Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1923 - Feb 1924)

Advertising Section 119 Concerning Artists. Having silently suffered for many months, I now burst forth into righteous indignation. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? It is ! You may title this "An Artist's Lament," for I am one of that muchmaligned profession that, according to the movies, disports and does little or no work. I wish the average director could see the average studio. With the accumulation of papers, magazines, swipes, paints, et cetera, there is little room for Oriental rugs and costly bric-a-brac. It's Mess, with a capital M. The straw that broke the camel's back was "The Common Law," which shows artists and models as they ain't. Will some one tell me how in Heaven's name an artist's model earning presumably from fifty cents to a dollar an hour — that is what they are paid — can burst forth in Parisian gowns, and still be what is known as a good girl? It insults our intelligence. The audience fairly lapped up the scene where the silently suffering Corinnc had to disrobe. To my mind, it was exceptionally bad taste to prolong the situation as was done. Artists think no more of painting from the nude than the public thinks of reading the evening paper. It is an entirely impersonal matter. Mind you, I'm not saying that all artists are like that, but it's about time somebody said something on the subject. Charlotte B. New York City. From a Friend of Animals. This month when I bought PicturePlay I found under "The Observer" something that will make me a regular reader hereafter — your backing of the American Animal Defense League. There is something so unsportsmanlike in dragging animals before the camera and there goading or frightening them into antics supposed to be either terrifying or amusing, that one wonders what the producer's idea of .the audience is. We aren't such cads as some of them seem to think us. After seeing one disgustingly cruel Mermaid comedy, I never go to a theater where one is being shown, and a friend who used to be an admirer of Richard Dix says she will never go to see him again because he played in "To the Last Man," where horses were used with unnecessary cruelty. Here's hoping that the Animal Defense League will wake the producers up to facts not all of them seem to realize. C. K. 3erkefeld. Berkeley, California. The Greatest Screen Actor. I wish to state that I think Percy Marmont the greatest male actor on the screen. His work in "If Winter Comes" was wonderful. He was just as I had imagined Mark Sabre to be. I have only seen him in that, hut am anxiously waiting to see "The Light That Failed." in which he portrays a blind artist. The photographs in your December magazine look as if it will be another good piece of work on his part, and having Jacqueline Logan as the red-haired girl will also help to make the picture a success. I do not know where Mr. Marmont came from, but he certainly has the rest of them knocked for a row of trees. Gladys Moir. 35 Llydican Avenue, Chatham, Ontario. The Picture Oracle Doris. — You're awfully hard on your own English films, Doris, and I agree with you that English fans probably would be "devastated" if they couldn't see any American pictures. But it isn't all the fault of the British producers, as you seem to think. It's an economic problem. You know eighty-five per cent of the films shown in the three thousand or so British theaters are American, produced with the best available casts, settings, lighting, et cetera, at a cost running anywhere from fifty thousand to over a million dollars a piece. Americans can afford to sink those huge sums into pictures because, in their domestic market alone, they have over fifteen thousand theaters, more than all the rest of the world put together. Add to that their tremendous foreign markets, the largest of which is your own Great Britain, followed by Australia, Scandinavia, South America, France, and so on, and you see why American producers can be so lavish with production costs and yet make huge profits. On the. other hand, your modest English producer, with a domestic market only one-fifth as large as the United States, and with American films all but monopolizing that, simply cannot afford to put much money into his productions. Thirty thousand dollars is a large sum for the average English film maker to invest in one picture. _ So, naturally, with such limited production funds, the results, except in rare cases where the picture achieves greatness in spite of that handicap, not only are of poor quality as compared with American films shown in British territory, but cannot compete very favorably with foreign films on their own grounds. So that is the why and the wherefore Continued from page 102 of the situation that has puzzled you, and perhaps it will show the light to a lot of other English fans who have grown impatient with their home product. W. E. K.— Pearl White is still turning her back on America, and seems entirely won over to Paris. But, not to make us feel too bad, she is going to make several pictures over there which will be duly shown in America, to keep the home fans burning — with admiration — as it were. Her address is printed in this issue, in case you have any particular message you want to send Pearl personally. F. M. — The romances of Thomas Meighan, Wallace Reid, and Conrad Nagel were all published in Picture-Play, but I'm sorry to tell you that it won't be possible for -you to get the copies in which they appeared. You probably will get a chance to see "The Birth of a Nation" some time, as it already has been revived several times and will go on being revived for years to come, I guess. Polly C. — If you write to the service department of Motion Picture News, 729 Seventh Avenue, New York City, which is an exhibitors' organ, they will be able to advise you about the sort of pictures your Girl Scouts would like to show in your town, and how to go about renting them ; or why don't you ask your local exhibitor to tell you? Richard Dix is not married, but there are rumors of an engagement to Lois Wilson. Thomas Meighan's birthday is April ninth, Agnes Ayres' is April fourth, and Dorothy Dalton was born September twenty-second. EARLE E. LIEDERMAN as he is to-day Arc You Ready for the Ash-can? Do you realize what it means to neglect your body? Do you know that you will clog up with waste matter and deaden your life just as ashes do in a furnace? Ave you going to drag yourself through a life of misery and he ready for the undertaker when you should really be only starting to enjoy life? Come on and brace up. Take a good hold of yourself and shake those cobwebs out of your brain. Give me a chance at that weak backbone of yours and let me put a pair of man sized arms onto those narrow shoulders. Pills Never Made Muscles I am not a medical doctor. I don't claim to cure disease. Neither do 1 put any self-assumed title of Professor before my name. I am a builder of muscle — internal as well as external. I claim and can prove that by proper exercise you can even build muscle in and around your heart, and every vital organ. The kind that shoots a thrill through your veins and reaches every crevice of your body. I add years to your life, and oh boy! what a Kick you jet out of every day you live. And talk about big, brawny anus and legs, or broad backs and husky chests — just take a look through this winter's copies of Physical Culture Magazine and see for yourself. You will see a few pictures of my pupils there — living examples of the Earle Liederman system — doctors, lawyers, business men. hut every last one of them good enough to poso as a professional strong man. Some are in better shape than men who are now acting as instructors to ethers. Pep Up What are you going to do about it? Don't sit idle and wish for strength. That will never bring it. Come on and get busy. You must have it, and I'm going to gi e it to you. I don't promise it. I guarantee it. You don't take any chance with me, so come on and make me prove it. Send for My New 64-page Book "MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT" It contains forty-three full page photographs of myself and some of the many prize winning pupils I have trained. Some cf these came to me as pitiful weaklings; imploring me to help them. Look them over now and you will marvel at their present physiques. This book will prove an impetus and a real inspiration to you. It will thrill you through and through. All I ask is ten cents to cover the cost of wrapping and mailing and it is yours to keep. This will not obligate you at all, but for the sake of your future health and happiness, do not put it off. Send today — right now, before you turn this page. EARLE E. LIEDERMAN Dept. 1402 305 Broadway, New York EARLE E. LIEDERMAN Dept. 1402, 305 Broadway, New York City Dear Sir; I enclose herewith 10 cents for which you are to send me, without any obligation on my part whatever. a copy of your latest book. "Muscular Development." (Please write or print plainly.)