Al. Lichtman Leaves Famous Players (1914) 🇺🇸
About to Embark on Personal Venture.
Al. Lichtman, who has been sales manager of the Famous Players Film Company since its organization, will leave that concern Saturday, June 20th, for the purpose of inaugurating a film brokerage office through which he will offer a personal sales service to film buyers, renters and producers. From a long and thorough study of trade conditions he has concluded that the necessity and desirability of such a connecting link among the three factors of the industry is so obvious that he is confident that his enterprise will fill a long-felt want.
In leaving the Famous Players, Mr. Lichtman stated that he did so with a great deal of sincere regret, as his connection with Mr. Zukor [Adolph Zukor] and his associates in the company has always been the most pleasant and harmonious, but gave as his reason for the change the ambition to do bigger things and create and nurture an enterprise of his own. He leaves with the good wishes and friendship of all the members of the Famous Players organization, who are as confident of his future success as Mr. Lichtman is himself.
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see also What Kind of a Fellow Is — Lichtman? (1918)
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“The Actress’ Redemption.”
Pretty light-o-love heroine ruins a man then falls in love with him in a new “features ideal” four-part picture.
Reviewed by Hanford C. Judson.
In giving an account of this offering perhaps we should reckon as most important the picture that it draws of a son wasting his time at college and spending thousands of francs on a woman while his old parents at home are stinting themselves in keep him going. This actress, a very pretty woman, is played by Maria Jacobini, who puts into her role the appeal of her sex by her wheedling, coaxing, yet charming ways. We sympathize with the youth enough to make us interested in him. To get her a pearl necklace he puts himself into the hands of an evil usurer, a true bird of prey who induces him to forge his father’s name to three notes. This villain knows that the old man has an ancestral home and thinks he can get it cheap. He reasons rightly that the father will let it go to save the family reputation; will give up his all rather than have his only son branded as a forger. The usurer is the picture’s best drawn character. He is very well acted and full of atmosphere. The third asset of the offering is its elaborate sets, interesting backgrounds and perfect photography. These last three items are grouped together, for they fall naturally under the head of staging.
The story is fair. No one will count it a great picture of life; but it gives a good chance to Mlle. Jacobini, provides action that doesn’t drag and leaves a concise and definite impression. It is not new and the ending is not quite what one would ordinarily expect from the situation, nor does it convince wholly. Yet it is sensational, has a fair measure of suspense, and will pass very well, bolstered as it is by its many points of undoubted excellence, as an entertaining, average feature offering.
When the son has brought ruin on his parents and they are turned out of the home where they have lived together, he runs away with the intention of rehabilitating himself elsewhere. The actress finds the torn fragments of the father’s note to the son, and, piecing them together, learns the inner truth of the matter. She finds that she really loves the young man and determines to make such restitution as she can. She hears that the home now owned by the usurer is vacant and herself rents it from him. We can see that the old man has been somewhat stricken by her beauty. He calls on her after she has occupied the house and she persuades him to sign the place away to her. Her actress smile fades a bit too quickly and he realizes that he is really repugnant to her and tries to snatch the deed back. She dodges around the table and slips past him and, in the library, has time to hide it in a book. He is too slow to see which book and her servants eject him forthwith from the room.
We are shown that the village people, who have long respected the former owners, look upon her as an interloper. One evening she meets the boy’s father, who has stolen in to grieve in the old garden. He recognizes her and curses her. The usurer comes again and bribes the gardener to let him into the house so that he can search for the deed. The actress rinds him going through the library. When she thinks him gone, she takes the document from its hiding place. He appears again with a revolver and, as she flees to take the deed to her lover’s parents, he fires. She is wounded; but the villagers arrest the frantic usurer, and she stumbles into the cottage where the old people are living. Their son has just come home successful. There is a reconciliation and the pleasant close of the story. The actress has now redeemed herself by her devotion to her duty greater than her fear of being shot.
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Scene from The Actress’ Redemption (Features Ideal).
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Dance at Coast Studios.
The Universal Film Company gave an informal dance to the west coast employees, June 6th, in appreciation of the splendid work of every man and woman connected with the organization in making up for recent fire loss in New York. The dance was held at the Hollywood studios on the great 400-foot stage, which was enclosed with canvas and gaily decorated for the occasion.
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The Two Big Men of the Mutual.
Harry E. Aitken, President — C. J. Hite, First Vice-President.
Congratulating each other on a great year’s business.
Collection: Moving Picture World, June 1914