Picture-Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY a big excursion barge and took over eight hundred Bowery characters, men and women, up the East River to Glen Cove, New York, where Skinny the Rat set fire to the boat, and the great scene was filmed. The new Vitagraph plant in the West is rapidly nearing completion, and when finished will be the largest closed-in studio in California, and one of the show places of Los Angeles. Sarah Truax, once a Brady star, has at last been induced to become a film player, and she will be with the Griffith players, and be featured. Ruth Roland says that when a picture play succeeds the author of the scenario is entitled to most of the credit. Miss Roland also believes that the director of the film should come in for a share of the applause of the audience, as many of the best situations are very often suggested by him. The "Fall of Przemysl" is said by experts to be the most wonderful war feature yet produced, and the American Correspondent Film Company, at their offices, 220 West Forty-second Street, New York, say the demand for the films is great. Oswald Villard is back of a movement to produce a picture play in opposition to "The Birth of a Nation." The story is by Elaine Sterne, and will be called "Lincoln's Dream," and will give the negroes' idea of the war and their proper place in history. We're watching! Morris Gest, who induced Geraldine Farrar to pose in picture plays, is a Boston boy, and understands the art of advertising as an aid to things theatrical probably better than any other man in America. Jacob Wilk has opened a suite of offices in the Longacre Building, New York, under the name of the Authors' Associated Agency, for the promoting of picture plays, and is said to be the first concern devoted to the interests of movie authors. Mr. Wilks' long connection with the World Film Corporation especially fits him for the work. Miss Geraldine Farrar is resting at her cottage in New Hampshire from her eight weeks' ordeal of posing in picture plays on the coast, and will remain there until her concert season opens in October. Jesse Lasky urges picture-play producers to keep their eyes on Europe for a big market for films. He says that when the war is over business will boom in the amusement line, and the movies will benefit more largely than the music halls. Many cities of America are using films to boom their burgs. Redlands, California, is said to maintain the best equipment for this purpose, which is under the supervision of the Chamber of Commerce. New reels are constantly being made. The "Neal of the Navy" author, William Hamilton Osborne, is the latest one of the best-seller writers to enlist in the picture-play line. He wrote "The Cat'spaw" and "The Red Mouse." The moving-picture industry is following close in the wake of the silver black fox wildcat schemes, but it is thought the promoters can assure a more stable investment if they offer the right kind of movie stock. It is said that Griffith regards the camera man's position as a very important one. and pays William Bitzer three hundred and fifty dollars a week. Now how would you like to be the camera man ? Cyril Maude Shows Nerve. *HP< ) paddle out in a none-too-sober * canoe and let a rough-looking individual with a thirty-thirty rifle plunk the water ahead, beside, and behind you with strangely whining bullets, and then, to top it all off, to let him shoot at your paddle, and with another bullet knock it clean out of your hands, is not an ideal recreation, according to Cyril Maude, the celebrated London actor. Mr. Maude had to undergo such a wild-and-woolly experience in the course of the filmizatiop of Ibsen's masterpiece, "Peer Gynt," by the Oliver Morosco Photo Play Company, in which he is starred. The scene occurs in the episode of "The Fur Trappers," and at first Mr. Maude very reasonably demurred. But when the plucky Englishman was told he would be one of the first ever to submit to so hazardous a feat his sporting blood was aroused, and he went through with it. The scene is one of the most thrilling in all '"Peer Gynt," the camera fortunately having been close enough to show the "hit," the splinters and all. We rise to remark, in our fearless way, that there is room for improvement in motion-picture wigs. Seeing Yourself. ROSETTA BRICE. the titian-haired beauty of the Lubin acting forces, in discussing her venture from the speaking stage to the silent drama, recently said : "I think curiosity had a great deal to do with it. Did you ever want to see the back of your neck? Sure you did. So does everybody when they're young, and then they find that all they have to do is to hold a mirror at the right angle with another mirror and there you are — the back of your neck is ju-st as plain to you as the dimple in your chin. "Well, that's one of the reasons I became a photo-player — oh, not to see the back of my neck — but to see myself act. You see. I had been playing in stock companies for several years, and in a general sort of way I knew how I acted, but of course I never saw myself. Neither did any one else who has played exclusively on the stage. For a long time I had been a "movie" fan. And I always thought how perfectly wonderful it would be to see one's self on the screen. It sort of gave me the creeps to think of it. because it really is uncanny — I think every picture player will agree with me — to suddenly see your very own self walk right out to the foreground. I've never gotten over it, and I dare say I never will fail to feel that little thrill that comes when I see myself on the screen. "Seriously. I had thought of screen work for several years before I sought an engagement with Lubin's. Stock work demanded so much and gave so little — long hours spent between the four walls of a theater, little* or no outdoor life except on short vacations — and I think perhaps it was the call of the outdoor life as much as anything. "So I called on Mr. Lowry, fresh from a ten weeks' engagement with the OrpTieum Stock Company in Philadelphia, was tried, and began playing leads, my first role being in 'The Price of Victory,' in which I blew up a bridge and was crushed beneath the falling timbers — which was considerable try-out ! "Since then I have played in many of the Lubin features under the direction of Barry O'Neil, the chief roles being the heavy support of Rose Coghlan in 'The Sporting Duchess," Flora Wiggins. a splendid comedy character part in 'The College Widow,' and others."