The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1908)

66 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. does make a beeline to a near-by house where dry wearing apparel awaits her. The succeeding scenes of the same series may not be made until the next day and in quite a different part of the country, the length of time required depending a good deal on the cleverness of the posers. This is another way of saying that the average amateur, no matter how accomplished she thinks she is in aquatic exercises or how much at home she may be in a boat, is not likely to be favorably regarded by managers for the role of a moving picture model. "We haven't time to coach the inexperienced," explained the head of one moving picture concern. "Moving pictures are pantomime, and to give good pantomime requires clever actors." As a matter of fact, so tremendously varied is the present output of moving pictures that every possible variety of talent can be and is used in their manufacture. Women who have never had a chance to do more behind the footlights than move about gracefully, and actresses who earn |100 a week when lucky enough to get an engagement, are alike registered at the office of the several concerns which make and keep the pictures moving, as well as women who have learned the business of the stage without getting a chance to put it all in practice. All these, and in the aggregate there are several hundreds of them, jot down by advice of managers in the line under their name any specialty they imagine they have, whether it is falling down stairs, fainting, giving a knock-out blow, weeping real tears, running, swimming, playing ball, firing a gun, climbing ladders, or jumping out of a window. There is an adage that no woman can be taught how to run or to throw anything straight, therefore the woman who registers as a good runner or ball player usually finds herself as much in demand as the woman who records that her specialty is Shakespearian roles. What is more to the point, her pay will be equally good. Five dollars a day is the usual remuneration received by a moving picture model, and often it takes many days to complete a series of pictures, particularly if the scenes are made out of doors and photographers and models must travel to some distant spot. Women engaged by a biograph manufacturer need give no attention to wardrobe or properties of any sort. Every company sets up a property room, which includes a collection of wearing apparel, draperies, sporting goods, musical instruments and other things which would make any second-hand dealer the world over turn green with envy. Therefore when the eloping young woman is spilled into the stream she wears clothes from the property room. When the athletic, surefooted young woman in the role of thief at a house party climbs at night out of one window, crawls along a narrow coping high above the ground and into another window, she is done up in pajamas which belong to the property room. Trolley and railroad fares, carriage and automobile hire are all paid by the manager. Thus the five dollar bill handed to each actress — the word model is not popular with biograph employes — at the end of a few hours' work is subject to no deductions for expenses and none is asked to wait for her pay until the end of the week or until the series of pictures is finished. To students from the various schools of acting the moving picture business is a boon, in one case an impecunious j'oung woman confessing that but for the employment she got from time to time with one concern she would have been obliged to give up finishing her course of study. "Do you really succeed in getting actresses who have played leads in Shakespearian roles to pose for moving pictures?" a manager was asked. "Certainly we do. They are not to be had every day, of course, but at the off seasons when there is nothing doing in their line and no revenue is in sight, women who, when playing an engagement, draw their little ?100 or ?150 a week, are perfectly willing to register with us. And at any time when we are short of a certain style of woman to pose for dramatic pictures of a high class, all we have to do is to advertise the fact and we have more applicants than can be taken care of. "We have no graded scale of pay, and the woman with a beautiful face gets no more than the plainer woman. Action, not looks, is what recommends a woman for employment with us, and the more experienced the applicant the better chance she has. Ingenues are not popular with biograph managers and novices with no stage experience have no show at all." CINEMATOGRAPH IN OPEHA. Wagner's "Gotterdammerung" was recently produced at the Opera House, Paris, with great success, with Ernst Van Dyck in the role of Siegfried. The opera was superbly mounted. An innovation was the use of a cinematograph to represent the destruction of the Walhalla as the final tableau. The management hopes soon to produce "Das Rheingold," completing the "Nibelungen Ring," the other operas of which already are in the repertoire, and give a festival performance of the cycle similar to that at Munich. The prompt man will always prove his own best advertisement; he will be welcome in all circles; will receive more courteous favors and general respect; will have more real friends and will invariably do more business and receive more patronage from the public than his more conspicuously wealthy but negligent brother who overestimates his influence and ability. COLORED LOCAL VIEWS from photos furnished by you, made in 4 weeks, and just as cheap as you can buy them from stock. Our five-colored hand w^ork is marvelous. Send for samples and prices. DOOLITTLE & HULLING, INC., 1002 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. IF YOU ARE I rSlXE RESTED IN ELECTRIC=PUAVERS Write us for Latest List ol Up-to-date and Popular Selections In PERFORATED-PAPER MUSIC ROLLS THE F»IAIMOVA CO., ilT-125 Cypress Ave., ISJ. Y. Largfst Mlrs. ELECTRIC PLAYERS and MUSIC ROLLS HOLIDAY TRADE HINTS. Some Reflections on This Timely Topic Which Will Interest World Readers. On every hand the beauties of the side lines are being brilliantly expounded, and to the absolute limit. Those susceptible to the weighty argument which may be summed up in just two words, "increased income," are lending a willing ear to the siren song of advertisers. It is well so. Many a dealer whose initial capital amounted to nothing more tangible than a choice stock of courage and confidence can trace success to his receptiveness of the horde of suggestions offered to him by our leading advertisers. The approach of the holiday season means that nearly every talking machine man will take on one or two additional items to help swell his bank balance. In their eagerness to accomplish this some are likely to give cause for the repetition of the old saying that "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." The value of side lines as such is lost if the goods make appeal only to the transitory holiday buyer. While one is about it, why not take a side line that has some stability? One that assures substantial monetary returns? Through frequently inserted ads. in The World the firm of Buegeleisen & Jacobson, 113-115 University Place, New York, importers and wholesalers of modern musical merchandise, have been calling the attention of this trade to their Durro Violins, Bows and Strings; Lester Accordeons, Victoria Guitars, Mandolins and Banjos, Duss Band Harmonicas, and a general line of trimmings, as the logical side line for talking machine dealers. These specialties have been on the market for years and are known probably in every corner of the land, certainly wherever musical instruments are played. They are being advertised as well in the journals that reach the users of instruments. Up to the present many of the leading talking machine dealers have put in stocks of these goods and are reaping such bountiful fruits in the shape of musical patronage that this firm are warranted in the assertion that all those in the trade who do not handle these specialties are allowing to slip through their fingers a splendid chance to secure the business of musicians constantly needing material, in which there lies a fine margin of profit. But this is a most favorable time, according to Buegeleisen & Jacobson, for the exploitation of musical instruments, as the demand is very pronounced at this season, and besides, liberal profits can be realized; for when a gift is being considered, the purchaser does not hesitate to stretch the limit by a few dollars. A TRUTH IN A NUTSHELL. Occasionally you see a man with nothing else to boast of, who tries to make up for the deficiency by bragging that he"s an American. Convince him that it's the country he ought to brag about, not the accident of his having been boin in it. A lot of people have more reason to be proud of their country than their country has to be proud of them. 60 YEARS' EXPERIENCE TRADE Marks Designs . . , . Copyrights &c Anvone senrtliiR a Bketoh and description mfty qnlcUly iiscorlnin onr opinion free wiiellier rd Invention la probnbly piitentftMe. Cninnnnilca(loTmsirlotlycontUlontlul. HANDBOOK on Patents sent tree, t^idost niiency for necurUiK Patents. ratoiila tiikon tlirouk'li Muun & Co. receive special notice, wHliout clmr^o. lu the Scientific JIttiericdti. A tiniulsoniolv llliistriitpd weekly. I.nreest clrdllaClon (if iiiiT 81'lenlltlc ioiinml. Terms. f3 a jreur: i\mr nionlbs, f 1. Sold bynll newKilealers. IVIUNN&Co.36'Broadway.New Yorfc BraDcb Office. 62& F BU Wasblogton, D. C.