Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-07-28

weapons that be employed in the great business
campaign against the recacitrant spine Rescue through
a novel medium is always fine mcodrarnatic thriller
The spine loves the nick of time. In the mat
of general thrills. far the theatrical spine
cerned take precedence other sort
Kidnapping dragging. murders, hodups. all are effect
i've: but rescues draw many thousands OF spines
the boxofcc window Second in thrill value to the
rescue should the speed battle via foot,
horse, or rail between the villain and the hero.
The manner in which all these possible thrills must be
experimental with, tried out, and rehearsed until
worked up their sperlatvey thrilling point-"edit-
ing the thrill call it in the inside circesis
the difficult things in the attempt at captaliza
tion of the public spinal column To indicate the way
in which this has be gone about, let the
concretcly for YOU.
A FEW years ago we were planning put a
thriller and casting about in the newspapers
for item that might give key We finally found
a story that told of the rescue of a girl
from the top of burning building by brave fireman
who guided her short stretch OF telephone wires
the roof OF the next house and to safety In two weeks
melodrana written around this scene and i'm
mediatelv put into rehearsal
When tried out the scene, however it fell
fiat 1t did not thrill it should have Its basis
all right, sure: but somehow the whole thing
did project the desired sensation. We originally
used heavy wire with protecting guide wire above
for the heroine to escape SO figured out that
the thing looked too easy, and hence robbed OF the
longed for thrill We got finer and tried out the
scene. 1t right yet Probably the height of the
wire from the ground did not sufficiently great.
We raised the wire and faxed the scenery that the
We abolished the upper guide wire to which the rescuer
chung thus making the feat difficult: but the thrill
still found to be lacking. We had the flames from
the blazing building shoot out the wires and
threaten the escapers with the double peril of fire and
electric shock from the wires off which the insulation
would be in imminent danger of being burned-and still
the spine in front affected ii should have
been.
In this way spent time bordering over the
secret of the thrill that steadasy euding until
day the stage suggested that we had over
looked the main thrill element of the at ain
the flames electric shock danger of falling naturally
that II thrill the audience he argued; but the fear that
the wires II break under the actors weight and hur
them to the ground below.
We saw in flash that he was right. We had a co-
pie OF wires hang down the poles, as they had al
ready broken and at the beginning of the fire and just
before the scene, We had stationed inside
the burning house svly of the telephone wires
and let fall to the ground with the usual kissing sound
The effect instantaneous The spnes realized that
the remaining wires might snap at any moment, And
they poured their silver tribute into the boxofice.
THERE are scores of tricky instances like this in which
the reluctant thrill has been coaxed out OF a
subsequent profit. In one meodrama that | know
WELL in which express train held up by
masked robbers, at the head of whom the villain
failed to work up any thrill at all until it had been
changed about at least fifteen sixteen times. The
tried in almost every imaginable way, and
registered effect the orchestra chairs spines
til it discovered that pistoshot directed against
of the windows of the train 1.-THE glass of which the
bullet smashedl was the key to the battling thrill myS
terry. 1t took this trick to convince the eager spines
that the robbers revolvers loaded The firing off
Of the pistols with the supposed bullets landing no
where the of the hollup las the orig-
nay Played did not convince the snes that pistols
actually loaded, and a consequence the height
of the thrill proportonally diminished. When the
window broken, however, following shot, the
trick turned and the became fertile in
ton OF course, that window wasn't smashed by bull
let at all but by the fist of a stagchand covered with
black velvet. But the way the thrill had to be paved
carefully by the Inference OF bullet.
In still another the secret of stubborn back
ward thrill analyZed to the seemingly trivial
fact that the villain of the piece who supposed to
b wealthy scoundrel. in the big soft