Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-12-02
An Unhappy Reminder.

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ON the night back in September, IL,
1915, when Packy Mcfarland and
Mike Gibbons fought for the light
weight championship Of the world at
Brighton Beach, fire completely de-
stroyed an old deserted armory in West
Twenty-sixth street. Occupying two
floors Of this building was the studio
Of Famous Players.
Insurance for Aim enterprises was not
to be had at that early development of
the industry. Nothing was saved from
nthe blaze except a supposedly flreproof
safe dashed to the wall by steel straps.
In this vault were the precious mega
tives of 10 films--the product of six
months grueltng work. And for three
days, while the safe was being permit
Ated to cool so that safe experts could
open it and try to salvage the reels of
romantic celluloid, Adolph Zukor faced
ruin and his dream of a mighty film
producing company depended upon the
safety Of the negatives.
When they opened the safe not even
the edge Of film was Scorched, writes
will Irwin in 1.-THE House That Shad-
lows Built" published by Doubleday,
Doran & Co., and Zukor never again
~f1irted with financial embarrassment,
rbut henceforth struggled toward leader
ship and control and power.
The saga Of the rise Of the Hungarian
immigrant boy to the dominant rank in
the Nations fourth greatest industry, in
avolving of necessity also the romantic
narrative of the development Of the film
from the tawdry nickelodeon period to
its present magnificence and artistic
plane, as narrated grippingly by Mr..
Irwin, is filed with critical moments
such as the above, but for drama per-
haps none exceeds the crisis brought
about by the blaze
luxor had done much to lift the in
FAINT moving picture from its despiSed
rank Of an earlier day by presenting in
the United States the great French
Elizabeth" He had followed up the
splendid impression caused by this pic
ture by producing THE Count Of Monte
Cristo," with James O'Neill, and 1.-THE
Prisoner Of Zenda," with James K.
Hackett. His policy Of Famous Players
in Famous Plays" had proved highly
successful. Mary Pickford was becom-
ing a popular idol with such pictures as
''Tess Of the Storm Country" 1.-THE
Poor LlCtle Hlcn Clrf ana OLnerS.
Then came the fire. AS described by
Mr.. Irwin, 1t furnishes an interesting
Illustration Of how closely a modern
business giant came to the brink Of
ruin.
Frank Meyer, mechanical superin-
tendent Of Famous Players, was the
only worker who remained in the studio
the night Of the fire-everybody else
had gone to the fight. Fire broke out
in q braid factory below the studio,
where the safe stood open, with hun
dreds Of thousands Of dollars worth Of
negatives and prints scattered over the
shelves.
Mr.. Irwin writes about what fol-
lowed:
Meyer had sat so absorbed in his
work that D choking sensation in his
throat gave him the first warning. He
thought first of the precious, fragile
films. Gathering an armful, he ran to
the stairway. It was afire. He rushed
back to the safe, chucked into it hap
hatardly the films from his arms, from
the table, from the racks. BY the time
he had closed the safe door he was
choking with the thick smoke and the
area by the staircase was burning like
finder. He scurried up to the roof and