Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1920)

^JL O La ays an cfT^fo ayeTS Real news and interesting comment about motion pictures and motion picture people. By Cal York THERE'S our old friend, Theda Bara, playing a legitimate vamp in "The Blue Flame." She's an innocent girl in the first act who, through some mysterious transition, becomes badvery bad. She vamps through until the last act, when, having had plenty of opportunity to tell the world why she was the champ vamp of the cinema, she reforms and becomes good again. There's John Barrymore doing a magnificent "Richard the Third." And brother Lionel in a new and difficult play by Brieux, "The Letter of the Law." Dorothy Dalton is still holding forth in "Aphrodite," at the Century Theatre — the piece which might be rechristened "Nature Unlimited." Dorothy, by the way, contracted a cold during the bad weather and was obliged to lay off. She's back again now. Looks as if we were pretty well represented on Broadway, not to mention the Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne vehicle which is playing the provinces, and dramatist Crane Wilbur's recently produced plays, one of which is said to be good. DW. GRIFFITH .paid .Si 75,000 for the right to make a picture of "Way Down East." Now let's see the picture. FILM companies are going to Cuba. Qi«eer, how so many pictures have scenes which require southern atmosphere — and no place but Cuba will seem to suffice. Let us think — what is it they have in Cuba that cannot be had here? THOMAS H. INCE paid a recent visit to New York City. Before he left the west coast, his western press-agent wired his eastern press-agent : "Have a big celebration for Mr. Ince upon his arrival in New York. Would suggest you speak to the Mayor and also liave school-children assembled in Central Park;" The kick of this comes when you learn that Mr. Ince's arrival was originally scheduled for the blizzardest week in thirty years' of Manhattan's weather history, with snow and slush feet-deepu AN important interviewer who had been striving to see Ina Claire for some weeks, was met with a thousandth refusal by the information that "On account of her marriage Miss Claire cannot see anyone." The interviewer was too timid to call attention to the fact that Miss Claire has been secretly married, to a Chicago newspaper man, James Whittaker, for about a year. But the fact leaked out only recently. GABY DESLYS is dead. The dancer, whose charms were said to have de JIMMY Rogers: '"Is Will Rogers your daddy?" Irene Rich: "No. ' Jimmy Rogers: "W^ell. then, what did you let him kiss you for?" (Note to Mrs. Will Rogers: Your young son is referring merely to a scene recently enacted for a picture when Mr. Rogers' leading woman, followed the director's order.) throned ex-King Emanuel of Portugal, was a victim of an operation in Paris in February. She was the wife of Harry Piker, with whom she made a Famous Players picture some years ago. Known for her startling gowns, her ropes of pearls and her blonde blue-eyed beauty. Gaby was an international figure: the symbol — and one of the last symbols — of glamor and gossip in the theatre. CHARLES RAY'S first picture for his own company is "Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway," George Cohan's stage success of some seasons ago. It is said Ray has many other legitimate attractions up his production sleeve, among them, "Peaceful Valley." T was rumored that Grant Mitchell was to be starred in the screen version of his successful stage creation, "A Tailor-Made Man," until Sam Goldwyn announced that he had bought the screen rights for something like $ , but what's the use of quoting prices ? If they are true they sound like fiction ; and if they are fiction who wants to be taken in ? Jack Pickford will probably land this prize stellar plum WONDER how these players like to be "loaned" from their home companies to strange directors ? A good many of them have been passed around lately. Now Margery Daw,Wes Barry, and J. Barney Sherry have been released temporarily by Marshall Neilan to accomm o d a t e Maurice Tourneur, who will use the three in one of his new productions. MISS CLARA WILLIAMS has become Mrs. Reginald Barker. Both contracting parties have been married before and recently obtained their respective divorces. REX INGRAM knows the faces of most of the players in pictures— but he never remembers their names. The other day he thought of an actor he simply had to have for a part in a new production, but he couldn't remem (Continued on page too) 90