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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1381, 12 October 1916, Page 35

Mr. Henry Hayward, of the New Zealand Picture Supplies, Ltd, re turned from a visit to Australia last week.

Edison has made a single-reel film play which is to be used in a crusade aga nst impure milk. It is to be called “The Trump Card.”

Mr. Alf. Whiting, of Picton, is taking cinematograph pictures of the whaling industry at Te Awaite. The picture will be the first and only one of its kind taken in the Southern Hemisphere.

Mae Marsh, who jumps over a cliff to save herself from a negro in “The Birth of a Nation,” is known as the girl with a thousand faces, so well can she express any emotion. She has only been in the pictures a little over two years, but already she has reached the top of the ladder. Experienced actors always have a word of praise, sincere and emphatic, for the little lass who plays the younger sister in Griffith’s appealing story. She has played cowboys and heroines, consumptive girls and athletic girls.

“The Yellow Passport,” which was shown in Auckland to packed houses, is one of the pictures that has come under the ban of the New Zealand censor. The proprietors ot the Grand Theatre, Christchurch, received intimation to delete it from the programme. This is the first occasion in the Dominion upon which a film on circuit has been ordered by the censor to be withdrawn, and report says that the proprietors disregarded the mandate and continued to show the picture.

D. W. Griffith, the producer of “The Birth of a Nation,” now showing at His Majesty’s Theatre, spent months in securing the types of artists he required for the great picture spectacle. Mr. Griffith visited many cities, and inspected many stage and picture people before he made his selection. Every character was filled by a particu’ar type of artist best suited tn represent that character. It is recorded that a well-known theatrical manager, in New York, said to Mr.

Griffith: “Well, I am surprised to see that you picked so-and-so for that part” (mentioning a certain role). “He is positively the worst actor I have ever had. Why, he is so stiff that he doesn't even know what to do with his hands.” “That is the very reason I engaged him,” retorted Mr. Griffith. “I wanted a stiff, unnatural actor for a stiff type of a part. The man you mention fits it like a glove.”

Charlie Chaplin was recently introduced to Caruso in New York. “I am pleased to meet ze Caruso of ze feelm,” said the singer. “Same to you, old chap. I’m pleased to meet the Chaplin of the opera,” remarked Charlie.

Billy Burke declares that her work in “Peggy,” the Triangle production, was nothing but a frolic. The thrilling honorarium of 40,000 dollars that was attached to it, would (says a facetious noticer) make most people feel frolicsome.

In the early days of motion pictures there was a little coterie of girls working at the A.B. studios, known as the “Original Six,” who were being trained in the film art by D. W. Griffith. The girls were Lilian and Dorothy Gish, Mary Pickford, Mabel Normand, Mae Marsh and Blanche Sweet. The fact that they all have made good speaks much for Griffith’s tuition.