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The Everting Ledger Amusement Section, Saturday, October 30, 1915
MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK
AMUSEMENT SECTION
S Address all communications to Dramatic Editor Evening Ledger,
Independence Square, Philadelphia.
THE AVERAGE NET PAID DAILY CIRCULATION OF IBP EVENING
LEDGER FOR SEPTEMBER WAS 100,608.
PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1915.
Real or Super-reel?
rTlHERE is a pood deal of guff -written about the conflict of the drama and
-L the movies. And little of it is guflier than the arguments we hear over
"which is the more real, the fle!h and blood stage or the photoplay, -with its
genuine mountains. The screen drama is only -an illusion, an optical illusion
at that. But if' we go behind the illusion of the footlights, are the words
which endow the stage with its greatest distinction, half the time as real as
the houses and hills conjured upon the screen?
X
"Why Keystone Comedy Is Harmless
The productions- of the week offer an interesting comparison along these
lines. "A Full House" is a most enjoyable farce. There is no gainsaying its
frank and honest merriment. But it is equally futile to maintain that any line
"-oT it, any character, comes within miles of reality. There are two categories
in farce: One, including -Seven Keys to Baldpate," puts more or less real
people through preposterous .adventures; the other uses gay caricatures, such as
May Yokes' servant girl in the play at the Adelphi.
Screen farce and we may take "Fickle Fatty's Fall" at the Chestnut as
an example is just as unreal in its people, just as preposterous in its actions.
Indeed, that unreality of the screen Is the only thing which makes the Key
stone slap stick bearable. Knock-about fun, physical abuse, is a very different
tning on the stage. In only the rarest Instances, when a comedian can give
1:1s personage a real and plausible character, is such fun free from a repellant
quality. The blessed screen removes the physical sense. "We know that most
amazing things can be accomplished through the camera, which would mean
bodily pain and injury on the stage. "We can laugh at catastrophe because
we never for a moment believe in it.
Genius Needed
The screen can be real when it wants to. Not only its great rooms and
magnificent vistas, but ito people and their impulses and thoughts. "The
Coward" and "Matrimony" were proof enough of that.
The stage can be real only on two conditions. One, the genius of its
dramatists; the other, the genius of its actors.
How High Is a Room?
One of the minor realities of the screen that we don't pay enough attention
to is the height of its rooms. But. then, we never pay any attention to the
preposterous, sky-vaunting ceilings of the stage. Rooms in plays are anywhere
from M to 24 feet high. The galleries have dictated it. On the screen we see
the normal thing. We .have always seen it. How soon Is it going to make us
dissatisfied with the stage variety?
Fixing 'the Films
"With all the physical advantages that the movies have over the drama,
too many people have been taking it for granted that the technique of the
screen is perfect There is room for scores of improvements in such technical
details as the 'Ueaders" and the methods of representing "visions" and
-cut-backs."
It Is still possible, for instance, to see a photoplay that fails to carry its
name on every "leader." The resultr or course, is absolute blankness for the
person who comes in after the film has started.
The length of time the leaders are shown finds complaint from two direc
tions. As the result of breaks and patches in old films, and also of too great
speed on the part of the operator, many people complain of Inability to read
the titles before they flash off. Far more photoplay "fans," however, are
driven to mental distraction at the length that the average "leader" remains
en the screen for the convenience of people who are supposed to be slow
readers. Lubin got round the difficulty in the case of "The Road o Strife" by
throwing the words into a dark spot of the pictures themselves. It was an
excellent experiment that should have been given a longer trial.
Wanted Screen Conventions
Lubln is also to be credited with an interesting attempt to improve the
change of scene by fading the picture black and then bringing up the light
again on the new setting and new characters. In this regard there seems to
be no fixed convention. Some films fade, some jump, some use the vignette
opening. "The Birth of a Nation" uses all three methods in a single film. It
Js perfectly plain that there ought to be a specialized work for each of these
methods to do. One of them certainly should be kept to Indicate a "vision."
Nowadays you see it indicated by any number of devices. It is to Pathe's
credit that it is -working out a method by -which the vision may be "vignetted"
over a portion of the original picture, with enough left to show the person in
whose mind the vision is supposed to be arising.
When, Oh, When?
But -when -will the producers get rid of their absurd red Are scenes? If
anyone lights so much as a match in front of the camera, they promptly stain
tli whole Dim a bright red. The sky, miles off, takes on the hue of a San
Francisco fire. There are exceptions, of course. The burning of Atlanta in
"The3irth of a Nation," the many fire scenes in "Cablria" and those In "Com
rade John" are excellent But that is because the scenes were taken In such
a way that Ihe light came from the burning spot, and hence took red naturally.
And -why does the camera, like the soldier, "see red" -when a battle starts?
Young Movie Man, Go East!
Is California to lose her movie laurels? The last month has been full of
signs of an exodus of photoplay producers to the East The Quality Pictures,
which teature Francis X. Bushman, have moved their studios to the Atlantic
seaboard. Other companies are establishing or enlarging Eastern branches.
The Fine Arts or Griffith corner of the Triangle has two or three companies
working steadily In and around New Tork. California's climate -will never bo
beaten lor photographic purposes the brilliance of sun, the freedom from rain.
Bnt the life of the .East, the big cities, the famous localities, the fnmiir trees,
which are not, like Los Angeles', semi-tropical, all these are in big demand,
and the nljr place to get them Is here where they grow.
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CUT-BACKS
Movie Merits
Whatever you may think of the movies,
jou hate to hand it to them for barring:
English accents fcy American actors.
Taylor Holmvti stutter.
X-temnp Heroines,
lilllle Burke chuckles.
John Drew.
And if you're blind you don't mind the
two-by-four rhetoric on the "leaders."
On the Other Hand
Nobody in the legitimate sas:
Do jou think William Farnum is hand
somer lLan Earie Wlliams?
Ain't Mary Pidtford too cute?
AnjbodV ran see Theda Bara" French.
I just loie fil-um.
Prize Press Pearl
and Mr.
"Mr.
are such enthusiastic baseball fans that
they were nearly heartbroken when
. . the great war play at the
Theatre, New York, gave a matinee
on the day or a world's series game.
"With the aid of the stage manager, how
ever, the difficulty was overcome. It
was arranged that in the great trench
scene, the number of aerial bombs ex
ploded should indicate the Phillies' score
and the number of answering cannon
shots the Red Soxs' runs."
The Exchange Man's Garden of Curses
This room Is to lull of a number of reels
That I'm sure It should all be as squirmy as
eels.
Why Mr. Ziegfeld's Bank Account
Grows
"The piece is in Mr. Sutro's happiest
vein." New Tork critic on "The Two
Virtues."
"The piece is not in Mr. Sutro's hap
piest vein " New York critic on "The
Two Virtues."
What the Producers Are Doing
"The College Orphan." with Carter de
Haven. George Ade please write
"The Third Party" and 'The Ruling
Power." it is safe to say, have no connec
tion with each other.
LETTERS
Likes the Amusement Section
To the Photoplay Editor;
The Amusement Section of the Even
ing Ledger has been such a source of
pleasure to me that I cannot refrain from
sending my compliments and good wishes
to your editor for its success. It is so
much easier to find what one wants when
everything In the amusement line is con
fined to one section.
I find the movies very attractive, but
I am waiting for the day when some In
ventive genius will And a way by which
the pictures can be operated without the
constant movement which is so hard on
the ycs. I am sure I am not the only
one who is prevented from going as often
as might be just on this account. I no
tice this defect even in the high-class
plays given by the Triangle Company.
Is there no way by which this difficulty
may be overcome? Are experiments
being made to remedy it? Why not have
an article in the Evening Ledger some
time tolling what may be expected in
the future in this respect.
What has become of the scheme to
produce "talking" .movies? Do jou think
it will ever be possible to hae moving
pictures accompanied by the natural
speaking or singing voice? I imagine,
though, that that is far in the future.
Philadelphia, October 29. M. G."
Full House
To the Photoplay r.ditor:
I was interested in Mr. Russell's letter
last week, but it seems to me he would
not hae written as he did if he had
tiicd to get into the Stanley, the Arcadia
or any of the big photoplay houses last
week. j. F.
Philadelphia, Oct. 27.
As to William Farnum
To the Photorlay Editor:
Sir I think the reason most ieople ad
mire the plays of William Farnum is not
because of his "world-famed Farnum
face," though he is suie good to look at;
but on account of the absence of an thing
suggestive of immodesty or immorality in
his plays, at least in any which the writer
has seen. Is he an American that is,
was he born in America? The majority
of the Fox plays are somewhat off color,
to put it mildly.
Why not more such pictures as the
Farnum brothers and Francis X. Bush
man can give us and less of Tlieda Bara
and her style and less of Charles Chap
lin. CURIOUS.
Philadelphia, October 20.
(It ieems to us that the correspondent is
a little hard on Mi.-s Bara, and falls to
recoKnize the high dramatic and photo
graphic qualities of the Fox films. More
over, as the editors remarked before,
Charlie Chaplin's Kssanay pictures are
decidedly less "vulgar" than his Key
stone releases. Editor.)
Questions and Answers
Rex. The address of the Metro Pic
tures Corporation Is 14G5 Broadway, New
York. It is scfe to send Madame Pc
trova our manuscript care of the Metro.
Alice. Yes, the leap to be shown in
Tlieda Bara's "Carmen," next week and
which has been largely talked of in the
New York papers, was genuine. The
actor broke his leg. You will hnd a pic
ture of the fall in this Amusement Sec
tion J. E. T. Both the Sclig Company and
the Centaur Corporation make wild ani
mal features. These are not faked. The
actors are in actual contact with 'the
beasts. The Evening Ledger, expects to
print, at a later date, a description of
how this work is done.
J. Monroe. At the moment the Photo
play Editor cannot tell you who first ap
peared as Carmen on the screen. lie
hopes to have the information soon.
It G. It Is impossible to say just
what religious leader the authors of
"Comrade John" had in mind, but, as the
"Evening Ledger review says. It seems
to he a cross between Elbert Hubbard
and Dowie.
Harold Goodman. Send your comedy
scenarios. If one or two reels, to George
Klclne, 11 East Hth street. New York
city. He Is after new material.
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