Variety (December 1921)

u PICTURES Friday, December 2, 1921 ByfiWay of Comment STARS AND PLAYS In another department of Variety the head of a standard film pro- duction corporation states, the time has arrived when the patrons Isf photoplays will no longer pay merely for the privilege of seeing stage or screen stars unless the play in which the star or stars appear Is a good one. total of 7,500 prints will be working, and gross rentals are In excess of the original bookings. The same thing Is said to have been the case In the Triangle reissues of William 8. Hart features. The latest Lloyd picture la in four reels instead of the customary two. Exhibitors who have contracted for the series get the longer production at the two-reel rental scale. This opinion has been voiced many times since five-reel feature Aim plays, with stars as leaders, replaced the shorter film subjects. Despite its acceptance officially by the producing heads of film firms, the stars still keep coming in Alms. Stars, on the screen or on the stage are stars, because of some stellar quality they possess actual or professed. The flesh and blood stage has quarreled long and profltlessly over the same question. Arguments pro and con have waged, and the anti- star protagonists have won. Other controversies "have obtained and the opposition came out victorious. The hackneyed resort to the Eliz- abethan, "The play the thing," no longer means anything. It's but saying what everybody knows, and many believe. .But the very producing managers of stage plays who in the past have raged moat violently against their domination by stars, proved, when the storm blew over, to be the first entrepeneurs to flaunt again the stellar pennants. Handsome is as handsome does. To deny that many parts in films or stage plays may be aa effectively Interpreted by players without names is sheer flatulency. To claim that stars of ac- cepted qualities, adapted to the interpretation of* complimentary roles are to be denied those roles merely because they are stars, is crass stupidity. Stars are made by roles. But once a star, a certain appre- ciable following is automatically established. This following has a box office value. Its degree will depend upon the vehicle. Poor plays are every week submerging gifted stage stars. It has ever been so. The stellar surprise of a night dies of inanition when no playwright comes along to re-clothe the personality. The problem is a squirrel's cage; One may keep whirling round and round and get new vision for changing judgments suitable for argument either way every time the treadmill stops. The truth is that stars are a positive 4>ox office value at all times, but that given a poor play, the popularity of a star suffers in the ratio of the play's poverty. The average patron of a playhouse, screen or stage, would prefer to forego seeing a favorite star if the privilege meant being bored by a stupid play. , The same firm executive in the same statement declares all producing distributing and exhibiting film folk would do well to accept the cur- rent general business depression as a normal recession^ signalizing the law of cycles in trade, rises and falls, and scale their activities, in- vestments and expectancies accordingly. This is another squirrel's cage discussion. Like the expert witnesses in court, as many author- ities, as a rule, may be produced for or against any fact alleged. t V INSIDE STUFF-PICTURES Very few people know that Monte Blue is a thorough blood Cherokee Indian, and got his foothold in pictures because he was the most daring of rough riders. Even the Griffith press department didn't know it until this'week, when it received word the Cherokee tribe had assembled In Okmulgee, Okla., a few days before, and raised a fund for a drive to stop the film producers from picturing the Indian always as a villain. Specifically the redskins had written to Blue, asking him in future to forego any roles picturing him as a villain. The Cherokees are wealthy by reason of rich oil holdings on their reservation, and are amply able to finance any uplift that pleases them. The film drive is only part of their general welfare work. It la related of Blue that, when he first appeared In the Coast picture colony, he was the best dressed "extra" around the lot. Hollywood cowboys might go to church or meeting In bearded pants and high boots, but Blue off location wore a boiled shirt, a hard 'hat and patent leather Oxfords. He is, as Jack Lloyd, of the Griffith press department, subtly points out, appearing as Danton in "The Two Orphans." From London comes a story of how nearly Sir Oswald Stoll came to securing the English distribution rights to Chaplin's latest release, "The Idle Class." Sir Oswald had agreed with William Vogel, who handles the First National output in Great Britain, to pay the latter £45,000 for the rights, and went so far aa to Invite the newspaper representa- tives and camera men to be present at the signing of the coxitract. Chaplin himself was there, the cameras focused, and everything made ready, when word was sent that Emil Wertheimer was at that moment signing for the picture, paying £50.000. The exhibitors felt this was a prohibitive price, and held a meeting to boycott the picture. While the meeting was going on, several of the important exhibitors slipped away and signed up for first runs. The Gunning rental of the Lyric, New York, for four weeks, con- tinues to be an unprofitable venture so far as direct returns are con- cerned. His first week with "What Do Men Want?" grossed $4,400, and the second, with Thanksgiving Day in it, was little better. The bill was switched this week, Gunning presenting "Our Mutual Friend," a foreign- made feature, which is doing very little. His tenancy expires after next week, when the house ia to be closed to make ready for a big all-star legitimate revival. Inside advices from the Coast say, that February 1 is set as the time when full activity will be resumed in filmdom out there. While the studios are going along fairly just now, nothing is running at full ca- pacity. One of the old-line producing and distributing concerns is working out a plan to place its exchange managers and salesmen on reduced salary and commission on the business done in their respective territories. The general manager of a large distributing concern ^ias several ro-issues which he is state-righting. The re-issues have nothing in com- mon with the company that employs him. GREEN LIGHTS TO 1 LESSEN ALARM Red Ones Add to Panic, Say Experts i Harrisburg, Nov. SO. Green emergency lights may be installed in the theatres and picture houses of Pennsylvania instead of the red lights at the exits. The State Industrial Board of the State Department of Labor and Industry now has the matter under advise- ment. It is contended by members of the board that the red lights at exits contribute to rather than diminish the feeling of alarm that is occa- sioned in time of fire or panic when the emergency exits are used. The green light is the familiar safety light, while the red light is the uni- versally recognized danger signal, it is pointed out. W. C. Cronin, chairman of the safety standards committee of the board" will bring the matter up for final disposition when the board meets in December. MEMPHIS' BAD BUSINESS Memphis, Nov. 30. Business has been so poor at the local picture houses the Memphis Enterprises Co., controlling all of the best picture houses in town, is no % w operating one of them, the Bijou, only on week-ends. Selling tickets of admission to film houses on credit is a plan in vogue in the Middle West, according to Albert L. Grey, general manager for D. W. Grffith. The exhibitors missed their regular patrons, and on inquiring the cause were told they were unable to spare the small change. After viewing the empty seats for awhile, one of them conceived the idea of extending credit for admissions to their known patrons, taking up I. O. l.Vs from the visitors. The plan, say the exhibitors, is working out splendidly, most of the patrons feeling a sense of honor to repay at the first opportunity as soon as they are in funds. The piactlce is said to be in vogue over a territory extending over nine States in the Mid- dle West and part of the South. Just About Once a Year The New York daily papers unite in calling a picture a master* piece. This year "The Bonnie Brier Bush" is the one singled out. out. "We gladly welcome this as one of the truly fine things of the year, a produc- tion inspiring in the simple impressive* ness of its story and the beauty of its settings. Scene after scene is brought before the eye that seems the living replica of an artist's dream. If you like) a pleasing story, faithful to life, told with superb pictorial beauty, you cannot afford to miss this.*' —NEW YORK MAIL A returning showman from Minneapolis confirms the dispatches from Minneapolis on the film situation there. He aays business was bad enough before the opening of the new Hennepin (Orpheum, Jr.) and that now it is worse. As business kept getting worse tho houses started cut- ting down on their shows, reducing the size of the orchestras, eliminating soloists and with a scant allowance of short-reel subjects. Slaaries were cut and admission prices remained at top notch in spite of inferior shows. Advertising was cut to a minimum, the Saturday and Sunday display ads being confined to one inch. One of the big picture distributors believes it has all of the trade papers "tied up" or "sewed up" as far aa their attitude toward it is concerned. This tielng up process has been accomplished either through advertising or "buying in" on tho papers, directly or indirectly. Now that the distributor has found out how, it is a bit worried over the position it finds itself in. It can't believe what It reads about others in the papers, because it knows how greatly biased the papers are in its own favor. The same distributer has started after another paper that it's not going to land. f? Willard Holcomh returned from the exploitation campaign for Gold- wyn's "Theodora" In Pittsburgh tills week with the only set of home- made stills In existence, showing the prize lion stunt of the film In action. It was found Impossible to get reproductions of the scene in the cellu- loid where the Hop claws the hero and Is dragged away by the woman trainer, so Willard had to roll his own. He found a life-si/ed Leo in a Pittsburgh window" display of toys brought over by a European toy maker, and among the choir which sings as part of the presentation he discovered a woman who was the double of the screen actress. By careful posjng and expert camera manipulation the trick brute and the woman got past the editors, and six local papers reproduced the still in all seriousness. Holcomb turned all his material over to the Goldwyn Pittsburgh branch office. Pathe continues to put out reissues of the Harold Lloyd single reelers, ami will continue the series for several months. It is said a ADOLPH ZUKOR presents "THE BONNIE BRIER BUSH" A Donald Crisp production From the novel by Ian MacLaren and the plays by James McArthur and Augustus Thomas. Scenario by Margaret Turnbull. 1 -2/ "~S»n~be TTTOWlHHfljhHT II art"Onusii*i picture—something different, quieting to the nerves and harmonious all the way through. Delightful, picturesque, ten- der, amiable and true. The sets a delight to the eye. An excellent cast, Mary Giynne scoring heavily.*' —NEW YORK AMERICAN _ "Excellently carried out, charmingly photographed, ambling along with th« tears and rapture of lovers. Mary Giynne reminds one of Lillian Gish in The Birth of a Nation'." —NEW YORK NEWS "After reels and reels of dull films and maudlin films, when you are prepared to curse the screen and die, along comes a masterpiece like The Bonnie Brier Bush' which restores your confidence." —NEW YORK GLOBE C£ (Paramount (picture US PLAYERS IASKY CORPORATIONL IWMOM«M> XiHLUW('»>» Cl< U • M Mlt.ll •—.». 0-.-* *l ~^» TIT* to««* vfl — —r~ iii k * l'W