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14 Picture Show Annual Walter Hiers, with one eye on the weather, safeguards his straw hat by carrying a brolly. But in the hey-day of her fame, Pearl White was exceedingly popular in many countries, and she may claim that she was one who kept the movies moving. Comedians and Comediennes Under this head I think we may safely place Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand as being the first really popular favourites. Charlie is a screen figure that will ever be remem- bered in the history of the pictures. Starting in pure slapstick comedy he soon made such a name that he was able to strike out on his own and give us something entirely different—the wistful, comic, yet romantic little man, down-trodden and pushed aside by the world, yet always finding consolation in his dreams and occasionally getting his own back on his persecutors by some impish trick. Charlie was, and always will be, the comedian who could not be imitated, though hundreds tried it on stage as well as screen. As for Mabel Normand, she has never been surpassed in her own line. I always regard her as the Marie Lloyd of the screen, and there was much in common between Mabel and the great Marie. An intense understanding of human nature and a love for the people is Mabel s greatest asset, and she is also a natural comedienne, seeing fun in situations when others might not have noticed the comic element. There can be no doubt that she would have made a big name on the music-hall stage, for she had a way of telling a story that was really great. I shall never forget how she held a gathering of Pressmen on her first visit to London, just telling stories of the film studios. Mabel was a member of the old Biograph company, but like Charlie, she made her first big hit with Mack Sennett in slapstick comedy. And, also like Charlie, she was never equalled in her own line. A comedienne of quite a different type, but a real artist, is Dorothy Gish. When she first played under the banner of Griffith there were many who thought she was a much better artist than her sister Lillian. It is hard to judge between a temperamental " heroine " like Lillian and a roguish romp like Dorothy ; but I have always held the opinion that Dorothy is the better actress, for she has not only a real gift for comedy, but she is also capable of depicting pathos and even tragedy.