Evening star., 1923-11-11
BY HALLETT ABEND.

LOS ANGELES, November S.-What-
ever the result in dollars and cents
may be, the decision of Mary Pick
ford. Evelyn Brent and Douglas
Fairbanks to sue an eastern film
magazine for libel probably will have
a restraining effect upon publications
that like nothing so much as an item
that savors of the scandalous
Miss Pickford and Mr.. Fairbanks
announced plans to file a damage suit
based upon an article. which said the
two stars We're going to separate, and
brought in the name of Evelyn Brent,
who for a time was under contract
as leading woman with Fairbanks
when he contemplated pirate pic
ture. He later abandoned the pirate
role in favor of THE Thief of Bag
dad" and as Miss Brent is not the
oriental type, by mutual agreement
the contract was terminated Miss
Brent soon after married &. z. Fine
man, formerly producer for kath-
eryn Mcdonald
The article in question said that
Miss Pickford had forced Mr.. Fair
banks to break Miss Brents contract.
The attitude of all three involved is
that this is a particularly pernlclous
piece of scandal and that damage
suit will restrain similar publications
from besmirchng the lives and pri-
vate characters of film folks. What
ever damages they win they announce
will be given to charity.
The people of filmland are quite
reconciled to the fact that their prom
inence and fame justifies the news
papers in printing long accounts or
divorce cases or other affairs in
which they become involved, but they
are eXasperated at the class of publi-
cations which live by printing facts
and $ancies about film folks and film
plays which defame the industry upon
which they live.
Effect of the shutdown.
Filmdom was startled out of it's COM
placent faith in n busy winter at high
salaries when Jesse L. LaSky, first
vice president of the Famous Players
Lasky Company, announced that when
pictures now being filmed are COM
pleted both the Hollywood and Long
Island studios of. the company Will
be shut down entirely and that no
new pictures will be begun until after
the first of the year. The Schulbers
studio here is already closed, sup
posedly only for one month and pro-
duction has not been under way Tor
some time on the Powers re lot.
This shutdown of baskys here Will
throw out of employment about 900
of the 1000 persons employed at the
Hollywood studio
Mr.. Lasky, in a public statement,
declared that overproduction and the
high cost of making pictures are the
causes of the shutdown and he an
nounced that while production is sus-
pended a study of conditions Will be
made with q view TO efecting many
economies when picture making is
resumed. This closing for more than
two months will not he said, affect
the established policy of making
fifty-two films a year
Ten Films Being Made.
Six films are now being made here
and four in New York. but all will
he concluded within six weeks and
The company now has ready for re-
lease Cecil =. De Miles The Ten
Commandments" which cost about
$1,50O,000 William De Miles Every
an-proof." Sam Woods His Chill
dren's Children" George Melford s
The Light That Failed" William S.
Hart's wild Bill Hitchkok." Douglas
Fairbanks, jr., in stephen Steps
Out" and James Cruze comedy, TO
the Ladies'"
Metro. Pickford Fairbanks. Ince in
Hollywood deny they will follow the
Lasky plan of d temporary Shut
down. Universal is apparently GO
and Sennett and Mayer, Schenck and
the First National companies are all
producing. At Goldwyn's productio
has slowed down considerably. but
titled.
Producers here are almost unani
nous in the opinion that there has
been an oyerproduction of costly fea-
ture-length films and that there will
be almost famine of shorter and
cheaper pictures for the theaters
which cannot pay the enormous
rentals for the big features.
Good Snow Scenes for Mix.
Another picture of an entirely diff
ferent character is the Fox produc-
ton of North of Hudson Bay" with
picture which differs from the usual
film Of that kind because it is well
directed. well acted and offers some.
OF the most beautiful snow scenes 1;
uffers, too. every kind of thrill. ex-.
cept those connected with automo- ::
biles and other mechanical contriv-:
ances not found in the far north. IE
is good entertainment, even though
it is highly melodramatic and con*
rainS improbable plot turns. There is
one sequence showing wolves track:
ing Mix and his companion across the
SHOWS which is thrilling to the las:
degree. No release date has been
fixed.
What Others Are Doing.
Thomas H. Ince has lent Madga
Bella1ny to Hunt Stromberg for tha
lead part in 1.-The Fire Patrol"
w. F. Alexander has returned so
Los Angeles with about $4,000 fest
Of unusual film made in New Guinea
The footage shows every phase Of
life of the Kai Kai cannibals ard
other savage tribes found in the is
lands of the Dutch East Indies. The
film will be embodied in a photoplay
to be called THE Isle of Vanishiag
Men,
Carl Leammele. president of the
Universal Pictures Corporation, has
returned, to Hollywood after five
months in Europe. where he invessti-
gated picture conditions He says,he
has signed the best director in Eu-
rope.
Al Christie celebrated the tweRth
anniversary of his arrival in Holly
wood to make pictures by taking yhis
entire company to Catalina Island on
a yachting party. Mr.. Christie came
here from New Jersey October 81,
1911, and was the first picture pro-
ducer to move to California
Harold Shaw plans to go to &us,
tralia to make a great historical Silm
depicting the settlement and growth
of that country.
Arthur H SAWYER. who will etar