The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-09

plenty Of time for amusement and
recreation outside Of their duties be.
o the camera. If the money comes
with comparative ease 1t goes with
equal ease. Most of the big stars have
their W automobiles and visiting
stars who are at Los Angeles for only
n or two pictures. like Billie Burke
Of the Triangle company and Geral.
dine F'arrar of the 1.asky company,
have comforts in plenty showered
upon them by their employers.
The Los Angeles screen players en-
Joy unexcelled opportunities for social
intercourse. The principal gathering
place il the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
On three nights of the week women
guests are admitted. Some OF the
players live in the city proper and oth.
ers in HOLLYWOOD or other outlying sec.
tons. But all seem to come into town
on certain evenings in each week, and
they can always he seen together
either at the athletic club or at other
popular meeting places.
Every now n then M hears tho
question, us the Western drama pass.
ing?" Thomas II. 1nce gives his An.
swer to the question in an article In
the Morim0 Picture World. which is a
discussion of the past. present and
future Of photoplays in which pink
teas and boiled shirts do not At.
"Once upon a time" said Mr.. Ince,
AN upright epigrammatist quoth rich
logic when he said. The proof Of the
pudding is in the eating The West
ern drama is not passing. What is
more. It will never pass.
True. it has suffered a decline. but
that will serve only to make the prod
uct the moro popular. II commands
a position as a class Of amusement
that cannot become extinct. Public
demand will not permit II.
1T is in its attribute of bigness that
the Western play finds its note Of ap-
peal to h human emotions. I found
his out five years ago when I learned
hat the first Western picture I ever
made was greeted throughout the
country with a wave of popularity. II
was called War on the Plains
Forthwith the Western as people
were wont to call 1t, sprang into in
slant favor. Producing companies
everywhere set about the manufacture
OF Indian m cowboy films. Wild
West shows were besieGed with offers
of employment 10 their members.
Realism even in those days vas the
keynote. The demand was greater
than the supply. Blu the larger part
OF what supply was available was
made up of mediocre plays.
"All too many producers were con-
tent to call their pictures Western
just because you could see leather
chaps and shooting irons on the actors.
They didn't bother themselves with
the construction Of a story with what
il commonly known AS the punch:
they didn't comb the country for .
man who could portray the Westerner
as he is: in short they imposed upon
the patience of the American public.
That fact spelled the decline Of the
Western production.
What was the result? Slowly but
certainly the Western plays began to
lose prestige. People didn't lock to
the theatres 10 see them as they used
10. They said that the pictures were
not "a true reproduction of the life Of
the West. Most OF the producing COM
panies therefore curtailed their output
Of Western melodrama, and this situa-
ton built for the ~persevering pro-
Queer a road hat was hard to travel.
1t behooved him to smash the barrier
Of indifference and recreate the en-
thusiasm that once waXcd warm for
the Western plays.
This smashing process has been 60
ing on SO industriously hat to-day the
selfsame American public which not
so long pledged itself to fastidious-
ness is more eager than ever to have
its emotions moved by forceful West
ern drama on the screen"