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PHOTOPLAY
DANCING
AMUSEMENT SECTION
THEATRES
Znd MUSIC
PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 11, 1915
ENTER THE SILHOUETTE MOVIE
"'
C. Allan Gilbert, Painter of Beautiful Women, Perfects
Shadow Photoplay of Whimsical Charm
to Tell Tale of Inbad
"rpiIERi: are stranger things In Heaven
i and Earth. Horatio, than are dreamed
of In thy philosophy" and some of them
are the remarkable effects which are pro
duced in the movies. We have seen our
country invaded and forced to yield to the
iron hand of a conquering foe in 131
or-:K : we have seen the "tide of war
break against Richmond"; we have seen
our Iiero drop many feet over cliffs, off
houses, from aeroplanes, in fact from al
most any place that thrills; we have seen
plants grow under our very eyes, wild
animals in their lairs, birds on their nests
brought to our very eyes by the movies.
Artistic effects. lovely, at times almost
lights, overhead, are so arranged as to
throw the movie actors who take part
into strong relief. Occasionally the back
ground of a film is dyed to lend greater
realism to the scene, and. although the
tigures are in silhouette, it is surprising
how much expression is obtained.
A Peter Pan Production
Mr. Gilbert's innovation in film produc
tion covers a wide range of subjects, but
all of them are presented with a charming
disregard for stereotyped methods. He
refuses to take his characters seriously
and carries them through a series of droll
adventures. "Inbad the Sailor" is a typ
ical example.
The story, which has the proper
Arabian Nights flavor. depict3 a sailor
wrecKea on a desert isle with only a
"G. B. S." MAN OF LETTERS AT LAST
And the Letters Bernard Shaw Writes His Actors Are
Eeal Letters, the Most Delightful Imaginable.
Here Are Some Samples
beyond description, have been screened: ! monkey for a companion and a bottle of.
yet again we have a new idea and its
complete revelation in the introduction of
the silhouette movie.
The silhouette we have had in passing
scenes. Pathe used It In -The House of
Fear." Lubin in "A Nation's Peril." while
even that much despised Keystone Com
edy showed a lovely shadow end to "A
Village- Scandal." Tho beautiful love
scene from the Paramounfs ".Madame
Butterilj" was treated in this manner.
Hut never to our knowledge has a whole
silhoutte movie been shown.
It Takes the Artist to Do It
New York's Latin Quarter experienced
a distinct shock the other day when it
learned that C. Allan Gilbert, who. with
Charles Dana Gibson. Harrison Fisher.
Hamilton King and Howard Chandler
Christy made the pretty American girl
famous on canvas, had succumbed to the
fascination of the movies and become a
film producer and is to brin4 out a new
form of photoplay, which he calls sil
houette fantasies, but which, specifically
speaking, are whimsical tales told in
iilhouette form.
Nor Is Mr. Gilbert the only artist con
nected with the project. Henry Bryant.
C. B. Falls and others of the fraternity
are assisting him and are already enthu
siastic film fans. Mr. Gilbert now writes
all the scenarios that are being turned out
by the Bray-Gilbert studio, at II Wash
ington Mews. J. R. Bray, associated with
him. was formerly connected with the
Pathe Treres, but is now with the Par
amount Company, with whose January re
leases the new silhouette plays are coming
out.
It is a brand new experience for Wash
ington Mews, with its medley of studios
and truck horse stables, to have a moving
picture establishment in Its midst. But
for the last six months No. ft ha3 been
the seat of mysterious operations whose
nature only recently has come to light
The ancient structure has been trans
formed to meet the requirements of the
new undertaking, and big are lights, odd
stage properties and curious photographic
machines hive replaced the faithful Dob
bin and his cart.
A stage and Hies liive been .iilileii m th
rear of the lot. and the Inner walls painted '
a dazzling white Po.verfuI electric
I
tabasco sauce for comfort. But the
writer produces the inevitable mystery
in the shape of a genii's chest, in which
is found a wishing ring. The sailor ha3
four wishes, one of which turns the
monkey Into a human companion a sort
of man Friday and another whisks the
two off on a magic carpet to the Orient
in search of adventure.
As the two men tumble into the scene
before the gates of Bagdad they are
taken prisoners and are borne off to the
Sultan who. learning of the wishing ring.
decides to commute a sentence of death
to a life of happiness and ease, providing
they find a. rare pearl stolen by a dragon
In the mountain. As a reward the Sultan
promises the sailor his daughter, a beau
tiful princess, for his wife.
With such a prize In view the sailor
sets off with his companion to search for
Xow that Grace George is giving Amer
ica us first glimpse of "Major Barbara,"
Itr. Sham's play of the old munition maker
and the Satiation Army, M'illiam A.
Brady's press aoent has dun up a series
of letters from Mr Shaw, first printed lit
the Cotton Transcript, through the cour
tesy of Louis Calcert Mr. Calvert, tcio
Is now supporting Miss George in this
country, created the role in London, and
received from Mr. Shavo these tetters of
admonition before and after the rehearsal
of his play.
D"
Derry, Itosscarbery. Co. Cork.
23d July. IMS.
EAR CALVERT-Can you play tho
trombone? If not. I beg you to ac
quire smattering of the art during
your holidays. I am getting on with
the new play, scrap by scrap, and the
part of the millionaire cannon founder
Is becoming more and more formidable.
Broadbent and Veegan rolled into one.
with. Mephistopheles thrown in: that is
what it is like. "Business Is Business"
will be cheap melodrama, in comparison.
Irving and Tree will fade into the third
class when Calvert takes the stage aa
Andrew Undershaft. It will be TRE
MENDOUS, simply. But there Is a great
scene at the end of the second act. where
he buys up the Salvation Army and has
to take part in a march to a big meeting.
B-irker will play the drum. You will
have a trombone or bombardon. If you
prefer that instrument and it would add
greatly to the effect If you could play it
prettily. Besides, if you took to music
you could give up those confounded cigars
and save your voice and your memory
(both wrecks, like Mario"3. from 37 cigars
a day) for this immense part. It is
very long speeches longer than Keegan's
Continued on l'auo Mae and dozens of them, and infinite- nuances
"INBAD, THE SAILOR," IN SILHOUETTE
Administering tabasco sauce to the dragon to make him cough np
the pearl.
of execution. Undershaft Is diabolically
subtle, gentle, self-possessed, powerful,
stupendous, as well as amusing and in
teresting. There are the making of 10
Hamlets and six Othellos in his mero
leavings. Learning it will half kill you.
but you can retire next day as pre-eminent
and unapproachable. That penny
plain and twopence-colored pirate Brass
bound will be beneath -your notice then.
I have, put him oft for another year, aa
I cannot get the right Lady Cicely. Ve
drenne, unluckily, has read my plays at
Margate, and is now full of the most In
sane proposals wants Brassbound In
stantly with you and Kate Rorke. for ona
thing.
But the trombone i3 the urgent matter
of the moment. By the way, trombone
players never get cholera nor consump
tionnever die, in fact, until extreme
old age makes them incapable of work
ing the Slide. G. BERNARD SHAW.
10 Adelphl Terrace. W. C.
27th November. IMS.
My dear Calvert:
The rocky words today were:
EXPERIMENTS AND. RESEARCHES
in Improved methods of destroying life
and property.
In the scene with Cusins (the drum
scene) you must be on the lookout for
"Not Paganism, cither, eh?" "I ad
mit that." because the next speech, "You
have noticed that she is original in her
religion" comes with sudden force and
pride. Indeed, the change comes from the
line. "And now to business." Up to that.
Undershaft has been studying Cusins and
letting him talk. But the shake-hands
means that he has made up his mind that
Cusins i3 the man to understand him;
and he therefore takes the lead In the
conversation and dominates Cusins at
once. It all goe3 on in a steady progres
sion of force "And now to business."
"xou nave noticed that she is original
la her religion" "And now question for
question" up to "Pooh. Professor!" etc
ThU change 13 not quite marked enough.
The arst part-the listening, watching,
studying, pumping Cusins is admirably
done; but you are apt to prolong It Into
the second or dominant part, or to re
lapse Into It, as if you were not quit
clear as to exactly where to turn tho
tables on Barker, whoso lightweight busi
ness Is of no use after the shake-hands.
"We three must stand together" is gen
erally rather fluffy.
"SO MUCH THE BETTER: they win
put np with anything sooner than change
their shop" is the answer to "attached to
their homes." If you dry up here, the
scene win be spoilt; for Barker will ba
forced to skip ahead to cover the hitch;
and then Cremlin will be late.
When Barban. says: "No; don't com
fort me. It will be all right. We shall
get the money." don't forget to say
"HOW?" You have never yet picked u
this cue.
The reason I cried out in anguish whea
Continued on race Eight
Inbad tries to pawn the pearl and finds it only glass, worth 30 cents.
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Disillusioned, Inbad discovers the beantifnl princess a hagf.
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