Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-12-02

When Ince of Inceville
Scorned the Movies
The Beginnings of the Man Who Invaded Griffith s
Domain of Spectacle With "Civiization.
From Actor to Master-Director

yr,t,osiAs II. 1NCE started in the moving
rto,ure business lees than nve years ago,
,,,,b a borrowed diamond on the thlrd
s,rsr Of his left hand and about a dollar
and half in change To-day oh, we'll what 2
,ba use Of getting too specific You prob
III, vouldnt believe II anyway. But
rbon,as Ince has put a large fraction OF
. million dollars into his brand-new Nun
.peotaole. civilization" and while he ad-
,,,s that Is quite sum Of money. still
,h.rs nrs larger ones, ana they are not
absolutely and beyond redemption, outsid"
AZ the reach Of Thomas II. lnce %
.ctylization," which comes to the Lyric
~, Monday. shows the horrors OF war
snd is strong argument for peace.
An Of the reat war horrors are in It. in
,b,aInK battles on land and sea, with In
,bese latter, the real destruction OF three
,hlps O. the enemy fleet by United States
,orpedobont In these scenes there are two
IfnItsd states battleships. two torpedoboat
destroyers and one United States cruiser
The battle, as actually fought lasted
tvsnty-ave minutes, and during that time
soo sbots were hred-real shots, with every
ona timed and placed 20 the second, Ninety
,vo per cent were effective, and that. Mr..
Inee thinks, Is a pretty good boost for the
t,nltsd States Navy The sinking OF the
.neny ships takes place in fun view OF the
audience. and one ship is blown 500 feet
,n ,he air. while all about RACES the fierce
Storm of the naval battle the seas tortured
INTO a thousand secthing spouts by the
k,ryttpg aheItg.
Tben there is the war-devastated country.
V,Ih cities burned and shell-shattered. and
scene after scene of land battle, with an
unbelievable number of thousands or men
and horses, and there are close, intimate
plctures Of family life. with all through the
horror-thread of war winding its crimson
way. l.
That is the sort of thing that Mr., 1nce Is
doing today. Five years ago--but let him
tell Il himself, n smoothfaced man, slightly
pIns MS TO complexion and keen as TO eye,
who looks younger than he gives himself
credit for being
give years ago I was an,actor. thought
this movie business was fnothing-p joke.
n was below the dignity OF n regular fell
low and any way 1t wasn't going 20 last.
il was Just flare-up of interest, and then
things would die down and the movie men
would be in n hole. Well one day saw
man that used to play minor parts-mighty
minor ones-drive up to the door of
hotel In an automobile.
II couldn't have been more surprised then
than would be today If he drove up to
the same hotel in a Zeppelin. The machine
had crest on 1t, too. and n chauffeur,
dressed just the way chauffeur ought to
be dressed. And that minor-part fellow
opened wine. / asked him about where all
that money came from-and all the time 1
was wondering what sort Of second-story
game he'd been up to- He told me it was
the movies.
II went over to the Imp people and got
Job acting at So n day, But that didn't
satisfy me long | told them I wasn't an
actor / was manager. / borrowed n
diamond ring to make me look prosperous,
and got a managing job. Then we went
West, We didn't have any money 1 had
progressed 80 far as TO make SEQ a week in
New York, but az soon as l did hired an
apartment on Riverside drive. We lived UP
10 that $50. And when we went West my
wife had to pawn what jewels she had to
put up front out there. But we did it.
Nobody knew that we didn't have any
money, and IL they know II now guess il
doesn't matter
They used TO call me crazy in the
moying-pcture fraternity those days. They
had their set way of doing things, and they