Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-01-31
HAUNTs OF MOVING PIcTUnes.
In Process of Construction Wherever
You Roam.

In Process of Construction Wherever
You Roam.
lay down in the fallen leaves on a
hill and talked to myself Of how grand
October weather is This was in the
Hinterland Of New Rochelle, by the
way. I thought Of boyhood holidays
In the woods and chipmunk chases and
pretended Indians. When bang! bang!
bang" I heard the musketry close
below me in the glade. and standing up
saw the Indians running the belted
scouts in spectacular pursuit. When
they turned and walked back in COM
pany to their starting point saw they
were really western, all right, with the
guns, sombreros and hairsomeness.
just as I have beheld 1t oft before at
the theatre.
1t seemed safe to go nearer, az the
guns, which sputtered so much fire.
must have been loaded with blanks, or
half those Indians would be weltering
in gore. They were at attention now,
listening to a man beside a tripod.
"Jose."-the Mexican steps out
hide behind the tree. Wild Harry,
YOU approach, right, and hide letter at
the foot Of the tree" A human clothes
horse, hung with CHAPS" neckerchief
and two holstered guns, strolled out,
obedient to this command. Suddenly
the Greaser rushed out at him with an
oath and a bowie. Then a duel, fear
full, making the leaves fly. The Greas-
er worked his Jaws to indicate dying
curses.
do fall here, Mr.. Sanger?" he ask
ed in a matter -of-fact tone.
Yes. Back"
Having fallen, the corpse crossed his
knees comfortably and smoked a Gig
arctic at the skies.
Die with your face more in the
sun. And, Leslie, that fight wiped off
your left eyebrow"
Grease paint surgery grated on a
new eyebrow
Ready, now. Timer. Camera. CO."
The crank turned and the exciting
scene passed Off far more fervently
than the rehearsal. They were good,
conscientious actors and faxed furious,
spoken lines, which the machine
couldn't get.
The fragmentary yet somewhat en-
ergetic cusses seemed not to annoy the
painted ladies round about.
These daylight masqueraders are at
work all over the world, as they pre-
sently told me after work was over. In
California the desert Is full Of 'em.
Sober ranchers riding into San Miguel
to get the Chicago yards price for beef.
are amazed to find the town possessed
Of apparent bad men of '49. Gun-toters
are staggering in front Of Clancy's sa-
loon to the command Of the man at the
crank. Bags Of gold dust are being
wagered by powder-faced miners In
the open sunlight. All Nick Carterdom
is loose in sedate San Mig. Il wouldn't
be caught dead in such rig" remarks
the rancher later in the day to grave
easterner, whom he doesn't recognize
as the lead" in the mornings show.
That film sent east, with another
taken above the snow line in Califor-
MIA labelled "Alaska'), will be Joined
to the one made in New Rochelle, and
run off as a single story in some New
York moving picture place.
In big studios down around Coney
Island they are at 1t too, manufacture
ing now a Roman slave market, now
an Indian Durbar, now Battle Of Wa
terloo. The moving picture world IS
like the theatrical; when soubrette
or an ingenue answers an advertise
ment she tells how she was leading
lady for the biograph, or some such
company. The task Of these stageless
players is in many ways more difficult
than that Of actors at the theatre; they
must make pantomime do double duty,
and yet remain more natural than the
artificial stage. Besides, they are clos
er to the audience than is the actor.
The camera is sometimes placed right
against the posers face, and every
feature must be eloquent.
Films made in the studios" lose the
attraction of the genuine street setting.
with it's "homy" worn curbs, cobbles
and rubbish Some films are taken in
New York streets, despite the bother
Of the crowds. These generally picture
stories whose point is the contrast of
entirely common surroundings with
extraordinary happenings. A company
went to Riverside Drive in rubber
neck wagon" last Sunday. The men,
bers, made up to be sure, and showing
an assortment of types, from foreign
count to rural visitor, scarcely attract
ed attention at first, so convincingly
were most of them made up. The or
der "Action!" set the crank turning,
the lecturer megaphoning; the for
eigner twirled his mustache, the heads
swing at cross purposes from one sight
to another. The crowd, in the mean
time (the crowd Of realityD came
pressing around, and it's members
luIlltu wv SSoiSS oDiS ~
to tell the real from the unreal. The
crank is halted; the sightseers get
down, carefully tumble on their backs
in the road, and at the word "Action!"
kick up as if the wagon had vanished
from beneath them!
Charles Frohman is credited with
saying that he would like to see What
Every Woman knows" and other plays
perpetuated when his companies are
disbanded. Dramatizations by camera
of famous books are being devised. In
one or two ways motion picture tech
nique gets more life-like effects than
does theatrical method. The soliloquy,
for example, which is disguised on the
modern stage as a reading aloud OF
letter or newspaper, is device also OF
the cinematograph, where its realism
Is greater since the audience itself
reads the actual paragraph, torn
ooroee ~ Daed he and crumDled. But