Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

DECEMBER 1924 Pictures and P/chjreOver 87 The most intriguiii* news at the time of going to press is that Joseph Schenck has disposed of his interests in Lowe Inc., and has become President of the production group of United Artists ! Thus Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, ami Charlie Chaplin in addition to Norma Talmadge come under his banner. It seems also that Famous Lasky, Associated First National, and Metro are falling over each other to control the distributing end. But the stars themselves are saying very little. Metro have captured Lillian Gish and her Ro,.ioh and Inspiration will know her no more. Dudy Valentino told us *• * he very much wants tne title role in a movie version of " The Firebrand," a play dealing with Benvenuto Cellini's life recently put on in New York. With Ramon playing " Ben Hur " and Rudy " Ben Venuto " the fans will wage wordy war indeed. /^"olleen Moore is to have the title role ^ in Sally, a movie based on the popular musical comedy of the same name. Detween making Curlytop, with •*-' Shirley Mason as his star, Maurice Elvey is heading a movement amongst members of the screen colony in Los to bring grand opera to Hollywood for a season in each year. Good music he thinks is essential to the welfare of any. artistic community, and he has many leading lights with him in this opinion. f^onstance Talmadge is making Learn^ ing to Love, by John Emerson and Anita Loos, with Tony Moreno and Wallace MacDonald opposite. \y 7hat was probably the most valuable *^ train load in motion picture history travelled from Hollywood to New York last month. First National sent two companies of players East to work in the Old Biograph Studios. Besides this human freight the special train carried two million and a half dollars in negatives. The Lost World, So Big, If I Marry Again, and As Man Desires were four of them. Doris Kenyon, Anna Q. Nilsson, Ben Lyon and Milton Sills are the stars of the two films to be made in New York. ""The two most interesting new A films shown last month were both put out by Stolls. Captain Frazer Hurley's thrilling film record of his New Guinea adventures titled Savages and Pearls is one of the best travel pictures we've ever witnessed and has the additional value of its maker as a human sub-titler throughout the showing. The brilliant colour of the sea, the foliage, the coral reefs and the native head-dresses is shown in some excellent tinted slides. Moon of Israel, the other film is a RiderHaggard story which challenges comparison with The Ten Commandments, with its scenes of ancient Egypt and its Miracle of the Red Sea. VY/e regret to announce the death of Kate Lester, a fine player of old women roles since Griffith first started production. This was the result of burns arising from a dressing-room accident. r^ eorge Walsh and " Epinard " the ^"^ famous French horse are at work in a picture being made at Kentucky. Comment is needless. We leave it to you. lWIary PhiLbin, as most people expected despite the publicity rumours, has been cast opposite Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera. Tully Marshall has signed on to appear in The Merry Widmv. Not as " Danilo," this role being as yet uncast, though six leading juveniles are in close competition for it. 'V/'ou will be able to see several of your silversheet favourites in the flesh this Xmas. Besides Guy Newall and Ivy Duke who are touring in "Husband Love," supported by Fred Raynham, David Hawthorne, Mary Rorke. Henry Edwards and Chrissie White are to be seen in the former's play "The Man who came Home," which has been filmed under the title of The Bargain. Then Gertrude McCoy was at the New Oxford in "The First Kiss," replacing Ivy Close, who was too ill to appear. I/" ing Vidor, who recently built him*"■ self a fine new home in Beverly Hills; puchased a pair of prize Police dogs to guard it for him. But, sad to say, the dogs themselves have been stolen, and thus far no trace can be found of them. r\r\c hundred battle galleys, exact ^-^ replicas of those used by the ancient Romans have been enacting a huge naval fight outside Leghorn, Italy, for scenes in Ben Hur and Ramon Novarro has been prominent in this. " Ben Hur," you remember, then a galley slave, saves the life of "Arrius" in the great battle and is then adopted by him. /Congratulations to Monte Blue, ^ wedded to Tova Jansen on November 1, and to Jimmie Adams, who triumphantly led Virginia Warwick to the altar only a few days later. Also To Betty Compson and James Cruze, who are already an old married couple, the knot having been tied on Oct. 14th last. HThe latest thing in dentifrices is *■ Sanogyl, the tooth paste with a Diploma, which its makers claim to be an active curative and preventative of pyorrhea and other dread diseases of the mouth. It is a pleasant smelling, rose-pink preparation, put up in tubes, and is the only Tooth Paste holding a Pasteur Exhibition Diploma (1923).