Evening star., 1923-11-04
LATEST MOVIE GOSSIP
FROM HOLLYWOOD
Lanky $24 Week Bill Collector Gets Title
Part in Big Film-To Cruise 700 Miles on
Frontier Trip, Chuck Wagons and All.
By Ha11ett Abend

LOS ANGELES, November About
a year ago a tall, lanky man walked
onto the lot of the Rocket Lincoln Finn
Companv. gained access to Al and Ray
Rocket and said he understood they
were about to film the life Of Abraham
Lincoln. He wanted to play the title
part, he said.
The Rocket boys, as they are known
IN Io,,vvood. noticed that the man
looked startlingly like the photographs
OF lincoln even to the mole on tne
right side of his mouth. and askeu mn, III
what experience he had had; None, % VI,
stage or screen, said the visitor, Dut ne
added that he knew all about Lincoln-
had been fascinated by the career OF the
martyred President. ,, =
The man was George A. Billings,
bill collector for a Los Angeles concern;
He was then forty-two years old and
drawing a salary of S24 week. me
Rocket boys gave him a screen test
and then all Hollywood shrugged ns
shoulders and assumed a pityins pose
unknown Billings for the name part in
a twelve-reel feature photopiay ,,
I have seen the completed film. The
Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln,
which will be released in November. IN
spite Of the talk and gossip l mad neard
about Billings work was skeptical ana
thought the production would be only a
tlreary historical film, for l knew 1t car
ried Lincoln from the day OF ms pirth
in a log cabin to the day of his death
in house across the street from Ford S
Theater in Washington. When I'm
wrong I like to admit 1t.
This film Is one of the best made in
this year of better pictures and Mr.
Billings gives an extraordinary per-
formance. 1t is not mussy. senti-
mental canonization of Lincoln, but a
moving drama with minimum OF
battle scenes and flag waving. Philip
Rosen directed it, but most of the credit.
] feel. should go to Frances Marion,
who wrote the scenario. and to Harry
Carr and the Rocket boys. who with
Miss Marion personally supervised the
filming, cutting and titling.
Cost figures on the picture have not
been made known. but whatever the
cost it far transcends in merit and in
interest several of the million dollar
super spectacles" of the year, and In
Billings it introduces to screenland a
new face and a new actor of such fine
sincerity that he seems not to be an
actor at all.
Another Big Spectacle.
James Cruze, director of THE Cow
cred Wagon" is to make Emerson
Hougf's North of Thirty Six at once
for Paramount release. Two players
have already been engaged. Ernest Tor
renee and Jack Holt. Elaborate sets
will be required and Abilene. Kans.. and
Austin. Tex. will be rebuilt from old
prints as they were fifty-six years ago.
The story has to do with a mammoth
cattle drive and members of the COM
Dany will cover about 700 miles of rough
country on horseback and in ox-drawn
vehicles while the picture is being made.
There will be no permanent camps
after the Abilene and Austin scenes are
taken. and company of about 1000
people will be fed from chuck wagons.
In spectacular particulars the produc-
ton will excel THE Covered Wagon"
Mr.. Cruze says.
sti1l Another.
Still another huge western spectacle
play is to be made at once. similar to
1.-The Covered Wagon" but this time
Thomas H Ince and not Paramount
will be the producer. The production,
which will be called 1.-The Last From
tier" is based on a story written by
Courtney Niley Cooper and will deal
with the building and completion of
the first transcontinental railroad.
Mr.. Ince kept his plans secret and no
word of the project leaked out until
seven of his cameramen and a small
army of technical experts and trick
horseback riders arrived at VAIN
wright. Alberta, for the annual round
up of the Canadian governments i'm
mense herd of buffalo. Mr.. Ince secured
the exclusive motion picture rights for
this event. The Wainwright buffalo
herd, the largest in the world, now
numbers 5000 head and this week 1t
will be rounded up. divided into two
herds and about 1000 of the surplus
bulls will be killed. This spectacle is
counted on to furnish many of the
thrills of the production. AS yet none
of the principals has been engaged, but
casting will be begun as soon as the
buffalo herd footage has been doped and
cut. Hundreds of Cree Indians were
taken from their reservation to VAIN
wright.
Al Lichtman, one of the pioneers of
picture making, has resigned from
the position of general and producing
manager of the F. p. Schulberg pro-
ductions, assigning i'll health as the