Reel Life (Mar-Sep 1915)

REEL LIFE Twenty-one Jffloralttp anb jHotton pictures Birector-tn-Cfjief, Jleto f9ork jWotton picture Corporation D I 1 I SOME time ago I received a visit from a sheriff, who had been warned by some of the good people of his county, that I was producing a played called The Devil in which I was using nude women players. Of course, this was untrue. But the unannounced visit of the official made it all the more convincing to me that Dame Rumor is a lady of the utmost sensitiveness, who is apt to take alarm at the tiniest whisper and call upon her myrmidons to take arms against an eighty-mile gale when only the feeblest zephyr is blowing. It transpired that a minister had gathered information to the effect that I was producing a play with a Mephistophelian setting, so he concluded without any further investigation, that I was getting something out after the order of those classic paintings in which dozens of lost souls are seen floating in the ether in a wholly nude state. Suffice it to say that the county official left absolutely satisfied, that there was nothing in the production to jar even the tenderest of sensibilities. Thus it goes in the world of rumor, in which the motion picture producer and the players as well seem to have carried off first honors for moral obliquity and as blind followers of the gods of iniquity. Yet why this is so, is not entirely plain. Neither motion picture producers, nor motion picture players are in any degree more unmoral than any other class of people, with emphasis and without reservation. It only goes to show that many people are prone to accept statements, no matter how wildly imaginary or how slender their basis of truth, as facts, when an investigation of any kind would speedily demonstrate them to be the veriest fiction. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule in motion pictures just as there are in any other legitimate business enterprise, but these exceptions are distinctly few. A visitor to a producing plant, who has never seen players at work, may be misled into believing that a certain laxness of morals exists there, because of the familiarity of the players of both sexes with each other. The casual visitor only sees things on the surface and thus is apt to go away with a distorted idea as to the code of propriety followed by the actors, whereas, in reality, no significance should be attached to them. The little familiarities of the studio, doubtless, _ would not be tolerated in any business, other than motion pictures, but I know that they are harmless, wholesome and justifiable, where men and women are continually thrown in <each other's company and get to know each other intimately. In the five years of my connection with motion pictures Thomas H. Ince — A Recent Portrait I make this statement I have seen nothing in the studios, that by any stretch of the imagination, could be said to come within the bounds of suggestiveness, nor have I observed anything but the-highest respect shown all women players by those of the opposite sex. I am not acquainted with the experiences of other producers, but I maintain that where a business is run to conform with clean business principles, everything else in the establishment will be clean also. Through daily association actors and actresses become much as if they were all members of a big family, and if the heads of that family are clean-living, right thinking folk, the rest are pretty certain to be. Much, of necessity, depends on the directors who, because of the wide latitude of power given them, are really veritable czars of the studios. A derelict director can upset the moral standards of the best of institutions and it should be the bounden duty of all producers to weed out those directors, who permit their selfish aims to get the better of their sense of duty. Indeed, a director of this character is a serious menace to the industry, and will not be tolerated by any producer for long, no matter how great his native abilities. Moral turpitude is born of indolence and no motion picture institution in the producing line can be accused of indolence. Necessarily, the studio is about as 'busy a place as can well be imagined. Thousands upon thousands of feet of film must be turned out weekly and there is very little time for a player to misconduct himself, even if he should so desire. Some people are obsessed with the idea that motion picture players are an easy-going, devil-may-care class, making good money and addicted to that Bohemianism so long associated with the stage. On the contrary many players are from excellent families, with a family tree as big-limbed as some of the arbors of our very much advertised aristocracy. Many well-known stars, if not already married, are supporting their families at home, while others are so possessed by ambition that they have little or no time for frivolities. Unlike the stuffy theater and its unhealthy environment the moving picture field is one vast stadium, in which the players are continually exercising their mental and physical talents. The studios are all open-air affairs with an inexhaustible supply of fresh air. When it is considered that only a fraction of the day's work is done in the studios and the balance in the open country, where health and robustness abound, the layman need have little fear of motion picture players, as a class, becoming deaf to the entreaties of virtue.