Screenland (Sept 1922–Feb 1923)

hair get all mussed up in the fight scene; how she plucked her eyebrows after filming of the picture had 'begun; how the director used four men in the card scene when he could have gotten along with tw0 — or could have had one man playing solitaire. The injustice of such a system is that the good things that might be said of these people whom the spy maligns are never said, and the producer,being in Europe, gets only a distorted view of things. He reads a letter from this tiny-souled spy and cables to his general manager to fire this director and that cameraman, and this wardrobe mistress, or that publicity writer. Good men are released every day at that big plant, but the spy lives on the fat of the land, probably the most unpopular man in that part of the world. But his type of mind is such that the black glances of his associates are the breath of the life to him, for their hatred is an indirect tribute to his power. A Victim of the "System" T he article in the January issue of Screenland on "The Spy System in the Movies," has brought forth this letter from George Bias, of 149 Diamond Street, Brooklyn, New York, who says : "Allow me to congratulate you on your story of the 'Spy System' in the studios at Hollywood. This same system has been used at One of the largest studios in the East, In a short time this studio was forced to close its doors to hundreds of workmen and also to many actors who depended on this studio for work as atmosphere. "This incident occurred while I was on location work in Connecticut. We had with us a production manager in other words a spy. This man had worked in the shipyards during the war and had no more idea of motion pictures than a stray cat. His whole idea was petty economy. I had under me seven men, riding on a truck filled with big lights. When night came, the director, the assistant director and the production manager put up at the best hotel and told us there was no room for us, but sent us to the cheapest hotel. There they tried to make us sleep three and four in a room, but the men refused, and would have quit on the job if they had not been allowed single rooms. The next morning we had to kick about the breakfast, which was not fit for human beings to eat. They finally allowed us to eat at the best hotel, after the director had interceded. "We were sent on location at four p. M. and were ordered to have things ready to shoot at seven. At one a. M., since we had had nothing to eat since breakfast, we asked the production manager to send for sandwiches and coffee. He sent for food, getting only one sandwich and one oup of poor coffee for each man. We were famished. Wc took matters into our own hands, shut off the motor generator, and left things in total darkness while we went to forage for food. While we were gone an intoxicated man came up the road, broke two Bell and Howell cameras and caused considerable other damage and excitement, All this happened because the production manager, hoping to make a MP record of great economy and thus please his employers, refused to buy enough food for bard-working men. "In a few days we were through and returned to New York. When the producer saw the rushes of the location scenes, he decided that the choice of location had been allwrong and had us make a re-take on Long Island. The production manager had urged the choice of location for purposes of economy. Thousands of dollars were spent in the re-take." Summing up, it seems that there is really not much the matter with the movies — except spies who cramp the style of the really clever people who know their business; and except for favoritism and nepotism and love tangles. Outside of these few minor ailments, the movies are all right. The Star signs her contract with one hand and reaches for a contract for character parts for her father, mother, sister and brother with the other.