Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-01
LIFE PICTURES


to me had 1 been able to catch a bunch OF
moving views Of President Roosevelt and
Mrs. Roosevelt. and their daughter. Miss
Ethel, riding their horses through that
thunder and wind and rainstorm between
noon last said a moving picture man
who Is here with a crew to take some mo-
ton views Of Washington scenes and inci-
dents. But. of course, it's the kind OF
stuff that there's no chance for US to be
tipped of on that's always the best in the
motion picture line. You can imagine what
hit a set Of the moving pictures OF the
President and his family rushing helter-
SHELTER through that storm would mako If
they could have been taken and put on
view throughout the country. You people
here in Washington are pretty blase in the
matter Of Presidents and other emihent
personages but it's wholly different through
out the rest Of the country. and the NOV
picture houses would've been able to
stand EN- up for six months with set of
those storm views.
"A moving picture man that I know did
make an indirect proposition to Mr.. Roose-
welt. some time ago, for set OF moving
views Of him taking the hedges and stone
fences his hunter. The man who made
the prOpOSltlOn was aware Oh the ldCt tHat
Mr.. Roosevelt is very fond Of that photo
graph which portrays him In the act of
lifting his hunter. over fence. But the
idea for the moving-picture set based on the
same thing was turned down by the Presi-
dent, on the ground. I presume, that such q
set would seem to make 1t appear as If he
were posing before the country. Yet he
actually did pose for that one fence-jump-
ing picture-it wasn't by any means an
impromptu snap-shot-and I really can't
no hdt
picture and posing for bunch OF motion
pictures, can you?
Were going to make q considerable
number of motion sets here in Washington.
This is an ideal town for our sort OF work,
for the folks in Washington are less curious
than the people of any other city, for the
reason, l suppose. that there is 80 much
to see here that nothing only a little bit out
of the common gets any sort of rise out
of them In most of the other cities our
work Of making motion views Is often
seriously nterfered with by slammers-in. as
calf them.
over in Newark. N. j.. few weeks
ago. for example, 1 fixed up horsewhlp-
ping set. The first part Of the set was
easy enough to get. 1t was a scene in a
restaurant. in which pretty girl, seated
at little distance away from another
table at which a froicsome man with a
homely wife are dining, falls to making
the goo-goo eyes at the man. The second
scene, in which I arranged to have the
horsewhipping take place; happened out
mission to make the views. and I had
three men stationed in front of the res
taurant to keep the crowd back while the
bogus horsewhpping was In progress
When everything was all set and the ma
chine was swapping away at the homely
wife laying the lash across the face ana
shoulders of the flirtatous girl-the lash
looked like a rattan, but 1t was a phony,
and Of course didn't hurt at all-our
bother began. First a big zap of man
nudged in and grabbed my homely woman
by her lash-wielding arm. baWllng that
he didn't believe In seeing no woman
singing another woman like that. and that
queered our set of films.
'"The machine had to be stopped while
the big jay was being informed that the
didn't belong anywhere in the picture. He
took the jeers of the crowd sourly, at
that. and looked to be In so much OF a
mind to kick our gear to pieces that l HAD
to get cop to walk him down the street
When we got all set again and the. horse
whipping Of the f1irtatious girl was once
more in progress. scrawny; hatcnet.
faced woman, who had just Joined the
outer circle Of the crowd. and who wasn't
next to what was coming on. rushed into
the scene with a squawk, grabbed my two
acting women by the hair and started In TO
roughhouse them both for their indecency
in fighting on the street. as she yelled at
them.
"The machine had to be stopped again
The incident that I had framed up didn't
call for anything like that. l had 1t ar
ranged that after the whipping had pro-
ceeded for space the guilty husband OF
the homely wife was to rush In and at
tempt to separate the two women. when
his wife was to turn on him with the lash
causing him to hotfoot down the street
The girl with the fiirtatious eyes was to
seize the whip from the other woman's
hands and start in to get hunk for the cut
ting she'd received, the scene ending up
that way But had to throw Gordon Of
cops and employees around the front Of the
restaurant before we could pull on that
end Of the set, and by that time the pro-
prietor Of the restaurant was out on the
sidewalk and storming around. dead sore
on account OF the notoriety, he said, we
were bringing upon his place Of business.
Last summer. at a place on Lake George.
I fixed up set representing a drowning
child being rescued from the water by big
Newfoundland dog. 1 arranged to have the
little girl fall out Of the sternsheets of a
skiff into the water and pretend to be strug-
Cling around, while the dog. catching sight
Of her from his place on the shore, sprang
in and grabbed her by her top clothes and
pulled her ashore. dripping and realistically
exhausted. I rehearsed the child and the
dog in their parts good many times, SOS
to get Just the right kind of curves to the
performance and when they were letter
perfect in their parts l had the machines
planted and gave the word for the snap
ping to begin. The little girl fell out OF
the big Newfoundland piped her off from
the beach and swan out. when something
happened. young fellow on the shore
who didn't know what was coming off saw
the little curly haired girl fall out Of the
boat He ripped off his coat and struck
into the water after her at the same time
the dog did. He took our yells. which were
meant to flag him and sheer him OFF, as
cries of encouragement. He reached the
child just about the same time the dog did,
and made a grab for her. But the dog
wasn't going to stand for any interference
in his rescuing work. He regarded himself
as the main squeeze in the rescuing line at
that particular point along the Lake George
shore, and, moreover he had been so thor
oughly rehearsed in his job of picking up
the little girl for the moving picture stunt
that he meant to carry 1t through or bust.
Just as the young fellow reached for the
little girl, therefore, the dog. ugly over his
lob being taken away from him. snapped at
the Young man. The young fellow made
the mistake of trying to fight the big dog In
the water. This worked the dog up SO
much that he forgot all about his stunt
when he got swift poke between the eyes
from the young fellows fist, and he prompt
ly dived and seized the young fellow In a
mighty firm tooth grasp by the slack Of his
trousers.
and 1t wasn't all trousers that the dog
got hold Of at that, so that the young man
.,yf Ioo toH