New Britain herald., 1916-04-10
Playwrights and the Movies.
(New York Sun.)


 If there Is to be a merger of the moving picture companies that will control practically the screen drama In this country and the output of photopIays for the world at large, this is an appropriate time for offer ing a word of counsel and advice to it's prospective directors. While over competition may be a blight that has affected the movies detrimentally, 1t is not the only adverse influence that has had a disastrous effect upon the most popular form of amusement known to this generation. The man. agers of the coming moving picture trust" should adopt as their motto Shakespeare's assertion that 'the plays the thing"
 The public has been astonished re. gently to learn of the enormous sala- ries paid to Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin and other major stars in the galaxy of photoplay actors. That these clever film performers are not entitled to the money they receive Is not to be maintained.
 The able business men who have signed the contracts that guarantee princely revenues to the leading photo players of the moment have not been misled regarding the drawing power of performers possessing the rare and peculiar qualifications that are neces- sary for high echievem entS in the in- depreciation of screen drama. Never theless, there has been a tendency upon the part of movie managers, from the very outset of the picture play enterprise, to put the emphasis in the wrong place and to exaggerate the importance of the actor while minimizing the significance of the playwright. They have fallen into the same error that brought disaster so often to American theatrical man agers before the movies came into existence, managers who came finan- ical croppers because they put their faith in matinee idols rather than in competent dramatists.
 In the true view of the case the stage, or the screen, is only a medium through which a story teller relates a dramatic tale to an audience. If the playwright's story is dull or es- sentially undramatic, if it depends for success upon the skill or the popu- 1arity of it's interpreters, it is doomed to failure. That the powers which have dominated heretofore the realm of the movie drama have blinded themselves to the above undeniab1e fact has been painfully evident. Their attitude toward the writers of scena- rios as contrasted with their treat ment of popular photoplay actors, is proof positive that they have failed to realize the fact that the ultimate welfare of the film drama rests with the playwrights and not with movie stars however popular.
 It is only of late that there has been any concerted effort upon the part of photoplay magnates to improve the quality of the screen dramas offered to a public that refuses to be fooled more than part of the time. Better prices are being offered to profes- sonal novelists and playwrghts for stories adapted to film production. The Authors League of America has now perfected a form of cor tract that offers to authors possess ing creative imagination the protec- tion and incentives that have been hitherto denied to them in the field of the movie drama. It is to be hoped that the film merger now in process of formation will not only place the movie industry upon nrmer financial basis but will also direct it's energies toward the i'm proVement of it's dramatic output and the payment of reasonable monetary return to playwrights who, having mastered the technique of scenario writing are incapable Of turning out rubbish for the screen.