South African Pictorial - Volume 17 (Jul-Dec 1923)

gum-garaging habit was so much a JANUARY 5, 1924. ‘¢ International Complications.” A Reuter cable from London, published the other day; stated: ‘‘ Miss Margaret Leahy, a London girl, who was greatly boomed a year ago on winning the ‘ Film Girl’ competition conducted by The Daily Sketch, inwhich the chief prize was an offer of free training for a screen career | in California under the tutelage of Misses Norma and Constance Talmadge, is now suing her former benefactors for breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, conspiracy and libel. Sir John Simon is her leading counsel.”’ The Gum-Parkers. One of the minor troubles of the American film showman is the flapper’s habit of leaving small pyramids of chewing-gum on the under side of the tip-up seat, so that the seat, in the course of time, looks as if it were studded with large hobnails. An Englishman who knows his America is annoyed because some people refuse to believe that the custom exists, and triumphantly quotes an American cinema magnate in London, who told hirn the other day that the nuisance that proprietors exhibited notices reading: ‘‘ Do not Park Your Gum Under the Seat.’’ This authority added that the flapper’s escort, if he so wished, had the privilege of leaving his half-smoked cigar in the theatre cloak-room.. The cigar was placed in a numbered receptacle against the issue of a ticket correspondingly numbered. ‘‘ Check your cigar ’’ is a sign frequently seen in American cinema theatres, where they have discovered that if you blow through a half-smoked cigar immediately after you have re-lit it, it regains the savour and aroma of its youth. Siege of Hollywood. An extraordinary situation has arisen at Hollywood, the Californian headquarters of the film world, owing to the desire of American boys and girls to become cinema stars. Screen-struck youths and maidens in incredible numbers are deserting their homes and migrating to. Hollywood from all parts of the country in the belief that there they can Reuter cable quoted on earn fame and fortune. According to the Hollywood Cham-. ber of Commerce, 10,000 of these aspirants arrived during 1923, and are vainly besieging the different studios for parts. At the request of the Chamber, Miss Mary Pickford addressed a mass meeting attended by 20,000 people on the folly of these youthful optimists. She told them that the cinema always needed new blood, but that candidates for its honours must be ready to wait five years if necessary for remunerative employment. To girls who wanted to test their fortunes at Hollywood, Miss Pickford gave this urgent warning: ‘‘ Take mother along; you'll need her!”’ ‘s Keep on Cranking !'” Film. photographers are a wonderful race (observes The Sunday Herald): no matter how -much their lives are imperilled they must keep on “ cranking ’’—turning the MARGARET LEAHY AND BUSTER KEATON. Miss Leahy is the ‘‘ Film Girl’’ who, according to a this page, is suing the Talmadges for breach of contract. Buster Keaton (the ‘* sad-faced comedian ’’) is Natalie Talmadge’s husband. SOUTH AFRICAN PICTORIAL. 5 handle. When a mighty palace falls about their ears, “Crank, boys, crank!’’ yells the producer through his megaphone half a mile away—and they do. Even above. the whale-spouting and fluke-twisting and the cries of the drowning men from the overturned boat in ‘‘ Down to the Sea in Ships ’’ they say the producer saved the lot by frightening away the sharks with his yell, ‘‘ Crank, boys, erank!’’ In this film, recently completed, a very thrilling but quite unexpected picture was secured of a whale overturning a boatload of mariners into a shark-infested sea. Miraculously there were no casualties. Film Stars’ Earnings, ““ Film acting is a sweepstake with a handful of small prizes and thousands of blanks.’’ This is how Mr. P. L. Mannock, an expert, sums up the situation in discussing what film players really earn. ‘‘ Excluding stage celebrities,’’ he says, “‘ there are not more than six English stars who have received more than £50 a week in British. studios. Not more than twelve average £20 a week.’ He places the number of artists who make an income of £500 a year as under twenty. Filming Kipling. | The books of Rudyard Kipling have long made the film producer’s mouth water, but the author has been very loath to part with his rights. Maude Adams, the American actress, has, however, at last persuaded him to sell her the screen rights of ‘‘ Kim,’’ which she proposes to produce herself. She has been making for years a close study of technique. Mr. Kipling has made two conditions— that the picture shall be produced in India and that Kim shall be played by a boy. (Supposing ‘Barrie had said this of ‘* Peter Pan ’’!). Meanwhile, another American firm is producing ‘‘ The Light That Failed’’ with its happy ending, which was written at the same time as the original story. Protection for Films ? On a recent afternoon there was a demonstration in Hyde Park by film actors and others interested in the moving-picture industry to demand protection for British films. Poets’ Corner: Deep-Sea Crystal. When the huge indigo billows sometimes collide, in the _ wind and sunlight, At level of the steamer’s deck, And fling aloft superb foam crests That the gale whips away in snowy manes and rainbowed geyser spray, _ For an instant is displayed, But the eyes must be swift! : Just below the streaming plume where the leaping ridge thins like a tooth to its cutting edge of translucent enamel, A marvel of icy blue-green hue From the sunray that smites its outer slope; Gorgeously luminous with emeraldine glamour And vitreous lustre as of molten opal and turquoise. Even so swiftly, and for alert vision alone to discern, The heavy masses of life’s surge Lift into the upper brightness of transfiguring truth Sudden: dazzling eminence of crystalline beauty and wonder. By Eliot White. PHONES 1375/6, BOX -4785 (MANAGER, B. W. B. DOCKRALL).