Shadowland (Sep 1919-Feb 1920)

WADOWLAND i iiiii ■iiiimiiiiiiii iiiiii mil Th< Good-By to the Movies for a While (Continued from page 45) April-May Magazine You are going to the Movies? You know all about the play you are to see, of course. You know who wrote the story, who produced it and ?/here. You know not only ihe name of the star but a bit of her interesting story. You have chatted with her at tea in her pretty studio. Perhaps you have met her husband or have romped with her chubby youngster. No? Dear Me! How much you have missed! Never mind. Just rush out and buy the Motion Picture Magazine. It will tell you all you want to know. Gladys Hall caught Lillian Gish directing her sister Dorothy at the Griffith studios and tells us all about the "New Lillian." There is an interview with Rockcliffe Fellowes entertainingly done by Adele Whitely Fletcher. There is a chat with Ethel Clayton with home pictures and an interview with Emma Dunn, who will enact for the screen the role created by her in "Old Lady 3i-" There are charming novelizations of "Paris-Green" starring the inimitable Charles Ray, also "The Woman Who Gives" with Norma Talmadge. THe cover is a charming portrait of Lillian Gish. gas-mask to a comrade and his sacrifice had rendered him blind. Gloria, realizing what this meant, began to think about things. His helplessness and loneliness awakened a quality in her which had hitherto been dormant. Of course, she married him because she had found real love. To my mind, this was one of the best stories I ever read, and I could feel the ring of truth thruout the making of the production. In "The Avalanche" I played two roles, that of a mother and a daughter. Here I had an opportunity to interpret a mother's devotion and self-abnegation in all its intensity. Apart from the characters, which were really interesting, the story itself was replete with color and romance. To be sure it is not always easy to find the stories one likes, and it is not well to portray only one type of character, but it is most satisfactory to be able to feel the sincerity of the story. Judging from the letters I receive from strangers who have seen my productions, I should say that the average person likes romance and strong realism combined in character delineations. For instance, in "The Society Exile," I portrayed the role of a woman who had been grossly wronged and accused. It was not a sympathetic character, because she really felt very sorry for herself. However, it was not her fault ; she was a victim of circumstances, but, nevertheless, I did not like to depict a character who shed tears over her own plight. It is always so trivial and weak for one to be sorry for one's self. I believe that the war has taught us a great lesson in this respect, and we have little patience with a character who weeps over his or her own misfortune. However much one has been wronged, there is always some way to build up the broken structure and start afresh. Weeping over one's plight never mended matters. It was somewhat different in "The Witness for the Defense," because the woman did not display weakness even when she was abused by the man she married. She tried to get away from him and, when she failed, she decided to take her own life. Of course, that was not courageous, but she had been driven to desperate measures. She displayed strength when she returned to her old home and faced the gossip which she knew awaited her. Only a great love could have borne up under such circumstances, and in the end she was rewarded by the love of the man she had never ceased caring about. The play I have chosen for my first dramatic appearance, after an absence from the legitimate stage of several years, is one of perhaps a hundred or more plays I have read. I think my reasons for choosing it were perhaps the exact reasons I have illustrated in the choice of several photoplays I have mentioned. First, the play appealed to me be cause it was well constructed technically and interesting from a dramatic standpoint. It contained no great emotional scenes to speak of, and no sex problems, no profound ideas, and not even the popular "triangle" for a theme. It did not boast of a baffling mystery to be solved in the climax and carried with it none of the surprises to thrill an audience to the nth point. It is a simple story, romantically conceived. The character^ zation of Carlotta fascinated me because of her naturalness. As I read the play I could not help feeling the convincing qualities portrayed in this human and wholly interesting type of womanhood. One of the situations which develop in the drama is so humanly genuine that it seemed to me like a page torn from life. Had Carlotta been an imaginative character instead of a human being, she would not have risen to the occasion as she did, making the most out of what might have been a tragedy. To her, the greatest love in her life became an instrument of inspiration and achievement, rather than a pitfall. Her courage to face a critical situation in a sane, resourceful way, lifted her above the maudlin, hysterical type of womanhood which pities itself and slumps down into a helpless drab. Her sheer force and wholesome naturalness led her on to accomplish a talented career. Later in life she again displays supreme courage and human impulses, and picks up the thread of romance which was so abruptly snapped and weaves it into a perfect whole. The theme of this story is not particularly new, but the character of Carlotta is refreshing because she never either in gesture or spoken word betrays any phase of selfpity. Character analysis is an interesting study, both in real life and in the theater. In order to get the most out of a part, one must really feel it and live it, with mind,,soul and body. A WOMAN'S FACE By Charlotte Becker A woman's face — I see it still With just the same strange, sudden thrill As when I chanced to peer behind One night — a half unshuttered blind, And saw her at the window-sill. In vain I pace the streets until The stars grow dim, and dawn comes chill — The shades are drawn — I may not find A woman's face. And yet, her eyes the darkness fill With questionings of good or ill, Like that evasive, undefined, Strange smile which Leonardo signed, And all my dreams evoke at will A woman's face. ?age Seventy-Eight