The world film encyclopedia (1933)

Interestinar Facts About Films 471 ordinarily used for observation work was adapted for cinema photography. It was the practice in 191 4 in Western films to paint log cabins on the scenery. In The Miner's Sweetheart, a one-reel drama, in which Harry Myers made his fihn debut, a real log cabin was used for the first time. T}iE earliest war pictures, though containing no fighting scenes, were those showing the marching and landing of troops taken during the SpanishAmerican War. In 1909 the Selig company made the first " jungle " film. It was entitled Big Game Hunting in Africa, and showed trained lions in a make-believe jungle. The film was regarded as genuine even in Africa. One of the first poems to be screened was Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake, which was produced by Vitagraph in 1909, with Edith Storey in the role of Ellen. The picture ran to the then amazing length of four reels. The first close-up ever taken was in an Edison experimental film in which Fred Ott, a member of the staff, was shown sneezing. At one time pictures made by Paul in England dominated the American market. Oho Vadis was the first film made in eight reels. Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. De Mille, was one of the earliest full length films to use colour. In 1907, the Kelcm company produced a short version of Ben Hur in sixteen scenes. It was described as " positively the most superb moving spectacle ever made in America," and occupied the screen for seven minutes. Shakespeare was first put on the screen by the Vitagraph company, Othello having been released in 1902 and Romeo and Juliet in 1903. The Great Train Robbery was the first big story film produced in America in 1903. The chief character was Max Anderson, who afterwards became famous in silent Western films as Broncho Billy. The Black Diamond Express, produced by Vitagraph in 1898, was the first picture play to show railway scenes. The first screen kiss was pictured in New York in 1896, by May Irwin and John C. Rice in a five hundred feet film version of their stage success, The Widow Jones. One of the earliest British picture plays, entitled The Soldier's Courtship, was produced on the roof of the Alhambra, London, in 1896, by Robert W. Paul. The fixrst music-hall in London to show films as part of the programme was the Empire, in February, 1896, followed by the Alhambra, in March of the same year. In France films were shown publicly for the first time on December 25, 1895, at the Grand Cafe, Boulevard de Madeleine, Paris, by the brothers Lumiere. The first public exhibition of films in England was given at the Polytechnic, Regent Street, London, in October, 1895, the programme consisting of miscellaneous scenes. Film Artistes Sixty-eight per cent of the total crowd engagements in Hollywood go to men, 28 per cent to women, and the rest to children. An average of 710 engagements a day at 8 dollars apiece were given to extras in Hollywood last year. There are 17,000 registered actors in Hollywood among whom this work is distributed. Elinor Glyn used the expression " IT " for the first time when trying to describe Clara Bow's personality. When asked what it meant she replied : " The indefinable something." Joan Crawford is the star whose figure most resembles that of the Venus de Milo. John Mii.jan has been " killed " in films in over 40 different ways, including being choked, hanged, shot, stabbed, poisoned, and boiled in oil. Buddy Rogers was fight heavy