Reel Life (1915-1916)

Forsook A Musical Career For Screen Brilliant career on the stage has had much to do with charming star’s success as film actress IT has not been a great number of years since Winnifred Greenwood, the winsome American-Mutual star, first appeared in the dramatic profession. But in the space of few years she has achieved a record attainment. She has appeared as 1,800 different girls, different in thought, background, expression and purpose, and each one of the 1,800 has possessed a personality distinct from Miss Greenwood’s own. Winnifred Greenwood has recently had the ditinction of just being made a co-star with Frank Ritchie at the head of a newly organized Mutual Masterpicture, De Luxe Edition company organized at the American Film Company’s Santa Barbara studios, where for the last few years she has been co-starring with Edward Coxen in American dramas. For a time it was in one and two reel pictures of the “Flying A" brand. More recently she and Mr. Coxen have appeared in three part feature productions. Her new promotion to the head of a Masterpicture, De Luxe Edition company is in recognition of her greater powers of dramatic and emotional interpretation. Miss Greenwood began her professional career with musical comedy. She had an exceptionally good voice. “Zig Zag Alley”was about to be put on at the New York Theatre, so straight to the producer went a determined little girl and asked for an opportunity to play a part. “Zig Zag Alley” proved Winnifred Greenwood’s first stage experience. After that she was given a role in “Babes of Toyland,” and then left musical comedy for the legitimate stage. Her first part as a legitimate actress was in “The Midnight Express” with J. J. Kennedy. The stock stage next claimed the soft voiced, pink cheeked, gray eyed girl whose ambition it was to win fame and name for her merits as an interpreter of dramatic roles. She travelled all through the South with a repertoire company, playing “Sapho,” “Camille,” and all the “old timers.” In stock she became a general favorite in such cities as Baltimore, Duluth, Roanoke, Moline, South Bend and various other cities. Pictures, to Winnifred Greenwood, mean “Mutual,” for practically all of her career as a player for the celluloid drama has been with the American Film Company. She is so generous, so willing to do any task which is set before her, so eager to be of assistance to those about her, that she is a great favorite with the studio folk. Miss Greenwood plays both the piano and the mandolin. These two accomplishments, with her remarkable voice, make her a very welcome guest. She is as generous with these as she is with other possessions and with her time. “Do I ever intend to go back to the legitimate or the musical comedy stage?” queried Miss Greenwood, in response to a question the other day. “Do you think that a bird which has been freed would ever return to captivity? I always felt cramped and hindered on the stage. I wanted to feel the same way when I was in the theatre that I did when I was out on my horse, or in my canoe. The bigness and the freedom of the outdoors, I felt, was what I needed to do my best work. Some people do not feel that way. But to me, the stage was more or less oppressive. A recent photograph of Miss Winnifred Greenwood, charming American star, soon to he featured in Mutual Master pictures, De Luxe Edition. “There is a freedom and a bigness about the motion picture life. I live in my bungalow, within easy distance of the studio. The air and the sunlight streams in at my window. When I go to the studio, I find the place flooded with the same gorgeous light and sunshine. If it is a gloomy day — at least you are not compressed into a hot, muggy, foul theatre for rehearsals or performances. You can look out upon the gloom through big windows, and you can get lots of atmosphere to breathe, even if it is damp.” “Which of the eighteen hundred girls which you have been, would you prefer to be,” Miss Greenwood was asked. “Myself,” came the prompt answer. “It is much more wonderful being one’s self than any one else. It might be interesting to have a lot of money. But think of the nuisance of it all. Other people have been more fortunate or less fortunate than I have, perhaps, but I cannot think of anyone with whom I would want to change places. “I prefer to interpret a combination of emotional and dramatic role — an intelligent, clever, sane — and I am feminine enough to add that I want it to be attractive— part which gives me a chance to use my head, and to study and think. “I want to be tired at night when I leave the studio, not tired physically, but mentally. I want to use my head from morning till night. I can understand the feeling of a young friend of mine who is busy keeping house and taking care of her two adorable babies. T am tired out by the time night comes,’ she says, ‘that is my feet and hands are. I wish that it were my mind which was tired. Then I would feel that I was learning something, and getting some place.’ ” REEL LIFE — Page Sixteen