Screenland (Apr–Sept 1923)

76 SCREENLAND John Wesley Gray. The causus belli was as follows : Walker hired Gray to write the subtitles for The Real Thing. Payment agreed upon, according to Johnny, was to be $1,000. After the subtitles were written, Gray held out for more than $1,000, which Walker refused to give. So Gray went to a lawyer. More than that, Gray slapped a writ of attachment on Johnny's car, his bank-account and finally, on the picture. And as a final blow, Johnny heard that Gray was saying unkind things about him. The two met in the cafe at lunch time. They met and mixed. And Johnny conquered. "He has been paid in full," said Johnny briefly, blowing on his knuckles. Gray didn't comment. Bill Hart to Return J3ill hart will soon be riding range again, at least so far as pictures go. As soon as the story of his vindication of the charges made against him by Elizabeth MacCaulley, Bill announced that he would start work on a Lasky picture immediately. Bill is a writer as well as an actor. A series of stories for boys is being syndicated, . under the by-line of the famous western actor. Ralph Lewis Loses Father R alph lewis, the veteran character actor, is mourning the death of his father. Lewis arrived in Chicago just in time to reach his father's bedside before the end came. Evelyn Brent Wanted Action E/velyn brent felt that it took Douglas Fairbanks too long to get started on his picture, The Thief of Bagdad, so she left his company to play the feminine lead in Peter B. Kyne's Harbor Bar. Kyne insists that his opinion of motion pictures and motion picture people is very low, but he keeps right on selling stories to them. And Still They Come T he foreign deluge continues. Mile. Jeanne Balzac, great grand-niece of Honore de Balzac, has arrived in Hollywood from Paris. She is to play a part in the filming of her distinguished ancestor's story, The Magic Skin. A reception committee, including notables of the French colony in Los Angeles, greeted her at the Los Angeles station. Rush Rushes In .Alnyone who says there is no royal road to success in the fillums, except along the sex route, ought to look at Rush Hughes, son of Rupert, Goldwyn's pet director. Rush is only nineteen, but he^s going to work in Dad's picture regularly, leaving a career as chemical engineer as being not nearly exciting enough. Sub Rosa favorite saying in Hollywood is that if you work for Universal you are sure to keep your modesty, for few know you are in pictures. But newspaper notices inform us that Marie Wells is a "prominent figure in the film world." This sudden boost to Marie comes because she marries Paul Kent, "a member of one of Los Angeles' pioneer families." A strange phenomenon has been noticed here; as surely as any pretty girl getsinto the day's news, she immediately becomes a star, or at least "prominent in the film world," even if she is only an extra and nobody except the folks back home have ever seen her on the screen. Another Hollywood Tragedy Jerry grieved himself to death because his contract was ended; no more would the Kleig lights play around his saturnine face; gone was his fame, perished his fortune. Jerry could stand it no longer. He refused food, and he died. Now there are only two hyenas in captivity in this country, where three flourished before. Jerry was used in Human Wreckage, Dorothy Davenport Reid's anti-narcotic film, to represent the beast of narcotic addiction. Assorted Sneezes T his art business is a serious thing. And far be it from Mary Jane Sanderson to take it lightly. When the script calls for her to sneeze in Blow Your Own Horn, Mary Jane gives the matter scientific consideration. She evolves a system by which she can sneeze a tiny, tiny sneeze, and a middle-sized sneeze, and a great big sneeze. Her method is not copyrighted. She just graduates the doses of pepper. A cunning little press agent yarn, but it may amuse the children. Something for the whole family — that's our motto ! Anti-Climax Jf ust as the same door in a theater is both Entrance and Exit, according to whether you are on the inside or outside, so is vaudeville both the entrance and exit, of the motion picture profession. Mary Miles Minter has taken her exit from pictures in vaudeville. Probably her contract does not call for a million dollars, as did her famous Paramount document. And it is problematical just how avid an audience will be to see Mary in the flesh, — at least she has plenty of it for them to see. An Anti-Mother Complex w e hear so much of Freud these days that we just run to complexes and things like that. But it is doubtful if that is what June Love Walton calls her attempts to evade her active mother, Mrs. Nina E. Robinson, whose latest sensation is a note announcing that she has drowned herself. June, for some time with Universal and Century comedies, just won't believe that Mama has done anything of the sort. She says she knows Mama too well. June believes it is just another attempt of her mother to find her daughter, who is always hiding from her. Keep the Home Fires Burning T he Jewish propensity for fires isn't left behind when clothing magnates become film capitalists. Fires simply pursue our rich men out here. If it isn't Universal that is menaced by flames, it is sure to be Goldwyn or Fox or some other studio. One wonders if the fire bug is not encouraged because it gives the studio reporting such a blaze to the papers, a chance to list all of the pictures which might have been destroyed if the blaze had reached the storage vaults. Goldwyn's latest heralds the sad news that $11,000,000 worth of films were endangered by a fire which destroyed one section of the laboratories. None was destroyed, of course, but what a peachy chance to list all the films which Goldwyn has on hand! (Continued on page 94)