Pictures and the Picturegoer (October 1915 - March 1916)

PICTURES AND THE PlCTURhGOER 474 started mi :i solo which, rising above ili'' delighted chorus of bis friends, brought him to a halt. Angrily he switched his left eye on the offending official, while with his right he thanked Ms t'li. -nil-.. A maddening shout up. Too late! Before he could summon up his original winning tactic to his aid once more he was in the grip of the might} Russian. " Now I'ave yar • now I'll learn-yur " hissed the Russian. Bui Bloggie's blood was up the memory of the champion's medals over which he bad even be n allowed to run liis fingers, ga^ e liim the courag a Roman. legion and, even' as. he hit the boards, bis teeth found flesh and met in it. With a howl the Russian Bear released his hold and rolled over. In a Bash Bloggie was on him and again his tret h eaftght and held. Down in the auditorium wild enthusiasm swayed the onlookers. " Bloggie Snakevilleand Bloggie!'' they howled. '.; Kick him in the jaw — Bite his neck ! " Vainly the recumbent man fought and struggled but", intoxicated by the lns'| of battle. Bloggie held on and bit, until at last the professional rolled over striking the boards wildly in .1 mute signal to the referee that he hail met his match. His day was overbrute strength had yielded to determination and the science of Snakeville's leading denl ist. •' Bloggie I " As the referee's voice rang like music on his ears, the champion staggered up and back into the outsfretclied arms of his friends, and when finally he started on his homeward way hugging his medals little he cared that, on calling for the prize-money, his friends had discovered the oil ens manager to be missing, as were the dollars-he had won for the morning would bring fame. Already he saw himself considering offers to appear on the world's greatest stages at a staggering salary, while cinema-producers sent humble ambassadors hut all in his own good time. Still dreaming, he entered his house, and. standing, in the hall, sniffed. No aroma of (In1 princely meal he had commanded greeted him. and with the language of a man who had never known defeat he strode into the room. " Woman, how dare you Bang! Crash ! A million stars . . . Without language he staggered up, only to sit again, while through a mist he saw lie form of Mrs. Bloggie, and on her hands wen' things which the text-bboks had taught him were boxing-gloves onl\ these were larger and heavier than any he had ever seen described then aiMii. as from a great distance, he heard her \ oice. •• So you dare loconie h me. do you ? " it said. "Try to get up, yon little beast, and I'll smash the home up with you I So you're the champion, are you my word!" the voice grew soil and sweet. "So am I. dear the champion of this bouse. While you were training I trained too My! hut don't these Professors teach you thing-.: Don't you dare to get up don't yon dare to get tip, I saj ! Lie dow n at once ! "' And Bloggie the champion having heard, and thinking one victory sulli I'ient for the day;. obeyed instantly. Stitch ! Stitch ! Stitch ! Stitch ! Twelve Hundred Women make Fifteen Thousand Costumes for a Film Spectacle. IX August, 1915, four shiploads of actor-, actfi hnical i fives, girls who were to play turned parts, and still others who to be undrape.d mermaids sailed from New Fork for Kingston, Jamaica. These southbound pass 2 were but a fraction of the total number, of people who will appear on the screen in William Fox's motion picture featuring Annette Kellerman. In this gigantic land and marine -| ectaele the cost of which is stated to be over two hundred thousand pounds. more than twenty thousand persons will be seen. Xo fewer than fifteen thousand of the players required special costumes, and the making of these was not the least wonderful part of this great undertaking. It was Herbert Breuon. the .directorgeneral of the picture, who began the work by reshaping and rebuilding portions of the island of Jamaica, but to William Fox himself fell the task of providing the costumes according to the drawings and specifications. He called in a famous Xew York costumier. "How long will it take to deliver 15,000 costumes r " he asked him-. " I'think. maybe, we can do this in six months; but I am not certain." replied the costumier, whose month watered at the prospect of such a remarkable order. " Out of the question, my dear sir." was all the poor man got from Mr. Fox. whose enterprise, with £40,000 already spent and a weekly salary pay-roll of close on £'4,000, could not be permitted to lag. Overhead costs were too heavy. So. within forty-eight hours. Mr. Fox organised his own costume department. Mrs. Irene Lee was given general supervision of it and sailed immediately for Kingston, where the actors were waiting. She took with her six aide assistantshot to be seamstresses, but inspectors of the work and directors of cutting and lilting. At Kingston Mrs. Lee gave employment at the very outset to four hundred native sewing-women, but two weeks later her pay-roll i<\' busy stitchers pro\ ided wage envelopes lor a total of t »•< Jre It a iiJ 1 1 d women. B\ cry a\ a i table sewingwoman on the island got busy at Bewiog maohiuea and with needle and thread: Hoa many miles of thread were actually used is not recorded. A great number worked in t In" newly-constructed Fox workroom. Still more" worked tinder canvas awnings, and others filled the lawns and Eollowed the shadows around the trees to escape the tropical sun. The wife ral of Jamaica found it necessary to d. her plans for a society felt requiring itumes, a :i. ■• iug women left to make them. Jamaica listening "to such a '•symphonj stitches ' a it ha I never heard 1 and hundreds of women Ding _ over th sir work as do the labourers the Latin-Am ;rican t lories In six weeks, during which the women worked day and night, every costume was finished to the ultimate stitch, and when the last basting thread was d: .Mr. Brenon was able to switch from photographing aquatics and permit his several hundred mermaids to have their first breathing spell since landing in Jamaica. Entire Island Works for Picture. When the Fox players arrive,] M Jamaica last August they found it under martial law. It was heavily _ li-oned; all sort laid upon Strang those .of British birth: and into this conservative atmosphere of strictly British colonial red-tape, came an invading arm actors and actresses, camera men. electricians, property men. scene paint carpenters, and even a start' of 1 keepers a*hd auditors. In addition there were heavy ftauking artillery in the form of cameras', the ammunition pertaining thereto, tons of chemicals, and pro ties enough to stock Covent Gan Opera House for a Wagneriai As if all the t enough, and by way of makeweight, an entire in was thrown in, consisting of lions, tig elephants, camels, and other treat calculated to lend proper atmospl when the right time came. Then and there began the operation of what the Britishers called, indignantly at lirst, "Yankee swank." Before long, however, there appeared a marked change • in the attitude of the Colonial officials towards the Pox compa lies. Shopkeepers, hotel men. In: men. and in fact the entire population of the isiaud began to feel the healthyimparted by the free distribution American dollars. In a period of great industrial d< sion, aided by war conditions, thousands of persons were set to work drilling and marching to take pari inthe great battle scene, which is one of the most ext aerdinary Features of this extraordinary picture. Five hundred more unski natives were set to the task of clearing brush and jungle at Fort Augusta, a huge abandoned fortress with mighty » COMPUTATE THE THE C0MMUT10NS COMMUI ERS