Arnold Daly — a Pathé Player (1915) 🇺🇸

Famous actor to star in new serial — will take part of “Craig Kennedy.”

Arnold Daly, who through his work in Candida became in such a short space of time one of the most-talked-of actors in America, has signed with Pathé to take the leading part in its new serial, The Exploits of Elaine.

That Mr. Daly stands in the very front rank of the theatrical profession today is self-evident, and that he has been signed by Pathé for the new serial proves conclusively that The Exploits of Elaine will be a vastly different proposition from The Perils of Pauline in that the new story will require most artistic interpretation, and not depend so much upon sensational incidents for its interests.

Born in New York, he showed the average New York boy’s sublime indifference to the favorites of fame, and they still tell stories along Broadway of young Daly’s scornful attitude towards the famous playwrights and theatrical stars who called upon Mr. Frohman, while he was office boy for that theatrical manager.

At an early age Mr. Daly was convinced that he could act and eventually prevailed upon Mr. Frohman to give him a chance in a small role. He soon showed that he possessed an intuitive dramatic sense and his rise was steady. He was fortunate to have a part in Pudd’n Head Wilson, under Frank Mayo, whose splendid experience and fine talent gave him much invaluable knowledge.

After that engagement he played the boy in Wm. Gillette’s [William Gillette] farce, Because She Loved Him So, which was followed by the part of the mad lover in Barbara Frietchie, with Julia Marlowe. Engagements in When We Were Twenty-one, Hearts Aflame, and The Girl from Dixie followed. All this time Mr. Daly’s art had been broadening and taking on a finer quality.

Unconsciously and gradually he had been fitting himself for his great success, Candida. It is interesting to note that this great production, which afterwards played 132 days in New York, was first put on for matinees only by Mr. Daly to demonstrate “a worthy play which could not be commercially successful in New York.”

Shortly afterward against all advice, Mr. Daly needing a play as a stop gap, determined to try Candida on the New York public. It was done, and each day saw a growth in the receipts. Before long it was the most talked of play in the city, and Mr. Daly was famous. He had proved once and for all the value of a serious production.

Being of Irish descent, Mr. Daly could not help but be witty. It is said of him that on one occasion he was invited to a dinner of the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, and was called upon for a toast. He rose and, with a rare twinkle in his eye, said as follows: “To the Plymouth Rock — the Blarney-stone of our dear America.” He is also epigrammatic, as the following recent statement of his will prove: “Culture will rid the world of war — unless war first rids the world of culture.”

So Pathé has made a ten strike in securing this brilliant Irish-American actor who is a thinker as well as an artist. As Craig Kennedy in The Exploits of Elaine he should gain new laurels and stamp the new serial with his decidedly interesting personality.

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“The Beat of the Year”

A two-reel Reliance of decided merit, based on a story by Robert Livingston Beecher.

Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison.

Cast:
Joyce… Eugene Pallette
Greening… Sam De Grasse
Bruce… Fred Hamer [Frederic Hamen]
Helen… Francelia Billington

A well-constructed screen story of logical structure and careful treatment, The Beat of the Year, holds interest quite as much by ingenuity of plot and development as by its well-sustained suspense. It is really a detective story, involving the gradual unfolding of a crime mystery by a cub reporter of natural talent and a tendency to take the bit in his teeth and make the running. He is sent out on an assignment as an assistant to the star reporter, but he cuts loose on his own account, gathers a number of small clues and, through a process of reasoning that involves quick perception as well as infinite pains, he clears up a perplexing problem in time to make the scoop of the year.

The story opens with mystery and develops without any of that theatrical method which calls for enlightening the audience. It does not enlighten — it mystifies — and holds attention all the more on that account. There is apparently no clue to the perpetrator of a murder up to the time the victim’s clothes are shown to the star reporter and cub at the Morgue. The cub notices that one button on a vest is unlike the others and pilfers it. With that starting point he begins two lines of investigation, one starting with the manufacturers of the button and the other to ascertain who owned a deserted automobile figuring in the case.

The buttons are all shipped out of town, but that does not discourage the cub. Some employee might have used one to replace a button lost — are any of the factory hands absent? Two. Greening and Joyce. There is a group picture in which the latter appear and they are pointed out to the cub. When the young reporter has at last found the owner of the deserted car, he hires his services for the day and has him look at the group. The automobilist at once points out the man who hired the deserted car.

These clues are followed with activity and determination to the arrest of Joyce and the unfolding of his strange story, in which he accounts for all that might easily have been covered but for the cub’s strenuous detective work. Nothing is left to accident or chance in the cub’s work up to the discovery of Joyce: it is just what a photodrama should be in the assertion of a strong will against adverse circumstances, and fascinating on that account.

In The Beat of the Year is avoided a trouble very common in detective plays, that of exhibiting the problem by such a method that it is easily solved in advance. It has also a virtue of not depending upon coincidence or mere chance for its development. It is all right to let chance play its probable part in any story, but not so as to make the action hinge entirely upon it. There is a definite design in the mind of the cub reporter which is carried out to a logical end by plausible means.

Scene from The Beat of the Year (Reliance).

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Harrington sells his wonderland.

D. B. Harrington, of Paullina, Ia., will sell on January 1, 1915, his Wonderland theater in that city, a moving picture house which he has successfully conducted for over four years. The new owner is E. M. Ehlers, of Paullina. It is Mr. Harrington’s intention to buy a bigger house in a bigger city.

Collection: Moving Picture World, January 1915