The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-05
Will Direct KiManis Clubs Pho
tOpIay in Topeka.
TNITIAHVE IS the THIN"
Nearly Anyone Can Make Good
in Movie Game Now.
lie Witt Wants Local Talent for
Proposed Picture.

"Initiatiye-that is the thing that
gets anyone anywhere and it's just as
true in the motion picture field as in
politics or the trenches of France"
1t was Charles LIE Witt speaking.
He is the director hired by the XII
wants club to stage the three-reel
photodrama of Topeka, by Topekans
in Topeka. Mr.. LIE Witt is one of the
"old timers in the motion picture
field and can cite many an instance
to back up the statement that initia-
tive is the chief requisite of success.
1t was Director LIE Witt, working
for Mack Sennett in one of the first
of the Keystone comedies back in
1906, who first picked upon Charlie
Chaplin as a future star, tho at that
time he had no idea that Chaplin
would ever make the millions out OF
the screen that he has. In those days
| $50 per week was the top price"
paid to the best of the screen actors
and there were mighty few of them.
His stagger Made Hit.
1T was oneeday when we were stag
! ing one of those supposedly comic
chases that filled the films of those
days." says LIE Witt in telling of Chap
Inns first appearance. Mabel Nor
mand, Chester Conklin and Roscoe
Arbuckle were doing an escape from
a policeman and we had hired this
slim and at that time rather effemi-
nate looking yoQngster to act the part
of the comedy cop.
1.-The. chase was up and over hill
out in Yonkers. The three regular
actors had already gone over the top
and the cop was at the crest when 1,
decided to change the order of the
chase, and yelled to the whole gang
to stop. The comedy cop stopped dead
in his tracks, balanced on one foot
his arms outspread to hold his bal
ance and turned around with that
familiar stagger that every film fan
is now familiar with. I forgot my
original intention to change and sent
the bunch up over the hill again in
the same order and called Sennett to
watch.
Gas if to prove that it was not az
accident the first time. when I again
shouted for the bunch to stop, the
c6medy cop repeated that balancing
stagger. Sennett was delighted. The
stunt was made part of the film and
Chaplin was given a raise from the
$40 per week he had been getting and
promised a regular job.
Easier Game Today.
''Now that was not all. In the very
next picture that guy was doing an
other chase and again he was a
comedy cop but this time he had a
bunch of other cops with hifna. The
scene was being shot down-on Broad
way and the chase was supposed to
round a corner. Just as Chaplin
came to the corner, he halted, re-
peated that stagger, balancing on one
foot and whirled around the corner,
but managed to kick the nearest of his
fellow cops in the chest and as a result
piled them all up right there. 1 don't
begrudge that fellow all he has made
used his brains all the way"
Director LIE Witt declares that the
way into the picture game today is
even easier, by a whole lot, than that
used by Chaplin, but that the requisite
intelligence is the same He cites the
case of Agnes Ayres, now being starred
in her own pictures by Paramount.
Miss Ayres was employed first as an
extra in cabaret mob scene.
While all the other extra girls were
sitting about in their chairs either in
stiff attitudes or posing to look their
asked one of the men extras for a
cigaret and a match. She tried first
to strike the match~.on her skirt and
/ failing, struck it on the sole of her
slipper. Then holding the match in
her fingers Until it burned to the end
she grasped the charred end and let it
| burn the rest of the way, managing
to drop the lighted cigaret in her hap
and causing a commotion in her eff
forts to prevent it burning thru. Cecn
De Mile did not see that incident
until the film was screened. Then he
hunted up that intelligent extra and
gave her a regular job.
Wants Topeka ChapIins.
| "That is what I mean when I say
that 1 can take any person who Gill
! photograph and who uses his intel
! ligence and make finished sore en-
actor out of him. concluded MA LIE
| Witt. There are hundreds of THAT
| sort Of people right here in Topeka.
There is no reason why this picture
/ being made in the interests of the
/ Provident association, should not be
as good as any that are shown on any
of the local screens. There may even
| be a Charlie Chaplin or an Agnes
| Ayres in some of the scenes to be
/ staged at the Grand. 1 hope there
are and if any of them show up, you
can be sure he or she will not go
/ long unrecOgnized. Real ability is
wanted in the movie business. You'd
| be surprised what a scarcity of it there
is and what a cry of glee goes up when
d director finds it."