Photoplay (May 1921)

^^^^ CLOSE-UPS Editorial Expression and Timely Comment Suffer Little Children. In central Europe thousands of boys and girls, as the dreary winter closes, are near starvation. In China hundreds of thousands are not only near starvation, but are succumbing in tragic numbers. To combat this menace to tomorrow, Herbert Hoover and scores of official and non-official aids, rich and poor, celebrated and humble, have worked and given, heroically and unreservedly. Not the least of these servants of the human family were the picture men. The efforts have been rewarded. They have not stopped the famine in either locality but they have saved thousands of precious little lives and have brought untold comfort into one-time homes which lately have been little better than hells of cold and want. America has seen no finer, more unselfish effort. There was no menace either direct or indirect to drive us to high performance, as during the war. The feeding of baby Europe and infant China is an exalted deed, and one not to be confounded with material motives or debased to serve practical ends. It is with a feeling of chagrin, therefore, that we read in the industrious gossip columns of the trade-papers, under a Syracuse date-line, that "when Clara Kimball Young passed through on her way to the Coast her representative dropped off here and worked a clever stunt with the local Hoover committee. He corraled seven kiddies, hired a limousine and rode them all over town. He bought them dolls, candy and ice-cream, and the auto bore a banner, 'Clara Kimball Young unit for Hoover Relief.' The newspapers gave the idea a lot of space." This was pretty cheap stuff. It reminds us of exploiting one s mother to sell a dye for gray hair. Shaw Didn't William Archer, the veteran ^1 . London critic who makes a UDject. successful debut as a dram atist (at the age of 65) with "The Green Goddess," brings a delightful anecdote of movie interest from London. Shortly before sailing for this country to produce his play, he attended a dinner given by London's literary luminaries to George Bernard Shaw. The editor of The London Daily New s, introducing the distinguished guest of honor, cited him as "one of the three best-known Englishmen in the world today, the other two being Lloyd-George and Charlie Chaplin. Of course, ' he added rather hastily, "I don't know how Mr. Shaw likes his company." Then Shaw, speaking up from his chair: "Oh, I don't object to Charlie! ' And in Pennsylvania, long known I . _ as a commonwealth of fanFennsylvania: ^^sfj^ gp^j medieval rulings on the photodrama, indeed, a state in which the freedom of the screen was absolutely nonexistent, seems to be emerging from its days of film witch-hanging. Governor Sproul has removed the head censor, Dr. Ellis P. Overholtzer, and has put in his place a well-known editor, Henry Starr Richardson. The inference is that the alert Pennsylvania executive had tired of professional story mutilation and "eliminations'" which would ha\'e amazed old Cotton Mather's band of public saviours. However, Richardson had scarcely been appointed w hen the Rev. Dr. Carl E. Grammar, speaking hastily and out of turn, accused the Governor of making the change because of pressure exerted by the film interests. Dr. Grammar now finds himself standing in a tub of hot water, holding a hornet's nest; he evidently forgot, in his excitement, that he was accusing the governor of the state, instead of one of those gangs of vicious picture manufacturers. The Governor has ordered him to prove his charge, and he has backed up his order with the full power of his office. When this appears in print Dr. Grammar may have presented his defence, but as the lines are w ritten it seems as though the minister would need the full power of his name to climb out of a very dangerous grammatical hole. If it kept on snowing, year after year, without any per Merely a Spring Thaw, j^jg melting, the glacial epoch would soon be on us and an uninterrupted ice-cap would cover the temperate zones. The talked-of "slump " in the photoplay arena is here — and it is merely a spring thaw. For years we have had overproduction. For years we have had superlatively wanton and extravagant expenditures. For years we have been cultivating indifference and superficiality. A suspension of many production activities is the first step toward getting back to soundness and normalcy in photoplay production. That there has been no serious interruption of any established company is true, but there has been such a cutting of indiscriminate play-making as can only work to everyone's advantage. This means better stories and better acting. It means more careful direction, and more thoroughly made equipment. The only ones who are going to lose out are the ignorant producer, the talentless director, the big-headed and thoughtless actor, and the half-efficient author.