Adelbert S. Elliott (1915) 🇺🇸

Adelbert S. Elliott, motion picture player and director, has a record that reads like a scenario of a regular “thriller.”

He was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1880. Two years later his father inherited a stock farm in Pennsylvania and brought the young man to the new country. By the time he was eight years of age he was riding almost everything with four legs on the farm, specializing on horses, becoming an experienced “broncho buster.” Naturally this training led him right up to the equestrian department of the Barnum & Bailey show and he put in the next five years with the “big tops.” Five years was enough of the “sawdust” for young Elliott and he took a turn at vaudeville and then joined the Henry Dallas Musical Comedy Company, then touring India, China and Japan.

It was during the company’s engagement in China that the Ning Poo rebellion broke out and the city of Ning Poo was surrounded by thousands of wild Chinamen. Count Von de Leighton, a captain in the Chinese army, called upon foreigners to lead the Chinese troops and Elliott was among the volunteers and helped to put down the rebellion. For this service the Emperor of China made him a Lieutenant in the Imperial Army. He returned to the United States as a member of the suite of Prince Ching who attended the St. Louis exposition, and held the rank of first lieutenant and mandarin of the third grade.

Some time later Mr. Elliott resigned his position with the Chinese Government and went to Japan as a guide to a motion picture company which was to take pictures of the Russian-Japanese war. This was his first introduction to the picture game. Since then he has worked for many of the best-known picture companies, the latest engagement being with the Centaur company.

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The Idler

Charles Richman and Cathrine Countiss Do Excellent Work in Box Office Attraction Five-Part Subject.

Reviewed by George Blaisdell

In his portrayal of Mark Cross, the leading character of The Idler, which the Box Office Attraction Company is presenting in five parts, Charles Richman gives a performance that goes far to overcome the handicap of a loosely knit medium. His support, too, by Cathrine Countiss and a cast including Claire Whitney, Stuart Holmes, Walter Hitchcock, Harry Spingler and Maud Turner Gordon, is excellent. In its earlier stages the adaptation of Haddon Chambers’ story does not bite; there is a lack of clarity, of cohesiveness.

The picture is well staged, and it is plainly to be seen that expense has not been spared, even in minor matters. The story has wide scope — of marked contrast — of country estates and of the primitive West; of drawing-rooms and of bar-rooms. We see men of position in society in England transferred to the open. The strength of the story is concentrated in its latter half; here it is that the action holds.

Mr. Richman has the role of a man of means who finds his hasty marriage to an actress debars him from seeking the hand of the woman he really loves. John Harding, a man without means, in love with the same woman, goes to the western states and meets Cross, who has previously emigrated. When Harding gets word from home that he has fallen heir to the family estates he makes preparations to return, but just before doing so he accidentally shoots a man he is trying to save from getting entangled in a card game. Harding gets away and returns to England, where he wins the woman for whose hand the two had been suitors, failing to reveal to her that the wife of Cross had been killed in the States and that consequently he is free. It is when Cross and the brother of the man who had been shot return to England that complications follow fast. In the end there is a happy reconciliation.

Miss Countiss has the role of the woman deceived by Harding. She displays skill as well as feeling in her interpretation. Claire Whitney, too, as the sister who falls in love with the young man come to England on revenge bent, is a factor in the picture. Stuart Holmes is Simon, the brother; Walter Hitchcock is Harding, and Miss Gordon, the actress wife.

Some of the scenes that stand out are of the coaching party, the stormy interview in the dressing-room, with the dancers on the stage in the background; the fire in the bar-room, and the many clashes between the conflicting elements when the men have returned to England.

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Gertie the Dinosaurus

Winsor McCay, the famed creator of Little Nemo and a host of other fictions known to little ones and grown-ups, in his Gertie the Dinosaurus, contributes to the gayety of picture-goers. His work for the Vitagraph Company several years ago when 11,000 drawings were photographed for the screen will be remembered by many. If his present production lacks the novelty of his premier effort, nevertheless it is highly interesting and amusing as well. We are told that in the making of “Gertie” Mr. McCay has made 10,000 drawings, and we get a glimpse of them, just as we did in the earlier picture. That means a lot of work, but it was worth while. As an introduction, we see pictures of the Museum of Natural History and of the bones of a dinosaur which in life was estimated to be 70 feet long and 20 feet in height. A wager is made between the cartoonist and one of his confreres that he cannot make the creature come to life. McCay wins the wager, and we see it paid.

Gertie shows us Mr. McCay’s conception of what the creature was like. In obedience to commands she stands first on one foot and then on the other. She wags her head; she picks up an elephant by the tail and hurls him far out into the lake, but the animal gets back a moment later by using his trunk as a hose and showering Gertie. She retorts by drinking up the lake; we see the waters recede. She dances and she sulks — great tears roll. She does many other things, all of them funny.

Gertie the Dinosaurus is being released by the Box Office Attraction Company.

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Stefansson Rescue Film to Have Broadway Run

Arrangements are being made to present the Rescue of the Stefansson Arctic Expedition in one of the large Broadway theaters. The plans are not entirely completed as yet, but it is understood that the run will begin shortly after New Years. The picture is intensely interesting, appealing from a dramatic as well as historical and educational viewpoint.

It should have a long and successful run.

A great deal of territory has been sold in the very short time this picture has been upon the market which indicates clearly that the feature film buyers all over the country are quick to realize the value of a picture of this kind.

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Adelbert S. Elliott

Scene from The Idler (Box Office)

Collection: Moving Picture World, January 1915