my letter for the department and please let it be one of the first to be answered, will you? Ethel Martin, Rochester, N. Y. {Continued on page 56) Just Justine {Continued from page 23) newspapers as the most beautiful girl in the Follies. During intervals between her Follies engagements, she supported the Castles at the New Amsterdam in "Over the Top," and appeared as a leading woman and star in several other stage successes. And just as she had reached the heights, she decided that she really was not quite ready for stardom so she left the bright lights for quiet and hard work with a neighborhood stock company. Here she stayed for almost a year, playing every part from Cinderella to Camille. When she returned to New York she felt she was fit and ready.' Realart Pictures Corporation chose Justine Johnstone as its sixth star and her first picture, "Blackbirds," has just been released. In this thrilling drama of love and crooks, Miss Johnstone shows herself as a real actress in the role of a clever and internationally famous smuggler. Miss Johnstone is anxious to make pictures with as varied roles as possible. In her second picture, just finished, "The Plaything of Broadway," adapted from "Emergency House" by Sidney Morgan, she has the role of a famous dancer who gives up the bright lights and the tinsel for the love of a doctor. "A woman's greatest charm is in being natural," Miss Johnstone told me one day. "I want to be myself; I don't want to imitate anyone." And she certainly lives up to her belief. She is just Justine at all times. F. Richard Jones: A Master of Comedy {Continued from page 19) shortly be sailing it off the colorful Sennett beach. Could any yacht be luckier? Jones has extreme and perhaps unusual ideas in comedy. He thinks the main fault of the present day farce is its lack of story. "It is, in fact, a mere chain of supposedly comic incidents," he says. "No effort is made to develop characters, to create a sympathetic story, to lift it out of the farce rut. Harold Lloyd has stood out of the mass of comedians because he invests a character with life and attractiveness. You sympathize with him — and therefore his tragic and comic experiences are twice as tragic or as funny as they would be if you had no personal interest in him. Chaplin is an even greater example of this, for he really lives for you on the screen." Mr. Jones, too, particularly detests the present set lot of characters used to people every film comedy. "There is no imagination, no creativeness. The same comic counts, burlesque ministers, and bewhiskered pursuers of the comedian masquerade through every comedy. When is this ever going to change?" We predict a change — now that Jones is launching his new ideas. His first effort, "Heart Balm," should be well worth watching. 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