New-York tribune., 1921-05-15
Entire Town
Dons Makeup
For the Movies.
AsheviIIe, N. c., Disguises
Itself and Plays With
Conquest of Canaan

try over? Is the town OF canaan in
Booth Tarkington's story, The Con-
quest of Canaan. a sole product OF
the Middle West? These questions
naturally come to the minds, of those
who read the book. To those who see
Paramount's perturbation of Tarkfng-
tons novel, with Thomas Meighan as
Joe Louden, new Canaan will be hn-
folded.
1t is the Canaan of Ashevilie. N. C.
This quaint Southern town stifed its
personality for the movies. Over night
it became Canaan after Tarkington's
fondest fancies, and for two weeks
Asheville played double r5le-now
Asheville and then Canaan of the West
! When the sun shone the Paramount
! company with its directors, actors and
cameras "shot" scenes of typical
Canaan-Asheviile dressed in new
garb--but at night Asheville became
again itself and turned host to the
company of players. There were bar.
quets and parties. Asheville was il,
the movies and no one was going to
have it said that the town did not
know how to act before the camera,
and behind it for that matter.
The "key of the town" not only was
turned over to the Paramount COM
pany, but all the towns chattels.
Through the courtesy of the sheriff
and the clerk of the court the priv.
lege Of filming q scene in the court
room was given. The judge and jury
held over after sentencing two men
for real murder to pass judgment on
the clients OF Joe Louden, Canaan's
young lawyer in the person of Thomas
Meighan.
Business men of the city became sd
interested in the picture that they
forget their spring merchandising prob
lens The Easter showing of one of
the dry goods stores in the town, which
| had been advertised for weeks, was
postponed, so that the store might be
made over into pixies Emporium
TheNname Of the store was obliterated
and that of a Canaan merchant sub.
stituted. While the picture was beind
filmed the owner of the store loss
money, but week latvr when the post
poned Easter opening was staged
Thomas Meighan and Doris Kenyon,
ms leading woman, attended the openl
ing IN person and the crowds were sd
large that the proprietor had to refuse
! admlttance for fear the building would
not stand the strain.
Even the clergy of the town Joined
IN the work of motion picture making,
One of the enthusiasts, the Rev. DR..
Powell, minister of the First Baptist
Church, delivered sermon on this
Land of Canaan of Biblical times. His
subject was from Joshua, xiv, 6-12:
The Conquest of Canaan-Consecra
ton, Courage and Conquest"
One morning the people of Asheyille
were surprised to see that vacant
store had been leased by a certain
Denny Ryan who had opened a pool
room. News spread quickly and steps
were taken to run the proprietor out
OF town. Much amusement was af-
forded when it was learned that Denny
Ryan was a character in the picture
and that the pool-room, an amusement
which is forbidden in Asheville, was tho
work of the movies"
The spirit in which this town CO.,
operated with the Paramount Company
made it possible for the director to get
many scenes that would have been I'M
possible under other conditions. Traffic
was stopped and crowds were gathered
for mob scenes, and even the Jail felt
that it must do it's share by changing
its name
The Asheville Power and Light Com
pany presented one of it's trolley cars
to be renamed the Canaan Rapid Tran
sit Company, with a sign Beaver
Beach" in front Visitors in the town
who had not kept themselves informed
90 " AtUNAS @CbAN1ty are 6Jili WonQSf-
ing where Beaver Beach is and what
kind of beach is found in the noun
famous region of Asheville
For the people of Ashevirie the stay
of the Paramount Company was like
carnival week. Everybody jumped into
the spirit of the party. 1t was not
work, it was fun. The society of the
town mixed with the other half in the
mob scenes, and such mobs as they
werel Ready at ell times to do the hid
ding of the director; one minute they
would wave their hands and the next
would stand silent with grim look on
their faces. No one spoiled the picture.
1T was the greatest crowd of people
ever saw" said Thomas Meighan. "We
had just as good a time in making the
picture as they did, for it is always a.
pleasure to work with people who CO.
operate"
After two weeks of living the life
OF Canaan the people of Asheville set
tied back into their own atmosphere.
but they said they would never forget
the time when they were Canaanites.
Wilbur Highly With Lois Weber