Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-14

Lotus Eater" including Wesley Barry,
Colleen Moore. Anna Nilsson and Bar
ncy Sherry. George Ade wrote the sub
titles and Marshall Neilan directed it.
ITO PAUSE a moment on that qucs-
L tion of stage stars on the screen, the
foolish fallacy Of certain picture pro
ducers comes to mind. Certain Of these
seem always to have believed that n
stage star, no matter who or what he
was, would be valuable asset for them.
This has been disproved 50 often that
they are beginning to wake up to their
mistake.
Some very fine stage people are i'm
possible for the screen because they
cannot film properly. Some character
They Could gesture. that is
Not Screen never even noticed
Well Enough before the foot.
out Of the question before the fierce. un-
plying eyes Of the camera. l could
name several who have had screen tests
made, with contracts at enormous fg-
ures ready and waiting to be signed,
only to find that their particular en-
dowments in regard to face or expression
barred them from screen success.
But besides this comparatively small
nsSo1saneo101 ~ much larger one COM
posed Of stage celebrities who have made
their screen debuts, perhaps have
proved cminently satisfactory, but who
have not succeeded in winning their
way into the very peculiar affections of
the movie fans.
There was, for example, George NJ.
Cohan. whose Broadway Jones"
Seven Keys to Baldpatc" and "IIit-
the Trail Holiday were three corkins
good comedies in which he was real
delight, but the picture fans did not
seem to warm. and now Cohan declares
he will stick to the stage. Ethel Bar
rymore is an even more striking ex-
ample. She did some splendid pic
lures. including Lady Frederick" and
did not quite seem to satisfy the Lords
of the Film Houses.
Tho Triangle fiasco was largely
caused by the foolhardy and wholesale
way in which the heads Of the corpo.
ration signed up stage stars without
proper care and choice in selection
Out Of the horde OF those who came tc
the Triangle studios Fairbanks was
the outstanding exception. He was ar
instant hit, while Helen Ware. Willie
Collier. De Wolfe Hopper. Eddie .Foy
IT. b. Warner. Mary Boland and others
did each of them a picture or SO and
then gravitated back to the stage
Frank Keenan, while not of the typ,
to duplicate the success Of Fair,
banks, initiated new kind Of photo.
play part in The Coward" "Stcppinl
Stones and their successors and ma,
be classcd as a success.
Other companies made bad guesses IN
stars also. There was Edith Wynnc
Matthison, whose Governors Lady
was an equally fine picture, but who
never did another. Margaret Ellington
who did just two pictures. which i'm
mcdiately faded into obscurity: Lou
Tellegan, who had much the same cx :
perience. and many others.
4 man with a voice as sonorous ant
magnificent as William Favcrsham OF
Tyrone Power may be n screen failure
These very two actors. while they were
decidedly not of themselves failures IN
so far as their acting was concerned
were certainly not popular hits on the
screen. Yet Powers "Thou Shalt Noi
Covet,' with Kathryn Williams, and
John Needham's Double" were film
masterpieces.
Screen and stage are very definitely
as different as sun and moon, and the
sooner everybody concerned with botl