The Struggle (United Artists) (1931)

BIOGRAPHY and FEATURE STORIES for YOUR CAMPAIGN Zita Johann D. W. Griffith at the beginning of filming of “The Struggle,” which comes to the was assured that in Zita Johann he had selected a leading woman of unusual intelligence, force and emotional power. At the conclusion of production on _ the picture, Mr. Griffith was convineed that his leading woman is a genius. Zita Johann is of Magyar birth. She was born in Hungary, but came to the United States as a child of nine, and has remained here ever since. Her father was an officer in the Hungarian Hussars, and stationed at the sizeable city of Temesvar, in the south of Hungary. On the “pustza” or plains near this city there were large gypsy camps, and it was the duty of the officers to make frequent trips of inspection in these settlements. Little Zita’s father fell into the habit of taking his daughter along with him on these trips and in this manner she learned the ways of the gypsies; they taught her their games and their songs and dances. The young girl learned to act out an expression of whatever emotion she felt. Came to America . Shortly before the start of the World War she was brought to America, and nine years later, at the early age of nineteen, she became one of several leading women to Basil Sidney in the first road tour repertory company the Theatre Guild sent out. Only a brief experience in stock had preceded this. George Bernard Shaw’s “The Devil’s Disciple,’ Leonid Andreyev’s “He Who Gets Slapped” and Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” were included in. the repertoire. Followed a succession of stock engagements, interspersed with metropolitan and road engagements, in which Miss Johann played many different parts, two of them—a role Oo eee rer aeeesecceseeseetanes in Tom. Barrys “Dawn” and Aloma in “Aloma of the South Seas” bringing her considerable New York runs, and adding to her reputation. Nineteen twenty-seven brought a long road tour in “The Cradle Song,” the play from the Spanish, which Eva Le Gallienne had produced with her Civic Repertory Company in New York. In the Fall of 1928 she appeared in a play of Tennessee rural life called “Rope.” Then came her selection by Arthur Hopkins to create the role of the young woman in his memorable production of the play by Sophie Treadwell called “Machinal.” This play had its New York premier early in September, 1928. The critics proclaimed her a new-found genius of tragedy. Films—Hollywood Next Then the films beckoned! The young actress went to Hollywood— there to remain for six months without playing a part or making even one scene—one of those Hollywood puzzles that so leave the Film Capital open to shafts of satire and upon which the critics seize so avidly. ee : Her real opportunity in pictures was soon to come, however, for D. W. Griffith had marked her in his mind for some time as the ideal leading-woman to play in his forthcoming picture of middle-class American life, “The Struggle.” a United Artists picture — and Miss Johann interrupted her long New York run in Philip Barry’s successful romance, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow” to create under Griffith’s personal direction her first picture role—that of the young wife, Florrie, whose unwavering love endures through adversity as a beacon light shining in the darkness. Arthur Lipson Seen in Griffith’s “The Struggle” Among the many recruits from the legitimate stage to be seen in D. W. Griffith’s latest picture, “The Struggle,” which comes to the woos ive oo ssn as TRO theatre, starting Oak ania , is Arthur Lipson. In this Griffith picture Lipson appears in the role of a Jewish insurance collector, and his fine characterization gives distinction to this small part. This actor was born in Minsk, Russia, but came to the United States as a boy and was educated on the East Side of New York. He was educated for the ministry, but turned to the stage and played a part in the original “Cyrano de Bergerac” production with Richard Mansfield. He later sang a role in the first performance in this country of the grand opera production of Wagner’s “Parsifal.” Lipson was a featured player in the ambitious attempt to establish a “Folies Bergere” in this country, the joint enterprise by Jesse Lasky and Henry B. Harris. D. W. Griffith Saw His First Picture in 1907 Director of ‘The Struggle” Made Picture Debut With Old Biograph Company D. W. Griffith was born in LaGrange, Ky., January 22, 1880, the son of Margaret Oglesby and Col. Jacob Wark Griffith, knewn locally as “Roarin’ Jake” Griffith during the Civil War. As a boy young Griffith worked in the mailing room of his brother’s newspaper in a Kentucky town and later as a reporter for “Marse Henry” Watterson’s Louisville Courier-Journal. On the latter job he witnessed a performance of “Romola” by Julia Marlowe, and decided then and there to become a dramatist. As his first step, he became an actor. His first job was with the Meffert Stock Company. The play was “The District School” and the novice portrayed the role of a dunce. Off-times the young actor, who had taken the stage name of Lawrence Griffith, did odd jobs, among them running an elevator in a dry goods emporium, acting as a clerk in a stationery store and selling books for a Baptist publishing house. Following a season with the Meffert Stock Company, Griffith was taken on by the John Griffith Strolling Players, and to avoid confusion in names the actor became David Brayington. Other stock companies followed, the actor returning to his original name of Lawrence Griffith, and he played with such stars as Helen Ware, Barney Bernard, Walker Whiteside, J. E. Dodson and Nance O’Neill. Wrote for Leslie’s Between times there was another phase of the Griffith career. In 1905, he was a poet, and Leslie's Weekly payed him $35 for one contribution. He also worked as an ore shoveller and a puddler in a steel foundry at Tonawanda, N. Y. But he finally arrived at his goal, that of playwriting, and James K. Hackett offered one of his pieces, “A Fool and a Girl’ at the Columbia Theatre, Washington. Unfortunately, the play was a failure, and his other nineteen plays never were produced. Start Screen Work in Chicago Then came the beginnings of one of the greatest careers in the movies. In Chicago, Griffith saw his first motion picture, and thought it quite stupid. But the long lines in front of the theatre impressed him, so he wrote a screen version of the opera, “La Tosca.” Coming to New York he offered it to Edwin S. Porter, producer of “The Great Train Robbery,” but instead Porter gave the applicant a job as an actor, While working with Porter, Griffith confided in his friend, Frank Marion, his ambition to write for the screen, and, having no vacancies in his Kalem company, Mr. Marion sent him to Biograph, in which he was a stockholder. Wallace McCutcheon, Biograph director, looked at Griffith’s scenarios and then did just what Porter did — gave him a job as an actor. He ap 3 ESS SS Rae DW: Griffith Droducer of The Struggle’ 7—One Col. Producer Head (Mat 05c; Cut 30c) peared in such pictures as “ ’Ostler Joe,” “When Knighthood Was in Flower” and other one-reelers. He wrote the scenario of “Over the Hill to the Poorhouse.” In June, 1908, Griffith became an assistant director for Biograph, his first film being “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 long; it was released July 14, 1908. From that very modest beginning Griffith developed the “flashback,” “mist photography,” “the fade-out” and a host of other revolutionary ideas. He was the first director to make pictures longer than one reel. His departure from the standard 1000-foot picture caused a break between himself and the officers of the Biograph company, who maintained that the public would never stand for two-reelers. But the public did, and demanded more. Produced First Feature Film Then came “Judith of Bethulia,” the first four-reel film, an instantaneous success. And early in 1915 “The Birth of a Nation” was shown in Los Angeles. Nothing like it was ever seen before. Two years before that, though, Griffith made “The Battle of the Sexes,” and the following year “The Avenging Conscience,” a forerunner of the German art films. In 1916 “Intolerance” was the Griffith contribution. During the war the Allies commissioned Mr. Griffith to make “Hearts of the World,” a propaganda film with a message to the world. He made some scenes on the battlefields of France. In April, 1917, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Chaplin joined hands and founded United Artists Corporation. The first Griffith picture under this arrangement was “Broken Blossoms,” with Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess. This was followed by “The Love Flower,” “Way Down East,” “Dream Street,” “Orphans of the Storm,” “One Exciting Night,” “The White Rose,” “America,” “Isn’t Life Wonderful,” “Sally of the Sawdust.” Then he made “That Royle Girl’ and “The Sorrows of Satan” for Paramount. “Drums of Love” was the first picture made for United Artists after an absence of three years. This was followed by “The Battle of the Sexes,” the same story he made in 1913, and “Abraham Lincoln,” his first venture into the all-talking field. : “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture is the latest. This film, from an original story by Anita Loos and John Emerson, presents Zita Johann and Hal Skelly in the leading roles. It was made at the old Edison studio in New York City and personally directed by D. W. Griffith. Evelyn Baldwin A chance encounter on a Long Island beach fired the spark of cinematic ambition in Evelyn Baldwin, who plays one of the leading roles in D. W. Griffith’s “The Struggle,” which comes to _ the EE iia AS theatre 2ON veces ees Miss Baldwin, a New York girl, was boating with her father when on an isolated stretch of shore they observed what appeared to be a South Sea settlement. It was the location camp of a picture company engaged in the filming of a tropic scene not far from the towering spires of New York’s skyscrapers. They landed to watch the filming. Miss Baldwin’s youth caught the eye of the director, and she soon found herself pressed into service aS an extra. A determination to make her way in pictures was born then and there, although the girl was in her first year in high school. Bits and small parts in pictures followed as often as the opportunity presented itself, and finally Evelyn was tested to play the lead opposite Richard Dix in “Nothing But the Truth.” But now sound swept across the screen, her voice betrayed her inexperience. And so the golden opportunity was lost. The young aspirant then underwent a course of training at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, and before graduation she was playing a leading role in the New York stage production, “It Never Rains.” The voice, once a weak point, had become an element of strength through a highly perfected diction. It may be recalled that D. W. Griffith, during his long screen career, has been noted for his discoveries of talented young players. Mary Pickford, Richard Barthelmess, Mae Marsh, Bobbie Harron, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Constance Talmadge and Carol Dempster are among those favorites whose introduction to the films was made under the tutelage of this master director. “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture, which comes to the................ theatre reveals Zita Johann and Hal Skelly in the leading roles. GRIFFITH REMEMBERS OLD-TIMERS FOR ROLES IN HIS LATEST PICTURE They are always bobbing up during the filming of a Griffith picture —those actors of an elder generation who worked under Griffith in the old days. It is not so surprising, perhaps, when one reme:nbers that it was D. W. Griffith who gave pictures their real start on the road to an art of entertainment, and that from his pioneering work sprang motion pictures as we know them today in theatres. Several such instances took place during the recent making of “The Struggle,” Griffith’s latest picture, which will be seen at the.................... theatre, beginning the studio in the Bronx, far up in New York City’s northern cutposts, several of these old veterans of the studios found their way, intent on seeing “the Boss” themselves, ignoring agents and relying on old associations to secure them a day or two of work. Griffith always sees them, exchanges greetings and brief reminiscences, and in some manner manages to employ them, running them into some scene as extras if he cannot use them as “bits.” It was one such old-timer who secured the small part of the bartender in the first speakeasy scene in “The Struggle,” the United Artists picture. He is Ed Laurence, and he stated that he had last worked with Griffith in a one-reeler called “The Rounders,” which was made 20 years ago in the old Bioeraph Studio at 175th Street and Westchester Avenue, New York City. Griffith remembered him. “That’s going back pretty close to the beginning, Ed,” he admitted. “TI taught you a few things about picture work 20 years ago; put your make-up on, and let’s see if you’ve remembered them.” The actor did as he was told and got behind the bar. He had remembered. occ eeeccccreceecesnetece Charlotte Wynters From a sheltered uprearing whieh goes with the traditions of a long line of Southern ancestry to a stage reputation for the portrayal of hard, cynical, modern city roles is a long jump, but this is the distance that was traveled by Charlotte Wynters, who portrays the role of a vampire in D. W. Griffith’s “The Struggle,” which will be seen beginning next It was in finishing school at Columbus that Charlotte became a student of the classics and developed an aptitude for the reading of blank verse, as evidenced in her recitals from Shakespeare and Maeterlinck. It was this aptitude which led to her first appearance upon the stage. A troupe playing Maurice V. Samuel’s ‘ biblical romance, “The Wanderer,” came to Columbus. This was the company which had appeared in New York with the renowned Florence Reed at its head. Due to the illness of an actress one of the minor roles were open. Charlotte Wynter’s local reputation for reading blank verse came to the notice of the management, and she was employed to fill this part. “The Wanderer” toured the country for several years. In its second season Miss Wynters had a more important role, and in the third season she succeeded Florence Reed in the featured role. That summer young Miss Wynters headed an attempt to establish a stock company in her home town of Wheeling, but gave it up and went to Paterson, N. J., where she spent a year at the head of her own stock company. Next she was the star of a neighborhood stock company—this time in a Northside Chicago theatre. Here she remained for a year before moving to Chicago’s downtown section to spend a season as leading woman playing opposite William Hodge in one of his popular successes. In 1930, she made a big hit in the Broadway run of the stage play, “Bad Girl.” She was playing the leading role in “A Regular Fellow” which was a revival under a new title of the plav. “A Man’s Man,” when D. W. Griffith engaged her for the role of Nina in “The Struggle.” This latter is her first talking picture experience. Hal Skelly Hal Skelly, leading man in “The Struggle,” D. W. Griffith’s picture wilich comes °t6.the -<20..6.5..6052 osc HNEAtTES = ON ica ee , is a natural-born actor. So natural, in fact, that he clashed with his parents at a very early age because of his penchant for attaching himself to traveling circuses and carnivals. Hal’s childhood was spent in Alleghany, Pa., where he more than once was put to bed supperless for purloining the family supply of candles to use as footlights in his “play-shows.” Once, indeed, he nearly set the house afire. At the age of fourteen the family moved to Davenport, Iowa, and about six months later, when Norris and Roe’s “Dog and Pony Show” arrived in that city, Hal was a goner. Runs Away Again _The show had no more than arrived in town when the neighbors spotted young Hal astride a trick burro in the carnival parade down Main Street. His father called a halt to that, but three days later the freckled-face youngster ran away and joined the show in a neighboring town. He signed on aS a Sweeper in the horses’ tent, but a month later found him holding a place among the clowns. Two months later he was arrested by the sheriff, who had read of the rewards offered for the missing youth. As punishment, Hal was shipped off to boarding school at Peru, Indiana, but this was so near Chicago that the lure was too strong. The kid ran away to the big city and broke through the barriers of the La Salle Street Theatre and secured employment as a dancer in “The Time, The Place and The Girl.” Here again Fate stepped in, for one night State Senator James Butler attended the show and recognized his nephew, young Skelly, in the cast. As a lesson the Senator had the boy put in jail for two days to scare him, but when Hal was released he struck out for San Francisco instead of home. Toured Pacific Coast Now he became a trouper in earnest. As “Tumbling Harold Skelly,” he joined the Zinn musical comedy organization, which played up and down the Pacific Coast, and two years later he joined a medicine show in Oklahoma. Several other carnival shows held him for about two years more, and then he hit up with Barnum and Bailey’s circus. He toured the globe with this outfit. _ Back in the United States, he joined up in minstrelsy with Lew Dockstader, and then came varied performances in a stock company. Vaudeville, burlesque and musical comedy came in their natural order, “So Long Letty” being one of his principal shows. A Star on Broadway By this time the comedian was so well known that when Arthur Hopkins sought a leading man for “Burlesque,” the succesful Broadway play, he fastened upon Skelly. Up went Skelly’s name in electric lights, the show lasting on Broadway a year and a half. Then, when Paramount bought the movie riguts Skelly repeated upon the screen, the picture being called “The Dance of Life.” When D. W.. Griffith began thinking about his next picture he sought out Hal Skelly, and for weeks and weeks the two were closeted together making an extenSive study of the leading role. The result was that when Griffith began picturizing “The Struggle,” a United Artists picture, it was a matter of conjecture which was Hal Skelly and which Jimmy Wilson, the leading part he plays. “The Struggle’ Johann’s First Screen Portrayal : Zita, Johann plays her first motion picture role in D. W. Griffith’s “The Struggle,” which will be SHOWN at. caisson theatre beginPONE fA esis Miss Johann has attained considerable distinction on the Stage, particularly through her creation of the leading role in Arthur Hopkin’s production of “Machinal.” Prior to that she had toured the country in leading female roles in “Cradle Song”—sent out by Eva Le Gallienne’s Civic Repertory Company, and in “Peer Gynt,” “He Who Gets Slapped” and “The Devil’s Disciple”—all these in the Theatre Guild’s first road tour company. Her longest New York run has been in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow” which she played all last season, and in which she will tour the principal cities in the coming theatrical season. _ In “The Struggle ” a United Artists picture which is an independent D. W. Griffith production, Zita Jopas is co-featured with Hal Skely.