Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

60 What Canada Thinks of Our Movies -A 'V "The Alaskan," with Thomas Meighan and Estelle Taylor, caused a great deal of criticism in Canada, especially with regard to the Indians and tepees used in the picture. what she said, and in reminding Detroit how honored the city was to have filmland's queen in their midst. But what happened in Toronto? Mary's arrival caused hardly a ripple in the dignified march of events. The papers carried half column articles about her stay in the city, sandwiched in between parliamentary notes from England and debates on the "leftenant" governor's latest policies. One wildly radical paper that publishes photographs and tells about murder news gave Mary two pages, but it was much criticized for doing so., Echoes of the criticism were still going strong when I was in Toronto. Not that Toronto isn't proud of being Mary's home town. It is — in a dignified, genteel sort of way. But it is not Toronto's newspaper policy to "play up" professional people. If Sarah Bernhardt had appeared in Toronto they might have sent a reporter to the theater to interview her. I say they might. I think myself it is rather doubtful. When I left Toronto last March, it was to cross Canada from east to west, via the Canadian Pacific. I could not help thinking, as we sped along in perfect, luxurious comfort, that a country so full of diversified beauties, deserved better treatment from scenarists than the focusing of the attention on onlv one phase of Canada's life. There were great forests, silent, austere, with cloven moose tracks in the snow. There were wide plains, and glorious jagged mountains. Towns with quaint names suggesting history and romance — "Ou' Appelle" (Who Calls), "Lost Woman," and "Medicine Hat." Why is it, I wondered, that Hollywood has not probed these possibilities ? My next stop on the homeward bound trail was Winnipeg. There was plenty of snow there and the tem perature was twenty degrees below zero. Here at last I saw in reality the huge fur caps that I had so often seen on the salt-covered lots in Hollywood with the temperature up near the boiling point. I was also thrilled to get an actual "close-up" of a Mounted Police. Alas for our celluloid ideas of these man-getting heroes ! He wasn't handsome ; his waist wasn't small ; his eyelashes were not. long, and he looked just as red-nosed and cold as any other human being who is doomed, in zero weather, to wear a short coat ending jauntily at the hips. I wanted to stop him and ask him if he always got his man. But inquisitive Americans are not looked upon with any particular favor in Canada. I contented myself with the thrill I got out of seeing him. I got another life-sized thrill when I saw a team of husky dogs come dashing down the snow-covered street, their tails up and their heads busily turning from side to side, taking in the sights as eagerly as so many country cousins arriving in the big city. But alas again for romance ! The sled which they pulled, and which was driven by a tall Icelander completely enveloped in furs, was bearing a huge billboard advertising a South Sea Island motion picture ! A curious paradox that — the snow-covered streets — the husky dogs — and the lurid picture of two half-naked castaways ("Sinners in Heaven") sitting on a tropical beach with coconut palms for a background. I called on the manager of the theater where the picture was being shown. "Oh, yes," he said, in answer to my question, "we find exploitation by means of dog teams our best drawing card. We have tried ponies, calliopes, and bands, but I find that the dog team attracts the most people.