Pictures and the Picturegoer (October 1915 - March 1916)

PICTURES A.ND THE PICTUREGOER 113 Finding the Lady. EDNxl PURVIANCE, the pretty mil whose portrayal of tbe"heroin< 'a parts in the ■'Charlie Chaplin" comedies has made her face familiar to thousands of people all over the world, was " discovered " bj accident. Chaplin wanted a certain type of girl for his leading lady, and he advertised extensively in the San Francisco papers. But none of the scores of applicants he inter\ iewed at the Essanay studios at Los Angeles suited, and the comedian was in despair. Some time later Miss Pur\ ianee chanced to visit the studio to see an actress friend, and as soon as Chaplin saw her he observed, ''That's the girl I vi ant ! " Miss Purviance took the chance offered her, though she had never before appeared on the film, and to-day her work is a recognised asset of every film in which Chaplin appears, Film Scenes More drilling. NOT even a Zeppelin raid is thrilling to a motion-picture camera-man. John Mackenzie has returned to the Balboa Studio, California, after witnessing a German air attack without a "penny-dreadful" account of it. Whilst in a train, approaching London at night, he says he heard an explosion that sounded as it all the guns in the world had been discharged at the same time. Looking out of the window, he saw a monster dirigible manoeuvring at a height of a thousand feet. "Searchlights were trained on it." said Mackenzie, "and we could watch every detail of operation of the bomb-release at the front-end of the Zeppelin. In ten minutes, twentynine charges were dropped. For a short distance, one could see a thread of fire as the fuse burned. A second later, there was a deafening explosion and more destruction had been done. But the people wereunterrified. Thousands looked on thaf night, from the place where I was, with the curiosity of a crowd viewing a Lord Mayor's Show. People watch the stunts in a moving picture with more tensity than they manifested on this occasion. The Zeppelin raids are not intimidating the British, as the Germans had hoped. On the contrary, they are stimulating the enlistments."' Mackenzie has an international reputation as a motion-picture camera-man. He turned the first crank in Scotland twenty years ago. Since then he has taken pictures for the British Government in the Orient, the Balkans, and many other troublous localities. While the war is exciting, he says he is glad to ' be back and engaged in work that is much more fascinating. Is He the First? ANEW claimant has arisen in the person of Lou Tellegen. now appearing in the Lasky production of The Explore/ — which will be shown Were ending Nov. 6, 1915 shortly in England, for the honour of being the first legitimate actor to appear in pictures. He bases his claim on an incident in his student-days, when he and a group of friends acted an impromptu comedy for a moving-picture photographer taking rural scenery .in France. According to this, it would appear Mr. Tellegen was a movingpict ure. actor before he appeared on the legitimate sta_ D termination brings Realisation. EVEN as the duckling yearns for water, so did Mabel Trunnelle thirst for the si _ n before she knew the real meaning of the word. In her backyard in Chicago, before an admiring audience of many dolls, did she "stage" some doll-thrilling 'dramas" that set the fence on fire more than once. Then to the " pin show " was the next step, till parents, at first amused, then concerned, lest she should really go on the stage, sent her to be educated in a convent. Of course, there it had to be midnight scenes, but these palled, and she broke bounds and. in real stage style, escaped from the convent and got a small part in a Chicago stock company splendidly rehearsed, when the searching party gently led her back to grammar and geometry. With two more years spent in captivity, she again scaled the leiehts and successfully made the acquaintance of the footlights for nearly a week before she was found out, under another name, in a play which passed through Chicago and was then playing in a nearby city. But the stage manager promised so lias made a name which stands pre-eminent in the Music-hall profession, and it is not without reason that he ranks amongst the highest paid artistsin Vaudeville. In his first picture his inimitable talent lias brought immediate success, and henceforth bis name will mean just as much to Cinema patrons as it has hitherto meant to the devotees of Variety. His first lil 111. "A Spanish Love Spasm," is already being shown, and the second. " The Man in Possession," is nearly due to appear. They are both hooked up verj extensively, so lookout lor local announcements. &&*} A Series of Bills Mjerson Postcards. Twelve Superb Lxamp es of Photogravure, depicting this Versatile Artist in characteristically humorous poses. Should be included in every collection. Obtainable from your Local Cinemas, or "Pictures and The Picturegoer," S5, Long Acre. London. W.C.: or direct from The Globe Film Co., Ltd.. at 10d. per Set, THE GLOBE FILM CO., Ltd. ';'' ■ 0, ■ !1 ;l U 81-83, SHAFTESBURY AVENUE, W. TeleStams-"Bio] it," London.