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Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 48, 7 August 1915, Page 23

Motion picture making, according to the last American census returns, ranks fifth in the industries of the United States. This report, concerna business that seems almost confined to a decade as far as impressing ifae public is concerned, is absolutely astonishing. In 1914 335,UUU,OOOft of film, including originals and ,positives, were madle in that country. Upwards of 400,000,000 dollars is invested in the business and three parts of the stock is m GermanAmerioan hands.

The Corrick Family are at present making their farewell tour of New Zealand., which will , conclude at the end of this month. It is the intention of the clever family to retire from the stage and settle down in Tasmania. . .

Marie Dressier, rated one of the funniest women on the stage to-day, has joined the Lubin Company, and will appear very shortly in a number of its big comedies. Miss Dressier will make a start in a feature comedy that has been written especially for her, in which tlie comedienne will have plenty of scope. An unusually strong company has been chosen to support the star, headed by comedian John C. Rice.

An American paper gives a long report of the unlhappy wedded , life of the papular actress, Miss Ola Humphrey, who some time ago married the Egyptian Prince, Ibrahim Hassan, under sensational circumstances. It seems that tihe Princess was un>happy from the first, owing to her husband's rigid efforts to- Orientalise her, and make her a slave, like a Turkish woman. He ordered her to wear the yashmak, the toharohaf, and other articles of apparel peculiar to feminine followers of Islam, and placed her under the control of eiinurihs and other watchful servants, as if she were a duitiful harem beauty. The Princess niaturally revolted, arguments led 1 to heat and physical violence on the part of the husband, Whereon she left his roof and bolted for America.' She is now trying to provoke him to a divorce-, but this is a difficult inasmuch as it means a special visit to the Sultan of Turkey, who has the sole power of dissolving Mohammedan marriages. And even if the S'ultari issued the made of divorce, the Prince, according to the law, must maintain the lady according to his own position in life. Those people who remember Miss Humphrey as the leading lady with Clias. Waldron in Australia will sympathise with her present position, for she has taken the only way of escape from the dead monotony of life as an Egyptian lady. There are thousands of Turkish women who would! like to follow the same course of relief from their burdens, as the well-travelled Pierre Loti shows in his curiously interesting story, "Disenchanted."

Servia's place in the European war only received limited recognition in the Australian press, but the valiant little country is not ignored in the great Kinemacolor War 1-10 ture, "With the Fighting Forces of Eui-ope." The Servian section or this enthralling picture shows the manifold activities of the remarkable army that in the last few years helped to annihilate tJhe Turk®, subsequently inflicted! defeat on the Bulgars, and twice drove the Austrian armies off in. confusion. lhe Servian soldier is a conscript, but the Servian institution of 20 bragas, or division of the agricultural population, into family communities, enables every able-bodied man to bght without entirely...disorganising the business of the country. As depicted in the Kinemacolor masterpiece, the Servian soldier is a happy, grey clad warrior, stubborn and ummaoinative in battle, and simply .terrible in bayonet attacks. The picture also shows something of the Servian artillery, which was immensely increased by the capture of 150 new Krupp guns from the Bulgars during the "second Balkan war.

® ® ® The London Opera House, in which one of t)he Hammersteins failed to popularise opera at cheap prices, i* now the tempoii-ary home of a Kussian opera season under the direction of one Rising, a Moscow impressario. The repertoire will include Tschaikowsky's "Pique Dame, Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Mozart and Salieri," and "Tsar's Bride," Cesar Oui's "Mameelle Fifi," and a piece: entitled "Eugen Origen." It Iβ said that some other operas cannot be produced owing to the impossibility of obtaining scores from fetrograd. Gkmravitch, a weU known Moscow musician, will direct an> English oTOhestra, . supported by a Ruseian cliorus.