Screenland (Sept 1922–Feb 1923)

' HOU-YWOOO C«UHMUNlA The DeMilie boys are sons of a newspaperman, who was David Bela'sco's most — —valued collaborator. William is a single-tax devotee. <S Rex Ingram, bom in Dublin, was a pantomimist and a sculptor. Secrets 0/ the 1 tars QJ By Patrick T ar s n e y A ■ ■ , 1 LND where do the moving picture directors come from, or, as the Ince director, John Griffith Wray would say, "Whence come the moving picture directors?" Mr. Wray, who looks something like Shakespeare, was once a school teacher, and knows that a sentence should not end with a preposition. So does Harrish Ingraham, another school teacher who beat his ferule into a megaphone. David Wark Griffith was bred in old Kentucky, where, after he had set type for awhile on a country newspaper, he became a reporter and then an actor. Countless actors and actresses and directors have gone to school to him; but that for which the stars admire him most is it was he who invented the close-up. His stage experience was not so extensive as was that of either of the De Milles. They are sons of that William De Mille, a newspaper man, whom David Belasco always looked upon as his most valuable collaborator. C. B. De Mille was an actor, a stage director and the author of some rather nifty musical pieces. His brother William, who was educated at Columbia, wrote "The Warrens of Virginia," "Strongheart" and "The Woman." He has also written many articles advocating the Single Tax, a cause to which he is devoted. R.EX INGRAM, who was born in Dublin, was a pantomimist and a sculptor before he went into pictures as a scenario writer. The war he depicted in "The Four Horsemen" was a war of which he got a birdseye view while he was in the Royal Flying Corps. Maurice Campbell, who is Henrietta Crosman's husband, was a Major in the American forces during the same war. John W. Noble was a Lieutenant in the United States Regular Army for seven years, and Norman Stevens was a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy. Another director who is a graduate of Annapolis is Bruce Mitchell. Tames Young also was educated in Maryland. He attended Johns Hopkins, played with Sir Henry Irving and introduced Shakespeare to vaudeville audiences. Before Norbert Miles directed Helen Gibson in railroad stories he, like Henry King, was a Shakespearean actor, and before Charles Parrott began to direct comedies he was an Irish comedian in burlesque. A comedian also was Robert Z. Leonard, who directs his wife, Mae Murray, but before he was a comedian he was a property man. Edgar Lewis began his professional career with a circus and Fred Kelsey was a sailor. Maybe that is where he got his taste for thrills, but how about George B. Seitz. who was educated in a Quakers' school? Harry Lambart was a British cavalry officer for nine years, but Wilfred North did his riding as a cowboy and became a director only after he sandwiched the practice of law between the saddle and the studio. Charles A. Taylor also was a cowboy, but in his career punching cattle was a mere episode. He once worked in a construction gang on the Southern Pacific Railroad, later looked for gold in Alaska and still later found some by writing thirty melodramas. Laurence Trimble, who directed the dog picture, "The Silent Call," was formerly in the lumber business, and Henry Robert Symons sold automobiles in Chicago and Los Angeles. CHESTER BENNETT practiced law in the latter city and Fred E. Wright also was a lawyer. T. Searle Dawiey could have been a resonant jury lawyer, for he studied at a school of oratory in Denver. Hugo Baliin went to an art school and is the only director who is a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and of the National Academy of Design. Robert Brunton and Wray Physioc were scenic artists and Briant Young and Harry Revier certainly should know what sort of pictures the public likes, as they were exhibitors of film before they became the makers thereof. George Fitzmaurice is one of the most artistic of directors because he was born in Paris, and Lambert Hillyer, who directed many of Bill Hart's best westerns, was born in South Bend, Ind., and played college and professional football before he came into pictures via vaudeville. \ 28