Beatrice Van (1915) 🇺🇸
Beatrice Van, engaged by President S. S. Hutchinson, of the American Film Company, as the feminine lead of the newly organized “Beauty” company No. 2, now releasing twice a week on the Mutual’s new $8,000,000 program, makes her initial bow to Mutual audiences in When His Dough Was Cake, released Sept. 11.
This talented young blond beauty of the screen possesses exceptional ability as a film star, and enjoys the distinction of having been selected by so shrewd a judge of screen players as President Hutchinson, from a list of a score or more of well-known favorites placed before him.
Miss Van is not only talented, vivacious, beautiful, but she possesses an unlimited assortment of humor, and the ability to adapt herself to any role, regardless of how ludicrous it may seem. In following releases screened by the second Beauty company, Miss Van will continue to share honors with John Sheehan and John Steppling, who appear in her support in When His Dough Was Cake, one of the most laughable comedies ever screened. Steppling will direct the staging of the second Beauty releases as well as play in them. As a director, Steppling, judging by his work in When His Dough Was Cake, will make just as much of a success as he has as a screen player.
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Real Stories from Reel Studios
by Thornton Fisher
It was my privilege to spend an evening recently in the quaint little town of Cumberland, Md. The natives of the little city, on that particular evening, were strutting about like a flock of pouter pigeons on parade. I asked a man if the latest census report had shown a fifty per cent, increase in local population, or what was it caused the apparent conceit of his fellow citizens. Whereupon I was gently but firmly led to the entrance of a moving picture theatre, and pointing to a blazing banner, with disgust coloring his tone, he replied, “Don’t you never read the papers?” Right away I tumbled. The poster in front said: “To-day! The Diamond from the Sky.” And everybody knows it was their own former townsman, little Roy McCardell, who wrote it. So I knew what was ailing Cumberland.
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Also Roy dropped in to see us a few days ago, but he didn’t have on that California suit and white shoes he’s been wearing since old Dame Fortune’s been hanging around. Roy has some great photos of himself in that suit.
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If you are ever in Pittsburgh and someone invites you to the “Nick,” go ahead. A “Nick” is synonymous with movie theater, and is short for nickelodeon.
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Chief Auditor Brench of Mutual is a strong German. Fill in pro or anti to suit yourself. We can’t spill it, but don’t argue either way with Mr. Brench and you’ll be on the safe side.
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Lenore Ulrich admits she was half scared to death while on horseback during one of her scenes in a recent picture. Huh! An honest confession, etc.
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Edwin Thanhouser, that hustling gentleman of New Rochelle, somewhere in New York, will add a busy little body to his staff of directors soon — Eugene Nowland being the man. Mr. Nowland is now completing Vanity Fair for Edison.
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Lubin’s portable lighting plant which was used in Grand Canyon, Arizona, resembled an armored auto battery going to the front.
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And now comes “Pop,” the cartoonist of the Associated Newspapers, into the movies. Now we know why it is so hard to find our fellow artists at the old drawing boards. We know three cartoonists who are not in the movies. They’ve been dead seven years.
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The General Film releases in story form for Thursday, September 9, are: He received The Broken Wrist in A Quiet Little Game, and tried Romance as a Remedy, and now he’s ‘Neath Calvary’s Shadows. Gleaned from the Moving Picture World’s Calendar of Daily Program Releases.
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Buhler Likes to Do This.
In Evidence, the F. Ray Comstock feature, which will be released September 20 on the World Film Program, Richard Buhler, the well-known classical actor who made his second appearance in films in that picture, had an opportunity to gratify one of the longings of his heart.
“It is traditional that an actor always wants to play roles which no one but himself feels he is perfectly qualified to play,” says the actor. “For so long I have played what are termed ‘rugged’ parts, or classical roles such as Ben-Hur, in which I wore robes and other garments which were anything but modern, that I have really longed for an opportunity to appear dressed as an ordinary, well-bred man. Secretly, I think I appear to greater advantage in a dress suit than in a robe. In Evidence I was a regular, modern English lord, and I wore a dress suit through almost the entire picture. The directors of the company say that they are very much delighted with the pictures. Now I will tell my friends who say that I am only good in a robe ‘I told you so.’”
Mr. Buhler is working with Lubin now in a series of pictures from the stories of Rex Beach.
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When Applegate Met Armstrong.
Roy Applegate, who is playing the heavy lead opposite Kathryn Osterman in The Bludgeon, which is being staged for the pictures at the Equitable studios, cherishes an unusual memory of Paul Armstrong, the playwright, and the author of The Bludgeon, whose death occurred last week, after the picturization of his play had been in progress for several weeks. Mr. Applegate has an exceedingly difficult role to play, one taking a great deal of understanding and imagination. One day after he had completed a big scene, and stepped back exhausted out of the “set,” a stranger reached out his hand and said, “That was great, old man. That’s an unusually hard role to play, and I think you’ve got it just right.” Mr. Applegate thanked the stranger, who continued to converse with him on various points of the play. At length the actor turned to the stranger and said, “You surely know a great deal about this play, don’t you?” and the stranger answered, “I ought to, I am the author.”
Collection: Moving Picture World, October 1915