Pictures and the Picturegoer (October 1915 - March 1916)

PICTURES AND THE PICTUKtCOER °#£? >44 Week ending March ii, 191'} Harold Shaw "Pictures" chats -with the famous London Film producer prior to his return to America. BEING deputed by my Editor to interview Harold Shaw, I hied me. nil!' recent springlike morning, before the sparrow had left liis nest, to seek my prey. But early as I was, when 1 got out at St. Margaret's Station Mr. Shaw was on the platform going to town by the very train I had arrived by. So we journeyed together. and my interview took place in the new electric car now provided by the London and South Western Railway. Ever bright and cheery is Shaw, and with right good will he submitted to my ions. "When did you arrive in England, Mr. Shaw ? " " 1 arrived in England for the first time in ray life on June 7th. 1913, my good friend Mr. Northam having been sent out to America to secure me as general stage director for the London Film Company. I did not have his acquaintance long before I knew I had a pal. When we sailed out of New York Harbour, we both saluted the Statue of Liberty, and I know we saluted the Lizard when 1 first canght sight of Old England. I heard much from Northam 011 the voyage about Dv. .Tup)) and his associates;; he had many kind things to say about them, and they were all borne out when I arrived among them. " What was your first 'picture?'" "1 started with Clanearty, but was never very pleased with it. for I knew l hat it did not contain my best work. Then came Beauty ami the "Barge, with that prince of actors Cyril Maude as ( 'aptaiu Barley. " ■ Von like Mr. Maude, then ? " " h was a great pleasure to be associated with him. especially as, I believe, it was the fust picture he had ever played in. My only regret was that my knowledge" of England and that great humorous writer W. W. Jacobs was not greater al the time. I don't think I did him justice." " I donll wish to contradict you. but I have seen the picture and I consider it excellent." "Thanks, old man. that's good of you. 'Then came the preparation for the scenario of The House 0) Temperley, \ rather tall order for an American who knew so little of England; especially ill.' Georgian period. But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had given me mr(e bluncln . SO I -el to work. With the aid of a typist, 1 started at 10 a.m., and before seven o'clock that same evening the enario as afterwards seen ,ni the screen had been dictated. With such a splendid Btorj ami such a cast ■•! characters, drawn From the hesi actors in England, I felt it was impossible to (ail. Then came a rather nasty back for me. Two days before the trade show of Temperley, which 1 was eagerly awaiting, 1 was operated upon for appendicitis ; and here I must again speak of my good friend Dr. Jupp, for it was due to his advice and cheery company that I pulled through a very dangerous illness. He was more like a brother than a friend." " Tanperley was a success * " '"It was. and from that day the London Film Company was a firm to be reckoned with. After a period of convalescence, during which I had paid two visits to Paris and the seashore. I came, back to work." . "I suppoie the demand for London Film pictures then commenced ?" " Yes, and in order to meet the demand we sent for my friend George L. Tucker, with whom I had been working HAROLD SHAW An excellent likeness,. in New fork. The success of this move is now seen on hundreds of screens showing his pictures." What, in your opinion, is your best picture ? " "/".('. is the most artistic, but of course Teniperley is my favourite. Next to that comes Booth's Baby, England's Menace, Tin Heart 0/ a Child, and T)ie Derby Winner, 1 have produced t hi it \ Kve pictures for the company. An.l nearly last but by no means least was the little patriotic play Vou. Editor.] Before I return to America 1 am baking a few trips taimprove mj knowledge of England, _ ana 1 shall \i-it Ireland too. " Now. what about the future. Mr. Shaw r " "1 ha\e had several offers from this side, and the other. Iliaveuol yet made any definite arrangements; but after 1 Lave taken a muchneeded I alifornia to meet my father, whom I have not seen sin • 1907.' "Ha\.' you any regret in 1 ^ andr " "Hundreds! I am leaving hi good friends who have made me welcome and at home all the time. And here let me express my thaukfulne?s for the support given me by the English actors and actresses who have so splendidly aided me in my work, and you may add that T and the management of the Loudon Film Company part the l>est of friends." " When may we expect you back ? " "That is uncertain; but the green lanes of Old Englaud have a great call for one who has grown to love them, as the East has to one who has sensed the desert. Working as I have done for twenty-three years on the stag'-, the cinema, and producing. I am naturally looking forward to meeting many of my old friends when I go home. In eonelusion you may say that 1 wish all Americans knew England and En:_rli-hmen as well as 1 do. and that if all Englishmen knew Americans there would no longer be any doubt about the Anglo-Saxon race marching shoulder to shoulder." Abhtos Gray. "POOR LITTLE PEPPINA.'" I "OR the ih'st tun,' in her screen 1 -Mary Pickford is to appear in a sevenreel production. Poor LiltU produced by the Famous Players Company'. It is moreover her first appearance on the screen since the formation of tile Famous Players-Mary Pickford Company, in the productions of which she retains a half interest. The picture will present Mary in novel garb — the corduroy trousers ami coarse flannel shirt 0! the Italian peasant youth. A> the stowaway on ship board, Peppina dresses in hoy clothes m order to avoid molestation, and she continues the disguise when she reaches New York because she finds it easier to find employment when she is clothed in male attire. Through force of circumstances she becomes a hoot black, telegraph messenger, and the genera] scapegoat of a band of counterfeiters who prove to lie the very band who kidnapped her as a baby. Mlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllhlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll|||IIL£ = Are = I 'THE COMMUTERS' I I coming to your favourite I Picture show? Fftlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll'llllllllllllllilllllllllf