Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-22
If William Shakespeare
Had Known the Photoplay
Would He Choose Now, as He Chose Then, the
Popular and Ill-Respected Art Rather
Than the Sacrosanct?

TN AN amusing editorial article the other
i day, the New York Evening Post fell to
speculating upon Shakespeare's disposition
toward motion pictures had his lot been
cast In the days of the movies and not In
those of the Elizabethan theatre. Con-
slider, II says, that in his own lifetime he
was faced with very much the same situa'
ton that confronts the present-day dra-
matist. On the one hand. there was re-
spectacle literature, represented by Ed
mund Spenser, Lily and Sidney. On the
other was the playhouse, annex OF the
bear garden and the brothel, abomination
of the Puritan outlawed by statute, con-
demned by Sidney-most influential
esthete of his time-but popular beyond
all measure with the people, from the
horseboy who loafed at the Globe The
atre's entrance to the high-born lady who
stole into the playhouse heavily masked.
to witness a performance which she pre-
tended. i'm fashionable society, to despise.
So, today, an ambitious writer is pulled
between the legitimate but moribund
drama and the immensely live, though
undeveloped, moving picture theatre. We
know, of course, what Shakespeare's choice
long ago was. After short Irritation
with recognized literature in Venus and
Adonis," he chose the peoples drama and
created a new art out of the scorncd
amusement of the masses. And nowadays,
faced with n similar choice, there can ne
little doubt that he would elect the mo-
ton picture without moro than a mo-
ment's hesitation.
Imagine him arriving in New York, a
youth fresh from an upstate town.
Rather athletic (the Devastating episode
proves that), he would naturally, II he
wished to join the profession, drift into
moving picture acting. Never a first-rate
actor he would undertake only minor
nar rtg 1nb ba nj ha MI m
lionaire's Revenge" or the stricken father
in "She Is Not So Bad AS All That" Soon,
however, he would be almost exclusively
occupied with scenario writing. and before
many moons his creative ability would
win general recognition. Think of him
turning his versatile genius to the ex-
ploitation of the vast possibilities of mo-
tion-drama How eagerly he would grasp
at them with desire TO exhaust the end
less variety of images and the innumera-
BILE fancles that peopled his fertile brain
He would no longer be handicapped by
lack OF adequate stage machinery or the
sad impotence OF words. With the mod
ern cameras aid he could forever fix his
conceptions of beauty the Forest OF Ar
den. Cawdor's gloomy battlement, Pros
peros enchanted isle. Backed by gen.
erous producer, he could make Ariel, that
very wobbIy fairy of our own stage, fit
on wings OF flame across the screen, "ere
vet your pulse beat twlce"-and conjure
up all Midsummer Nights elf land in
flesh and blood. And, above all, what a
thriller he could make of Birnam Wood
advancing. in serrled ranks, upon brill
liantly visualized Dunsinane
In fact, the only deprivation posterlty
would suffer If Shakespeare, reincarnated,
were 10 enter upon the scenario-writer's
career instead of the dramatic authors
might be in the matter of the text, which,
on account OF the cinemas form, would
naturally be restricted within very mar
row limits No doubt, much OF his poetic
imagery, his wealth of philosophy and
his trenchant dialogue would remain un-
written. But those who attend eontem-
porary performances know that the dia-
logue plays only very small part, even
now, and that famous actor-managers are
accustomed to smother the text with seem