THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



309 



roadway where a battery of Lubin auto- 

 mobiles is parked ready for service at an 

 instant's notice. 



In the courtyard little sociable groups 

 of actors-to-be and actors-that-were 

 congregate and settle the war twenty 

 times a day. Pretty painted girls and 

 handsome painted young men "ex- 

 tras" flock to themselves by the ex- 

 pectant scores. Keen-eyed directors 

 (one can always tell them) bent on 

 serious business march in and out of 

 the studios, sorting their casts and 



"I had one amusing experience here," 

 said the director, smiling, "at least it 

 seemed to amuse everybody, even if I 

 did miss the point. We staged a mill 



Below: The Court Yard of 

 the Lubin Studio in Phila- 

 delphia. In the Oval: The 

 Factory and Office Building. 



'talking vigorously with their leads and 

 their assistants. 



The studio building it must be re- 

 membered that the East Philadelphia fac- 

 tory is only a replica in miniature of the 

 giant at Betzwood is a sloping, crystal- 

 covered structure of red brick. Any 

 number of scenes go on in there continu- 

 ously. A hospital ward, suggestively war- 

 like, was being staged on the lower floor. 

 The detailed workings of this set were 

 courteously explained by Crane Wilbur, 

 who was somewhat limited in his gestures 

 by a swathing of bandage. Crane was a 

 battle-worn hero, and he looked the part. 



Bringing the World to the Studio 



Beneath the floor planks of this studio, 

 so the director in charge explained, is a 

 large tank for staging "water stuff." 



A Close View of a Cor- 

 ner of the Lubin Studio. 

 It is a Veritable House 

 of Glass. 



scene, and it was necessary for me to 

 stand in the cold water up to my neck 

 from seven in the morning until mid- 

 night!" 



On the floor above another director, 

 one of the Lubin veterans, was criti- 

 cally surveying an Oriental set a 

 mosque in process of completion. The 

 proverbial nicety of scene construction 

 and design was well illustrated here. The 

 grain of the marble wood that had been 

 transformed through the skill of a scene 

 painter would have deceived the eye of 

 a stone cutter. 



The director was a busy man, but he 

 stopped work promptly to explain things 

 wherein he exemplified the usual Lu- 

 bin spirit. 



"We design all of our scenery to be 

 absolutely accurate. The mosque is 

 taken from a book on the architecture of 

 Turkey it is a faithful reproduction. 

 We have a valuable collection of books 

 covering in detail the architecture of a 

 wide range of countries and periods. 

 Whether we are staging a play laid in 

 old Greece or new Ireland, we always 

 manage to have the correct background. 

 We cannot very well go out all over the 

 world for local color, so we bring the 



