Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1922-07-22
BY LUCILLE +. SAUNDERS.

] u ulleN IIesS StaU CORES pOnuontl
NEW YORK, July % Omitted
Press).-'If you will leave thi,
wretched hovel with me. will
clothe you in silks and diamonds.
i Horses and carriages will be at your
summonlng."
The villain thus tempted the
pure. white heroine.
But she spurned him.
Rags are royal raiment when
worn for virtues sake detained
she or the alabaster brow. turning
from the grip Of the black-mus-
tached villain"
Tina twas a long time ago, when
Lincoln J. Carter. father OF the
eller-drammer, was turning out
thriliers. For the last fourteen years.
since the movies crept into his field.
he has retired TO 22-acre farm in
Goshen. III. He Is now staging a
comeback" and is shortly 10 have
the fun OF watching the very film
companies that killed his own pro-
ductions employing a hundred peo-
pie 10 do the work he accomplished
with fourteen combined actors and
stage hands in the old days. -
Some kinds OF melodrama are
never going to die" declared Car
ter. when he appeared In New York
recently to place his name on a
movie contract. If Lcould take my
big scenic effects and reword them
in up-to-date language and put them
in the hands OF hlgh-class actors.
believe a Broadway audience would
get as much Of a thrill out OF them
as the old-tlmers in Hlcksville used
to.
Modern melodrama has 70 be
dignified production and cannot be
thrown together with cheap actors.
The kind we used 10 put on in the
25-cent to a dollar circuits simply
went out OF vogue. like long skirts
and pulled sleeves"
For the thirty-eight successful
melodramas which he turned out in
fifteen years. Carter used the old
style prescriptions for his cast. de-
pending on steamboat explosions
tornadoes and train wrecks for his
plots.
AS for the actors" the play
wright explained. the villain gen.
eraI;v wore a vicious black mug
tache and checked vest. He was al
WAYS after the heroine OF inc
napers' The hero was a handsome
milk-fed idiot. quite blind when II
came TO observing his enemies snip
ning nm behind. Our heroine was so
mush and soft. you could put cats
tail Through her. Then there was
always a snappy little soubrette TO
mix things up for the villain.
Now we have to change the MAKE
I'm completely. The villain Is toned
down to his decorations. Is httle
more human and has to be more
worked into the plot. The
bero Is stronger. but he still has 10
no beautiful As for the heroine
FIGHTS for women worked wonders
with her. The soubrette is stu there
nIaving the ingenue role. Scatter a
few airpianes and automon''eS d"
and YOU get the same thrills.
carter can reconcile himself 10
replaclng the oRe-horse melodraina
with the slx-cyllnder variety Dut
one thing he can't see, is elimination
OF virtue. n,o
, when I was producing plays the
nub'ic wouldn't stand for the trl-
umph OF villainy." he declared
'Clean virtue had to come out on
ton in the end. Now we have almost
made the villains heroes.
canned melodrama is never go
:, "a he like old times" he explain
ed at the end OF the startling
speeches. we used to write In a !
nause when the audience clapped.
The actors expected that applause
as much as their salary.
Now the most you can get out /
Of the spectators is some woman re-
marking. Isn't he a darling?" or
Wasn't that cute?'
THE booming OF the gallery is a
thing OF the past. So also Is the