New-York tribune., 1919-05-11
I HANNING POLLOCK, play
wright and critic, has a bone
= to pick with those having to

wright and critic, has bone
to pick with those having te
do with the selection Of mo,
ton picture scenarios, and he goes
into the matter at length in the cur
rent issue of "Photoplay Magazine"
Charging that generally scenario ed
itors want quantity and not quality,
Mr. Pollock goes on to say:
The difficulty appears to be that
these film producers are capable Of
comprehending only manual labor. They
understand setting down words be-
cause that is physical. Sixteen years
ago, when was his press agent, Will
lam A. Brady found me debating a
newspaper story about Grace George.
DO you dictate your stuff he ex-
claimed Gee, that's easy!' e.
By this logic, of course, the literary
laborer most worthy Of his hire works
with an improvident fountain pen or
8 buck-jumping typewriter!
"The outside idea of the author and
his job, obtaining among old-line
theatrical managers almost as gem
orally as among motion picture pro-
ducers, is notion fanciful and gro
tesque. Writing is a thing requiring
no special qualification or training; any
one who has time can do it, and one
person about as we'll as another.
"The author is a necessary evil, gen
orally negligible, moonstruck, mentally
delinquent, quite incapable of doing
what he has done, sometimes long
haired, usually addressed, always i'm
practical and rebelious, to be humored
or Notwithstanding to his standing
-lulled and lied to, and who, as some
one said of George Sand, gives litera-
ture as a COW gives milk He pro-
duces masterpieces by getting very
drunk, waking in the night, seized
with an inspiration, and scribbling
madly upon the bed sheet.
Creation as matter Of drudgery,
nf IA Io- ~
checks, of system and perseverance, and
a time clock would make the author as
unromantic and as unvictimizable-
as artists without fancy easels and
velvet coats All business men,
suppose, have this innate contempt of
intellectual labor as something easy
and charlatanic. That is why doctors
and authors are the last to be paid"
Those Liberties
The writer violently objects to the
liberties which he alleges are taken
written for the silver screen, and de-
clares:
"This habitual vandalism is as con-
scienceless and egomaniacal as j. is
unintelligent and lacking in sense
of humor. They told Hofmann how to
sit at the piano! They would alter
Barrie, and have reshaped Pinero, as
boldly and remorselessly as any shop
worn yarn lifted from Breezy Stories,'
or The Detective Story Magazine!'
Thomas Dixon, creator of and partner
IN The Birth of a Nation went into
picture production partly that my
views might be respected and my
works reach the screen in recogniz-
able form That, of course, couldn't be
expected by mere author!
plays and even novels are recon-
structed, but, if not by the authors, at
least with their help and concurrence.
A clause requiring this is part of
every contract-outside the movies,
Do you imagine inquiries Mr.. Mack,
that David Belasco ever cut out q
line of "Tiger Rose" or made a change
in situation. without consulting
me?' Yet Mr.. Belasco is a PLAYWRIGHT
himself, and famous craftsman, while
the average scenario editor hasn't in
te!ligence enough to oil my typewriter!
II l am surgeon, and your
wife's sister, or mother, has a dag
nosis which unmistakably reads that
an operation is necessary, and you are
not quite sure OF my ability to perform
tnae operation, who do you call in
20 assist nc? Some interne from q
postgraduate hospital? Some chan
riding all day On the back Of an ambu-
lance? No! You pick a man of greater
reputation and achievement than mins
known to know more!'
The come back to these article. =,
course, will be that the screen doesn't
m ~ be-