Edna Whistler (1917) 🇺🇸
Edna Whistler, long to be remembered for her remarkable performance in “The Nigger,” has joined the Norma Talmadge forces in the support of that star for her production of Poppy, now well under way.
Miss Whistler, born in Louisville, Kentucky, and up to the time she left her home for her career one of the most popular society belles of that vicinity, has had what may be considered a most interesting advent on the stage and screen.
At a dinner tendered to Frank Stone, then touring the South with The Red Mill, Miss Whistler first met that satellite and during the course of the evening, being requested to sing, she quite overcame Mr. Stone with the quality of her voice. He secured a trial engagement for her and Miss Whistler left for Chicago.
In New York, after a long illness, Miss Whistler met Julian Eltinge, whom she resembles so closely that he created a role for her in his production of the Crinoline Girl. Then followed her screen career, during which Miss Whistler appeared with Theda Bara in A Fool There Was, “The Nigger,” and other prominent productions.
Miss Whistler is under the management of William A. Sheer, Inc., and bids fair promise of shortly being numbered one of the most prominent of screen stars.
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Lasalida Film, Inc., Formed
To produce features with Baby Marie Osborne — Other features will also be made.
Lasalida Films, Inc., is the name of a new motion picture producing organization which has been formed to make feature photoplays with Baby Marie Osborne, the youngest star of the screen. Releasing contracts have been obtained and the company has already begun the picturization of its first subject. The name of the company is derived from the Spanish, the word Lasalida meaning “light of the sun.” W. A. S. Douglas is vice-president and general manager.
Mr. Douglas is well known in film circles through his long association with motion picture companies. His first post was with Pathé as editor of Pathé weekly. Afterward he became assistant to vice-president Charles Dupuis of Pathé, and later he was made personal assistant to Charles Pathé, both in France and the United States. At the outbreak of the war Mr. Douglas was in charge of the French Pathé program in Paris.
Some time after his return to the United States he was Western representative of Pathé, but resigned this position to go with the Universal as inspector of exchanges. This last position he left to take over Lasalida Films, Inc.
Lasalida Films, Inc., intends to produce eight pictures a year featuring Baby Marie Osborne and will also engage in the production of other features. Contracts have been entered into with Pathé to release the Baby Osborne subjects. The company has leased studio space from David Horsley and is now engaged in making the first picture, the working title of which is When Baby Forgot. Eugene Moore, recently with Thanhouser and Pathé as director of Gladys Hulette, is making the pictures with the assistance of Leo Worth.
The contract entered into between Pathé and Lasalida for the Baby Marie Osborne productions is of two years duration, while the child is under contract to the producing company for three years.
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Sherman Film Releasing Company
New corporation formed to handle state right pictures — Selig’s “The Crisis” first venture.
A new corporation, the Sherman Film Releasing Company, chartered under laws of Massachusetts and composed of some of the leading business and professional men of New England, has entered the moving picture field to purchase features on a state rights basis.
A. B. Fox, of Newton, Massachusetts, a successful merchant, is president, and Alexander Rose, one of the leading attorneys of Boston, is treasurer. The latter is no novice as regards the film industry, having acted in an advisory capacity in New England for some of the largest film companies in the United States.
The first feature acquired by the company is Wm. N. Selig’s The Crisis, now playing to crowded houses in St. Louis, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. It is the intention of these men to open up shortly in Boston at one of the leading theaters for an indefinite run exploiting the picture in the elaborate manner that has made Sherman-Elliott so successful.
Harry Cohen, of the New York office of Sherman-Elliott, leaves to take up work in New England regarding “The Crisis” for the newly formed corporation.
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Southwestern Art Dramas
Sanford & McHenry, prominent exchange men, to handle program in Southwest.
After making a thorough investigation of Art Dramas program and the men behind it, F. M. Sanford and L. C. McHenry, two of the best known exchange men in the Southwest, have decided to devote all their time to handling this program for their territory, and have incorporated under the name of “Southwestern Art Dramas, Inc.”
The company has taken over the entire second floor of the “Fotoplayer Building,” in the heart of the film district of Dallas.
The men in the organization had hitherto handled the pictures of a company with stars as its drawing cards, but were forced to abandon this service, as it was found impossible for exhibitors to make any money on account of the high rentals.
The officers of the new concern are Mr. Sanford, who is president and general manager: L. C. McHenry, vice-president and assistant general manager, and A. Feickert, secretary and treasurer.
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George Beban reverts to the Italian.
George Beban’s multifarious Italian admirers will be delighted to learn that the celebrated Morosco-Paramount character actor, after scoring a success as a Frenchman in The Bond Between, will revert to the Italian characterization in his next picture, The Marcellini Millions. Though all of Mr. Beban’s admirers are glad to see him in any characterizations which he chooses to perform, his great coterie of Latin enthusiasts always prefer to see him in the Italian roles in which he has won an international reputation.
In this case he is an Italian truck gardener, a role which gives him many opportunities for comic and dramatic action which have not hitherto been afforded him. Though Mr. Beban’s last two productions emanated from his own brain, this picture is an adaptation of the story by Edith Kennedy which was prepared for the screen by Miss Kennedy and Mr. Beban in collaboration. Like all of Mr. Beban’s more recent photoplays, it was directed by Donald Crisp.
Helen Jerome Eddy, who has done such wonderful character work opposite Mr. Beban and in other Pallas and Morosco productions, plays the role of Mrs. Bartelli — one of the best parts that she has ever had upon the screen. Others in the cast are Pietro Sosso, Henry Woodward, Eugene Pallette and Adele Farrington.
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Arthur Hopkins to direct Maxine Elliott.
Arthur Hopkins, discoverer and producer of several of the most successful dramatic attractions of the last decade in the American theater, will direct Maxine Elliott in her second picture for Goldwyn.
Mr. Hopkins, who is one of the partners in the Goldwyn Corporation, has lived in that company’s studios since the formation of the Samuel Goldfish, Edgar [Edgar Selwyn] and Archibald Selwyn and Hopkins alliance, and is now ready to undertake his first cinema production.
Miss Elliott in her second picture will be supported by a cast of able and popular players which includes Marguerite Marsh, R. Leigh Denny, Donald Galleher, George Odell, Florence Ashbrooke and Helen Salinger. Mr. Hopkins has chosen as his assistant director George Berthelon. René Guissart will be his cameraman.
Collection: Moving Picture World, April 1917