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PHOTOPLAY
DANCING
THEATRES
and MUSIC
AMUSEMENT SECTION
191f5
PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER SO,
W"yp
it
THE CARTOON COMEDY, LAST
MYSTERY OF THE MOVIES
How the Lightning Artist Makes This Pen and Ink
Marvel Four Thousand Separate Draw
ings to a Reel
IN' SPITE of the press agent, thre is
still one mole mystery. It is that pen
and ink marvel, technically known as the
carton comedy.
Everybody knows these pictures, and a
good many people claim to have origi
nated them. Some of us met them first
through Lyman Howe. To every travel
picture he pinned on a ridiculous little
burlesque. At the end of a film of a
military academy, for Instance, the bill
of a stork obtruded Itself Into the blank
of the screen. The bird followed the bill,
likewise an inkwell. The bill sucked up
Ink and then proceeded to draw some
warlike figures, which promptly came to
life and went through military evolutions,
buch as juggling a cannonball from the
mouth of a 42-centimetre gun At the
end the whole thing blew up. and pieces
coming down through the air formed e
letters "Intermission" on the screen
The most famous cartoon comedy was
one by Windsor McKa5. featuring Tes
sie. the Icthosauius bince then the
drawn movie has become a regular part
of the output of many of the big compa
nies Lubin has an artist who divides his
nel with negro comed Edison handles
Its series from a novel angle. Each pic
ture begins wtih an ordmarj "real life
scene between Edison actors One of the
diameters introduces a book of cartoons
The picture on the page expands to the
full size of the screen and goes through
its eolutlons. Then at the end comes
tl.e close of the real life incident.
One of the most popul ir and cleer
reries of cartoons is that issued by
Pathe with "Colonel Heeza Liar" or
"The Tolice Dog" as its hero J. It
Bra, the originator of these drawings,
claims to be the first to put motion into
the drawlig itself. Mr Bray started
his experiments oer mjvcii jears ago.
and that was when motion pictures were
still verj joung Todaj he is the head
of a whole organization devoted to link
ing his pictures, has a corps of artists
working under hU supervision and has
patents on his process which cover the
use of transparent material or material
made traisparent by an agencj what
ever in the making of animated diaw
ings. On another page will be found a re
production of one of Mr. Bray's draw
ings To produce a series of comic
evolutions on the Him, the artist draws
thousands of such sketches, each a lit
tle different In the detail of its acUons
The background is standardized to a cer
tain "stent, making it necessary to draw
in onlv the moving figures. Each pic
ture Is separately photographed, draw
ing following drawing in the order of
events which the develop, while the
camera slowly, very, very slowly clicks
Its shutter.
It takes between four and five thousand
drawings to mike 1000 feet or one reel of
film. In addition to the colossal toil
of the art work It takes a week to
photograph the drawings one at a time.
Great speed united with unvarying ac
curacv is essential. Everj stroke of the
pen must count Mr Bray works so
fast that he Is able to keep four trained
artists "inking in" the outline drawings
which he makes The necessity for ac
curacy is evident, when it is learned
that the drawings are magnllled on the
screen at least 23 times
Mr. Bray spent j ears in study before he
attempted to make an animated cartoon
film. For months he haunted the Bronx
Zoo in order to study the animals there
and analyze their motions. He even
bought a large farm across the Hudson
from Poughkeepsle and stocked It with
various animals in order to further ex
tend his knowledge of animal anatomy.
The result of those studies finds expres
sion In the life-like motions of the
various animals which move across his
films
Mr Bray was recently Interviewed In
his sunnv New Tcrk studio engaged In
conducting Heeza Liar through another
series of escapades. Tall, slender and
blonde he looks more like a successful
business man than an artist
"Problems," he said, "come to the artist
in this work that never rise In ordinary
art. I have employed some very able
artists to assist me. and find that very
few of them can get the knack. For In
stance, one of the hardest things In the
world to handle in these animated draw
ings is perspective. To have a. figure
come from the far horizon straight, to
ward the observer to have it grow from
a dot to the proper size and preserve the
'balance' makes an almost insurmounta
ble problem. I think I am correct In say
ing that not one artist in a thousand can
put motion into drawings."
PHILADELPHIA'S
M$iUL Hit
MTX: If 7 1
1 T Aft Ih
The setting for Lord Dunsany's phantastic drama, "The Glittering
Gate," as Morris Hall Pancoast has designed it and a3 the Stage
Society will present It at the Little Theatre next week.
MRS. FISKE ON
The motion picture as a medium of ar
tistic expression Is still In its fonnativo
state. It 13 an art that has not yet
found Itself though It has, assuredly,
found the public. Tleally It has not so
far found a suitable name for Itself, as
witness the arious absurd and Tagu
terms used to Identify It. When Its
farthest capacities have been discovered,
when Its limitations have been fixed, then
HOW PHILADELPHIA CAN GET SHAW
AT FIFTY CENTS A PERFORMANCE
The New Stage Society Which Has Made an Audience
Its First Production "High Brow"2 Maybe; But
It's Easier to Be High Brow Than You Think
SUPPOSE you had 50 cents and theatre
tickets cost $2. Suppose you liked
"Man and Superman." and the Broadway
stage insisted on giving you "Daddy
Long Legs." After about 10 years of
helpless, maddening- dissatisfaction you
might have sense enough to do what peo
ple In Berlin. London. New York. Boston,
Chicago. Indianapolis and a. dozen other
cities have done. Tou might decide to
go ahead, yourself and produce the kind
of plays you wanted to see. That ia what
the members of th Philadelphia Stage
NEW STAGECRAFT
PHOTOPLAY ART
shall we have In the motion picture an
art that will be. in the full meaning of
the term, superb. Its possibilities reach
beyond' tne boundaries of the Imagina
tion. That ia why It la so fascinating
to the artist. It Is a new road, pressing;
farther and farther through a wilderness
of great possibilities, and at every- step
one Is likely to meet with some new and
delightful adventure.
Society are doing. And next week comes
the test.
Mow there la no getting round the fact
that this Is a "high-brow" matter. It Is
for people who are'nt satisfied with the
plajs oC Broadway and Broad Street.
But and this is a great big "but" which
makes the whole thing worth talking
about it la surprisingly easy to cultivate
that altltudmous forehead. Liking Intel
ligent play 3 fan't hall so hard as the
managers think. If the Stage Society- lets
Philadelphia find that out. just aa the
Washington Square. Players have let New
Tork. then it will do a mighty big and
worthwhile thing.
Anyway, the high brow has a right to
kick at the American theatre. And his
kick Isu-t that other people get what
they want-which Is partly true-or that
he his to see what he doen't want-whlch
auuost entirely raise. His kick Is that
he can't get what Ue himself wants. The
economic organization of the American
theatre won't let it cater to anything but
the wholesale trade. The library can. the
art museum can. even saloons can But
the theatre can't.
The high brow has another complaint
and almost anybody Hklnff good, satisfac
tory amusement can Join him. If he finds
a play he likes and goes to s e it he has
to pay for half a dozen other plays ho
never saw. To begin with, he has to pay
somewhere In the neighborhood of c for
a good seat. On top ot that he knows that
a considerable part of hl goes to meet
the losses on other theatrical ventures
that the manager or the theatre has suf
fered. At the very best, he Is paying for
the privilege of not having had to watch
those failures' slow demise.
It's hard to say who first thought of the
cure for this. The credit Is probably due
to the country whose almost perfect the
atrical sjstcm made the evil least evident,
-Germany. At any rate, the Xeue Frele
oIksbuehne Is the best and simplest
specimen of a voluntary organization of
people who want-d to produce good
dramas cheaply for themselves. This or
ganization ot subscribers was able to
hire theatre? and actors for days when
they were free, and to put so much ama
teur talent and spirit into the work that
a very modest but dependanble subscrip
tion fee covered the adequate production
of plays of limited appeal. Sure o' an
audience and a certain sum or money,
everything else could be made to suit.
The idea spread. It sprvad through
Germany into France, where Antoine and
?nt?is thelr,starts trough the
Theatre Libre, a playhouse beginning in
the second story of a cafe where artists
We" H !!' what the b"levard theatres
couldn't give them. The Idea spread in
to England. The Incorporated Stage So
ciety of London gave Shaw. Galsworthy.
Barker; Bennett. St. John Hankln to the
English-speaking stage. Three or four
years ago the Idea reached America. Hee
it waa modified decldedlv towards the
amateur, because the flux and How ot the
uncertain touring s stem pui piofessional
aid at a disadvantage.
Boston had one of the first or these
ventures. At the Toy Theatre a group of
amateurs gave new plays with a scenic
and histrionic finish that were truly
remarkable. Shaw's "Getting Married '
Chesterton's "Magic." and Gulma:a'3
"Maria Rosa" were the monuments
reared there. Out in Chicago. Maurice
Browne's Little Theatre contributed
iej.i3. r-unpiues. oirmaoerg. SchnlUler
Maurice Baring. Synge. Other local dubs
of amateurs In Lake Fore3t, Madison
Mllwakee gave Maeterlinck, Goldonl and
Hoffmanstal. This year sees mora asso
ciation cf the kind In Indianapolis, St.
Paul, and other Middle Western cities.
Here In th east. New York has a mar
velous example to show In the second
season of the Washington Square
Players, upon their model the Philadel
phia Stage Society Is Roping to build
as suecesful a future. "
The- first production of the Stage So
ciety Is to be an audler.ee. Like the
Washington Players ana all Ita ancestors,
it is heglnlng at the right end, finding a
Continued oa Fate Slzfet.