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PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 1, 1016'
"GRUMPY" WANDERS IN MOVIELAND
AND SEES STRANGE SIGHTS
WE LOOK DOWN ON KEYSTONE COMEDY
A MAN OF TWENTY-TWO WHO
WROTE HIS FIRST PLAY BACKWARD
1
Letters From the Distinguished Actor Telling All
Elmer Reizenstein, Author of "On Trial," Talks About
Himself and His Work The Remarkable History
of a Remarkable Play
About the "Yellow Faces" That He Found There
on His Second Voyage
By CYRIL MAUDE
u, Wnntcatt. tne cntcrnrlsinn dm-
' malic editor of the .Vcui 1 ork Times,
has from time to time printed letters
from Mr. Maude, which show ho can
tctcUl his pen as cleverly as his maSc-
j stick. ,
ITT IS aulte tlirio wo hail some food,"
X snld tho director, the nlt-powcrful,
the ruler of my movlo destinies the Inst
tliree weeks.
Wo haa been working hard nml with
approprlato gravity In a graveyard ftio
subtle Joko Intended, please) nil tho
morning. As we bowled down Broad
way I had (succeeded In nvoldlng tho
public gaze moat successfully by sltthlB
with ono hand covering tbo side of my
fnco "' w,tl "leather holding down
low the brim of my lint. Occasionally,
though. 1 would eoo some poor lady give
a lump as she caught sight of a weird
old yellow face pcerinB sideways out
nf the window, but we sped nionR so
swiftly that t Imagine she merely thought
her liver was a bit wrong. As wo crossed
..:' t ..mitriii't tinln wondeiing what
sort of utrange old thing people would
Imagine they had sot on board If I nt
emrtfd to get out of the car, so I cow
ered Inside It. At last wo got to our
destination, a cemetery near somo am
munition and explosive factories, nnd
JJllcd i U the graves of dead Germans.
Am I ivperscnsltlve this morning or Is
It. after all, any wonder that I, nn Ktig
fihmnti, half Irish, should feel something
uncanny In the place I had to work that
moment nnd Its strange Juxtaposition to
tbo explosive factories? OccnBlonatly we
would hear the deep booming of guns,
nnd I was Informed that It wna the nolso
of tho trials of tho explosives destined,
many of them, to nld In defending my
beloved country, my wife and my chil
dren. And here was I doing my best In
r strnngo sort of wny to mnko enough
money to pay the fenrlul taxes which
loom before us In tho mist of anxious
war clouds. Hero was I, doing my morn
ing's work In a cemetery literally crowded
with dead Germans, Germans who had
probnbly died full of patriotic enthusiasm
for their Fatherland, and not Germans
filled wltn tbo nmazing doubt, llko so
mnny nowadays, ns to tho wisdom or tho
righteousness of the war lords who havo
their former country tinder their thumb.
Oh, the Irony of it all! I, the picture
puppet, have to walk down tho avenuo
of Brlchstelns, Hcchstcins, nnd then,
hand In hand with my llttlo grand
daughter of this movlo morning, kneel
down and weep nnd pray over tho tomb
of a Schnickenhutzenhauscn! Over and
over ngaln wo come sorrowfully down
that melancholy path nnd kneel down.
Tho mother of tho child hns moist eyes.
I "wonder why? The baby girl tells mo
In an Interlude while wo are waiting
for the producer to think out somo even
moro touchlnB way In which I can show
my movlo feelings In muto appeal to
heaven, that "we havo got two. graves
In our family somewhere hero, whero
gran'pa nnd gran'ma la burled, nnd our
baby, too." And ns I approach the
mother after my work Is over, for tho
first time I feel touched and sorrowful
lor her. Sho tells me qulto simply that
her husband was a German, but tho
PHYLLIS NEILSON-TERRY
The charming young English ac
tress of distinguished parentage,
who comes to Keith's next week in
Shakespearean studies.
Some of the remark
"Watch Your Stcj"
The pnet
1 J
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i.i IJ.J.H...I ..j j"... .,. .j.i.i iuIiii.i....iii.,.,m...iii...iii ,m in Mii.i.iLymiiuiw'MiiM) I.... Mi.., smTmxMmr,Mm r-r- ; . t . .-,: 4-,.: ';','. -J 3-v'te.--t:--; 'vvv'-V-Miiwwttwiariii'' .: '. ' ""M"rl"" '"naL-
hyphen seems to have quite slipped away
since Lusltanla day.
"Ho Is against 'cm now, but he thinks
that the wnr could bo easily stopped by
the States refusing to supply nmmunl
llons t tho Allies."
Mb booms In the distance punctuate her
remarks, and t set her wonderlnB,by tell
Ins her that t have this morning been In
formed by some one-who knows that only
n tenth pnrt of tho ammunition used at
the front enme from this country!
Hut even graveyard work does not stop
hunger, nnd nwny we nil speed to the
lunchroom of n group of tho great picture-producing
studios of tho world. Wo
feel wo nro approaching something
strange ns a cowboy or two gnllop past.
Is It my fancy that the cowboy sud
denly gets J-.- n trifle moro debonair
and perhaps a llttlo more wild nnd woolly
ns he Sees he Is being observed by tho
occupants of n smart car? And Is It my
fnncy ngnln that ho seems to loso his
Western loolc when he sees merely yel
low fnces looking out nt him?
Wc drive up to the door of the lunch
room, nnd ns I enter I must confess to
a feeling of shyness nt my strange np
pearnnce. But I And myself surrounded
by such n remarkable crowd of weird
looking people that I soon feel completely
nt home. Every possible kind of charac
ter Is having lunch there, and tho yellow
paint makes us nil look nono too deBlr
nblo as acquaintances, I can tell you.
Every Imaginable kind of costume Is
there, too, nnd one soon learns to feel
no possible kind of surprise In turning
from n tnblo whero Is seated nn old
Irishman of the most broken-down type
eating his lunch very calmly with Mnrle
Antoinette, and ngaln contemplating the
frail Cn.ullle discussing the latest suc
css In the picture lino with the magnlfl-cent-Iooklni;
Mexican nnd n parlor maid
and n Dutch peasant. Of course, you
have scon nil thnt kind of thing nt tho
fnncy dress balls, you will say, but, be
lieve me. It a!.' nssumes a different pro
portion In the sunlight among the Yellow
Faces.
And wo tnko ourselves very, very seri
ously, wo Yellow Faccsl And, please,
why shouldn't we? I am only an ama
teur nt the game, and feel always I am
regarded ns somo amateur would be on
adventuring Into stngo life. It Isn't how
long have you been on tho stnge, or how
many theatres have you owned, or how
ninny hundred plays have you yourself
produced, that Is tho question now. It Is
how ninny pictures havo you appeared In?
Continued on 1'nge Four
GRIFFITH, PRODUCER,
MAN AND ARTIST-
A Personal View of the Wizard
of the Motion
Picture
There Is a human-Interest story In Grif
fith, who hns screened nn American epic.
Ills work Is known to millions, but tho
man himself Is not known. Ho has kept
himself back of tho camera, out of tho
picture, but now thnt he has made Amer
ica sit back and look at the films at
Broadway prices, and has got tho so
called classes to drop their venerated
clnsslcs and loin tho masses at n "movie"
exhibition, the blue stockings nnd men of
books rise to Inquire what manner of man
Is he.
Griffith was born In Lagrange, near
Louisville. Ky. He Is 35 and has a strain
of the Celt. Tho blend of the canny
Scot and tho bubbling Irishman thnt enmo
down to hirrj from his overseas ancestry
shown at times In his climaxes. Ills
father served under Lee In tho Civil Wnr,
and Hi o man who now stands nt the head
of the profession In this country, and
perhaps the world, has not lost the spirit
of the old Southland.
It's an old story now that Griffith was
a failure as a rond actor, a barnstormer
cvenln tank towns. That doesn't mat
ter so much. Today he stages tho great
outdoors nnd blends the purr of a kitten
with tho crash of artillery; runs the whole
scale of emotion In his film portraits of
life, and he gets tho heartbeats of the
poot and tho orator. Ha had designs on
grand opera when he looked about for a
career, but he found his voice suited for
the srenklng stnge, even If tho manager
of tho rond company failed to agree with
him, Griffith's friends sny ho wns better
than the avernge as an actor, but ho
stuck to the stage for two years and milt
for it placo with a film company. Here
Is where he began to develop his talents
and get l.Ia grip on the psychology of the
world of make believe.
Griffith is about live feet ten Inches
In height. He carries no superfluous flesh
end he Is clubby when off duty. He has
written several short stories, but he Is
committed absolutely to the silent drama.
He looks upon It as the youngest sister
of tho fine arts, and he hates censorship.
. l, n-miii,.- KPttino-s (lesiffned bv Robert McOuinn
at the top pictures the office of the tangoing lawyers, the one on the left hits
A birds-oyo view of tho famous
"AND LO!
ANY ONE who has seen ono of Wll
. Ham ailletto's performances of "Se
cret Service" nt tho Broad Street Then
tro this week cannot, 1C ho Is observant
at all, havo failed to note tho wonder
fully effective uso that Is mado of noises
off stnge.
Just for example, tho walling of tho
church bells nt the beginning of tho last
act of tho play. Itlchmond has been at
tacked by tho Northern army and the
citizens nre In a panic. The church bells
are ringing to call out tho reserves. It
Is marvelous tho wny thoso bells tell the
story and make tho audlenco feci thnt
the sound comes from the many spires of
a great city nnd that they voice the ter
ror nnd haste of tho people. Mingled with
them nnd heightening tho effect como
tho tramp of hurrying ti oops, tho claqh or
nrms, tho dull rumble of ennnon over tho
streets. Another dramatist might have
had his characters talk nbout It, but he
could not possibly havo mado his audi
ence sense tho situation ns these sounds
do.
Once In "Clarlco" Mr. Gllletto wanted
to mako his audlenco feel that tho room
shown on tho stngo was In a houso re
mote nnd isolated. Ho did it by this
enmo uso of sounds oft stage. A char
acter loft tho room. A moment later the
uudlcnco heard tho heavy outsldo door
close with a muffling bang. Then came
tbo sound of carriage horses pawing at
the ground and eager to start. Then tho
crunch of the wheels on the gravel drive
way, growing louder nnd different In tono
ns tho wheels moved faster and at la3t
THINGS TO WATCH AT THE FORREST BESIDE YOUR STEP
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for "Watch Your SteD." AH three
.N'KitfUri.'.AAAAVh.vAk M
studio, showing nt tho back tho hill which
enlargements.
A SOUND FELL UPON
"SHERLOCK" GILLETTE
dying away altogether In tho distance. A
llttlo later camo the sound of a train en
tering a far-off stntluii, and then Its de
parture. And these sounds, never too
loud, never obstruslve, never Interrupting
the action on the stage, brought homo .o
the minds of every one In tho audlenco
tho desired feeling of remoteness and Iso
lation far more effectively than any
amount of dialogue could havo done It.
In "Sherlock Holmes," tbo detective
are treated in flat elav tones, nrinftpr.ilv
off In more elaborate fashion a "Palais
m 0
was partly cut nway to allow for
MY EAR"
play which Mr, Olllotto will do at tho
Broad next week, thero Is another in
stance In point where In tho famous gas
chamber scene the audtsneo must be mado
to feel that tho placo Is remote from the
outsldo world, a prison celt from which
no cries could cscapo to tho passer-by In
tho street. And tho effect Is produced
by the sound of the bolts on tho outside
of the door, by the :lnnklnff of chains
and by tho footfalls of persons approach
ing or departing along long corridors.
Again In "Sherlock Holmes," when
Professor Morlarty pays his memorable
visit to Sherlock Holmes' rooms In Baker
street nfter he hns lind nil t". streets In
tho neighborhood made "safe" nnd lured
all companions away from his prospective
victim. Hero It Is n wonderful Btlllnees
that makes tho nudlonco feel the loneliness
of tho detective. But when Morlarty
appears Intho doorway ho finds Holmes
prepared fo'r him with a nervous finger on
tho trigger of a revolver In his dressing
gown pocket. Tho two men nro seated
on opposite sides of a table. Holmes now
with tho revolver held openly In his hand.
Its butt resting on the table. As long as
Morlarty remains quiet, tho gun Is quiet.
Let him move, though, and the gun
moves too, scraping across tho tablo so
that It seems almost alive, a growing
monaco to tho trapped criminal.
When ono speaks of stage mechanics
which raise the Illusion to the highest
power of effect, tho theatre-goer of today
naturally thlnKs of David Belasco. In
some ways ho may surpass Mr, Gillette
In this respect, as for Instance In his
scorn at timc3 of tho footlights. But
"Sherlock Holmes," "Secret Service" and
"Clarice" will always remnln striking
examples of tho fnct that their producer
stands In tho front rank of those who
know the valuo of noise which Is not
vocal In tho painting of nn Illusion not
complete when It Is morely optical.
thp i..-V v Isn weois and reds.
de For Trot," while thejast is a Fifth avwavw cabaret ia gold checkerboard
"-re1 A. ONE-LEGGED MAN or a on
Xeyed woman writes a play, why that's
all very Interesting, but It doesn't mako
the play Itself nny better. Even if I am
only 21, I don't see what that's got to do
with my play,"
The Now York reviewers once- having1
caught him, the lanky boy author of "On
Trial" exploded thus with a mild sort of
wrath In his tone, and then subsided again
Into bashfulncss. A voluble lady whom he
had encountered on his "first night" hod
steadily refused to believe him the au
thor of tho drama that hnd taken New
York by storm, nnd referred prcslatcntly
to "his father's Btory,"
For Elmer I Itelzensteln Is nothing
short of nn Infant prodigy, Over night
ho became tho subject of Broadway
chatter. Over night ho accomplished
whut many a seasoned playwright cannot
hope to accomplish with a single mag
num opus In a lifetime the awakening
of the critic's curiosity.
"There's not a new thing In tho wholo
play everything there Is as old as Aris
totle," explained the precocious Mr. Itetz
cnstcln with an embarrassed llttlo grin,
runny. Eh, What?
"Tho only thing that Is different Is the
way I wroto It."
"Tho way you wrote It?"
"Backward."
"But why backard?"
"Practice," Mr. Reizenstein smoothed
his already smooth red hair and twiddled
his derby hat nervously. He Isn't spoiled
-yet.
"Last winter I was reading a criticism
by Clayton Hamilton In which ho said
the plas-s then on Broadway were so
poorly done they could bo acted backward
as well as forward.
"It occurred to me that It would be an
Interesting experiment to try a play
backward Just to seo how It would work
out to make It analytic Instead of anti
thetic dsductlvo Instead of Inductive to
mako Jt break down Instead of build up."
This ho said quite calmly as If It were
nothing to upset all tho conventions of
playwrltlng that havo obtained slnco tho
days of the stagyrite. Moro Important
conventions, too, nro violated In "On
Trial": conventions tho disregard of
which Broadway has strictly forbidden.
For Instance, thero Is no comedy what
ever. Thero is no tirade full of noble and
generalizing sentiment to bring a volley
of applause. There are no quotable epi
grams. Thero Is, on the other hand, no
literary finish. Tho conversation Is sim
ple nnd direct.
"I Just wroto It backward, you sec,"
"1916" FUTURE
OF THE PHOTOPLAY
Is There a Pinero of the Screen
Just Over the
Horizon?
By OLIVER MOROSQO
President of tho Oliver Morosco Photoplay Co.
As New Year's Day appears to bo tho
proper time to make resolutions, It seems
to mo that It would be an excellent Idea
for producers, and others as well, to re.
solve to imagine every day a New Year's j
XJay mm Biaik eucn nuw i nours Wltn
the same progressive spirit that the llrst
day of each year seems to generate
momentarily. The solid bedrock foundation of the
successful photodrama of tomorrow will
bo the scenario or play Itself. Without
such a groundwork stars and directors
will topple, but with such a foundation
directors, stars and players In general
may build worthy skyscrapers of artistic
achievement before the camera.
Tomorrow must, and surely will, pro
duce Imaginative geniuses whoso fnme
will rest wholly on their photodramas.
It Is not enough that they condescend to
"come over" from other branches of lit
erary or theatrical endeavor. That "con
descension" Is an Insult to a great and
established medium of human expression.
You and I will live to Bee the day of a
Pinero, a Jones, a Bernstein and a
Thomas of the screen men who will be
come world-famous for the depth, power,
sincerity and compelling truth of their
photoplays. But they will be specialists;
they will not do pictures on Thursdays
and Saturdays and literary nnd theatrical
work the rest of thi week. And
when we have reached the stage of great
screen authors we producers will cast
their parts Just as narefully as tho le
gitimate manager of today searches the
stage world for suitable players and per
sonalities to breathe life and rrtllty Into
nn author's written pages. Another year
wilt find the photoplay developed to an
even greater and finer degreo of art, and
tomorrow people will look back on pres
ent productions as admirers of Coburn.
Oenthe and Hill now look back on their
early tintypes.
Thev rive lust tha fantastieallv miv
ELMER L. REIZENSTEIN
reatnrmed Mr. Reizenstein, as If that ex
plained everything,
"It's tbo novelty of It that made It suc
cessful. After last year's season of
nauseating plays, there was a tremendous
demand tor novelty. This play happened
to fill that demand, that's all.
"Funny how It all happened, loo. I
had worked for about three months on
It. Then I took It to Arthur Hopkins, be
cause I said to myself that tho man who
put on 'The Poor Little Itlch Girl' was
Just tho kind who would see tho possibili
ties of nn Idea llko mine. If there were
any possibilities. I sent it to another
man, too.
"That was on Monday. Two days later.
I had notes from both of them asking
mo to come to sea them. I saw Mr.
Hopkins llrst and closed with him after
wo had talked It over for a few minutes.
Not the First! Oh, No!
" 'On Trial' isn't the play I sold to Mr.
Hopkins, either."
"It Isn't the play?"
"No," returned the ninazlngly candid
youth, who, for all his bashtulness and
hesitation, expresses himself with a slm- -pllclty
and directness that explains tho
stralght-from-the-shoulder dialogue which
Is one of tho outstanding features of his
play.
"No. Tho Idea was the same a man on
trial for murder, und the story worked
out from tho end to the beginning. Out
In that first piny I had backed up a whols
generation and gone back to an old Ken
tucky feud In tho boyhood of the hero's
father mixed Identity and all thatIt waa
qulto a complicated plot.
"Mr. Hop'. ns bought It, and then he told
me It wrs a good Idea, but that I'd bett r
get a little more human nature alid a
little less plot Into It. So 1 went homo
and wrote nn entirely fresh play new
characters, new plot merely using tho
same framework. I wrote It In six dayc"
This second play stands virtually as It
came from Mr. Helzenstein's pen, some
thing which probably does not happen to
ono playwright In a hundred,
"They blue-penciled It a little," he oh,
served.
"But they didn't put anything In; they
cut n bit."
"You must" havo had somo training, to
be nblo to write 'clean copy,' as they say
In the newspaper room?"
Contlnurd on Page Four
LIZZIE
Llzile Kfllj Ik perhapH the brit-puld
prrformrr of her type un the American
stiicr. Of rourne, Japrr Taylor earn"
more money, but JaMper riuetm't get to
keri It and l.lnle iloea. I.Iulf U (lin
runino ncfrr who trurr nn Individual
triumph In "IVnteli Your Step." nt till"
J'orrent, etery nleht. Her onljr line l
attaehetl tu her collar, at one end, and
Hurry Kelly, her bona, at the other. ,
I.Uile il rawing her 5 a rtk. 81i
ha a contract utth Charle DUllucliani.
and Mr. Kelly U metlculou about keep
In; her money Inviolate, ile has opened a.
bank ucruunt for Utile, and keepii a set
at books for her, so that when the needs
a new sweater ur box of doe bUcult H
romea out uf her bank accouut and' not
her master'.
After the uur l.lztle Is to be sent to a
finishing school at Frankfort,
nir thnt suits mtA ravna t.
Umign upoa yellow waBkwf
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