Evening star., 1916-08-24
Realism IN the IoYles.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

NEW YORK. August "a young
girl stood gaxing in Mortified silence
across wide expanse Of lake. where
a rowboat lay pitching around on the
surface. its sole occupant a sleeping
infant. The next instant she plunged
into the water and struck out for the
boat. which was drifting farther away
every second. Suddenly her strength
gave out and she sank. to rise. struggle
and sink again. The third time she
went down q man on tho opposite bank,
who had been steadily turning the
handle of moving picture camera,
tore or his coat and dived in. bringing
the girl to the surface just in time.
Unfortunately. this was not pre-
meditated action, and It went unphoto-
graphed. The scenario had called
merely for the rescue Of the infant by
tho girl, and all would have gone well
had not the leading woman overesti-
mated her swimming strength. AS It
was. she had to be rolled In blanket
regained consciousness, while some one
else rescued tho infant and restored 1t
to its terrified mother. The lake. which
is part Of large estate on Long Is
land, has q bottom OF black mud sew
eral feet deep. that nearly suffocated
the camera man in his dive and made
the rescue extremely difficult And. to
make It more interesting, some OF the
villagers stood around and recounted
the gruesome details Of how the lake
man drowning in Its depths having
been recovered floating far out at sea.
In spite Of this accident. however. the
leading woman returned the next day
and played the scenes required to COM
plete the picture.
The life Of a movie star these days is
a perpetual risk. In order to achieve
any great popu-
Movie Stars Life larity q picture
a Perpetual Risk. least two rood
sized thrills. and 1t 10 UP to the actor to
lend himself amfably to walking off
precipices or sliding over falls, If he
would win prestige with the fans. A
man who asks for a substitute every
time there is a risk. moreover, does not
acquire merit with his directors. Sub
stitutes usually are expensive, and the
director must keep the cost Of his pic
lures down. Then. too. the moving pic
ture audience is getting to be expert in
the detection of deception or fake.
which makes the use of substitutes and
dummies precarious.
1t must be said to the credit of the
moving picture companies that the
risks always are made as safe as pos
sible. Mattresses are provided for peo-
pie to fall on when jumping out of q
window in the fourth story: boats are
sent out to pick up the players who
cast themselves into the wster in a
wreck scene. and a squad of police ac-
companies the company when II enters
the Chinese section to take scenes. The
Chinese have many weird superstitionS
regarding the camera, which is sup
posed to set loose a whole gang of evil
spirits. SO that as a rule John China
man would as soon commit suicide as
have hts picture taken. One director
and his company barely escaped with
their lives from the Chinese section
OF New York when they attempted to
rant there. The Chinese proprietor
had promised the day before to let the
place be photographed for a good
price. but on talking 1t over with some
pedient to change his mind. The di-
rector. however. having made all his
arrangements and brought the entire
company down with him. was deter
ordered the camera man to proceed.
Instantly q mob of Cinnamon surround
ed the players, and it took a large
squad Of policemen to escort them safe
ly out Of the danger zone.
In the majority of cases the really
bad accidents that occur are due to
the reckiessness or carelessness of the
players themselves. II an actor Is
ort1 a11 harr hAt NJ Il,
the entire company is held up on the
picture. which is q great annoyance;
consequently, every precaution Is taken
to see that he does not get hurt. A
young actress playing the lead in a
thrilling serial recently was required
by the script to jump out OF a third
story window and lower herself by
rope to lower window In the next