BEHIND THE SCREEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 47, 24 February 1923, Page 22

BEHIND THE SCREEN.

The average production sfrt of a five- j reel feature is from 50,000. Cβ 120,000! dollars. There are 17,824 theatres in the Uu'iivd Siutes devoted exclusively to motion pictures. It is estimated that l"),000,Ot»O persons visit the motion picture theatres daily in the United States —more than in all the other countries of the world combined. Having virtually finished "The Abysmal Brute." the jack London story in which Reginald Denny is starred, Ilobart Henley is preparing his production of "l"p the Ladder," the Owen Davis play with Virginia Valli a3 his star. Both will be released as Universal .Jewels. Here's encouragement for screen aspirants. At the age of 80, Harry Booker, who provides some of the best laughs in "The Hottentot,' , Thomas H. I net's screen version of Willie Collier's famous racing play, has just made his debut in a straight c.omedy part. Booker has tumbled his way through life, starring for many yeare in English music halls as a knockabout comedian and then playing slap-stick parts for picture productions. A life-long ambition to play a straight comedy part was gratified when he was cast for the amusing role of Perkins, a stableman in Ince's comedy-drama. Featuring a spectacular steeplechase, which sportsmen declare the finest of its kind ever screened, the picture has scored a treme?idons hit —and Booker is going around saying that it was worth waiting SO years to get his "big chance."

i The fastest render in the world! That distinction belongs to Edward Meagher, of (he Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, who recently performed the feat of reaaing through "Ben Hur," a novel of over tiOO pages, and making a 10-page work- . ing synopsis of it. all within the space !of five hours. Of this, three and onehalf hours were spent in the reading, or an average rate »«s maintained of I about three pages of fine print a minute. Meagher, who is employed as a reader of stories at the Goldwyn Htudio, is i what is known as a "photographic ! reader." He takes in a page of ordinary size at three glances. He does not read ; each word, but full}' senses, in an instant, the thought of a paragraph or more. Many people who attempt to read quickly fail to get the substance of what they read. Meagher does, and he challenges anyone to read a fiction work of any size, nnd make a synopsis embodying the salient points in as short a time as he can. While the relationship of : eve and brain which makes one a i ''photographic reader" is not pari tieularly rare, psychologists say that it is quite exceptional to find it developed Ito such a degree as in Mr. Meagher, ! whose natural faculty has, of course, i been sharpened by his work. After all. i there must be some excuse for the ! patron, who, after witnessing a film 1 adapted from a book or novel, says, I "Why, it's nothing like the book."

Nazimova's famous "Salome" has been released at last. It has appeared at the Criterion Theatre, Xew York. Perhaps nothing that Nazimova has ever done has caused quite so much pre-release comment as this adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play. The settings were done by Katacha* Rambova, from the original Aubrey Beardsley drawings for the poetic drama.

"Be nice to a man and he's as good as gone. Cater to him, run after him, epill a few tears over him at the breakfast table, and he will fall into the arms of the first vamp who throws him a red r05e...." says an American movie magaz!ne. And judging by the fuss some fluffy little movie fans make of a mere man, they aro evidently taking to heart the advice giver, by this intellectual paper.

It must be a trying experience to be a friend of Charlie Chaplin's. Every time he dances with a girl, the Hollywood public, excited to the limits of human endurance, promptly elects another successor to Mildred Harris, the so-far only Mrs. C. Eleanor Boardman being the latest candidate for fame of that variety. Charlie danced with her, and immediately some agitated Pauline Revere galloped off with the latest tiding. Mrs. Boardman immediately came back with the crushing information that, while she was a good friend of Charlie's, she happened to be Mrs. Somebodyelse—which seemed to be a sufficient alibi.

The first of the Buddy Messenger small town boy stories made by Century Comedies will be released shortly under its final title "Boyhood Days." It was directed by Harry Edwards. The story revolves around an incorrigible youth, who plays pranks on everyone from the ancient playing dominoes in the general store to his little sweetheart, played by Marjorie Marcel. Two amusing little monkeys of the species employed by organ-grinders add. to the humour, as Joe and Rosie, the. monkeys, repeat many of the actiou»of the humans in the cast. It needs a. giantess like Blanche Payson. to straighten out the irrepressible Buddy, and e>*en she does not succeed.

Many actors have been asked the question: "What is the hardest thing to do before a camera?" Trying ~t© ptay dead with a live leopard at yoyr side is Montagu Love's answer to tlie question. In a scene which he nflwl* recently for Alice Brady's latest Paramount picture, 'The Leopardes," Love .is attacked and killed by an- angry leopardess. After the scene was shot Monte had to lie still, as in death, with the leopardess beside him while a closeup was taken. ,: To keep from breathine while thinking all the time that the lady leopard might get playful and caress mc with a rough paw was the hardest thine I have ever done before a camera," said Mr. Love. "I'll tell you that it takes more than personality to play a scene like that." Love did not escape the scene unseratohed, either. The leopardess did put her paw on his forehead flnd left a scratch two inches long. And Mr. Love tells the world that there is no press agent hokum in that statement, and shows the scratch as evidence.