Reel Life (Sep 1913 - Mar 1914)

REEL LIFE Supplement were filmed during the last week in the Reliance studios of the Mutual Film Corporation, at 29 Union Square West. Jack Noble, the Reliance director, suggested that the "High Jinks" song number be used for film purposes and after several rehearsals without and later with lights both the "High Jinks" dance and the "wriggle-wraggle" snake dance, with Norma Phillips, "Our Mutual Girl," in the "procession" were posed for the camera. The "legitimate" players had much difficulty keeping within the lines and Mr. Grady of the Casino and diplomatic Director Noble devoted much of their time impressing it upon the players that the "mugging" process required that they should keep within the focus of the lens. Mr. Barbaretto gave the good-sized audience of spectators no little pleasure by singing the "High Jinks" number in the Casino key Representatives of many of the motion picture trade papers were present. The show and chorus girls much enjoyed their afternoon as the guests of "Our Mutual Girl" and many discreet inquiries were made regarding the possibilities of motionpicture work. The "High Jinks" episode will be introduced into Reel 9 of "Our Mutual Girl" series, which is to be released on Monday, March 16. The filming of the "High Jinks" company before a motion-picture camera marked the first instance where a "legitimate" company of players has been motographed. No little difficulty was encountered in securing the consent of the managers of the "High Jinks" company to permit the players to devote their time to the enterprise. The principals of the "High Jinks" company attended more out of friendship for Miss Phillips than for any remuneration which might have been attached to the difficult tasks alloted to them. Miss Phillips has many friends on the "legitimate" stage and owing to the fact that the greater mumber of motionpicture players enrolled under the Mutual guidon are on the Pacific Coast, she has been compelled to seek professional companionship among her friends in the Broadway playhouses. The appearance of the "High Jinks" players in a reel of "Our Mutual Girl" was appreciated by Miss Phillips as a delicate personal tribute to her popularity in "the profession." While watching the latest release of "Our Mutual Girl" on the screen in Loew's Herald Square Theatre, John W. Murray, manager of the New York offices of the Garraway Company, and Marie Poesner, known to motion-picture players as Marie Pavis, audibly vented their approval of the film at one and the same time. That was on Tuesday; on Wednesday, althoug'h they had met for the first time only the day before, they were married by the Rev. George C. Houghton, rector of the Little Church Around the Corner. Norma Phillips, who has taken part herself in many romances of the screen, has written a letter of congratulation to the happy young couple. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Murray will deny that their romance was inspired by "Our Mutual Girl." The idea that what the public values it will pay for, is the belief that underlies Miss Anne Morgan's methods in establishing hotels and self-supporting clubs for working women and girls, Germany has founded its most recent en terprises for the public welfare upon this same principle. In every large German city there are pubHc amusements where the prices are so moderate that even the poor people can see good things. Leipzig had. a municipal theatre twenty-five years ago. And the governments of both Germany and Austria to-day manage large opera houses, the seats selling at prices within the reach of everylDody. Why should not America help its people to the best enjoyment of their leisure time? It has been suggested that we have municipal moving picture shows every night in the halls of our many large school buildings. And why mot? The idea is not altogether new, nor impractical — as the growth of the social centre movement is proving. An attractive program, dramatic and educational, would draw thousands, and the price of admission could be kept at the five-cent limit. Free shows, furnished by the city, would not have the same effect. The American people resent paternalism. They have no faith whatever in getting something for nothing. If you are in a park in a German city on a summer afternoon, and you stroll near where the band is playing, you need only summon an attendant and he will bring you, for a penny, a comfortable chair. You can put it anywhere you like on th^ lawn. But you are not merely sitting in a public chair in a public park. You have paid for it. Though at a minimum cost, it is your own chair. Working men and women — even the children — in America are independent in spirit, however little they have. If they value a thing, they expect and prefer to pay for it. Though the price may be nominal only, the price itself makes a difference in their self-respect and their appreciation of the privilege. Why should not the state or the community co-operate to help the public procure the best amusements for its leisure time? The municipal moving picture show is an experiment waiting, right at hand, to be tried. Professor Cranz, probably the world's leading expert in kinematography, has recently submitted to the German Physical Society a machine which is capable of taking pictures at the rate of 100,000 a second. Nothing like this has ever been approached before. The highest speed machines on the market permit pictures taken at the rate of 5,000 a second. In one of H. G. Wells' Eutopian novels, published in the nineties, a man sleeps for a hundred years — and on waking, finds before him a miniature theatre, in which the action is reproduced by pictures, with the voices of the actors mysteriously released at the same time. The book was published ten years before the vogue of the picture shows, and another five prior to graphophone experimentation in connection with them. Mr. Wells' theatre seemed actually uncanny. Yet, to-day, little more than a decade later, the EngHsh novelist has entered into a contract ^yith a motion picture company for the rights to reproduce his stories. Mr. Wells' earlier books, with their glorification of modern machinery, suggest striking film dramas. In the novel above mentioned there is a battle in aeroplanes which would make a thrilling motion picture. The Listener,