The Struggle (United Artists) (1931)

A WIDE SELECTION of POWERFUL PUBLICITY STORIES ZITA JOHANN RECEIVED D. W. Griffith Again Introduces New Technical Device on “The Struggle” SCHOOLING IN ART OF ACTING FROM GYPSIES Feminine Lead in Griffith’s “The Struggle’ Was Taught Gypsy Songs and Dances Zita Johann, slim, dark-eyed leading lady in D. W. Griffith’s “The Struggle,” which comes to. the Si eR Seog theatre:iOn: = hencas: has memories of a colorful and unusual childhood. Her schooling in the art of acting she traces back to her experiences as a child among the gypsies of South Hungary. Her father, an officer in the Hungarian Hussars, made frequent trips of inspection to the gypsy camps on the plains near Temesvar their home city. Little Zita was often his companion on these journeys and delighted in the gaiety and carefree atmosphere about the gypsy dwellings. “At first, I hung back,” Miss Johann said, “watching the gypsies in their vigorous dances and folklore songs, a little wistfully, wishing I could join in with them, but I was too shy. Later I came to know them better and ioined in their play and games myself. Soon I was one of them and forgot to be shy. I think,” Miss Johann added, “that the greatest training for anyone who is destined for the drama would be to be allowed to play with any group of people so wont to exercise natural self-expression.” Taught Her Songs, Dances There in the gypsy camps she acquired the spontaneity and natural self-expression of the nomadic folk. They taught her many of their gay and sinuous dances and their songs, which are studded with the folklore of many countries through which the countless tribes of wanderers have passed—quaint bits of legend that have been handed from clan to clan. Since she had to perform to prove to her gypsy playmates that she had learned, Zita became accustomed to audiences and gained poise, thus laying the foundations of a self-contained, finely dramatic, emotional actress. Joining in their revels, dancing and singing with them, she also developed that rare art of sincerity in acting. Her role in “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture, is that of the young wife of a New York working |man. While this role might seem to some a far cry from the gypsy play fellows of her youth, nevertheless, the power and lack of self-consciousness, which she gained then, contributed much to the fine and natural acting which she has given to American audiences. STREET FIGHT CAUSES DELAY IN “THE STRUGGLE” It happened during the making of “The Struggle,” which will be seen at theatre, beginning : D. W. Griffith was shooting a scene on a crowded New York street. He had placed his actors, and with his staff was occupying the middle of the street, cameras and sound apparatus ranged alongside. Behind them, its inner edge a ragged semicircle which barely left operating space to the crew, there pressed a solidly packed, dense mass otf pushing humanity, the onlookers, the curious. “Everybody ready?” he asks. They are. Action is about to begin. Suddenly there is a commotion down the street, and the densely packed crowd of spectators melts and runs away to the scene of disturbance. “What is startled. “Fight!” yells a small boy and takes to his heels. “Come on!” shouts Griffith to his cameraman, and likewise bolts for the spot, half a block away, where two street urchins are staging their battle of the century. “Well, Ill be ” gasps Zita Johann, leading lady, “can you beat that—he’s leaving us flat!” And so he was, actually leaving his company flat, in order to watch two kids scrapping in the street. And this was Griffith, who has directed thousands of soldiers in combat in his cinema spectacles, and who with his actors actually worked under shell-fire on the battlefields in France during the war—this was Griffith, the renowned director — just a kid grown up, himself! “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture which will shortly be seen BE ENG sccisakisctsserseiso es theatre is an original by Anita Loos and John Emerson and features Hal Skelly and Zita Johann. we cece ccccce ns scesaseseees esse reseeesoeee it?” asks Griffith, Directional Microphone Latest Device for Picking Up Sound or Voice Wanted Regardless of Outside Interference Perennially the pioneer, D. W. Griffith will introduce, when “The Struggie™: comes to: ‘the: os, a ne CUCATTE ON et eee the most advanced sound reproduction in the history of talking pictures. Thus the man responsible for the “flash-back,” “close-up,” “mist photo graphy and “fade-out” continues to hold his place in the van of cinematic inventiveness. The new departure has to do with a directional microphone, a “mike” which picks up the sound or voice wanted regardless of the volume of outside interference. He takes his cameras and sound apparatus into a steel mill, no less, and, with all the machinery operating full blast, he manages to pick out the voices of his leading players as they work among scores of other employees. The result is that audiences will hear the roar of a steel mill in full operation, but they also will hear, with infinite clarity, the lines as spoken by the principal players. D. W. Griffith manages to introduce a new touch in every major picture he produces. And when one considers that he is THE pioneer of the industry it will be admitted his imprint upon the business is second only to that of the late Thomas A. Edison. Saw First Film in 1907 The director saw his first motion picture in Chicago in the Fall of 1907. He thought the aitair stupid, but he was impressed with the long lines awaiting admission. And before he left Chicago he wrote his first scenario, a screen version of “La Tosca.” He didn’t sell this scenario, but it was the means by which he entered the field of motion pictures, for he got a job as an actor on the strength of it. He had offered it to Edwin S&S. Porter, the director of “The Great Train Robbery,” and when Porter informed him that the scenario was too expensive for the films he replied that he could act, too. The result was that he was cast in the role of a mountaineer in a onereeler called “The Eagle’s Nest.” The job paid $5 a day, and for three days he wrestled on the Palisades with an eagle whose wings were on hinges in order to save the baby. Next Griffith told his friend, Frank Marion, of the Kalem company, of his ambition to write motion pictures. Marion owned some stock in the Biograph company in Fourteenth Street in New York City, and since Kalem had no vacancies he sent Griffith there. Wallace McCutcheon, Biograph director, looked at some of Griffith’s scenarios and then offered him a job as an actor. Here he remained for the Spring and Summer months. Became Assistant Director In June, 1908, Arthur Marvin suggested Griffith as an assistant director to his brother, H. M. Marvin, head of Biograph. The result was soon seen in D. W. Griffith’s first film, “The Adventures of Dollie,” billed as “one of the most remarkable cases of child stealing,” showing “the thwarting by a kind Providence of the attempt to kidnap for revenge a pretty little girl by a gypsy.” The completed picture was 713 feet of film. It was released July 14, 1908. From that very modest beginning Griffith developed the “flash-back,” “close up,” “mist photography” “fade-out” and a host of other revolutionary ideas which caused great gasps of astonishment when they were first flashed upon the screen. When the “close-up” was shown for the first time at a small theatre the audience rose, shouting, and demanded to be shown the feet of the actors. Pioneered in Features Griffith was also the first director to make pictures beyond the onereel length. His departure from the standard thousand-foot length film caused an open break between him and officers of the Biograph company, who maintained that the public would never stand for a tworeel picture. The public did, and demanded more. Then came “Judith of Bethulia,” the first four-reeler, another instantaneous success with American and European audiences. Early in 1915 came “The Birth of a Nation,” which was the greatest feat of its kind ever attempted. ‘The Struggle” is D. W. Griffith’s latest United Artists picture. The Great Discoverer D. W. Griffith, whose “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture will be seen at the Ses ea anor gue ated coats theatre on BR Beier nee , has probably discovered and _ developed more motion picture stars than all other directors combined. And most of them started their careers with the old Biograph company. Following is a partial list started by Griffith: Mary Pickford, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Blanche Sweet, Mae Marsh, Owen Moore, Henry B. Walthall, Alice Joyce, Lionel Barrymore, Jack and Lottie Pickford, Mabel Normand, James . Kirkwood, Harry Carey, Mack Sennett, Mary Alden, Robert Harron and Constance Talmadge. Claude Cooper in New D. W. Griffith Screen Production A veteran of many character parts is Claude Cooper who plays one of the more important roles in D. W. Griffith’s “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture which will be ON aes ccai heen thenrcipson ete theatre, DOR UNATIG oosiGtec ese sted hrgetent Cooper, who is of British ancestry, has played 539 parts up to the end of the theatrical season of 1930-31. Among the notable plays in which he has created character roles may be included “Front Page,” “Juno and the Peacock,’ “The Mock ‘Turtle,’ “The Hottentot,’ “The Red Mill,” ‘“Checkers,’—and more recently — “The Long Road” and “Unexpected Husbands.” Cooper, whose professional career started when he was 18 months of age, in the Royal Theatre, Dublin, was for many years a member of the famous F. F. Proctor Stock Company at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York. With the popular Russ Whytal he played repertoire during a long period in the West Indies. His is a familiar fig ure to New York first-nighters. “The Struggle” is D. W. Griffith’s latest production and features Hal Skelly and Zita Johann. ee 3 es a scene from D-W: Griffith's’ The Struggle” 2—Two Col. Scene (Mat 10c; Cut 50c) Hal Skelly #eatured Player in D‘W Griffiths The Struggle 5—One Col. Feature Player (Mat 05c; Cut 30c) | NEWSPAPER SHORTS Hal Skelly, who will be seen in wa De BiPUeeie Ot Tier. Gijsceseciiceas theatre “beginning ie i Bi cvcccsssees Fi once was a clown with the Barnum and Bailey circus. A part of his act was a somersault from a_ springboard over four elephants lined up side by side. At one performance the fourth elephant threw his trunk up while Skelly was in mid-air, sending him flying across the arena, painfully injuring him. It was the last of circus acrobats for Skelly, who has the male lead in D. W. Griffith’s latest picture. K m9 E 4 “The Struggle,” D. W. Griffith’s latest picture, to be shown at Be nominee Tce Nees theatre, beginning ora katie ies Speen et , has a double-barreled romance running through the story. Side by side with the main theme, the love of a young couple which withstood all trials and triumphed in the end, is the romance of a still younger pair of lovers, whose happiness depends upon the same set of circumstances. Hal Skelly and Zita Johann are the featured couple; Jackson Halliday and Evelyn Baldwin, the more youthful pair. “The Struggle,” D. W. Griffith’s latest picture, which comes to the erie ces theatre ‘next oo) jg. was produced in the Bronx, New York City, at what used to be known as the “old Edison studio,” because it had formerly been the producing home of the old Edison Company, one of the pioneer American film companies. This plant, rebuilt and equipped for the making of talking pictures, is now known as the Audio-Cinema Studio. Years ago Thomas A. Edison conducted many of his experiments in cinematography here, inciuding some of the earliest attempts in the production of sound pictures, by means of synchronized phonograph records. Zita Johann, leading woman in “The Struggle,” has a black and white cat named “Moses” which she carries to every engagement she plays, because the cat is supposed to bring her good luck. The cat reposed in Miss Johann’s dressing room, just off the main stage at the Audio-Cinema Studio, during the filming of D. W. Griffith’s latest picture, “The Struggle,” which will be enOwn ate foo theatre, bewinninig: <5 eo * * & Because it required nearly four hours to apply his make-up, Hal Skelly lived for ten days in the studio in which D. W. Griffith pic turized “The Struggle,’ which comes: to: the 2350.7 c.: theatre on Sie as eed aes At the climax of “The Struggle” Skelly wears a twomonths’ growth of beard and displays other signs of dissipation, and in order to have the time to don his make-up and to be ready for work by nine each morning he made his home in the studio. * * * Charlotte Wynters, whom D. W. Griffith cast for the short but important role of Nina in his latest picture, “The Struggle,” comes of a long line of Virginia and West Virginia ancestry. Her great grandfather, one Colonel Heatherington, had been one of the first owners and operators of a coal mine in the famous West Virginia fields. “The Struggle” will be seen athe ne. eae theatre, beginning Bee eeeeeccccscscccscesenseee EDNA HAGAN [S LATEST GRIFFITH — DISCOVERY; GETS EMOTIONAL ROLE Child Star Selected for Big Part in “The Struggle,” Griffith’s Latest Production In D. W. Griffith’s latest picture, “The Struggle,” which will be seen at Na ogsgt hd s SRT ER theatre, COMMIENCIN Go oe eas , there is a very important role which is played by a girl eight years old. When Griffith was casting his picture he was confronted hy the exacting task of finding a child actress who could fill the requirements of this truly difficult role. D. W. Griffith is known for his skill in casting. His discoveries of screen talent from the earliest per iod of the motion picture’s develop ment have been notable. Mary Pickford, Richard Barthelmess, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Carol Dempster are only a few of the big number of screen personalities which he discovered and developed. For weeks Griffith interviewed children. Many of these were talented in the extreme, but none of them seemed just right for the part. Finally a girl named Edna Hagan came to his attention. Griffith talked to her, explained the outstanding characteristics of the part to her, and then improvised a few lines which he requested her to repeat. The child read these lines with amazing facility. “I will see no further applicants for the role of Mary,” said Mr. Griffith to his assistants. “This is the child for the part.” Weeks of study followed, during which in frequent meetings with Griffith and Hal Skelly, who had been selected to play the leading male role, Edna Hagan lived up to the promise she had given in the first test try-out and became ever more and more perfect in the role of Mary. Born in New York Edna Hagan, who was born in New York, Dec. 29, 1922, and isn’t yet nine’ years old, has followed a professional career since she was an infant. She was first photographed when she was six months old, and a year later played a bit with Richard Dix in a picture called “Lucky Devil.” She was one of the children in Herbert Brenon’s picture, “A Kiss for Cinderella,’ and since that time has worked constantly for screen and stage. Among the longer pictures in which she appeared are “Broadway Nights” with Lois Wilson; “Miss America” with Fay Lamphier; “Laughter” with Nancy Carroll and “Applause” with Helen Morgan. Edna has appeared on the stage in “Sari,” Mitzi’s starring vehicle, and Florenz Ziegfeld’s “Show Boat.” She has also modeled in exclusive fashion displays, and has broadcasted over _ radio. “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture is her latest screen work. WAITED 18 YEARS TO BE DIRECTED BY GRIFFITH When Lyda Kane, veteran stage actress, started work on “The Struggle,’ D. W. Griffith’s latest United Artists picture, which comes to the sition bakes theatre on an ambition which waited eighteen years for fulfillment was realizea. It goes back to 1913 in Chicago. Miss Kane then was in musical comedy. While appearing in Singer’s “Goddess of Liberty,” with Sally Fisher and Joe E. Howard, she was engaged to play a part in a motion picture which was being made at Lincoln Carter’s studio on the North Side. There she met Mary Pickford and Owen Moore in a picture being directed by David Miles. Miss Pickford and Mr. Moore were discoveries of D. W. Griffith, and Miss Kane heard so much of the master director that then and there she resolved to be directed in a picture by him. She returned to New York several months later and instantly bent her activities to appearing in a Griffith picture. But she never made it. Now, eighteen years afterward, she is in a Griffith picture, “The Struggle,” portraying the role of a motherly Irish woman. This, of course, is not her first movie work. She had several roles in silent pictures, and more recently appeared in several talkies in Hollywood and New York. She won her present role as the result of her work in “Secrets of a Secretary,” which Claudette Colbert and Charles Ruggles made at the New York studio of Paramount. When Griffith learned of Miss Kane’s eighteen-year ambition his interest was intrigued. He sought out the actress upon the set and had a long talk with her. And as a result of this she won extra lines and a larger part in “The Struggle,” which will be shown at the See cceeneccereesorees