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396 Rovmd the Studios
for working. It is well-equipped, has a pleasant and efficiently-run restaurant, and is one of the British studios most easily accessible to Londoners. Among equipment Wembley possesses a blessing denied to other British film-centres. It is known as the " Overhead Gantry Wiring System," which means, simply, that all the myriad studio-cables — camera, sound, lighting, and so on — are let down, when wanted, from fittings in an overhead gallery, or gantry. The worker at Wembley, therefore, is spared the commonest of all studio-mishaps, namely, falling headlong over a cable untidily sprawling on the floor. The system was designed by Mr, A. T. Jones, the Wembley Studio-Manager, who had been working on the idea for years but had to wait until he could instal overhead gantrywires in a studio specially constructed to allow for this system.
A. S.F.I, themselves have produced two well-known films at their studio. City of Song and The Bells ; but the studio is much in demand among independent companies, who rent it for their productions from time to tim.e. Sterling Films, for instance, made at Wembley The First Mrs. Fraser, directed by Sinclair Hill. This film is said to include the largest ballroom scene ever built in a British studio, Alexander Korda there directed the first London Film Productions' picture. Wedding Rehearsal.
Wembley was the scene of Adolphe Menjou's first British film, when Eric Hakim's production of Two White Arms was made.
Continental
Joinville (France)
Paramount {French) Studios. Joinville, St. Maurice, near Paris, France. P>1CTURE a large stretch of countryside, complete with lazy little -*• streams meandering through the sleepy meadows, where cows graze contentedly ; near by a big river, carrying picturesque barges. Imagine all the attendant noises of farm and river life, intermingling with filmland sounds. You have JoinviUe, Paramount 's French studio, near Paris.
They do not need to build " sets " at Joinville, with so much that is picturesque ready-made. So much so, in fact, that a flock of sheep strayed in one day, and v/ere promptly pressed into service as " extras." In the grounds there is a wonderful bit of greensward and some fine old trees, giving an old-world atmosphere as you enter this city of make-believe. Yet almost at the door is a railway-bridge — ^which reminds you that Joinville is a mere half-hour's run from Paris.
Not more than three years ago the Joinville studios were opened. Already they have a long list of French successes to their credit, as well as literally dozens of foreign versions, made in seven other European languages. Almost every Continental artiste of note has worked at the Paramount studio and such a cosmopolitan gathering has given an air of camaraderie and individuality to the studio.
The French stars, themselves, have a style in their dressing-rooms in much the same way as French fashions have their own particular stamp ; there is a chic which engages tlie eye.
Work at Joinville starts early, stops late, and is broken only by a very short luncheon interval. The presiding god of the studio is Robert T. Kane who arranges all those little details that ensure smooth production in a country where so many stage-stars are film-stars as well.