The Motion Picture Director (Jul-Dec 1925)
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MOTION PICTURE DECEMBER 25 CENTS 1 WILLIAM A. SEITER JOHN BARRYMORE in ‘‘The Sea Beast Articles by JUNE MATHIS - PAULINE FREDERICK - AL CHRISTIE - MARGARET ETTINGER Stories about GEORGE MELFORD - WM. SEITER - HAL ROACH - WARNER BROS. - WILLIAM DE MILLE I am Life and Death . Love and Hate . Heartbreak and Happiness. My voice is the voice of nations, my soul is the soul of ten million men. 1 am the joyous laughter of the girls of France, the mirth of men who died smiling, the gay murmurings of lovers . and the sad whisper of Flanders’ poppy fields. I am the thunder of guns whose message spells destruction, the merry sound of popping corks, the heady music of love - songs . and the funeral march played for soldiers. I am the shining mirage of glory, the black muck of the trenches, the white heat of battle, the bitter gray of pain - racked dawns . and the softly - tinted rainbow of love. I am Pain, I am Terror, I am Romance, 1 am made of blood and tears and heroism and happiness. I am the story that will never die while men have tongues to tell it. I am Such is the tribute paid to King Vidor, the director, John Gilbert, tbe star, and Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer, the producers, by William N. Counselman, the noted author, after seeing tbe supreme master- piece of all time. Presented with Sid Grauman’s Mighty Prologue with 150 People on the Stage Sunday Seat Sale at WURLITZER’S, 814 So. Bdwy, or Egyptian Theater, HOlIy 2131 me MOTION PICTURE Volume 2 Number 5 Bernard A. Holway Managing Editor Editor Business Manager CONTENTS William SEITER {Photo by Melbourne spurr) Cover Rubber Stamp Pictures .... Robert Vignola 4 In the Director’s Chair J. Stuart Blackton 5 John Barrymore in “The Sea Beast” . Fred Applegate 6 Screen Personalities 10 The Four Warners and Bennie Zeidman 16 Behind THE Camera FOR William DeMille . L . Guy Wilky 20 Sally, Irene and Mary Margaret Ettinger 22 School Days in Movieland Sam B . Jacobson 28 The Man ON THE Cover .... .... Tom Engler 29 Symbolism in THE Silent Drama . ... June Mathis 31 Seeing America First in Australia . Pauline Frederick 33 Faces and Fancies From the Films . 35 George Melford Goes to Alaska .... Whitney Williams 36 Hal Roach’s Revolution ... Arthur 0 . Hagerman 38 On Location in a Steel Mill ... ... Billy Leyser 39 Shooting Irons for Shooting Stars . ... Val J. Oldshu 42 Directors Honor King Vidor Pete Smith 44 Selling Pictures With Pictures . ... Al Christie 45 Angle Shots 47 Wampas Doings 50 Wasp Whisperings 51 The Barnstormer (Conclusion) . .... Frank Cooley 52 The Night Bride (Part VI) ... Frederic Chapin 55 What the Directors Are Doing . 60 Medals and the Man 61 It Can Be Done—But . Sylvano Balboni 62 California Women Discuss Pictures 64 Director Publishing Corporation, Published monthly by The 1925 N. Wilcox Ave., Hollywood, California. J. Stuart Blackton, president and editor; Frank Cooley, secretary-treasurer; Richmond Wharton, business manager; Tim Crowley, professional advertising, Blan- chard, Nichols and Coleman; general advertising representatives, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle. Single copies 25 cents, yearly subscription, $2.50. Entered as second class matter, October 1, 1925, at the postofEce in Los Angeles, California under the act of March 3, 1879. PRINTED IN U.S.A. THE MOTION PICTURE DIRECTOR December ''Ssoc wirn c, ^TUDu CITy •oa ^iJTVOOiJ ^sar Ur aJ'’^ Ptow ““I lv!,V^p‘ footed ®^® llha^ Soweix ^ifidayg to ®^fi —— I know You know Everybody knows It Pays to Publicize Let’s talk it over/ GEORGE LANDY PUBLICITY EXPLOITATION 6683 Sunset Boulevard HEmpstead 2893 SUITE 3 / — THE MOTION PICTURE DIRECTOR Decern Rubber Stamp Pictures By Robert Vignola \ responsible for good because the motion picture is just a repetition of the same old stories. “The producer,” m Y / answers the Meanwhile “The Last Laugh” is on the ex- X /I / man with the money who manu- change shelves, losing money for its owner. And / 1/ factures and sells them. the man who could make an equally interesting Y “The actor,” answers players and snapshot of life is trying to make Westerns! public. The public shops for its books, its magazines, its ^Vho is responsible for bad pictures? plays, its music— for every form of entertainment “The director,” answer producer, pla 5'er and pub- but its pictures. It still goes, in large part, to the lic, in chorus. nearest theater, or the one with the cleverest pub- And there you have a story. licity man, or the one with the most comfortable Here is the way a photoplay is made today: seats and most imposing lobby, or the one with the The story is purchased from a popular play- best music. It doesn’t buy its motion pictures with wright or author; rewritten at the suggestion of the same fine perspicacity that it buys its plays or the producer; put into script form. The sets are its literature. The man who wants to read Mencken built, the lighting is arranged, the cast is chosen or Cabell won’t buy a volume of Harold Bell and then the director is called in to make the pic- Wright just because he can get it in a more impos- ture according to preconceived notions, with sug- ing store. The woman who wants to hear a phil- gestions from everyone on the lot from producer to harmonic orchestra doesn’t go to hear a jazz band office boy. because it plays in a more convenient auditorium. Tire motion picture director of today has lost his If the picture-going public would exercise the individuality in great part. He is compelled to same discrimination they would rapidly find better barter his soul for a job. films on the market. There are many men direct- And the public is to blame. ing pictures today who are pulling at the leash, It will patronize novelty in any other art, or anxious to exert themselves in the improvement of business, than that of the motion picture. It will the motion picture, anxious to show the public what shout its encouragement to the pioneer in literature, can be done with this new art. But they can get painting or playwriting. If an unknown playwright no encouragement. in New England gets a work of his produced in an The director is at the mercy of the producer, who abandoned barn in one of New York’s back alleys paj^s him his salary and provides him with the cast he can be assured that it will be on Broadway and and equipment needed to make a picture. The his name will ring round the world if the play producer is at the mercy of the theater-owner who shows genius. If a poet has something to say worth buys his pictures. And the theater-owner will not while, his lines may first be printed in a weekly buy a type of picture which has not already had the paper in St. Louis, but soon after they will be read stamp of public approval. Give him Westerns after in a book available in Kokomo and London. “The Covered Wagon,” Bible pictures after “Ben The public demands that its bookstores, its the- Hur,” costume pictures after “Robin Hood” and he aters, its art galleries bring it what it wants. It is happy. allows its motion picture theater owners to choose Let the public show a curiosity as to what can its own entertainment fare. “The Covered Wagon” be done with the motion picture. Let it flock to is a success. It makes money for the exhibitor. So theaters showing the original, novel things which it he books all the . Western he can find. And the says it wants and keep away from the theaters show- public, which still in great part goes “to see a pic- ing the lurid picture of moth-eaten plot and the ture,” keeps on filling his theater and complaining future of screen entertainment will be solved. : ' 192 5 THE MOTION PICTURE DIRECTOR 5 the Director's Chair The Open Door N SEPTEMBER, 1922, upon the invitation of Will H. At a recent meeting of the motion picture department of the Hays, sixty-two national organizations—educational, recrea- Los Angeles district of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, I tional, religious, civic and near governmental—delegated rep- this phase of the situation was forcibly illustrated in the brief resentatives to the formation of a single national committee which talks made to the assembled women by representatives of the should undertake the reflection of public opinion on the broad motion picture industry. Sol Lesser summed up the situation subject of Better Pictures. This reflection of public opinion was very aptly when he said conceived as being interpreted by the views of the individual “You are our co-partners in this and your part of the job is members of this committee and the organizations which they not only to make the better pictures pay, but to elevate the, taste, of represented. These views were passed on to the producers as the public—to awaken civic consciousness. If the-public wyilLnot constructive aids for the development of screen plays which should come to our pictures no matter how good they may be, the'reican , conform to expressed wishes of the people. be little use in making them.” Mr. Lesser cited several instances Out of this committee’s action grew “The Open Door” with where productions were endorsed and sponsored by the women’s its motto, “The Public Be Pleased.” clubs but to the showings of which very few members of those , The functioning of the committee received but little publicity organizations attended.