Evening public ledger. (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, October 30, 1915, Final, Amusement Section, Image 9
gj r"5"3"""""" SM iniMHnIMM (wJwmBtJW"'.1 "-! "T;!pwy "Ml"" -K-! ,gr,w.,i.-OTgH.r,.,g,w,,ww,,j mn,wi mnwwuL'im' iiiimni.wLj """" "w'j'T' T2JW- trotm 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.