Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-07

Preceding Mcintyre and HeaH at the
sucTh SUI The Ziegfcld "Frolic" with viii
bbss.srs bs begins at the Gnrrick Tuesday
hosenr w Grifith's Orphans Of the
sno ~ founded on the old stage
stor%' .c ''The Two Orphans. opens
Sw,ssdnesdny for an indefinite run that
We extend into June, IL the public
,,Lcs IL well enough. ,,,r, ~,
hssI shows that remains are The Bad
,u.n" at the Walnut, with Holbrook
n,,nn ns in n part entirely different from
snything he has had before, The
Passing show" at the Shubert ana, OF
sourse, "The Bat nt the Adelphi'
The two main vaudeville houses, too,
.ome along with notable headliners IN
.S .Ss;r new bills, Naleskn Suratt beIng
n. attraction at Keith $, and BESSIE
W. wsror Davis leading at the Chestnut
Street Opera House.
THERE has been so much criticism
=, movie producers for changing. the
.,,,.S of well known books and plays
uue' when they r e
uby Griffith filmed that II is as
nta,oed Title well to point out
J "0rphans' tme t,noon "'Ii tbe reasons
.h;cb Il Is ordinarily done and the
ior VIZ which impellcd Griffith to alter
rssso"s1 % 1,wo ORPHANS to "Orphans OF
ls s,oru " In almost all instances
u his has been done before, It's
Vnqe bos been n bald and unashamed
mcu,S 20 the box- Office cffcct-to pique
pppeM.n M.nriosity of the public or, more
tn.ntly tn and more unfortunately, 10
uI ,he sex instinct by some name
.Sut" . ,nSpcsts probably more than the
film portr"!s' ,,,, ro ~.
but' chose considerations did not
inter-, Griffith frankly used the 'an.ouS ~ .,,oS
blay only as n theme Tor mu.h h,nh "a, ha
vi noro spcctaculnr story whl'h ne
u hm;it around 1t. If he had put out
~ ~ V" Usw nhotoplay under the title OF
taET,o Two Orphans" he would have
IL h;mself opcn to all sorts OF crlti-
u ,i,. for taking liberties with the raw
trite classic. -, o nroh-
-, ,rbrn no built SrFool's Paradise,
.m nr Leonard NcrIick's '''Thc l.aurels
SpJ WI tbe Lady" lie changed the orig
snsi story to such an extent that ne
saonn have been ridiculed had he put
out undcr its book title. so ne
nlsysd safe BY giving it n new title ana
,drsrtisIng 1t simply aS based upon
he Merrick story.
pat there was Il much stronger rea-
,on than this that governed Grlinlh'
ynn who are not on the inside OF the
Aim business can have no idea OF the
nnmber OF devious schemes that BOD up
snd hover about its fringes. They are
invented BY mcn always on the lookout
n iatten their own pockets regardless
Of their methods. .,,
"A soon MS it became known through
|. out The trade that Griffith was going TO
nuke great spectacle production OF
UThe Two Orphans" these gentlemen
sot busy. They knew the immense ad-
,srtisIng that any spectacle OF Grit-
fs's gets-iust BY being made by Grit
stb so they hunted high and low Tor
otbsr film versions of "Thc Two Or
phans' that had been made in the past
and they found several foreign ones.
Naturally. not one of these could
compare with even the average program
picture that is made today. They were
4 N old, with the defects that fairly
| shrek out of n film made prior to four
| or FIVE years ago. But they legitimate
| y carried the title The Two Or-
phans," and these people knew from
| ether similar experiments that 1t would
bol a sufficiently large portion OF the
public to give them good hnanciai
dean.up. So they bought the foreign
films (which had never even had a bid
hom IAN American exhibitor before),
md they locked them up, quietly walt
hg Cor the Griffith spectacle to get
reybody talking about The Two or-
lhans.
But Griftr fooled 'em. He kept on
rpducing and then. at the last mo-
nsnt, changed his title to orphans
u the Storm Now nobody can be
ehled Nfo thiulIng these cheap films
N the Griffith production.
FS nip and tuck noW phether 1.-THE
Bot" tciH break the local long.r run
record IRE received an announce
zen, that William Hodge wiH come to
Ne Adelphi "latc in January" Hodge
lnwtt, IN "7hc Man From Home"
vi our record of nineteen continuous
m,k,.0 Then he tocnt a,oav for t,oo
s'sks and returned for three more.
the Bat" remains throughout
'ihuary il iciIl Just tic the nineteen
"ttho IttOIu' ~ tHtIp UuH
~THE BAD MAN" which begins
~ its Inst week at the Walnut next
A0Aday, has so many good points and
Villain in tbat 10 rev " f"tnisbSs Mruh cnes -
o@ Man. Is constant tempta-
Good Comedian tion to eulogy. OF
A., course, a critic
~ supposed to become enthusiastic
,"N anything: that's why I'm glad
IN not n critic. Enthusiasms are
suly fool ish, but life doesn't amount
much without them. And I'm more
h,n.'' ''"'''e "OoU' i"' n"u
ne villain in the play-in the role
aorgan Pcll. the dastardly husband
me oee-yutiful gurl-is played by
,n H. Iidcn. He does the part so
w. lhat the whole audience hates him.
really hate him 80 much that you
lspa refuse to meet him socially. You
sure that he must be n most unde-
sort OF person in his private life.
mats the best possible praise to
lhe villain in show-especially II
NJ Ieauy ism that kind of chap at all
S% several years past, Tiden has
S% paying these unpleasant parts.
wv now he's probably one of the best
kcsnh men on the stage. But that's
hort "' memories OF audiences are
NO. many of YOU recall that racy
e, Thy Neighbor's Wife" which
at the Walnut some eight or nine
,'srs ago? Later it was tnrned into
EDTs'cal comedy under the name of
long Lefty" But in its original
,5ont ,5pG -, u was lignt and airy story
w. n Two m'Smated young couples who
hy hAt door to each other and who
nj SmsheS SS experiment of swapping wives
mere Were ONLY fnnr nnonl0 L., n0