The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-12-30
The Theatres
WASHINGTON

Paris aflutter with the spirit Of the
carnival season-hrightly colored with
streets in holiday dress. flags and
bunting and almost buried in tons Of
confetti-this is the sort of Paris that
is disclosed in in "The Frisky Mrs.
Johnson" Billie Burke's new Para
mount picture, which is the feature at
the Washington today and Thursday.
1t is a picture with the smart set
tings of the Ritz Tea Room and the
atmosphere OF the boulevards; beauti-
full women in costly gowns and jow-
els; glimpses of the carnival itself,
great crowds in costume, deliberately
decorated floats. Comedy and drama
are conspicuous elements of the story.
Ward Crane Is the leading man and
others in the cast include Huntly Cor
don, Lumsden Hare and Jean de
Briac.
An interesting story is told in con-
nection with the first appearance on
the stage of Shirley Mason, the dainty
Fox star who comes to the Murray
Theatre Thursday in her latest pic
ture, "Girl of My Heart
Mrs. Mason Flugarth, Miss Mason's
mother, took her three children. Viola,
Edna and Shirley, who had been ap-
pearing with great success in amateur
theatricals in Brooklyn, N. Y, to see
Mrs Taliaferro, mother of the stage
celebrities Edith and Mabel. Mrs. Tai
iaferro conducted an agency for sup
plying children for the stage. Shir-
ley,- being the youngest, was taken
along because she could not be left
at home alone.
,, 60 i1rv OF
the agency Ned Weyburn, the we'll
known director of Broadway musical
, shows, came in. He was seeking a
child whom Peter F. Daily could carry
on the stage in 'In Newport" then
! about to open.
"This is the child want" exclaimed
! Mr.. Weyburn, pointing in the direction
of little Shirley.
"Well, only brought her because
couldn't leave her at home" explain
! ed Mrs. Flugarth. '1 am trying to
place the other two"
'Ill give you ten dollars a week for
I her." the manager replied.
MURRETTE
That the success of comedies de-
ponds just as much on what to leave
! out as what to include is the som swhat
novel claim of Gilbert Pratt, director
of Dynamite" featuring Lloyd Hamil-
ton and the third of the two reel Mer-
maid Comedies which comes to the
| Murrette theatre Friday.
COMEDY success" says Pratt, "de'
| ponds on the willingness of star. df
| rector and producer to discard all the
! film footage that is not of the high est
fun calibre. to make the scenes over,
TO go to world of trouble and expense
to get one hundred per cent results
| 1t is an unfortunate truth that the
greater share of comedies are what
we call 'slow'-a long time between
the laughs. This is not altogether due
| to the star, to the story or to the di-
rector, but because of the temptation
| to use film simply because it has been
| made.
Few realize that in comedy such
as Dynamite" we actually shoot
| more film than is seen in the ordinary
feature. Much of it may seem desir
able when the work is being done, but
when it is shown in the testing room
there is evidence of decided let-up
in the action. 1 have often heard com
ment at the private projection room
! that this and that scene will get by,
| but we do not look at it that way In
producing Mermaid Comedies. We
! ask ourselves if the action can be
! speeded up, and we do not spare the
| scissors in cutting the film down to
the very point where there is some
/ thing happening every minute.
"'Dynamite.' as it will be seen in
| the theatre is 1000 feet in length
There were $4,000 feet exposed in max
| ing the film. 1t was not carelessness
| either. We did not take a scene with
out thinking that it was worth while