The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-31
THE Motion picture contest editor
 squirmed unea silly in his big chair.

jTHE Motion picture contest edito I squirmed unea silly in his big chair
 A Now, really. he began, q can I give you an interview. I dislike con
 versations of this sort excessively. Be
 fore you are through you will be find
 ing out my personal habits, the colo
 of my eyes. and whether I approve O
 woman suffrage, and all that sort O thing"
 l He started modestly to ''back" out
 of the office. but I was firm and in sistent.
 | "Oh, yes, you will" I said in my mos
 compromising tone You have held oth.
 CT people up often enough yourself. now you shall see how it feels to be tho victim."
 He heaved a heavy sigh but with ar air of quite unsettled gloom acquiesced Fire ahead he ordered, "what is il you want to know?"
 Whether enough people are genuinely interested in contests such as the present motion picture contest you are conduct- ing for The ge-Herald which will send five Alabama beauties to the Essanay studios in Chicago as film stars. as to | make the trouble of the thing worth while?" l promptly asked.
 He waved his hand for answer to the table piled high with lists written on every sort of paper, from the humble brown wrapper of the bundle from the corner grocer's, to the stationery of Bir- mingham's exclusive clubs which the smart set frequent.
 See for yourself remarked the M. o>d fV0 xryttl !, indeed believing in this case.
 There are thousands and hundreds more of 'em all In piles Everything. A large part came by mail; nupabers of them reach me by hand. downstairs from the business office. Some up here upon the threshold of my own sanctum sane torium,' he said. Groups of girls come every day with an air of mystery and lack of confidence in themselves at first, as to what Is really required of them, but upon being told of the splendid chance they have of perhaps becoming a real leading lady in a real picture through The Age-Herald motion picture, they assume an expression of delight and encouragement, for it is really the only way that an unknown and unheralded amateur can hope to have an audience at stated date with the Essanay peo- pie.
 Individual effort in this respect Is just as hopeless as the most hopeless thing in the world. One young man, whose name could be furnished if desired, who lives here in Birmingham, paid his own expenses to California hoping to secure place as an actor in the mo- ton pictures there, and when he reported to the studio he found that there were 5000 names enrolled ahead of him. That Is an example of individual effort to become a movie star. Though this cam paign of ours, the five young ladies se- lected to go from Birmingham to Chi cago are assured of appearing in picture and. better still, if they prove talented, the chances are that they may be em- ployed regularly. The young ladies from Indianapolis who were sent through a similar campaign are now employed by the Essanay people as regular stars in their film dramas. So you see, there is every advantage in concentrated effort. for guaranteed, bona fide appearance with large and reliable company, over individual effort''
 And the way people have responded to the campaign is phenomenal, he con- tinued. There has been to some ex- tent formerly, a certain prejudice, espe- cially in the southern cities, In regard to the propriety of young women becoming movie stars. but that has been entirely dispelled, especially in the matter of these campaigns, because of every safeguard being thrown around them for