The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-09
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE

fault with the moving pictures
 SS of today is the lack of appre- ciation of clever scenario writers. There are hundreds ahd hundreds of high-sal- arie1 stars employed and thousands of dollars expended on production, while the scenario writer goes a-begging. The pro- ducers pay too little attention to the quail ity of the play and too much attention
 to the stars and the settings; they pay too little for plays and care too little about them. A writer has got to write an unusual story to make $1003 on it after spending weeks and weeks of hard work and study while the popular movie star is paid that much in a day"
 This statement comes from a young
 man who knows, because he's in the game and his experience has taught him some valuable lessons. The young man in question is Mir Boy S. Sensabaugh, a Birmingham citizens if you pleese, whose play Journeys End" was ac-
 A. Brady himself, of the World Film corporation, and Birmingham people are going to have chance to see it today at the Bijou with pretty Ethel Clayton as the star, supported by John Bowers and an excellent cast.
 Somebody has said that 495 people out of every 500 are ambitious to write for the movies while only about one out of every 5GO gets the opportunity. These figures may or may not be correct, but it is a well-known fact that a large per- centage the population, including sue cessful representatives of every known profession as well as those with no dis tinct calling have been the victims of "scenarie-itis, the lure of which has made them believe that they can do as well as some of the people whose plays they've seen on the screen today.''
 Writing for the pictures is a gift, Mir. Seas abargh told me, when I asked him how he did it. You can't learn by books, neither can correspondence school" teach you anything. The main thing is to get an idea, something o:igi- nai, something new, something clean, something wholesome, and you'll have no trouble in selling it. Mind, I don't say you'll get big price; but you can Keep the wolf from the door.
 Another thing, writer for the nov ing pictures need not be discouraged by having his play returned" Mr. Sensa- bagh said, because one film corpora tion may turn it down one week and the very next another corporation will ac cept it. My play, Journeys End which Ethel Clayton will play today, was re- fused uy the Goldwyn people, and the very next week accepted by the World Eilrr. One thing I would say to the am- bilious playwright, and that is that "pulP' hasn't anything to do with it; l know Mir Roscoe Crosby Gaige, one ot the executives of the Goldwyn corpora ton, very well; he's a warm personal friend of mine, but that didn't spell anything when I tried to sell a play, al- though MT Gaige would have done any thing for within his power"
 How do I feel when I sit before the screen and see one of my own plays? MT. Sensabaugh repeated my question after me. "Very much interested nat uraly. Sometimes I am rather amazed at the changes which are made, and | feel like Irwin s. Cobb did when he saw one of his plays. He declared that the , directors had changed it about and cut it so that the only thing he recognized ot his own was sn exclamation point and a couple of damns,
 My first play, Youth featured Car lyle Blackwell as the star" said Mir. Sensabaugh, land Romaine. Fielding di
 rected it. I was rather disappointed in
 it because the directors ideas didn't coincide with mine. In Journeys End,
 Travers Vale is the director and he is one of the best directors of the day. and so much depends upon the director 1 feel that I shall be pleased with the pie tu1e.
 Am I nervous? And how can I wait the guest of her daughter. Mrs. J. D. Moore Jr, and MT. Moore, ct their