Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

On Sober Reflection 59 sets will grow bigger and bigger and bigger. It will be rather confusing for the studio visitor who has come to see miniatures made. "But I can't tell the miniatures from the other sets he will protest. "That's easy," will retort the producer who special izes in superminiatures, "the miniatures are much bigger than the real sets." Annual Statistics (Ho-Hum!) During the past twelve months, according to an unofficial estimate, 43,937,654 persons, when seeing pictures of wriggling puppies and wide-eyed babies on the screen, exclaimed, "Oh, isn't that cute!" Of these, 99 44/100% were women. A total of 3,792,135 fat men occupying aisle seats refused to budge an inch to let others get to their seats. And 47 children out of a total of 47,000,000 remained quiet throughout the picture. They were asleep. Motion-picture attendance for the past twelve months was divided as follows (figures subject to correction) : Those attending because they think Rudolph or Gloria or somebody else is just wonderful, 40% ; those attending because they had nothing else to do, 40% ; those attending because they got in free, 5% ; those attending who asked themselves afterward why they did it, 5% ; those attending because they are interested in pictures as pictures, 10%. Sleepy-time Story Once upon a time, boys and girls of the movie audience, there was a producer who decided to make the world's greatest superfilm — a choice bit in twenty reels that would run longer than "Abie's Irish Rose." He spent a mountain of cold cash. He built ninety-two sets, each seven miles long and half a mile high. He hired fortytwo stars and one million extras. He tried to bring in every episode that had made previous superfilms profitable. He had covered wagons, a redskin raid, a buffalo stampede, the sacking of Troy, the Battle of Vicksburg, the crossing of the Red Sea, the World War, the campaigns of Napoleon, and the dynamiting of a big log jam in Sqedunk, Canada. He had everything. And yet the picture was a flop. There was another producer who started out, armed with a bright idea but no large appropriation of cash, to make an ordinary picture. In the making, it was discovered that he had something big. Then certain episodes were expanded, and, behold ! he had turned out a classic which ran and ran and ran. Which proves that striking originality pays, and that it's hard to make a classic to der. Believe It or Not Since making "The Vanishing American," Richard Dix has had the Indian sign on many fans. Dumb Dora wants to know whether "The Vanishing American" is Thurston or Houdini ! -. A census of 110,000,000 fans has disclosed that four out of five get Hollywooditis, and that the average girl would rather screen right than -be president. % jfc ^ "Yassuh," writes little Farina in a big, bold script, "Ah attributes mah success in de movies to keepin' dat schoolgirl complexion." * * * A girl who signs herself "Sweet Adeline" says she is just an old-fashioned girl who adores movie heroes and wants to marry one. But, she adds, she wants one who has never kissed another girl. And when she locates him, she is going to send him a nice rhubarb pie, with the crust cut into hearts and flowers, if he will promise not to throw it at any one. Meow! "Is it true that Miss High-hat had her face lifted?" inquired the curious fan. "No," acidly retorted her chief rival for stellar honors, "nobody would steal a face like that." Where Have I Heard That Before? The movies are getting bigger and better. Chaplin is a genius. This is the greatest film ever produced. It's' a wow! Here is an actor who is really modest and unassuming. "I owe my success to my wife." Will Hays lauds motion-picture progress. Noted in Passing In the old days, the woman with an ear for gossip listened in on the party-line telephone. Now, she listens to the people around her in the neighborhood movie. I can think of at least fifteen comedians who have been called comedy Why doesn't it occur to anybody to call h i s favorite Cont'd on page 108 king.