Wid's weekly (Jan-Oct 1925)

Through Hundreds of Newspapers Scattered Everywhere in the United States Millions of Movie Fans are Reading These Colums WEEKLY HOLLYWOOD.— Well, the Shriners managed to make “Wild Holly¬ wood’’ wild. During the big conven¬ tion week the thousands of visitors got many a thrill seeking out the gay movie denizens in the secret “dens” of their iniquity. Actually, most of the Shriner visitors only found other Shriners also seeking thrills, but they did make it a wild week for quiet, hard-working Hollywood. MAYBE you’ve wondered lately what has become of Lila Lee. Well, you see, Daddy Jim, that’s big Jim Kirkwood, went along to New York and got himself into a play that made such a success that “Daddy Jim” just had to stay in New York. And it was rather a “rough” play, and a lotta people felt sorry for Lila because Jim was working in such an uncouth play success. And now, by golly, Lila has gone along to New York and is work¬ ing in a play, too, and they say it’s just as rough as Jim’s, and maybe worse. And still folks talk about the awful movies that should be censored. AT THE Sixty Club, which is a so¬ cial gathering of movie folk for an occasional dinner dance, Gloria loomed up with a very boyish bob, and it sure was becoming. I’m mighty strong for Gloria, because I remember so well the days of ten years ago when she was first registering as an actress. Of course, De Mille made Gloria famous when he made a “clothes Ijorse” of her, but at the same time jje gave her a big handicap, because rpillions who noted her first in the wild clothes thought she could not act. They had never seen her earlier dra¬ matic work. The De Mille press agents always liked to give the im¬ pression that the “great C. B.” had yanked Gloria right out of a comedy company bathing suit. Gloria really did some excellent dramatic work in Triangle films after leaving comedies jnd before going to De Mille. I can take a bow for having given her some very good notices in reviews of her early dramatic work. THE CALL for youth is going out again, and once more this year there is a chance for about half a dozen young people to go up the lad¬ der to success. I saw a test the other day of a youngster who has been in Pathe comedies for a coupla years, Blanche Mehaffey. She is to try her wings in the serious stuff. I think she’ll hit. ONE of the independent producing companies, “F. B. O.,” has made a movie with a name which may not attract you. It is “Druscilla With a Million.” Just remember that name, and when it comes along this summer take a look. I think you’ll like it There’s some corking mother stuff and some mighty cute baby bits. They have a courtroom sequence that makes you forget that you’ve seen many bad courtroom scenes in the movies. THE Lord Mayor of London offered Tom Mix a drink of port wine, and Tom told him he didn’t drink. That may go pretty well in America, hut I’ll bet if that story ever gets out in Eng¬ land they’ll sure be positive that Tom ain’t no real cowboy. No foolin’. MAYBE you don’t know a lot about Bill Fox. Well, the Fox Film Corporation made its 22nd annual an¬ nouncement this year, and I’m here to tell you that twenty-two years in this funny movie business is a long, long time. Well, Bill Fox has turned out, among others, “Over the Hill,” “Daugh¬ ter of the Gods” and “The Iron Horse.” Bill has also given us Theda Bara and Tom Mix-. Maybe you’d never thank him for them, but mil¬ lions have. For a generation Bill Fox has been making plain ordinary bread and butter entertainment. His com¬ pany has made a lot of money. After all, this is a business, and not an art, so Bill Fox is a great success. This coming season Fox will present “Lightnin’,” “The First Year,” “The Fool,” “Seventh Heaven,” H. G. Wells “Marriage,” and some movies of Joseph Conrad and Peter B. Kyne stories. You will know the name Bill Fox better as the years roll by. HOLLYWOOD, June — Do you love the old faces best? Would you like some new stars? You may not realize it, but when all’s said and done you’re really responsible for the fact that you continue to find on the screen girls who cannot act and are no longer beautiful, and players who never could act and are not easy to look at, but have “name” value. The movie business has many vicious circles that keep it from progressing more rapidly, but most of these situ¬ ations become endless circles simply because you folks who pay the bills fail to register your likes and dislikes. THE success of individuals in the movies comes from varied reasons. Some have friends in high places who force them upon the public. Some girls have great physical or facial beauty. Some appear in movies which are very successful and ride to fame on the success of the movie to which they have really contributed nothing. They just happened to be in it. Thou¬ sands of others could have done equally well. Some find one opportunity to do a great thing and are forever fam¬ ous because of that one superlative bit of work. I’LL grant you that it’s a lotta bother to write letters or go to the trouble of registering your opinions in a defin¬ ite manner. The point is that if you won’t say what you want you must take what you get and like it. YOU fans who contribute the dimes, quarters and dollars in showers of millions really have little to do, actu¬ ally, with what makes a movie per¬ sonality a success in the first place. You do have the chance to do every¬ thing about saying whether or not they should continue as a success. You actually do nothing. You grumble and pass the buck. WHEN a name once becomes es¬ tablished in the movies for any one of the basic reasons given above, then the producer knows that that name is an asset. No matter how he may misuse that asset, he continues to profit by using that name for a long time because you long-suffering “bill payers” do not protest against his in¬ tentional or unintentional mistakes in using the “name asset.” A FEW hundred indignant letters il from fans would quickly stop the use of girls grown old in parts calling for youthful beauty, and you and you alone can stop the use of personalities who are absolutely not capable of por¬ traying emotion in parts which call for real acting. What are you going to do about it. Will you write a few letters? MARY MILES MINTER has gone to New York to play on the speaking stage. She has become rather too plump for the movies. While still a child, for several years before she was thirteen, Mary played with the Farnum brothers in “The Littlest Rebel” in the theater. She put on long dresses and entered the movies when she was about fourteen. She is now twenty-three. Mary worked be¬ fore the camera about seven or eight years. In that time her salary aggre¬ gated more than a million and a half, real money. IT’S funny how the producers get weird ideas about the value of the titles of books and plays. Paramount bought the New York play success, “A Beggar on Horseback.” Jim Cruze directed it and now the theaters are having a tough time explaining to the ninety-five per cent of our population who never heard of the play that it is a comedy. Here in Los Angeles they are buying a lot of newspaper space to set forth the fact that the movie con¬ tains neither “beggars” nor “horses.” Incidentally it is mostly a nightmare. The dream sequence would have been better one-half as long. There’s too much of it.