FACTS FROM FILMDOM.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1383, 26 October 1916, Page 35

FACTS FROM FILMDOM.

“Let us fellow citizens visit the waiters’ ball in our imaginations only, for what one thinks one cannot be censured for. On the other hand, old Dr. Killjoy, he says: “I have heard it whispered—in our set such things are only whispered—that, you’ll pardon me, ah —these American waiters and their female associates are —how □hall I express it delicately?—are, I repeat (in a whisper, mind you), a bit careless with the conventions, and, y’know, that would never do with us.” —From the “Waiters’ Ball,” now showing at the Globe Theatre. * * * Mary Garden, America’s famous actress, was lured to the screen by a picture made by Herbert Brenon. Her agent persuaded her to see “The Daughter of the Gods” in New York before she sailed for France, and before a week was out she had signed up with William Fox to start work on her first picture next February. “The Daughter of the Gods” is the marvellous spectacle in which Annette Kellerman features. It is a £200,000 Fox film, and 25,000 people are employed in it.

Mr. W. E. Crome, the well-known Christchurch musician, has been appointed to take charge of the new instruments imported by the New Zealand Picture Supplies, Ltd., Wellington, for their picture theatres. This type of instrument, which is largely used in America, has been installed in the Empress Theatre, Wellington, at a cost of £l5OO. * * * * “How do you feel about your new venture in the motion picture world?” an interviewer recently asked Nance O’Neil, one of the stars of the William Fox productions. “Why, the work is delightful,” replied Miss O’Neil. “I love it because it is work. To me the most appalling thing in the whole scheme of creation is idleness. My picture of hell is a place where there is nothing to do and nothing to think about —mental starvation, in other words. Everyone must have work and toil at it. Work is happiness. Lack of it —stagnation.” * * * * “What with conscription and increased taxation hanging dark and menacingly over our heads, and pocket books, and war pictures, I feel the time most opportune to drop my bundle of smiles, grins and roars among you good Aucklanders, to cheer you up.—Yours gratefully, Mack Sennett, Master of Ceremonies, Entertainment Committee.” —Introductory note to “The Waiters’ Ball,” by the Keystone director.

According to a writer in the ‘Motion Picture,” practically every company experiences great difficulties in obtaining really qualified extras. One thing that puzzles them is studio slang, which the producer uses instead of plain English. Whenever he wants the players to stop for a moment or so to read a letter, or for some other purpose, he calls out, “Hold it!” which, in other words, means to keep back the action. Well, recently a director handed a bomb to an extra and told him when to light and throw it into the picture. The director resumed instructing the principals in the background; then came the command, “Hold it!” The novice thought the order was meant for him, so he held the bomb. He spent several weeks in the hospital recovering from injuries. £ * * * In support of its movement for the banishment of needless nudity from the screen, the American National Board of Review has adopted a new rule, that hereafter no picture in which the nude female figure appears may be reviewed by a Review Committee of the National Board, but must be presented to the Appeal Board. All such pictures will be carefully considered and important reasons for using the nude figure will be required in order that such pictures may be passed. Indeed, the whole tendency of the board is to eliminate nudity entirely. — “Moving Picture World.” « * * ♦ Dignity stood in the way of a film record being obtained of the British Cabinet. An offer was made with “big money” attached for a picture of the National Cabinet, taken in the Cabinet room. At first the offer was well on the way to acceptance, the payment of the Cabinet members being diverted to charities. But “The Times” led the onslaught against this violation of the sacred dignity of the Imperial Cabinet, and the pride of one or two of the members refused to go on the film, and the thing fell through. * * » • “There’s real art in photo-playing—-splendid, fin shed art. Do you real ise that every day we photoplayers tell stories to deaf mutes, and stories they understand? Has that ever been done on the speaking stage? And isn’t that a slight indication that there must be artistic work done ” — Henry B. Walthall, star of the cinema. Madame Olga Petrova, Metro’s famous star, was born in Warsaw, Poland. Her father was an Englishman, and her mother was Polish. She was married in Indianapolis, got her stage training in London and Paris, and has achieved her greatest success in New York, on both the screen and stage.