40 



THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



films were very much in demand." 

 "Were the audiences afraid at first?" 

 I inquired. 



"Afraid! I should say they were! I 

 recall one film that stampeded nearly 

 every house. It was a picture showing 

 the Nord Express flying into the station 

 at St. Petersburg. I took the picture 

 with the train coming head on at full 

 speed. When the audiences would see 

 that train rushing down the screen di- 

 rectly for them, they would shriek, and 

 run pell-mell out of the theatre. I had 

 to stop showing it finally; it spoiled my 

 business ! 



"It has been interesting," continued 

 Mr. Doublier, "to watch the wonderful 

 growth of the moving picture industry 

 and particularly the improvements in 

 moving picture machinery. Just look at 

 these machines He indicated, with 

 no little pride, a clattering group of au- 

 tomatic printers. "They turn out miles 

 of film a week. We often call a day's 

 work from seven in the morning until 

 two the next morning. It's a little dif- 

 ferent from the good old days with 

 Lumiere !" 



A Star Who Did Not Shine ~ 



A brisk, fifteen minute walk through a 

 farm yard and along an interurban car 

 track separates the Solax plant from a 

 group of new buildings, whose shimmer- 

 ing crystal roofs and walls mark them, 

 even from a distance, as movie studios. 

 Down the street which leads to these 

 studios the Hillits and the Peerless a 

 girl, whose poise and trimness stamped 

 her, certainly in these parts, as a movie 

 actress, was walking rapidly. Our meet- 

 ing was a coincidence. Just as I was 

 about to pass her, a sharp explosion 

 sounded in the road beside us a street 

 gang was blasting a ditch for a pipe line. 

 She turned a pair of startled, well- 

 trained eyes upon me and gasped: "Is 

 there any danger?" 



The foreman of the gang shouted, just 

 then, that the blasting was over, and that 

 we could proceed. I asked my compan- 

 ion if she were with the Peerless. 



"No not yet," she replied. "I have 

 been with the Solax I've just put on 

 'Dan McGrew.' " 



"Did you by any chance play the part 

 of Lou the heroine of the poem the 

 lead, of course?" 



"Oh, yes, that was my part." 



We passed the first of the two Hillit 

 Studios, which was being refinished for 

 rental. The manager of the "World 

 Comedies" Company, which occupied the 

 second building, was conversing with one 

 of his directors when we came up. He 

 nodded brusquely to the girl. 



"Anything open to-day?" she asked. 



"Nothing doing," he replied coldly. 

 "Better try the Peerless." The girl left 

 abruptly. 



The manager jerked his thumb 

 towards her. "Some of these third rate 

 ingenues who try to put across the Mary 

 Pickford impressions make me tired," he 

 grumbled. 



"I thought she was playing a lead with 

 the Solax," I put in, surprised. 



"Her?" he exclaimed in disgusted 

 tones. "Why, she's nothing but a filler. 

 We let her play some unimportant so- 

 ciety stuff once in a while. Movie act- 

 resses as a rule are the most imaginative 

 and the most unreliable 



"You're wrong," interrupted his com- 

 panion, laughing. "One of your most de- 

 pendable actors threw up his job this af- 

 ternoon when we were in the midst of 

 an important road scene spoiled the 

 day !" 



"Who did that?" demanded the man- 

 ager. 



"The dog! He absolutely refused to 

 work ran away with six understudies 

 that were trailing us !" 



Trying Out a New Face 



A few minutes later, while the man- 

 ager was eating a hasty afternoon lunch 

 consisting of a ham sandwich and a pail 

 of coffee, having seated himself on an 

 upturned box in one corner of the lit- 

 tered studio, the director, whom, I had 

 learned, was Thomas Jefferson, son of 

 the famous actor, was testing an appli- 

 cant's ability of facial expression. 



She was a pretty girl, with a great deal 

 of confidence ; but she was totally un- 

 prepared for Mr. Jefferson's rather 

 startling trying-out methods. 



