AN AMAZING OUTPUT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20291, 28 April 1934, Page 24 (Supplement)

AN AMAZING OUTPUT.

Tom Mix’s Three Hundred and Seventy Pictures. Some actors can claim to have appeared in more than two hundred films, although the majority of stars can hardly claim a hundred, and even some of the veterans have not yet established a “ century.” It has not been proved who has made the record number of films, but Matt Moore stated that he had appeared in at least five hundred pictures. Nobody has hitherto claimed quite so many films, and this surely gives the Moore brothers the record for film families. Between them they have made well over a thousand pictures. For the next “ family ” place the Beerys have a strong claim. Francis X. Bushman has made about four hundred and twenty films. In 1931, Alec B. Francis, now in his seventies, claimed that he had made an average of twenty films a year for twenty-one years, and this grand old man has made several since. J. Farrell MacDonald has also made more than four hundred films, and some folk in Hollywood declare that he is the holder of the “ greatest output ” record. This may be so, but there is no officially confirmed recordholder, due to the fact that s£ars work for so many different companies during their careers. Tom Mix is one of the stars who have .kept personal records, and the king of Westerns claime three hundred and seventy principal parts! He adds that he wrote a hundred of his films himself, and personally directed more than a hundred. Feminine stars cannot claim such astonishing figures, because the career of an actress is usually shorter than that of an actor. Betty Compson, however, claims, over three hundred. Betty has a “ one year ” record. In

I [U (U HI ® @ HI @ E) HI ® @ HI @ @ S HE HI ID ® 1929 she made eleven films, and at one period worked in three films simultaneously. Of the great “ United Artists,” Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Pickford, Fairbanks and Swanson, it is plain that Norma Talmadge can claim the most parts. She has played about two hundred and fifty. The others, who appeared in smash-hits at infrequent intervals, take no place among the big records. Their output added together is less than that of a single veteran who has worked consistently in many varied parts. Harold Lloyd, however, who might be placed in the same class as the above, claims three hundred and fifty films. Many of these were his early two-reelers in the name of Lonesome Luke. It has been said in Hollywood that the feminine “ greatest output ” record belongs to Zasu Pitts. She has made mpre than three hundred films, and this is her sixteenth year in the business. It is true that many have been two-reelers, but during recent : years she has had an amazing numbei* of parts. Players who have made more than two hundred films are Lucien Littlefield, Tully Marshall, Raymond Hatton, Buck Jones. Richard Tucker, Clyde Cook, De Witt Jennings, Andre Beranger, Sam Hardy, Slim Summerville and others lesser known or departed from our ken. These are pioneer players, and any pf them might have a good chance in a record race. Among comparatively young stars, Richard Arlen is doing well, having made more than a hundred and fifty films—more than Clive Brook and Clara Bow. But Neil Hamilton. a week younger than Arlen, rivals this number.