Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-09
HENRY MILLER TALKS OF ART,
THE MOVIES AND SCENERY
The Hunger of Achievement and the Artist 1t Creates
Real Drama Safe From the Photoplay--A Con-
servative on Scenery

TT ISN'T every actor that can talk as
Il wen as his part. II isn't one In
hundred that can hit on the deeper dif-
ncuItles OF his art with the imaginative
phrase OF the trained writer. Henry
Miller can and does. But then Henry
miller long ago proved his rare intelli-
eence IN productions like THE Great
Divide" and Her Husbands Wife''
Americas high water marks in drama
and comedy.
And 90 Il was no surprise to the pres
snt writer to hear Mr.. Miller, as he lolled
1T ease between matinee and night per
formance this week, express with new
and singular beauty the hunger OF
achievement that leads perhaps not to
success, but certainly to something inner
and more enduring. such a sense on IRE
ana art has long animated Mr.. Miller.
He may be-as he delights to assert-"a
shopman." Occasional productions OF
such sentimentality as Daddy Long
Legs" doubtless please his pocketbook
better than his soul But, for all that'
Mr.. Miller is no victim Of that tatty
degeneration of success which ne sees
sapping actor after actor OF the Ameri-
can stage.
Mr.. Miller like almost every other
actor who is an artist first and star
afterwards, knows that one solution ol
the American theatre problem, one way
to give good performances OF good plays
at a decent price. is the resident COM
pany He has seen its success in Europe
and he himself graduated from similar
organization of his early days But even
now, with city after city trying some
experiment in local production, the
Broadway company of well-balanced
actors seems only a hope. The stage Is
In the tolls of competition; competition
within itself. competition with the
movies Actors salaries have become
almost prohibitive to any manager out
the man of big successes.
And so, of course the talk was off on
tes. Inevitable tack of the photoplay! Are
tho, movies the inevitable enemy of the
drama2 VIII they extinguish 1t? All the
old questions.
sIt's strange" unused Mr. Miller, "how
these things come up again and again.
Once people were asking, 10 years ago
n the automobile would abolish the horse.
notice-as q farmer-that have to pay
Just as much for good pair as l ever
did. The phonograph has come It is
extremely popular. Yet concerts, recitals,
operas go on--and we even sing now and
then"
Melodrama, Mr.. Miller sees plainly
enough, and low comedy, those are the
points of attack where the movies are
felt They DO that sort of thing better
than II can ever be done In the theatre.
And they do it cheaply for just the people
that want that sort of thing and that
cannot afford the ordinary theatre prices.
"The price, after ALL" says Mr.. Miller.
''is half the secret Of the movies" Two
dollar photoplays, he thinks, can be sue
cesses only in exceptional cases, 'The
Birth of a Nation" even though an un-
usually elaborate and skilful production.
owed its success to the genius of sur
prise" The surprise. It is impossible to
repeat, the spectacular Celebrations are
hard to outdistance; only the skill re-
mains.
But will people pay 81 for that skill
alone, when II deals only in the fiat. only
with silent figures? The charm and the
power OF the stage, Mr. Miller believes,
IN the acting. and the acting of the
Jken drama has that "virtuosity of the
voice" which the movies utterly lack If