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1506 lines
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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
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* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
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* *
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* Issue 52 -- April 1997 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
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* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
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William Desmond Taylor's Words:
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Some Articles Written by Taylor
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Some Comments Attributed to Taylor
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
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TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
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Taylor, a top Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
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death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
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scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
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(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
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murder on Hollywood and the nation; (d) Taylor's associates and the Hollywood
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silent film industry in which Taylor worked. Primary emphasis will be given
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toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it
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for accuracy.
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William Desmond Taylor's Words:
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Some Articles Written by Taylor
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The articles "written by" William Desmond Taylor may have been actually
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written by either his personal publicity agent or the studio publicity agent.
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At the time of his death in 1922, his personal publicity agent was Ted Taylor
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(unrelated to William Desmond Taylor), and the studio publicity agent was
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Barrett Kiesling. However, William Desmond Taylor was literate, articulate
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and fully capable of expressing himself in writing, a factor which
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undoubtedly contributed strongly to the three times he was elected to the
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presidency of the Motion Picture Directors' Association. So he may indeed
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have personally authored some or all of the short articles bearing his name.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 1915
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William D. Taylor
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MOTION PICTURE
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I entered the pictures as a sort of compromise. I had made several
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attempts to get away from the stage, and my last venture had been along the
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lines of mining, when the annoying persistent call of the stage came again,
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and, as I did not fancy the small and stuffy dressing rooms and the continual
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study, I came to the Coast and deliberately tried to get into the Motion
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Picture game. There was that about the Kay-Bee camp which appealed, being
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near the ocean and the delightful scenery, so I applied and got a position
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with that company and had a taste of the delights of acting in the open. From
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now on it's the movies for me, and isn't it curious that the companies I have
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worked with have been near the sea? At the Vitagraph, where I played Captain
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Alvarez, in the thrilling photodrama of that name, and other parts, we were
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at Santa Monica, and now I am at Long Beach, directing and acting with the
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Balboa Company. So I can still get my ride, woo nature, with her ever-
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changing scenes, and go in for my swim and enjoy the strong sea air.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 19, 1916
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William D. Taylor
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MOTOGRAPHY
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The Future of the Photoplay
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The manufacturers who pay the most attention to the story and the
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direction of that story are the ones who will reap both the artistic and
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financial benefits in the future; of that I am convinced. A marvelous
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difference has come over the photoplay world since I first put on grease
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paint for my initial picture appearance. In those days the stories were
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either written by one of the people connected with the studio, not
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necessarily a staff writer, or accepted from one of the hundreds submitted.
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In every case the story had to be revamped and entirely rewritten. If a
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company paid twenty-five dollars for a photoplay it felt it was being robbed
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and prices of from five to fifteen dollars were regarded as standard.
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The photoplay writer is coming into his own more every month. Famous
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writers have entered the field, dramatists of experience, newspaper men of
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promise, short story writers, and large prices are being paid for the rights
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to novels and plays. This is the middle era and the day is coming when
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writers will work for the screen productions alone; that is, they will write
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entirely original stories of merit and, what is more, the stories will have
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to possess merit or they will not be accepted. I doubt very much whether
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there will be any staff writers in the future, although men who can plot and
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originate will probably receive retaining fees or be tied up for a term of
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years to one company.
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I also believe that the day of the conscientious and capable producer
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has arrived. The man with dramatic instinct who either has artistic and
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literary attainments in addition to his knowledge of the drama or who has the
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sense to attach to his person capable men who can supply that knowledge; this
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is the man who will be more and more in demand.
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Commercialism must always enter into the question, side by side with the
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artistic and dramatic end of the business. By commercialism I do not mean
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racing through a production to get it on the market within the shortest
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possible time! This I think is bad commercialism, the short road to the end.
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To make a good picture, time is required for preparation and for rehearsals,
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but when once a picture is on the way there is no necessity for delays; they
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only interfere with the concentrated thought which must be given a
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production. Here is where the business end of picture making should step in
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with economy of time and more or less method of procedure. I have known
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artists who deliberately kept everyone waiting, who have subordinated their
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work for their private pleasures, but the time has already passed when such
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things can be; if an actor delays the business of his employer he has no
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place in filmland and his own importance is of no importance to the men who
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pay him his salary.
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I am a firm believer in the future of the industry and it is on a better
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basis now than at any time in its short history. One thing has happened and
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is still happening which must please all who have their hearts in this
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future. There is a process of elimination going on; so-called actors and
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actresses who have but their good looks to uphold them, and careless workers,
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are going by the board. On the other hand, people of real merit are getting
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recognition.
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The speaking stage has been a great factor in this improvement. Artists
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of pronounced ability have been attracted by necessity or choice to the
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pictures and many of them will remain. Of course there have been "stars" who
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have been engaged for their names alone and who have not had the necessary
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qualifications for screen work, but even these have had a good effect. They
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have heightened the ambitions of the screen artists and made them think a lot
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and they have attracted audiences by the magic of their names who would not
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otherwise have been cajoled into a motion picture theater. I do not hesitate
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to say that many of the speaking stage artists who have adopted the screen as
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the medium of their work have come to stay and have improved conditions
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generally. I refer to those who are physically suited of course--the Farnums,
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Douglas Fairbanks, Geraldine Farrar and many others.
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There are numerous artists of the screen who hold their own right along
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and will continue to do so and they are the men and women who have worked for
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their positions and have studied and thought. Quite a majority of these have
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had previous speaking stage experience, especially in stock, which, after
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all, is the best school for screen actors. I refer to the better stock
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companies, of course.
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I contend that the director is the hardest worked man in the business.
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I also think that the director ought to be the hardest worked man. A
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conscientious producer assumes that much. A producer gets but little time
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during the day to think, and to make good pictures he must use his gray
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matter a lot and if he cannot do it during the days he must use it of
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evenings and nights. The following day's work must be outlined and the action
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studied out carefully to get the best results in the shortest time (that
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commercial end must be kept always in view).
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During the day he has enough to think about in forwarding the progress
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of the photoplay, in seeing that the sets and properties are correct, in a
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hundred and one things. Your average director has a very earnest and serious
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outlook on life and he gets puckers around the eyes and tell-tale lines on
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his forehead and there are times when he has to go away for a short time and
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rest, for it is the only time he can get the necessary recreation.
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Once and for all, those who believe that the director's life is an easy
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one should try it. On the other hand it is absorbing and fascinating in the
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extreme and I for one would not do anything else even if the opportunity
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offered. Take my present position; I find that the men at the back of me are
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only too willing to do all in their power to help their directors and to
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listen to them at all times. They are just as interested in the artistic side
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of the production as they are in the financial side and so it is with many
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other studios. It is a privilege to be a producer and even if the work is
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very, very hard there are compensations--such as the making of a picture
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which is well received and which may do some good--compensations which make
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up for all the worry and the nose-to-the-grindstone side of the game.
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The call is out for good producers and for good stories and those who
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can fill the want need not worry about the compensation. There are very many
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who can fill the bill but where there is a demand there the supply will come
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and there are potential photoplay authors and directors coming along steadily
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and forcing the old-timers to keep pace with the march of progress and with
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new innovations and ideas.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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May 15, 1920
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William D. Taylor
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LOS ANGELES RECORD
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Famous Director Tells How He Cures Actors of Acting
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"Curing actors of acting!" Yes, we have to do that occasionally in
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moving pictures. Usually this occurs with the old-time players, steeped in
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the ancient oratorical style of the eighties.
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Don't misunderstand me in this. In the days when the voice, not action,
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was the piece de resistance of the theater, oratorical effects were quite
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apropos.
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In the films, however, we have a different problem. There is no talking
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and everything must be interpreted to the audience through actions.
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Therefore, we must eliminate every move that does not count for something in
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an interpretative sense. Oratorical gestures are the first to go. While they
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punctuate a speech excellently, they are practically without use in a moving
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picture.
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The oratorical style broke up a speech by walks back and forth across
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the stage. These usually had value only for emphasis. As action to carry the
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plot forward, they meant nothing of value.
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Salvini, Booth, Irving, wonderful actors of their period, would have to
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readjust themselves were they alive and considering a film engagement. Heart-
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gripping on the stage, their oratorical powers would fail to register in a
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screen play. The lowliest "movie" extra man or woman could give them valuable
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pointers on this new art which to them, undoubtedly, would appear a strange
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and weird affair.
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Another thing. Stage practice is to learn set lines and interpret them.
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In the studio the actor is told the situation. He must think it out for
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himself and put in the words to fit. Of course the words do not register on
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the screen to any large degree, but the players find talking the parts an aid
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to effective action.
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This system gives the actor's own personality and ideas free reign as
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contrasted to the circumscribed limitation he is given when it is necessary
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to stay within the bounds of certain written words.
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I know it has been said of the movies that the actors are mere
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automatons, told to do this and that, with no thinking volition on their
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part.
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Perhaps there have been isolated instances of this, but I believe I am
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speaking for a majority of the profession when I state that the consensus of
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opinion is against such a plan.
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Humanness in pictures! How can we secure it unless the actor is made to
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feel that he is a real human being with ideas? No one can really seem truly
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natural when treated as a mechanical doll, worked by unseen strings.
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Personally I explain every scene to my players, show them the sequence
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of the action. Then they "walk through" a rehearsal, illustrating their ideas
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of how the scene should go. Then it's "Camera!" and they film the parts
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according to their own ideas. When the picture is completed I feel I have a
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living, human element, not the portrayal of unhuman automatons.
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The human element of motion pictures; the new and simple art of the
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films--this is the deathless feature that will make the screen live always.
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The voice and face of an actor may die but his human qualities will be a
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heritage to posterity.
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Heart appeal is the great foundation for future days in motion pictures.
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Living people, their joys and sorrows, always touch a responsive chord. The
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producers who remember that, are building for themselves a house everlasting.
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Those who attempt cheap, tawdry, indecently suggestive effects, or transitory
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thrills, are building in the sands.
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Simplicity, purity and humanness are the great cornerstones of the
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screen. By them and with them will the silver sheet reach its greatest stage
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of usefulness.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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July 10, 1920
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William D. Taylor
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EXHIBITORS' TRADE REVIEW
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William D. Taylor, Realart Director of Big Specials,
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Now Has Chance to "Go The Limit"
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At last I have obtained my ambition! My new contract with Realart gives
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me the opportunity of years to produce pictures with no thought but
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perfection. Plenty of time, plenty of money and splendid stories--at last I
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can "go the limit" and bring out the fine, delicate, enduring things
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impossible in the days when an inexorable release schedule bade me make eight
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or ten productions each year.
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I have always held that a poor story is a waste of time. You can't make
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a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I KNOW--for a regiment of grey hairs
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testifies to past unpleasant experiences.
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On the other hand, however, the possibilities of really good narrative
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carry endless fascination to a man who imagines. A story that will help
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people, lift them out of the humdrum of daily life and for an hour or two
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bring them happiness and new thoughts to make their existence more
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pleasurable--such a tale is worth all that is paid for it and deserves every
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attention that time and money can lavish in its preparation for the screen.
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And Realart has given me such stories. In succession I am making for the
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organization "The Soul of Youth" from a gripping story of boy life by Julia
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Crawford Ivers; The Furnace by "Pan" and "The Witching Hour," the great
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Augustus Thomas stage success.
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I have just finished "The Soul of Youth." Watching its growth in the
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projection room during the cutting and titling I have felt a flow of
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thankfulness to Realart for their splendid policy of allowing me unlimited
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time and money for my productions. It is the first play under the new
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contract and I feel that it shows the approach to technical perfection which
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is possible only when the director is neither hurried nor forced to eliminate
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desirable effects because his company does not care to stand the expense.
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My first three pictures will present the struggles and conquest of the
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human soul under different conditions of modern life. "The Soul of Youth"
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takes the boy of the streets, of the reform school, of the jail and
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illustrates the thesis that kindness, sympathy and education will cause
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the latent seed of character to blossom and flower in the full beauty of a
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high-charactered American citizen.
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A wonderful cast aided me in the delineation of this intriguing story.
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Lewis Sargent played "The Boy." Exhibitors will remember him in Huckleberry
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Finn.
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For the part of the Juvenile Court judge we secured no less famous a
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personage than Judge Ben Lindsey himself. Judge Lindsey illustrates
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wonderfully the methods that have brought him world-wide fame. He came from
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Denver especially to assume this role.
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Lila Lee, Willie Collier Jr., Sylvia Ashton and Grace Morse also did
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splendid work.
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At the present moment I am working on "The Furnace," the startling story
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by "Pan," the English author.
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Let me say here that I am afire with enthusiasm concerning "The
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Furnace." It is the greatest story I have ever been given and one that
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presents a challenge to the very best directorial talent I possess. Again it
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is a story of soul growth, this time of a woman who has everything she wants,
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save the love of her husband. This she has sacrificed through a foolish
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misunderstanding of the kind that so often causes trouble when class feeling
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and social conventions bar the way to true happiness.
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The scenes are laid in London, Monte Carlo and aboard ship. The story
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calls for beautiful settings and gorgeous costumes. We are giving it
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everything called for. Nothing is to be left undone to present properly what
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all who have read the story consider one of the most vital human documents of
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the decade.
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It will be an exceptionally expensive picture. Our original estimates
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were for half a million, but now it appears that the cost will run well over
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$700,000. Two remarkable sets alone cost what the average man would consider
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a fortune. One reproduced the interior of a beautiful English cathedral; the
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other showed the splendors of a gay Monte Carlo hotel.
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Again I picked my cast with extreme care. Jerome Patrick, famous
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broadway leading man and Agnes Ayres portray the leading roles. They are
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supported by such well-known people as Milton Sills, Betty Francisco, Helen
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Dunbar, Theodore Roberts and Lucien Littlefield.
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I hope my readers will pardon me for running on so about "The Furnace"
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but again I want to assure them of my absolute sincerity when I say that it
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is the greatest story my experience has ever encompassed.
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"The Witching Hour" by Augustus Thomas is yet in the future. Every one
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knows of this powerful play. For years I craved the opportunity of presenting
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it in pictures. To tell this longing to Realart was like rubbing the magic
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lamp of Aladdin. Presto!--and it was within my hands.
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I have a number of plays and stories equally wonderful under
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consideration, but to date have not definitely decided upon the order in
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which I will use them. I feel, however, that they will prove pleasing to the
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trade.
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Realart Pictures Corporation demonstrated its faith in me when it met my
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request for the conditions necessary for photoplay perfection. In return I
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wish to express my gratitude in an outpouring of personal mental effort to an
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extent that will make William D. Taylor Productions even more desirable
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entertainments than they have ever been in the past.
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August 29, 1920
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William D. Taylor
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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How Best to Use Novels for Films
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Follow the book as far as possible within limitations!
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Briefly, that is my idea of the correct procedure in transforming a
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notable story for screen use. The author's original situations are so
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necessary in preserving the best beauties of the plot; the period, the
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costumes, everything concerned with the story have been fitted together with
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such artistry, usually, that to make material changes is to destroy much of
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the tale's appeal.
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When it becomes necessary to make alterations they should be simple and
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of a sort that will enhance dramatic values without destroying story beauty.
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Increase of drama is the one thing that justifies a change--for of course we
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are preparing a story to be acted rather than read. The points of attack are
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radically different.
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I believe, however, that in many cases it is advisable to sacrifice
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dramatic scenes if to create them is to spoil some of the original author's
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most beautiful conceptions. Take "Huckleberry Finn," for instance. I could
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have made it dramatic, I could have made it a romantic love story. From a
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plot point of view, by changing the period, introducing new characters, etc.,
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it would have been possible to create a much stronger photoplay, technically
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speaking. But it would not have been "Huckleberry Finn"! The characteristic
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and gentle humor of Mark Twain is so wrapped up in every situation of the
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story and the old-fashioned atmosphere is so essential that to have changed
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any portion of it materially would have been indeed a sacrilege.
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"Get the sense of the story." Yes, of course, but the "sense" is so
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frequently in close marriage to the author's original ideas that to make
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radical changes is a mistake. You are making a photoplay of a story--not
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creating an entirely new entity. The novel, the photoplay and the stage drama
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are three entirely different methods of expression, I grant you that. But
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they are relations, and rather close relations. The same life-blood runs
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through all three. You can't radically change a fine work of fiction without
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destroying much of its beauty--no matter whether your recreation be intended
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for stage or screen.
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Above all one must be sure to fix accurately on the screen the true
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philosophy of the story. That is the author's greatest gift to humanity and
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it must not suffer loss in any way.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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December 19, 1920
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William D. Taylor
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NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
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William D. Taylor Voices His Ideas
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The recognition by authors of two fundamental truths regarding motion
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pictures means that 1921 will be the year of the big writer.
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The first truth is that the screen is the greatest publicity medium
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existent.
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The second truth is that to write for the screen one must know the idiom
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of the screen.
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For a long time now, book publishers and stage producers have bravely
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disseminated the propaganda that the advertising received by the book and the
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stage is a tremendous factor in the success of a photo-play taken from the
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book or the stage. Not only did the author swallow this morsel of modern
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mythology with a grateful gulp, but some of the canniest producers so far
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fell in with it that they squandered fortunes on film rights to newsstand and
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footlight successes.
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Now the writer and the producer begin to appreciate that the impetus
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given a photo-play by pre-advertising in book or play form is nothing to the
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impetus given a book or play by pre-advertising in photo-play form. They
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begin to understand that the screen advertises the newsstand and the
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footlights far better than the newsstand and the footlights can advertise the
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screen.
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So the first truth is learned. Now for the second.
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It has never been recorded that a publisher purchased an illiterate's
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ravings "for the idea," and turned the idea over to a staff writer to develop
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into a novel. Yet how many books and novels have been purchased by film
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producers "for the idea," and turned over to studio staff writers for screen
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development?
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This procedure automatically supplied the author with a full-fledged
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"buck" for passing. If the film "flivs" [fails] he simply points to the
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success of his play or book.
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|
As a matter of fact the average book or play contains only twenty per
|
|
cent of picture material. The other eighty per cent of the plot must be
|
|
discarded and rebuilt at the studio. I almost said "rebuilt at the factory,"
|
|
for under this system the product is no better than factor-made program
|
|
movies, 1915 model.
|
|
There is no reason why this missing eighty per cent of material should
|
|
not be supplied by the author himself, from his own prolific and original
|
|
sources. Intimate details of ordinary happenings, human incidents that have a
|
|
different twist in the author's mind, that have been embroidered from his
|
|
wealth of imagination, that gives his work its charm--there is no reason why
|
|
he shouldn't put these in the picture. The only reason possible is that he
|
|
doesn't know the idiom of the screen, the technique of the camera.
|
|
When a person sits down to write a book it is taken for granted that he
|
|
is conversant with the rudiments of English grammar and spelling, if not by
|
|
tuition, by intuition. No person, besides Daisy Ashford or a simplified
|
|
spelling crank, could conceivably publish a book written otherwise. Obviously
|
|
the purpose of a book is to be read and to be read it must be written in
|
|
language that can be understood.
|
|
Yet we have seen our friend, Mr. Author, cheerfully taking it for
|
|
granted that he need not write in the idiom of the screen, not even realizing
|
|
that there is such a thing as the idiom of the screen and that it has a
|
|
"grammar" known as technique, a "spelling" known as continuity.
|
|
Not any more does Mr. Author ignore these facts. He has seen the
|
|
parallel in the illiterate attempting a novel and the uncinematic attempting
|
|
a photo-play. And he is now seeking the studio to take kindergarten courses
|
|
under the director's guidance with the whirring of the Bell & Howell and the
|
|
glaring of the violet ray impressing technique and continuity and other
|
|
important things on his mind.
|
|
The presence of the great author and his knowledge of film
|
|
technicalities is not all that is necessary.
|
|
In the field of sports it is well known that an all-star team can often
|
|
be defeated by a group of average players drilled to perfect teamwork. Motion
|
|
pictures has used all the all-star team too long. A famous author who doesn't
|
|
know any too much about the screen, a successful scenario writer who doesn't
|
|
sympathize with the author's ideas; a director with a reputation to maintain;
|
|
a star, glorifying in a false deification, who "won't play" if her
|
|
individuality is not capitalized. Such a team may be all of stars, but it
|
|
doesn't always pull together.
|
|
First, the big author and the feature director confer before even an
|
|
outline of the story is on paper. Then the author furnishes the skeleton
|
|
story--his synopsis. He talks this over with the director and with the
|
|
continuity writer. They plan the photo-play in close cooperation. The
|
|
continuity writer becomes simply a technical expert to advise the author.
|
|
When the synopsis meets with technical approval, the author invests it with
|
|
dramatic bones and flesh for the screen. When it is ready, then if there are
|
|
parts worthy of stars they will be filled by stars; if there are not, they
|
|
are filled by the actors best fitted for them.
|
|
This method of picturization is as near perfection as it is possible to
|
|
conceive. Perhaps every one doesn't agree with me that it is. No matter--many
|
|
do.
|
|
This is the method Edward Knoblock is using on his first screen story.
|
|
He has already completed its skeleton. Julia Crawford Ivers and myself have
|
|
discussed its screen possibilities with him and he is now amplifying it. Then
|
|
Mrs. Ivers will translate it into continuity and when I produce it, following
|
|
"Sacred and Profane Love," Mr. Knoblock will study my production to learn the
|
|
limitations of the camera and other things that only actual participation in
|
|
studio work can teach. He will be in a position to write his next story with
|
|
a complete recognition of the screen's needs.
|
|
So it is with Cosmo Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton is the first noted author, to
|
|
my knowledge, both to confer with a director before writing his story, and to
|
|
realize the full power of film publicity. Mr. Hamilton was in Hollywood last
|
|
Spring during the filming of "Midsummer Madness" by William De Mille, and he
|
|
and I had long conferences then over the story he was blocking out for the
|
|
screen. The story is now completed and I will produce it in the near future.
|
|
Meanwhile Mr. Hamilton is making the story into a novel, and when the picture
|
|
is released he will publish his novel at the same time, thus reaping the
|
|
benefits of the film advertising.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
April 17, 1921
|
|
William D. Taylor
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
Emotion Defined by Play Producer
|
|
|
|
There is romance and drama in the lives of all of us.
|
|
Yet, outside of the fundamental emotions of love, parenthood, severe
|
|
illness and love quarrels--which every one experiences sooner or later--we do
|
|
not readily recognize the drama that we live. It is too close to be
|
|
appreciated.
|
|
Emotion is the simplest and most natural thing in the world.
|
|
Augustus Thomas, author of "The Witching Hour," which opens tomorrow at
|
|
Grauman's, once gave me this definition of emotion:
|
|
"Emotion is a volatile reaction to an attack on an instinct."
|
|
Just then the ash dropped from his cigar onto his vest and he flicked it
|
|
away with his thumb and forefinger.
|
|
"There," I told him, "is your volatile reaction to an attack on an
|
|
instinct."
|
|
"Yes," he smiled, "my instinct is cleanliness; it was violated by the
|
|
cigar ash, and the movement of my fingers was a mechanical reaction."
|
|
There you have the most natural action imaginable discussed in a complex
|
|
way.
|
|
People do recognize the dramatic when it is painted for them on the
|
|
screen, and that is a way in which the screen can help people to appreciate
|
|
the beauty and the romance that occurs before their eyes every day.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
April 23, 1921
|
|
EXHIBITORS' TRADE REVIEW
|
|
In its March 12th issue, Exhibitors Trade Review printed an article
|
|
about the visit of William A. Brady to Los Angeles which, it appears, was
|
|
incorrect in some of its details.
|
|
William D. Taylor, head of the Motion Picture Directors' Association on
|
|
the Coast, has sent a statement to this publication in which he points out
|
|
that Mr. Brady had nothing whatever to do with calling the meeting in
|
|
question and that there was no attempt to put over a new organization that
|
|
would have been part of the National Association of the Motion Picture
|
|
Industry.
|
|
Mr. Taylor says: "The meeting of February 28th was called personally by
|
|
me on behalf of the Motion Picture Directors' Association. At that time it
|
|
was not even known that Mr. Brady was coming to the Coast. We urged the
|
|
formation of a central committee of representatives from every motion picture
|
|
organization to unite against legislative menaces, especially as the two
|
|
national bodies were at variance.
|
|
"Under the name of the Affiliated Picture Interests, Inc., every man and
|
|
woman connected with exhibiting, distributing or producing motion pictures is
|
|
invited to join hands in defence of their livelihood. Its activities are not
|
|
confined strictly to state matters as it will prepare data and propaganda
|
|
aids to those fighting censorship and blue laws anywhere.
|
|
"Mr. Brady was invited to the first meeting as a courtesy in view of the
|
|
presence of exhibitor representatives. The stormy part of the session was
|
|
confined to a discussion between Mr. Brady and Glenn Harper, of the Motion
|
|
Picture Theatre Owners of Southern California. Mr. Harper and the exhibitors
|
|
finally withdrew and Mr. Brady followed. Later both returned and endorsed the
|
|
new organization.
|
|
"Mr. Harper is a valuable and active member of the three committees so
|
|
far appointed.
|
|
"Our organization is incorporated to fight all the menaces to the
|
|
industry including censorship and blue laws. There are over six hundred
|
|
members, including actors, directors, cinematographers, art and assistant
|
|
directors, scenario and publicity writers, artisans, producers, theatre
|
|
owners and managers, projectionists and the clergy. We aim to make the
|
|
membership six thousand. There is absolutely no connection between the
|
|
Affiliated Picture Interests and any other organization except the Allied
|
|
Amusement Industries, which is organizing in Northern California."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
October 1, 1921
|
|
William D. Taylor
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
Why is a Motion Picture Director?
|
|
|
|
A thinker who is not afraid of work and who knows what he is doing--he,
|
|
I would say, is the type of the motion picture director of today.
|
|
We recall the pioneer director who left the studio in the morning with a
|
|
camera, $50 cash and an idea, and returned in the afternoon with a one-reel
|
|
drama. Some of the qualities of this versatile and highly ingenious genius of
|
|
the past are again in demand in a glorified combination of author-director-
|
|
producer today.
|
|
But one who has partaken of the waters of Lethe with the best farewell
|
|
wishes of all is that director, who like his megaphone, was little more than
|
|
a mouthpiece for the man behind him. His script was a blue print and he was a
|
|
construction foreman.
|
|
Today many of the most successful directors are actor graduates; or come
|
|
from the camera; or come from an assistant directorship. More and more it is
|
|
the thinker--no matter whether he begins as actor, author, assistant director
|
|
or cinematographer--who becomes the real director. Possibly it is because
|
|
this man in many instances combines an executive leadership with a hard-won
|
|
knowledge of what the public wants for entertainment, and a practical
|
|
experience of how to obtain that "what-the-public-wants."
|
|
More and more does the director tend to become a producer, arranging for
|
|
finances, making his own picture in his own way and at his own risk; making
|
|
pictures because he loves it, not because he can draw a good salary for
|
|
making them.
|
|
He is still boss of a producing unit and director of a cameraman and
|
|
players.
|
|
But he is becoming more and more an individualist, an interpreter of
|
|
ideas, a molder of opinion--a power parallel to the statesman and the editor.
|
|
In these tendencies the progress of the motion picture director may be
|
|
traced.
|
|
There is a growing honesty of purpose in motion picture direction today.
|
|
The mere striving for effect, the reign of hokum, has passed. No longer are
|
|
vital defects of story overlooked by public because the actors are excellent
|
|
or the photography is exquisite. Fine acting and beautiful photography are
|
|
integral parts of the art of pictures, but they are not its sole reason for
|
|
being.
|
|
Once upon a time one or more unusual scenes could carry a picture to
|
|
success. The public could ignore defects and concentrate on the heralded
|
|
novelty.
|
|
But that was the public of yesterday. There is a new public today just
|
|
as there is a new director. The public today is being surely recruited from
|
|
the classes of intellectual culture and artistic appreciation.
|
|
Novelties still have, and always will have, an audience. But novelty in
|
|
any art or industry must be followed by merit that endures and that is
|
|
continually surpassing itself.
|
|
As a novelty, motion pictures have reached their pinnacle.
|
|
Practically every effect effect and trick possible with a motion camera
|
|
has been featured. Every imaginable sort of lens legerdemain, mat
|
|
manipulation and multiple exposure has been experimented with. Every
|
|
discoverable combination of fades, tones and tints has been utilized. We have
|
|
tried animated titles, pictorial titles, no titles; we have played with back
|
|
lightings, overhead lightings and floor lightings; we have contrasted mercury
|
|
lights, arc lights and the sun itself; we have used art settings, realistic
|
|
settings, futuristic settings, naturalistic settings, and no settings.
|
|
We have tested on our palette every brush and every tube of color. Now
|
|
we're going to paint some pictures.
|
|
To be a genius requires work. The director today is not petting himself.
|
|
He works, works, works on his picture. Then he works on it some more. Then,
|
|
perhaps, he is ready to start actual production.
|
|
The hard work, in picture making as in other arts, is in preparation.
|
|
For a long time motion picture producers were too impatient. No sooner was a
|
|
story purchased than the scenario staff and director were got busy
|
|
simultaneously. The director got his script sheet by sheet and as he shot his
|
|
daily takes through the laboratory they were approximately edited and titled.
|
|
At the end of the four weeks, or the twenty days, or whatever the production
|
|
schedule was, the picture was given a final polishing and shot forth to a
|
|
rather indifferent world.
|
|
Today the motion picture is made before the camera is set up. Many times
|
|
the author consults with the director before he writes his story; at any rate
|
|
before he adapts it, if it has already been published. Then there are
|
|
conferences between continuity writer and director; between director and art
|
|
advisors, technical experts, and others.
|
|
When it is time for the camera to blink its sixteen-a-second eye, 75 per
|
|
cent of the hard work for the director is over; all he has to do is direct
|
|
his picture!
|
|
In this preparation the modern director has perhaps his most important
|
|
duty in the recognition and preservation of the philosophy of the author.
|
|
Emphasis has passed from mere plots and tricks to the ideas upon which all
|
|
literature is based. Almost every novel and short story has some idea that it
|
|
seeks to convey to, and impress upon its readers even although it is
|
|
primarily only fiction and ostensibly only for amusement.
|
|
Unless the director is picturizing a story of his own authorship, it is
|
|
incumbent on him to determine the ideas of the author and to interpret them
|
|
on the screen. This does not stifle the individuality of the director; rather
|
|
it reveals it. In interpretation the director can best show his genius. And
|
|
by the faithfulness and sincerity of that interpretation the director of
|
|
today is judged by the public, whether or not the public realizes that fact.
|
|
Preserving plot is a matter of mechanical diligence. Preserving ideas
|
|
calls for originality, knowledge, perceptiveness and genius. These are the
|
|
things the director of the present is developing in accordance with the
|
|
dictates of the great unseen power that is surely speeding the motion picture
|
|
on to its niche as an Art.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 1922
|
|
William D. Taylor
|
|
PHOTOPLAY
|
|
I am mighty fond of New York and could not get along without going there
|
|
at least once a year, for its artistic, dramatic and literary advantages, but
|
|
as a place to make pictures it certainly cannot compare with Los Angeles.
|
|
Honest and disinterested thought can produce no other conclusion. It takes
|
|
twice as long to make a picture in New York and therefore costs much more.
|
|
And even in an artistic product like pictures, the cost is one of the most
|
|
essential things to reckon with.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
December 3, 1921
|
|
William D. Taylor
|
|
CAMERA!
|
|
November 30, 1921
|
|
Miss Fanchon Royer,
|
|
Editor Camera,
|
|
Los Angeles, Calif.
|
|
|
|
Dear Miss Royer:
|
|
As the result of a spirited discussion held at the last meeting of the
|
|
Motion Picture Directors' Association, I have been instructed to write you
|
|
this letter.
|
|
The Motion Picture Directors' Association feels that it would be to the
|
|
material advantage of the industry if certain extravagant and unnecessary
|
|
phases of Motion Picture presentation were curtailed.
|
|
We mean specifically:
|
|
Atmospheric prologues,
|
|
Vaudeville numbers,
|
|
Expensive orchestras.
|
|
In almost all the larger cities of the United States first-run theatre
|
|
managers have gradually added theatrical features to their feature
|
|
entertainment until today in many instances the theatrical entertainment
|
|
overshadows the featured photodrama of the program. The condition is a
|
|
serious menace to any further advances in motion picture production.
|
|
In the first place it is subtly impressing a certain class of our public
|
|
with the thought that the play is not the thing but that the trimmings are.
|
|
In other words it is belittling the importance of the photoplay upon which
|
|
the entire industry has been built.
|
|
In the second place, added numbers often take up so much of the program
|
|
time that the feature picture is "raced" by the projectionist in order to
|
|
maintain a time-table schedule. This works grievous injustice alike to
|
|
audience and to author, director and players.
|
|
In the third place, this custom is increasing the cost of exhibition to
|
|
such a prohibitive figure that many exhibitors are forced out of business by
|
|
the loss they must sustain, and admission prices are increased to such extent
|
|
that we lose an important and intelligent--but economical--portion of our
|
|
public.
|
|
In the opinion of this association, whose members are dedicating their
|
|
lives to the betterment of motion pictures, the over-elaborate prologue is a
|
|
useless adjunct to the feature picture, often even destroying dramatic effect
|
|
and turning the climax to anti-climax; the place for vaudeville is in the
|
|
vaudeville house, and the greater portion of the picture-going public prefers
|
|
its motion picture comedy and drama "straight"; and while the musical
|
|
accompaniment is an invaluable part of picture presentation and is working
|
|
wonders in furthering musical culture in this country, expensive orchestras
|
|
are unnecessary and often in poor taste.
|
|
The Motion Picture Directors' Association believes that these theatrical
|
|
features have been brought to become such an important part in American
|
|
picture programs through a mistaken sense of showmanship and in some cases
|
|
more personal rivalry between managers. We believe that extravagant
|
|
presentation is futile because it does not increase the attractiveness of
|
|
motion pictures to the general public.
|
|
|
|
Sincerely yours,
|
|
|
|
Wm. D. Taylor, President,
|
|
Motion Picture Directors' Association
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Some Comments Attributed to Taylor
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 25, 1915
|
|
MOTION PICTURE NEWS
|
|
William D. Taylor, director of the $20,000 prize photoplay, "The Diamond
|
|
From the Sky," recently handled 536 supernumeraries through fifty-two scenes
|
|
of picture-making in one day.
|
|
This performance is considered a record and is illustrative of the
|
|
untiring energy and great directive genius of the man, also of the responsive
|
|
organization with which he has surrounded himself.
|
|
"Organization is the key to 'big' picture production," Director Taylor
|
|
commented at the end of the tremendous day's work. "If a director organizes
|
|
well he will turn out good pictures. To do so, however, he must weigh well
|
|
his subordinates and co-workers. The camera is a most important element and
|
|
unless the director has the cooperation and confidence of his camera operator
|
|
all will not go well.
|
|
"In Homer Scott, 'the man behind the lens' in the production of "The
|
|
Diamond From the Sky," I believe there is invested more technique, more
|
|
knowledge, more artistry and more care than in any of the wonderful cameramen
|
|
with whom I have come in contact.
|
|
"Mr. Scott is abreast of every opportunity, full of ideas, and weighs
|
|
every situation with regard to both actors and background, with the result
|
|
that there is intense life in the countenances of the actors and the detail
|
|
of the sets are brought out with a vividness not seen frequently enough in
|
|
high class productions.
|
|
"It is well enough for a director to exert his skill and the actors
|
|
their ability, but if the camera does not 'get' all it should the work of
|
|
everyone is lost. There is no fear of that while Homer Scott turns the
|
|
crank."...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
June 1, 1919
|
|
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
|
|
The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation will picturize Mark Twain's
|
|
immortal story, "Huckleberry Finn," in the form of a special production, with
|
|
a large cast of picked players. Work will be started at the Lasky studio,
|
|
Hollywood, in about two weeks under the direction of William D. Taylor, who
|
|
directed the Paramount picture, "Tom Sawyer" and "Huck and Tom," as well as
|
|
several productions in which Mary Pickford was starred for Artcraft.
|
|
About a year ago Mr. Taylor went across the Atlantic in mufti to enter
|
|
the British service. He expected to enter an officers' training camp but
|
|
found it would take eleven months to finish the course, so being impatient to
|
|
get to the fighting district, he enlisted as a "Tommy" in the Royal
|
|
Fusiliers. Then he was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps and
|
|
commissioned lieutenant. He served in Flanders and was the second officer to
|
|
enter Lille after the Germans evacuated the city. He also reached Cologne and
|
|
other German points and spent some time in London before returning to this
|
|
country a few weeks ago. Aside from suffering from illness for some time, he
|
|
had plenty of interesting adventures, and looks splendid.
|
|
"Europe is motion picture mad," he declared, "particularly London, Italy
|
|
and some parts of France. I should say 90 per cent of the pictures shown are
|
|
American but I find that star names don't mean so much. They go to see the
|
|
picture and it must be a good one. They are pretty far behind in making
|
|
pictures there. Plenty of money but no equipment and the projection is bad in
|
|
the theatres generally. I had plenty of offers to stay there and direct but
|
|
preferred to return to Famous Players-Lasky."
|
|
Julia Crawford Ivers is writing the scenario of "Huckleberry Finn." It
|
|
should be explained, perhaps, that "Huck and Tom" was merely the second half
|
|
of the "Tom Sawyer" novel and that the new production is from the story,
|
|
"Huckleberry Finn." The incidents are entirely different from those embraced
|
|
in the first two pictures...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
June 22, 1919
|
|
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
|
|
William D. Taylor, who recently returned from France and is now
|
|
producing "Huckleberry Finn," was asked whether the lapse of time had
|
|
affected his directing. He replied that it had exercised a good effect, and
|
|
had made him more determined and earnest than ever.
|
|
"There is a change in every man who was in France," he added, "and I
|
|
believe the change is all for the better. Shams and trivialities will not
|
|
annoy any of us again; there is a lack of patience with smallness."
|
|
Mr. Taylor is making good progress with his film.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
October 29, 1919
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
Much has been said lately in a prophetic way concerning the future
|
|
location of the motion picture supply, which is now centered in Southern
|
|
California. That fact that some of the large producing concerns are erecting
|
|
studios in the neighborhood of New York has led some of the prophets to
|
|
assert that a hegira has set in eastward. This prediction is based on the
|
|
fact that improvements in the methods of artificial lighting have made it
|
|
possible to produce technical effects indoors that heretofore needed the
|
|
peculiar sunlight of California.
|
|
But, according to William D. Taylor, the noted Paramount director, who
|
|
is guiding Mary Miles Minter, there does not seem to be any prospect of
|
|
overcoming handicaps that tend to make movies costly when put together in the
|
|
east.
|
|
"I was almost three months making one picture in the east this summer
|
|
and autumn," said Mr. Taylor. "It was a film which would ordinarily have
|
|
taken from five to six weeks, and the delay was caused by the excessive
|
|
amount of rain. Exteriors which were absolutely essential just couldn't be
|
|
obtained, and while I enjoy the east and have a most happy time there when I
|
|
can loaf, give me California if I am working.
|
|
"The contrast to a director who has had the advantage of California's
|
|
brilliant sunshine and stable weather is almost impossible to imagine, and
|
|
for me there is absolutely no comparison as to the desirability of the west.
|
|
In the east, too, it is very difficult to get players. Most of the good
|
|
actors are tied up with the theaters and can only work on certain days, or
|
|
some mornings, and altogether production there is so delayed and uncertain
|
|
that for real, downright work I am most happy to be back on the coast again."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
November 22, 1919
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
|
|
William Desmond Taylor, the director who was chosen by the Realart
|
|
corporation to direct Mary Miles Minter, takes sharp issue with a printed
|
|
opinion that he has been enjoined to "make another Mary Pickford" out of his
|
|
young professional ward.
|
|
"Nothing could be further from the truth," said Taylor, with a
|
|
pardonable asperity. "I would not undertake her direction under such a
|
|
commission. The last advice I would give a player would be to pattern after
|
|
somebody else. It is true that there are some so skillful and finished in
|
|
acting technique that their methods of achieving results may well be studied
|
|
by all actors. But as for advising one to put aside his or her natural ways
|
|
to copy mannerisms--never!
|
|
"The most desirable thing in screen acting is spontaneity. If you
|
|
persuade an actress to pattern her work after another you do as much to kill
|
|
spontaneity as if you tied her hand and foot. And there is nothing more
|
|
quickly transmitted by the camera than such a lack in a player. The motion
|
|
picture public has become a very exacting critic; it detects and spurns very
|
|
quickly everything that savors of artificiality. The best story will fall
|
|
flat if it is not evident that the players are moving of their own thoughts
|
|
and impulses.
|
|
"Now that the picture drama has come to be something more than a novelty
|
|
and we must give to it the same care that is devoted to stage presentations,
|
|
the screen artists must succeed or fail, sink or swim on his or her own
|
|
qualities and capacities. To think otherwise would be like expecting one
|
|
child to learn mathematics by merely copying sets of figures that another has
|
|
set down.
|
|
"No, the last thing I would attempt to do--the last that can be done--is
|
|
to try to make one aspiring artist a 'second' anybody. To try it would be
|
|
merely to make an automaton."
|
|
|
|
[Of course, nobody said that he was to make Minter into "another Mary
|
|
Pickford" in terms of acting mannerisms; he was hopefully to make Minter
|
|
into another Mary Pickford only in terms of screen popularity and success.]
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
December 13, 1919
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
|
|
"Again I say that the west is the place for motion picture production
|
|
and that the east will never be able to compete in this regard with the
|
|
stable conditions of California and its immense superiorities in scenic and
|
|
other ways."
|
|
Thus did William Desmond Taylor, the Realart director, give forth an I-
|
|
told-you-so the other day with no little apparent satisfaction in having
|
|
called the turn.
|
|
"The coal strike that has come upon the east together with fiercely cold
|
|
weather, emphasizes but does not add any new truth to my recent statement
|
|
that the west is the place to make motion pictures and will always lead in
|
|
the field of endeavor," he continued.
|
|
"Both natural and artificial conditions combine to make it so. The
|
|
eastern studios are now in danger of a shortage of fuel that may greatly
|
|
curtail their production.
|
|
"And the shortage may not be remedied even in case the strike be
|
|
settled, so deficient are the transportation facilities.
|
|
"I recently showed upon my return to California that the making of a
|
|
picture that required three months' time in the east could have been
|
|
accomplished in California in five or six weeks.
|
|
"In that case it was the rainy and cloudy weather that proved the
|
|
obstacle.
|
|
"So now it is shown that both winter and summer anywhere in the east is
|
|
accompanied by hazard and high cost.
|
|
"Of course if the luxury can be afforded, a studio in the east as well
|
|
as the west may be desirable for use in certain emergencies; so may a studio
|
|
be in the south.
|
|
"But California will always lead in this activity because of its stable
|
|
weather, with the exception of the brief so-called rainy season, and its
|
|
great supply of oil for what fuel is needed in this semitropical climate will
|
|
always prevent such disastrous conditions as now threaten picture making in
|
|
the east.
|
|
"There are several other considerations, too, all of them helping to tip
|
|
the balance in favor of the west.
|
|
"Players are hard to get in the east, even around New York, which is the
|
|
dramatic center of America. There the large number of theaters have the first
|
|
call on the actors' services and picture making is looked upon as not a means
|
|
of livelihood but of earning additional income.
|
|
"Studio engagements are taken subject to previous stage engagements.
|
|
"No, if you want to make the best film features under the least
|
|
handicaps I am convinced you will always have to do it in the west.
|
|
"Many of the capitalists naturally desire to bring the artistic work
|
|
connected with picture making in close touch with the business end that is
|
|
necessarily centered at New York.
|
|
"But in spite of their strong desire to pull the studios and their work
|
|
in that direction the conditions are too strong for them, as the present
|
|
strike, coming so soon after the wartime fuel shortage, will probably
|
|
convince them."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
December 17, 1919
|
|
Henry L. Dougherty
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
|
|
The public today wants pictures that reflect life as we see it and know
|
|
it in the cities or the country or in our own neighborhood.
|
|
In life there is comedy and in life there are serious moments. There is
|
|
also tragedy and there is drama.
|
|
Blend these into the picture as they are blended in our daily lives and
|
|
then you have a photoplay that is perfect.
|
|
Such is the recipe of William Desmond Taylor for a motion picture that
|
|
will measure up to the requirements of an exacting public. Mr. Taylor, as you
|
|
will recall, has been directing pictures for the Famous Players-Lasky Company
|
|
for a number of years. He went to war as a private in the English army and
|
|
was rapidly promoted until he was given a captaincy--was in the thickest of
|
|
the fighting in France and Flanders [sic]--and is now back in Los Angeles
|
|
directing our little Realart star, Mary Miles Minter.
|
|
I talked at length with Mr. Taylor yesterday, and what he said impressed
|
|
me so deeply that I am going to record here and now some of this
|
|
conversation, as follows:
|
|
"Three elements enter into the making of a perfect photoplay--story,
|
|
direction and star.
|
|
"The author of tomorrow is going to become one of our greatest factors
|
|
in picture creation.
|
|
"We must not be artificial. Sincerity must be the keynote in picture
|
|
production. Life must be mirrored on the screen as we know it in our own home
|
|
town. Characters should never be made to do the impossible, or the
|
|
improbable.
|
|
"I think we have reached the climax in big spectacles. The world is
|
|
demanding real stories, with true-to-life characterizations.
|
|
"I always insist on cutting and editing my own productions. Who knows
|
|
the action of the picture and the motives that actuate the characters better
|
|
than the person who directs the picture?
|
|
"An actor or actress who is self-conscious before the camera will never
|
|
make a screen success. Our public does not think of cameras when a picture is
|
|
being thrown on the screen. The audience sees only the living, human people
|
|
out there doing something. Do that something before the camera, just as you
|
|
would in the store, on the street or in your own home.
|
|
"Patience in any picture making takes rank with artistry, acting and
|
|
perfect photographic qualities. Mary Pickford is a shining example of all
|
|
these. Directors must also be patient.
|
|
"Give the public real, human pictures with hearts in them and life and
|
|
love and passion and pathos--yes, and comedy--and the public will rise up and
|
|
call you blessed."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 21, 1920
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
|
|
"An item I have just been reading in the telegraphic columns of my
|
|
paper," said William D. Taylor, the Paramount director, "reminds me of what I
|
|
said a few months ago upon my return from the east. There never will be
|
|
another region to compare with California for advantages for motion picture
|
|
making.
|
|
"This item said that New York had just dug its way out from under a
|
|
blizzard after four days of work during which there had not been a ray of
|
|
sunshine. When I returned from my last period of directing pictures in the
|
|
east I told interviewers that I hoped no exigencies would compel me again to
|
|
put up with the difficulties I had gone through back there. The making of
|
|
scenes that took several weeks there could have been completed in California
|
|
in a few days. Now this is not only exasperating to the director but very
|
|
costly indeed to the business end of production.
|
|
"Above all other activities that I know of picture making must be kept
|
|
to schedule. Time is money in this work with special emphasis because
|
|
untoward delays pile up expense without results at an alarming rate, so heavy
|
|
is the item of 'labor cost' in film production, which does not cease once you
|
|
have taken up your work.
|
|
"It is all very well to say that improvement in interior lighting
|
|
methods removes the handicaps nature has put upon the eastern climate, but
|
|
even so you can't make many pictures without exteriors. A serious coal
|
|
shortage may check interior work or a protracted spell of 'weather' may halt
|
|
the taking of exterior scenes.
|
|
"The upshot of the whole matter will be that every well equipped company
|
|
will maintain studios both east and west. The east has some definite
|
|
advantages--chiefly of a commercial nature by reason of the close proximity
|
|
to the metropolitan market, but the west has so many more artistic and
|
|
technical advantages that it will always dominate the situation and lead in
|
|
output.
|
|
"Into the scale is being thrown the weight of preference on the part of
|
|
the stars, directors and actors. Most of them are settling down permanently
|
|
in elegant and costly homes in California. The delights of life in the Golden
|
|
State once tasted are never forgotten. Do you think these people will ever be
|
|
content to live under eastern conditions again? Well, hardly."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
June 27, 1920
|
|
Thomas W. Baily
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
|
|
William D. Taylor, who directed several successful pictures for Mary
|
|
Miles Minter and whose latest production, "Huckleberry Finn," won unstilted
|
|
praise from all parts of the country, dropped in on San Francisco last week
|
|
with a company of Famous Players-Lasky stars. He is working on a new film
|
|
that he says should be a hit.
|
|
Taylor sees great significance in the statement made by a New York
|
|
theatrical reviewer that John Barrymore has shown in his stage work
|
|
beneficial effects from his screen experience. Barrymore is playing in
|
|
Shakespeare's tragedy, "Richard III," in the East with sensational success.
|
|
The critic referred to declared that the actor showed a sureness, ease
|
|
in method and a repose that never characterized his work until recently.
|
|
"These virtues," said Taylor, "are sure to come from experience before
|
|
the camera. I know not only from observation, but as a former actor of the
|
|
stage, who realizes the handicaps under which the player of the footlights
|
|
labors. The fine thing about the screen, from the actor's standpoint, is the
|
|
privilege it gives him of scrutinizing his own work. The things he is prone
|
|
to overdo, the little mannerisms that so greatly detract from his work, and
|
|
the nervous impulses that are apt to shade his acting are all spread out in
|
|
merciless array before his eye. It will take a lot of conceit out of any star
|
|
of the stage who has never been before the camera to undergo this experience.
|
|
The best of them have their faults and overwork their little tricks.
|
|
"A second benefit of camera experience comes from the privilege of
|
|
seeing how and where to stress one's points. No one can look at a film
|
|
revealing his work without being struck with the fact that he ought to have
|
|
done certain things differently to register the greatest success.
|
|
"All this benefit is denied to the stage players, who cannot see himself
|
|
as others see him, as he may do when he stands aloof and looks over his
|
|
shadow on the curtain. The best the actor of the spoken drama can do is to
|
|
judge his work by the effect on the audience. He cannot appraise himself and
|
|
learn how he could do even better.
|
|
"The technique of the stage and the screen are different, yet they have
|
|
much in common in the fundamentals of acting. The new things that have been
|
|
discovered as a result of the photoplay's advent have done much for the art
|
|
of the stage. All of the players that I have talked with agree on that. So
|
|
instead of being an injury to the older art, as its partisans used to fear,
|
|
the motion picture has been a positive benefit as this discerning critic of
|
|
Barrymore's histrionic progress has observed."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 27, 1920
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
Los Angeles screendom paid sorrowful, impressive tribute to the memory
|
|
of its famous departed yesterday afternoon at a unique memorial service held
|
|
on one of the Brunton studio stages.
|
|
Stars and stage hands, producers and supers sat together on the big
|
|
stage in pews borrowed from the property department of the studios, and with
|
|
tear-dimmed eyes thrilled to remembrances of Robert Harron, Clarine Seymour,
|
|
Ormer Locklear and Olive Thomas, aroused by the address of William D. Taylor,
|
|
and the solemn harmonies of Grauman's symphony orchestra and the choir of St.
|
|
Paul's Pro-Cathedral.
|
|
Director Taylor was overcome by emotion as he finished the address in
|
|
which he extolled "sweet little Clarine Seymour, radiant with youth; gallant,
|
|
fearless Ormer Locklear; true-hearted Bobbie Harron; and generous, great-
|
|
hearted Ollie Thomas."...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
October 30, 1920
|
|
MOVING PICTURE WORLD
|
|
The most appreciable development in the motion picture industry has been
|
|
the growth towards stability and beauty in studio sets, according to William
|
|
D. Taylor, Realart producer. "The improvement along these lines has been a
|
|
physical change, easy for the public to grasp and understand. Its importance
|
|
became noticeable long before recognition of the more subtle betterments in
|
|
acting and screen technique," he said in a recent interview.
|
|
"Ten years ago I hesitated before going into motion pictures, because at
|
|
that time I considered the screen a cheap and tawdry form of art," he stated.
|
|
"This impression arose from the flimsy canvas settings which swayed with the
|
|
wind and the manifestly fake properties and other makeshifts. I believe my
|
|
opinion was reflected by the majority of Americans.
|
|
"When I became actively connected with the industry, however, I could
|
|
see its possibilities. To the public, the development of scenic beauty had
|
|
its effect first. The change from canvas to all wood sets spelled an
|
|
increase in quality. When this became evident, a better class of people
|
|
began to attend the cinema. Thus the picture clientele was developed to its
|
|
present high standard.
|
|
"When I look over the sets of 'The Witching Hour,' which I am doing for
|
|
Realart, I marvel that we could have progressed so far in such a few years.
|
|
It all seems so far distant from my first picture when the villain puts his
|
|
hand against the wall, making the whole house sway.
|
|
"When we give credit for the development of the movies, the technical
|
|
men must be remembered first of all. Surely 'as the sets have gone, so have
|
|
the pictures'."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
November 1, 1920
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
|
|
Denunciation of the vampires of the screen and recommendation that
|
|
censorship of films and even scenarios be accomplished by replacing the
|
|
National Board of Censorship with a consulting board, as emphatically set
|
|
forth by R. C. Craven of Boston before the annual convention of the American
|
|
Humane Society at Omaha, met with a storm of criticism from prominent members
|
|
of the motion picture profession in Los Angeles today.
|
|
"Such a discussion of censorship might have been just 10 years ago, but
|
|
not now when the heads of the motion picture industry have been to every
|
|
effort to make films which entertain and yet instruct and are of moral
|
|
value," declared William D. Taylor, Realart special producer, in commenting
|
|
on Mr. Craven's address. "My own success is to me sufficient refutation of
|
|
the charge that the public is being led from the sweet, simple human interest
|
|
drama to vampires and plays which exploit individuals of doubtful
|
|
reputations."...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
December 1, 1920
|
|
Guy Price
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
What do you--girls and boys and Mr. And Mrs. Public--what do you want
|
|
most to know about motion pictures?
|
|
Technical details of how they're made?
|
|
Intimate revelations about those who make 'em?
|
|
How to write scenarios?
|
|
Serious facts? Silly gossip? Solemn trivialities?
|
|
The question of what phase of motion pictures most interests the public
|
|
time and time again had been put to me, and so I hurled it directly at
|
|
William D. Taylor, the well-known director. Mr. Taylor long has been a
|
|
topnotcher in the motion picture industry--his productions for Paramount-
|
|
Artcraft and Realart have been big drawing cards--and therefore becomes an
|
|
authority in matters cinematic.
|
|
He had some tentative suggestions.
|
|
"How a star owes more to her cameraman than to her modiste and her
|
|
hairdresser! How to remove double chins (pro tempore) with a spotlight! How
|
|
skillful backlighting is more precious than a gallon of peroxide!"
|
|
I was hopeful.
|
|
"Can you give names? You've directed the Pickfords and Constance
|
|
Talmadge and Mary Miles Minter and a lot of others--tell how these things
|
|
apply in specific cases, and --"
|
|
"Sorry--afraid that would hardly be ethical. Like the doctor and
|
|
patient, you see. But without names--."
|
|
"Nope! It wouldn't do at all."
|
|
"How about the magic wand of the screen adapter--the translating to the
|
|
language of the motion picture a story written to be read in a hammock or
|
|
played behind the footlights? Would be all right for a trade journal,
|
|
perhaps. I could explain why titles are changed, who designs the settings and
|
|
how, what the qualifications are for a girl to go into pictures, why
|
|
censorship is not needed--"
|
|
"Been done--no one cares--they already know--propaganda--" and I paused
|
|
until Mr. Taylor should catch up with more suggestions.
|
|
"Well," he said, "I'll think it over--talk it over with my friends. On
|
|
the spur of the moment I don't think of any popular subject that hasn't
|
|
already been exploited pretty thoroughly."
|
|
Just then the 13-year-old daughter of one of the director's non-
|
|
professional acquaintances ran up. When in doubt ask a child!
|
|
"Agnes, what do you most want to know about the movies?" Mr. Taylor
|
|
addressed the youngster.
|
|
"Well you tell me, re-al-lee?"
|
|
"Yes."
|
|
"Oh-h-h! Well how old IS Mary Miles Minter? Why do Wally Reid and the
|
|
other nice men have to get married? Are Mary Pickford's curls real curls? Is
|
|
Charlie Chaplin jealous of Fatty Arbuckle? Why are Ben Turpin's awful eyes?
|
|
Who is Charlie Fuhr, and is it true he broke up Dorothy Dalton and Lew Cody?
|
|
Are those lions tame they use? Did you ever direct any lions?
|
|
"Doesn't your voice get fearfully hoarse? Do you know where Doug
|
|
Fairbanks is going to live after he leaves Beverly? When are Pauline
|
|
Frederick and Dick Ferris going to get married.--Y-know I heard that? When--"
|
|
Mr. Taylor faithfully answered as many questions as he could, wriggled
|
|
out of the rest and made his escape. Then turning to me, he asked, "What do
|
|
YOU think they want to know?" I considered the matter with brow gravely
|
|
corrugated for fully 30 seconds. Then I had an idea.
|
|
"Anybody been murdered in the movies lately? Got killed? No! Well,
|
|
there's always divorces and how about some inside stuff? Aw, I thought you
|
|
knew what was going on," I replied quizzically.
|
|
But we were getting nowhere.
|
|
The director motioned toward the studio refreshment stand. Arriving
|
|
there we ordered a soft drink (naturally) and when the youth in the white
|
|
coat had given Mr. Taylor the check (to my great disappointment and disgust),
|
|
he said to him:
|
|
"What about the movies interests you most, young man?"
|
|
He had some "fresh" repartee ready, but he saw Taylor was in earnest and
|
|
his sly leer straightened as he asked eagerly:
|
|
"Say, tell me what Neal Burns puts on his hair to keep it swell and
|
|
slick, will y'o?"
|
|
Later we were driving across Hollywood boulevard at Cahuenga and Taylor
|
|
interrogated the traffic officer.
|
|
"How can I get a job writing subtitles?" he said. "I saw one the other
|
|
night where a guy was arrested for assault with intent to kill and a police
|
|
judge sent him to the pen for 20 years. Police judge! No trial or nothing. I
|
|
can write better'n that.--All right, move ahead there!"
|
|
Next we tried a respected friend, a nice, married, middleaged woman, who
|
|
just dotes on opera and collects pedigrees of long-haired violinists.
|
|
"I wish you would tell me why Madame Nazimova does not make a picture of
|
|
the ballet Scheherezade? I think she's wonderful. Is it true that actresses
|
|
smoke only perfumed cigarettes? Hollywood is not really so awful a place, is
|
|
it? When will Charlie Chaplin film Hamlet? Does Harold Lloyd wear real
|
|
glasses, or are they merely frames? I love his curly hair. Did he and Bebe
|
|
Daniels have a fight?"
|
|
A telephone operator came next.
|
|
"Tell 'em the latest dirt," she suggested, her fingers flying about the
|
|
tangled mass of cord while she performed a sharp obligato of "Yes! Not in!
|
|
Line's busy! Hello! I'll see!"
|
|
"If there isn't any dirt make up some," she continued. "Tell 'em about
|
|
the dope fiends and the wild women and the carload of booze somebody brought
|
|
on from N'Yawk marked 'Fragile, Handle With Care--Cooper-Hewitt Tubes'--and
|
|
tell 'em the worst things you can imagine and they will like it."
|
|
So these are the things the public wants to know about. And how about
|
|
those hundreds of press agents who write stories about fan letters from Japan
|
|
and Madagascar and Sweden, and how someone almost got hurt doing a scene, and
|
|
how a make-up was so good it fooled the studio gatesman, and how someone has
|
|
a new canary bird, someone else a new Pekingese and someone else a new wife.
|
|
Knowing these things doesn't satiate the public's curiosity, it seems.
|
|
Mr. Taylor felt a trifle disgusted as the result of his questioning.
|
|
Morbid, silly, prying, impudent things people wanted to know. Were these the
|
|
only things about pictures that interested them?
|
|
"Does no one care about the history of 'The Great Redeemer,' the
|
|
psychology of 'The Witching Hour,' the humanity of 'Humoresque,' the drama of
|
|
'Way Down East'?" ruminated the director. "Is no one really interested in the
|
|
character of lovable Mary Pickford, the art of Billy Bitzer, the ideals of
|
|
Charley Chaplin, the scholarship of Julia Crawford Ivers?"
|
|
One man ought to know! I was not surprised when Taylor led me to an
|
|
exhibitor--the man who gets the picture from the maker and sells it to the
|
|
public, he whose silver dollars throb high or low with the pulse of public
|
|
appeal.
|
|
"Forget it!" exclaimed the film showman. "Sure, the public's curious.
|
|
The film public wants to know new things just the same as every one does.
|
|
That's what newspapers are for, and news reels and educational films. But
|
|
unless some star gets in a terrible scandal they don't really care one way or
|
|
the other.
|
|
"They are interested in the players for what they do on the screen. It's
|
|
the story they're after and the story's all they care about in the long run.
|
|
"You show 'em a story that makes the young fellers and their girls come
|
|
out afterward with their faces kinda shining, and the older folks laughing;
|
|
or maybe an old lady dabbing her powder puff around the eyes or an old gent
|
|
blowing his nose real hard--you do that and I want your picture every time"
|
|
"Make 'em cry; make 'em laugh; let 'em see people that remind them of
|
|
themselves--that are themselves. That's all they want, and don't forget it."
|
|
Mr. Taylor turned to me and I looked at him.
|
|
"What do people want most to know about the movies?" I put the question
|
|
for the last time.
|
|
"I dunno, do you?" he replied.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 9, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
Film directors, officials and stars are jubilant over Judge Ben B.
|
|
Lindsey's spirited defense of motion pictures before antagonistic Denver
|
|
clergymen, it appears from the statement today of William D. Taylor, the
|
|
director.
|
|
Picture people were already in complete sympathy with the "jail before
|
|
betrayal" stand of the juvenile jurist. Judge Lindsey was a member of the
|
|
Hollywood colony last year while he was working with Taylor on a picture of
|
|
boy life. Taylor has just received a batch of clippings and the reiteration
|
|
from Lindsey of his statement that he "would rather rot" than violate a boy's
|
|
confidence.
|
|
"The success of Judge Lindsey's work is due to the unshaken belief of
|
|
his boys that what they tell that little man in confidence will not be
|
|
revealed--and it will not," said Taylor. "The judge is right. Certainly
|
|
should he fail a friend, as higher courts now command, his life work with
|
|
boys would be for naught."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 16, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
In an effort to more closely bind the various branches of the motion
|
|
picture industry and looking toward a concerted campaign to work a betterment
|
|
of conditions, the Motion Picture Directors' association is taking the
|
|
initiative steps necessary to weld the interests of those associated with
|
|
film-making.
|
|
The movement is centered in Los Angeles, but has at heart the affairs of
|
|
all communities where pictures are made.
|
|
President-elect Wm. D. Taylor of the Directors' association has sent to
|
|
such societies as Motion Picture Producers' association, Motion Picture Art
|
|
Directors' association, Assistant Directors' association, American Society of
|
|
Cinematographers, Society of Illuminating Engineers, Screen Writers' Guild of
|
|
the Authors' league, Western Motion Picture Advertisers, Photoplayers' Equity
|
|
association, Los Angeles Film exchange, Theater Owners' association, Los
|
|
Angeles Theater association, Motion Picture Operators' union, Ethical Motion
|
|
Picture Society of America, and Girls' Studio club, the following letter:
|
|
"Gentlemen:
|
|
"The necessity of immediate and united action on the part of the motion
|
|
picture industry to defend itself against legislative menaces of censorship
|
|
and so-called 'Blue Laws' is recognized by every member of this industry.
|
|
"Our motion picture trade publications are urging united and unselfish
|
|
action of every one connected with producing, distributing and exhibiting of
|
|
motion pictures to defend this great industry against those who would weaken
|
|
and destroy it.
|
|
"It is regrettable to note at this time of peril that some factions are
|
|
quarreling with each other at a time when paid reformers, with millions of
|
|
dollars behind them, are preparing to come over the top from the opposite
|
|
trenches. It is imperative that any petty differences be forgotten until the
|
|
paid reformer is definitely defeated in his attempted assault on the screen.
|
|
"With the ambition simply to see 'something started' and not from any
|
|
desire to attempt to dictate or run the affairs of the industry, the Motion
|
|
Picture Directors' association urges the immediate organization of a central
|
|
committee of Western motion picture organizations the purpose of which is to
|
|
unite every phase of motion picture production, distribution and exhibition,
|
|
for the purpose of protecting ourselves from all enemies, and of furthering
|
|
our common interests. It is suggested that this committee be composed of one
|
|
representative from every existing recognized association, whose vital
|
|
interest is the welfare of motion pictures.
|
|
"Your organization is urged to name an official representative, who will
|
|
meet with one representative apiece from other organizations at the Los
|
|
Angeles Athletic club Monday, Feb. 28, at 8:30 p. m., to perfect and form
|
|
such a central committee. Kindly notify me at Lasky studio, as soon as
|
|
possible, the result of your action on this matter."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
March 1, 1921
|
|
Joseph Timmons
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
Representatives of fifteen branches of the motion picture industry, at
|
|
the meeting at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, formed an organization with the
|
|
single purpose of waging a campaign against censorship and such "blue laws"
|
|
as are directed against the motion picture business...
|
|
Mr. Taylor called the meeting to order by saying:
|
|
"You all know the crisis that confronts us. We are threatened with the
|
|
enactment of blue laws that would destroy the motion picture business. So
|
|
threatening is the situation that it is imperative that every interest unite
|
|
in opposition and that we present an unbroken front to the opposition. So we
|
|
have met here to form an organization that will embrace everybody concerned,
|
|
with the one end in view, to keep us alive.
|
|
"If the program mapped out by blue law advocates goes through we shall
|
|
be legislated out of existence. It will become impossible to make
|
|
pictures."...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
April 17, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
"Motion pictures are in their occult age." William D. Taylor, producer
|
|
of "The Witching Hour," so stated in commenting upon the strikingly large
|
|
number of photoplays dealing with the un-material.
|
|
Incidentally he disclosed the fact that, "The Lifted Veil" ["Beyond"],
|
|
the first story written for motion pictures by Henry Arthur Jones, has a
|
|
theme based on the supernatural. Mr. Taylor will complete his production for
|
|
Paramount of the Jones story next week.
|
|
"Mysticism has a strong grip on popular fancy," said Mr. Taylor. There
|
|
are those who absorb with avidity every new idea in the subject, from the
|
|
ouija board on. Others believe strongly in some one phase. But all, total
|
|
scoffers included, are interested in what is said and done on the subject."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
July 15, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
"A rumor is circulated in England that seven million English pounds
|
|
worth of films are lying idle in American vaults," writes William D. Taylor
|
|
investigating the film situation abroad. "Although I did not say so, I
|
|
believe that is a conservative figure at present, when features have been
|
|
costing $100,000 and $200,000 and two pictures approaching the million mark
|
|
are on hand.
|
|
"Motion pictures is the only industry in the world where fortunes can be
|
|
tied up for months in a few tin cans. It is difficult for the man in the
|
|
street to realize such a situation. The producer pays cash for story,
|
|
production costs, salaries--everything. He must wait three months, six
|
|
months, even a year for his returns even if the picture is released
|
|
immediately. It is the usual thing today, but it is a situation that will be
|
|
remedied to a great extent by the foresighted action of men like Jesse Lasky,
|
|
who is daring to cut production costs 25 per cent."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
July 21, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
After an air flight from London, William D. Taylor was forced to abandon
|
|
his German trip at the last moment. After getting his passport vised, which
|
|
"took some arranging," he writes from the Hotel Meurice in Paris, the motion
|
|
picture director found that sleepers to Germany were booked three weeks
|
|
ahead, while he already had passage engaged on the Olympic from Cherbourg in
|
|
six days.
|
|
"I might fly as far as Strasbourg," he says, "but they can't tell me
|
|
when I can get on to Bellieu, so I am not going to take a chance."
|
|
However, he had ample opportunity to study the film situation in England
|
|
and in France, and he hints of much to divulge on his return.
|
|
He saw Donald Crisp and John Robertson and other friends at the Famous
|
|
Players-Lasky studio in London. Paul Powell and Mary O'Connor were on
|
|
location, he says, but they are to return to this country when their picture
|
|
is cut.
|
|
"Personally, I can't see where the British-made picture is going to pay
|
|
for some time to come," comments Mr. Taylor. "They cost too much."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
July 22, 1921
|
|
Grace Kingsley
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
"All the pep that's being put into the film business abroad is being
|
|
injected by the Americans."
|
|
That was the remark of William D. Taylor, Lasky director, who has just
|
|
returned from a three months' tour of Europe, where he went to recuperate
|
|
following an operation here for appendicitis.
|
|
"I visited a few studios, and a few picture houses, and I found the
|
|
picture producers not only far behind the times, but not showing much
|
|
enterprise. Foreigners, however, do seem to appreciate American pep, and the
|
|
Americans are there with the spice all right, there's no doubt about that."
|
|
Mr. Taylor visited his old home in England, and he also journeyed
|
|
through Belgium, France and Switzerland. He served during the World War, and
|
|
was so tremendously interested in noting the manner in which European
|
|
countries are recovering following the world upheaval. He says they're
|
|
putting a brave face on everything, and are really showing immense powers of
|
|
come-back and enterprise in commercial lines.
|
|
The director's health is greatly improved from his trip, and he expects
|
|
to start work about August 8. The story he will do has not yet been selected,
|
|
but it is probable that it will be, either today or tomorrow, as he was
|
|
closeted all yesterday afternoon with Jesse Lasky, vice-president of Famous
|
|
Players-Lasky Co.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
August 7, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
"The motion picture is the fifth wheel in European amusement life today.
|
|
There is no place for it. There are no picture houses."
|
|
So declared William D. Taylor, noted producer under the banner of
|
|
Paramount and the director-president of the Motion Picture Directors'
|
|
Association, Los Angeles lodge, following his return from Europe.
|
|
"In London not one picture-house has been built since the war. Because
|
|
of the scarcity of building material and of housing quarters, only dwellings
|
|
and necessary commercial structures are permitted. Undoubtedly, though,
|
|
restrictions against places of entertainment will soon be lifted.
|
|
"The presentation we are accustomed to in our first-run theatres does
|
|
not exist abroad. In most cases two five-reel features form the program, and
|
|
little or no attention is paid to prologues, vaudeville numbers or short
|
|
subjects.
|
|
"Four or five different houses will simultaneously offer the same
|
|
feature--and that an old one. The only picture less than eighteen months old
|
|
that I saw while in London was 'The Connecticut Yankee,' and Fox rented a
|
|
legitimate theater in order to show that. In Paris I noticed a year-old Bill
|
|
Hart.
|
|
"There are more picture houses in France than England. They are smaller,
|
|
but cater to more people.
|
|
"Motion picture exploitation simply does not exist. For example at
|
|
Worthing, a channel resort near Brighton, there were thousands of persons
|
|
with nothing to do but listen to the band on the esplanade or stroll up and
|
|
down and look at the sea. Nearly a mile back in the town was the one picture
|
|
show, almost deserted. A few townsfolk were wandering in when I passed.
|
|
A mile away thousands of bored, amusement-hungry potential customers were not
|
|
even informed of a theater's proximity.
|
|
"I would say the chief needs of Europe today are, decent houses,
|
|
presentation, pictures of merit, and greater cultivation of a picture public.
|
|
"Europe is not tired of amusement. Legitimate theaters are going strong.
|
|
If the screen is neglected abroad, the stage certainly is not. All the talent
|
|
we lavish on motion pictures is over there devoted to the playhouse.
|
|
"Parisian stage productions surpass American stage productions as far as
|
|
our films surpass theirs. Disregarding different standards of dramatic morals
|
|
their art effects are beautiful and their performances move with clocklike
|
|
precision.
|
|
"Both abroad and in this country the public has become hypercritical
|
|
toward screen entertainment.
|
|
"A few years ago a picture was either good or rotten. If it was good
|
|
everyone found something to praise in it, and even the reviewers agreed on
|
|
its merits. If it was rotten everyone admitted it, again even all the
|
|
reviewers.
|
|
"Now a constant diet of motion pictures has developed a cinema
|
|
sophisticated people. I sit in a theater and hear criticisms on every side.
|
|
What some people do not care for, others flock to see. The reviewers are not
|
|
wholly satisfied with any picture, nor apparently wholly dissatisfied with
|
|
any."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
August 19, 1921
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
These sage remarks from the director-president of the Motion Picture
|
|
Directors' association, William Desmond Taylor, who recently returned from
|
|
abroad, where he made an extensive study of cinematic conditions:
|
|
"There have been a few questionable pictures since the war. This is due
|
|
to the moral decline that follows every great war. The pendulum is now
|
|
swinging far the other way. The worst of our pictures are clean compared to
|
|
the majority of pictures on the other side. You may be assured that what
|
|
French, Italian or German pictures reach our screens have been thoroughly
|
|
censored. Fully one-half of the original material has been deleted before the
|
|
picture is shown to an American audience."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
September 15, 1921
|
|
Joseph Timmons
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
...in the public hearing before the public welfare committee of the City
|
|
Council on the censorship controversy...William D. Taylor, famous director
|
|
and president of the Directors' Association, said:
|
|
"I have listened with amazement to the charges of these ministers that
|
|
we are debauching the morals of the youth of this city. I know that the great
|
|
majority of directors are building plays that are clean. We have not been
|
|
cleaning house four years. We began a few months ago and we have cleaned
|
|
house with a vengeance. We have pledged ourselves not to put anything into
|
|
pictures that will hurt the morals of any youth."
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 19, 1922
|
|
OMAHA BEE
|
|
One of the last interviews that William Desmond Taylor, noted director,
|
|
permitted his press agent to send broadcast for publication dealt on a
|
|
"disease" called "Filmphobia."
|
|
Taylor stated that it possesses dangerous possibilities which might
|
|
easily wreck the future artistry of a director.
|
|
"Filmphobia," said Mr. Taylor, "comes on you after you have been
|
|
directing pictures for a year or more. Its manifestations are that you gage
|
|
everything by film standards; you lose your pleasure in other forms of art
|
|
for their own sake. A picture director suffering from 'filmphobia,' and I
|
|
speak from experience, reads a novel and sees in it only screen situations--
|
|
and misses the literary values. He sees a beautiful sunset--and immediately
|
|
feels for the 'blue glass' which would translate those lambent colors into
|
|
the grays, whites and black of the motion picture. The motion picture is a
|
|
hard taskmaster. It is very apt to engross you to the exclusion of all other
|
|
interests. When this happens you're suffering from 'filmphobia' and need a
|
|
change of scenery.
|
|
"To cure himself of actual or incipient 'filmphobia' and to renew his
|
|
contact with the other allied arts, every motion picture director should have
|
|
at least three months away from the studio every year. And more and more they
|
|
are doing it. Cecil B. De Mille is now in Europe; D. W. Griffith takes
|
|
appreciable time between each effort."
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
Back issues of Taylorology are available from the gopher server at
|
|
gopher.etext.org
|
|
in the directory Zines/Taylorology;
|
|
or on the Web at
|
|
http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|