Picture Show (Oct 1920 - Apr 1921)

10 Picture Show, 9 OWEN NARES. (Photo : Claud Harris.) WHEN I went to have a chat with Owen Nares shortly after a matinee last Saturday afternoon, an immense crowd i f fair admirers were wailing to. sco him leave t lie theatre. " Quite enough to make 3 mere man enormously conceited," I thought, »' but then the . idol of ' Romance,' ' Mister Tom,' cannot be called ' mere man : ' he's one of out very big favourites, isn't he ? " Ho was removing the grease paint from his fate as I entered his rose-shaded dressingroom. Ho laughingly remarked ho couldn't shake hands. Owen Nares needs no introduction to my readers, but here is his latest studio portrait. He looked just as attractive in his grey dressing gown as he does when wearing his immaculately cut clothes in " Wedding Bells." He's realty tho most, delieiouuly unaffected and natural of men, which goes to prove it takes a lot of lionising to spoil an English man ! ' Climate and Film Work. WE'RE hiving another Summer," he remarked. " I'm glad my children aro at the seaside. They love it ! " Fancy Owen Nares with two sons ! From the climate wo talked about British (ilins, for tho weather matters a lot when filming outdoor scenes. " Bad w eather is a financial consideration w hen taking exteriors," he told ine. " The past exceptionally wet summer has been very trying to the British producer. In July you do expect to get lino weather, but I had to journey to 1'oultor's Lock three times just to get three flashes ! " " Flashes ? " I queried. " Those little episodes that last a second or two on the screen," Owen Nares explained. Three afternoons spent to get three seeonds on the screen 1 The Discrimination of Cinema Goers. " ' I '1110 public show a lot of discrimination nowjl adftys about tho films they want to see,'' Owen Nares told me. " More and more eare w ill have to be taken over the selection of a book for a plot or a film scenario. I'eople soon hIiow their disapproval if they don't like a thing by slaying away. " To be successful," ho thinks, " a film should be artistic, and the people who produce it should have a thorough knowledge of tho stage." £2,000 a Year Expert. HER1-. is a suggestion for film companies. Mr. Xares think" a company who desires to achieve great things should be prepared to pay a good salary, say £2,0011 A year, to a literary man w ho really knows books, and would have expert knowledge as to what would make u really good film. " They've got to get good things on the screen," he declared, " and if |\ they pay for them they w ill succeed." Big Stars and Big Salaries. ASKED Owen Nares what he thought of the big salaries that were paid to stars ncrosi tho " Herring. Bond." " .£20,000 a yoar is a modest salary," -was his answer ; and then ho added, " a friend of mine who is a celebrated surgeon, asked me t he same question not long ago. and when I told him a .Mare I'icklord or Charlie Chaplin would perhaps make four or five times us much, he w as amazed, and told mo that 'the most famous surgeon cannot hope to make more than £15.000 a year.'" Mr. Nares retort to this is worth repeating. " Bui Charlie Chaplin is a surgeon to millions ! " THIS PAGE IS ALL Al LATEST PLANS OF PRODUCERS. STORIES FROM TM ANN ELLIOTT. And he's right. Laughter can cure many ailments. May Go to America . "I HAVE been asked So act w ith the Talmadges," I he told me, " and D. W. Griffith offered me a five years' contract. Financially, of course, it's a big temptation. But I'm insular. I prefer ray own country. All the same, I expect I shall go for a time, in the dim future. But not for some months." By tho way, Constance Talmadge told me when she was over here, how she admired Owen Nares in his part in " Wedding Bells." She is to star in this play in the film version. Where Owen Nares Failed. 1 COULDN'T resist asking him about a funny little doll on his dressing-table. " Is it a Mascot ? " Ho shook his head at my question, nnd'took up the queer little grey wooden creature and examined it. " The understudies had a competition," ho explained, " making butterflies ; you know the idea. Dab various coloured splashes of paint on a piece of white paper, then fold it, open it, and there is your painted butterfly ! / got tht booby prize because mine was the worst I " An Open Window and a Fire. I WENT to have a chat with Ann Elliott the other afternoon. She was wearing a little close-fitting nigger velvet hat, with a very chic glace silk bow at the side. It. looked tremendously becoming on her fair, sunshiny hair. We sat ljosido an open window overlooking Esher Common. At the same time there was a bright fire burning in the' grate. There is something very luxurious about an open window, and a fire close at hand to take tho autumnal nip out of tho atmosphere. " V\ hat made j on take up screen work ? " 1 njked. I SIR SIMEON STUART, BART. Miss Elliott laughed. " One day, just for fun, a friend suggested I should go to a film studio and discover if there was any chance for me. I was in a mood for adventure, and off we'went, straight away." A Lncky Expedition. IWAjS very kindly received at the studio, which, by the bye, was Barker's," sho said. " 1 was told that tho Eros Film Productions were advertising for a star. I casually left my photo behind, and I thought no more about it. " Three days after I was asked to go to tho studio, and there I met the producer of tho Eros Films: Two days after I was asked to go again to tho studio to go through a test, but at tho last minute I just felt I couldn't ! I telephoned and said so. To my intense surprise tho producer then came to see me, and offered me tho part of leading lady in the Eros Film Productions, and I signed my contract before ho left." This is Ann Elliott's photograph. Have you seen her ? A Baronet Film Actor. i CALLED on Sir .Simeon and Lady Stuart the other afternoon in their delightful flat overlooking Regent's Park ; a romantic spot, where squirrels make sport amongst the greenery, and sable barues creep through the canal that winds beneath the trees. ".Colonel Sir Simeon Stuart served in tho divisional staff in France, and after heing slightly nas«xl one day, when lying in hospital, he told me that a brother officer said : " What are you going to do when you get home. Stuart ? Your military career is over." " Oh. I don't know ! " said Sir Simeon. . And then his friend chaffinidy retorted: