Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

Sets that Represent Fortunes 89 The p woe larger studios contain a}-, most e .vn might be needed for any pic ture. . armor, grass skirts from the South Sea IsL spears, lances, bolos, machetes, snow ;hoeS, grain mortars, throne chairs, moose heads, tiger skins, gorgeous crystal chandeliers, priceless Chinese and Japanese vases inlaid with pearl, tapestries from the countries of Europe, earthenware from Africa, torn toms from India, musical instruments from all the other peoples of the Orient. The list is endless.' • At each studio, too, are the highest skilled interior decorators and designers, paid big salaries to arrange studio settings. The little odd crook to a table cover, the slight turn of a chair or a table or a couch, the different hanging of a drapery or arrangement of a tapestry or rug, can change the appearance of an entire room. Because of this these skilled decorators are employed. If a housewife untutored in such work were to attempt duplicating a setting, in many instances she would wonder why the effect she obtained was _ not the same. Undoubtedly, many women have obtained ideas from screen plays on how to make rooms appear unique and attractive and they may be assured that the stage-set rooms — of certain productions, at least— are correct in their fittings. But they need not feel disappointed or surprised when they are unable" to obtain many of the beautiful designs in furniture and vases or of tapestries and rugs they see pictured on the screen. Indicative of the enormous growth of the motionpicture industry is this assembly of props at the West Coast studios. The first complete motion picture made in Los Angeles was produced by Colonel Selig in 1908 A view of one section of a prop room at the United Studios. The stage of Ziegfeld's "Follies "Pretty in an old mansion rented at Eighth and Olive streets The name of the picture was "In the Sultan's Power " and the props consisted of whatever could be found in the house. In 1909, New York sent out the old Bison Company and in 1910 came the Biograph with D. W. Griffith as director. With him were Mack Sennett, Owen Moore, Arthur Johnson, Mary Pickford, Lee Dougherty, Florence Lawrence, and Marjorie Favor. In the pictures.the props consisted of neighborhood houses, the streets, and what have you ! In 1911, David Horsley, Al E. Christie, Thomas Ricketts and Milton Fahrney arrived in Hollywood with two thousand five hundred dollars, leased the old Blondeau Tavern at the corner of Sunset and Gower — now a part of "Poverty Row" —and presently Jesse L. Lasky came. He bought an old stable and lot where the great Lasky studio now stands and from this stable made the first Paramount picture. The first picture made in the first studio of Hollywood was titled "The Law of the Range." The props therefor were the wide open spaces and whatever could be borrowed. Now, scarcely fourteen years later, the props alone cost millions. For "The Wanderer," a new Paramount production, one of the most remarkable and expensive sets ever built was constructed. Hundreds of carpenters, electricians, and prop men went fifty miles from Hollywood and there built an entire Biblical city. It bore the exact appearance of such a place years before the birth of Christ. Thousands of extras may be seen roaming its narrow streets. The city did not last long, however, being destroyed almost as soon as it was erected. An earthquake — not a real one — brought the wrath of God upon the city and its wicked inhabitants and its mighty buildings were soon nothing but smoking ashes. was faithfully reproduced for Ladies."