42 



THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



force and a waiting- room- full of actors 

 and actresses. Here I again saw the 

 "leading lady" from the Solax studios. 

 She was sitting haughtily aloof from the 

 others. In fact, the majority of these 

 position seekers seemed to have affected 

 a haughty and a rather bored attitude. 

 However, when a director would enter 

 the room, their expressions would 

 promptly become galvanized into eager 

 animation. They represented a variety 

 of types, and they are known by their 

 particular type much more commonly 

 than by their names sober-faced Eng- 

 lish butlers young and pretty school 

 girls pathetic looking "Grandmothers" 

 stolid Irishmen apathetic Italians 

 and even an occasional ruffian. 



The path of a moving picture player 

 is not an easy one to travel. The supply 

 greatly exceeds the demand. Unless a 

 player is well-known, his lot is that of 

 tlie crowded waiting room. 



The Nerv Idealism of the Movies 



It was nearly closing time and my trip 

 through the studio was a flying one. The 

 Peerjgss is done throughout on the fac- 

 toTy plan. The studio is enormous: a 

 spacious, glass-covered affair, with ten 

 thousand square feet of floor area, pro- 

 viding ample room for the production of 

 a half-dozen plays simultaneously. "The 

 Pit," "Trilby," "Love in the Moonlight," 

 "The Boss," and "An Indian Idol" all 

 featuring well-known stage players 

 were being photographed that afternoon. 

 The result was a scene of feverish activ- 



ity. Directors at temperamental white- 

 heat were urging on their little bands of 

 actors, to conclude their particular sets 

 before the fast reddening sunlight should 

 die away entirely. In the darker corners, 

 stacks of vapor lamps were shedding 

 their ghostly light already. 



"We are compelled to work at top 

 speed every minute," remarked my guide. 

 "Weeks are required to finish a long play 

 and it is essential that the pictures 

 reach the public before the plays become 

 stale." 



The pay-roll of the Peerless aggre- 

 gates thousands of dollars weekly, chiefly 

 because of the costly services of the prin- 

 cipals. 



The Peerless ideal is shaping towards 

 a higher dramatic standard of filmed 

 plays. D. W. Griffith, probably the high- 

 est authority in the motion picture busi- 

 ness to-day, predicted recently that five 

 dollar photoplay productions will come 

 as a matter of course the result of 

 public demand and the sincere efforts of 

 the producers to meet it. That is one 

 reason why the theatre with the screen 

 is rapidly gaining ascendancy over the 

 theatre with the stage. 



The policies of the directors at Movie- 

 ville are widely varied ; yet they all point 

 towards a higher dramatic standard of 

 picture plays in general. Big things can 

 be expected from the glistening crystal 

 buildings along the Jersey Palisades, be- 

 cause big things have been done in the 

 past. A tremendous initiative took root 

 there seven years ago and it has borne 

 fruit in an astonishing fashion ever since. 



MOVING PICTURE ACTING NOT 

 ALWAYS FUN 



Missing death by a hair in a desperate 

 race with a thundering express train, as 

 well as dropping nearly one hundred feet 

 from a racing motor car over a cliff into 

 a raging torrent, are two of the remark- 

 able feats that have had to be undertaken 

 by actors in the production of the serial 

 picture "The Diamond from the Sky," 

 now being produced by the Flying "A" 

 studio. In the matter of the automobile 



being driven right across the track and 

 in front of a fast approaching train, the 

 main feature in staging this picture was 

 accuracy. The speed of the train as well 

 as the automobile had to be carefully 

 timed. In the latter picture, however, 

 it required sheer pluck on the part of 

 the actor. While the machine was drop- 

 ping over the cliff the actor disengaged 

 himself from his seat and leaped out of 

 the machine. He alighted with a splash 

 in the water some distance away from 

 the automobile. 



