Gertrude Thanhouser and Edwin Thanhouser — The Thanhousers are Back on the Job (1915) 🇺🇸
‘tis said that Thanhouser stock jumped six points the day Wall street received information of Edwin Thanhouser’s resuming general charge of the Thanhouser company.
by Mabel Condon
Time turned back three pages, took the Thanhouser president of 1912, and earlier, and placed him in the 1915 setting afforded by the New Rochelle studio and offices. Time then mounted to the top of the Thanhouser mahogany roll top desk and Mr. Thanhouser states that it alone is to be judge of whatever the Thanhouser plans and management will mean to the company now under his jurisdiction.
Other things happened, in addition to the rise of the stock market. The studio scintillated in the bright sunshine which ushered in the returned general manager and three scenes were under way in the filming in less than record time. Gertrude Thanhouser — who is Mrs. Edwin Thanhouser and whose dramatic perception was greatly responsible for earlier Thanhouser successes — said a cheery “Good Morning” to everybody and slipped out of her motor coat and into a swivel chair to the pleasurable task of writing dramatic moments into film plots. Lloyd Lonergan, after a two months’ absence, walked around the corner from his apartment and resumed the desk of scenario chief.
The combination is that of the days when Edwin Thanhouser marshalled the company bearing his name into incorporation. That was in 1908. For seven years prior, he had successfully operated a stock theater in Milwaukee, where every play produced had been read and approved by Gertrude Thanhouser, who previous to her marriage had been on the stage. So, on the formation of a motion picture company, Mrs. Thanhouser fitted quite naturally into the scenario department which consisted of herself and Lloyd Lonergan. This department was so brave as to adapt plays from Ibsen and Shakespeare, to which Edwin Thanhouser added, as a pioneer move, the 1,500-foot film. Both the adaptations and the odd-lengthed film proved successes and the Thanhousers, in their resumed positions of authority, express their faith in both.
“The natural length film” is the way Mr. Thanhouser expressed it, the other day, in his second-floor office which fronts on “Thanhouser Park.”
“And by a natural length film I mean one that is only as long or as short as the interest of the story will allow. A maximum length combined with a minimum story is a great mistake. A film should have no barren spots; its story should run a natural course and then stop, instead of being padded out to make footage.
“I believe in feature pictures,” went on Mr. Thanhouser. “I prophesied a long time ago that a motion picture would comprise an entire evening’s entertainment. However, no one length of film is ever going to displace the popular usage of another length. There is a place for every length of film that is interesting; there is no place for any film that does not interest all the way.
“A feature film must not necessarily be a spectacle nor must it contain multitudes of people. It may contain only three or five, yet, if the story is there, and will carry it several reels, it will be a feature. We expect to make two feature films every five weeks in addition to our regular short releases. And these latter we may increase. There are several ideas I have in mind and hope to work out satisfactorily — but time will have to tell you about these.” Mr. Thanhouser smiled. While it is inevitable that Time also shall smile, and pleasantly, it will not be until presently, which Mr. Thanhouser interprets as likely to be from four to six weeks. And that shall only be the beginning.
The Thanhouser smile is wide and cheery; it reveals good teeth and creeps up to the bright gray-green eyes which twinkle a swarm of laugh-wrinkles into the corners. The dark brown hair has a generous scattering of gray and the quick directness of his manner and speech accords well with the slender wiriness of his build.
His management of the Thanhouser interests from 1908 to 1912 was so successful a test of his business tact and his ability as a picture producer, that Mr. Thanhouser’s vacation of three years in no way lessened the industry’s remembrance of him. And three years of vacationing in Europe with his wife, his son Lloyd, thirteen years old and his daughter, Marie, eleven years old, heightened Mr. Thanhouser’s interest in films and their making, brought him the realization that American films are better than those of the European market and inspired him to visit the studios of Europe, with the result that his knowledge of films and filming is particularly keen and progressive.
The ability of Gertrude Thanhouser will make itself felt in the work that will go out from the scenario department, of which Phil Lonergan is also a part. “A wonderfully clever woman,” Mrs. Thanhouser is called. She also is a wonderfully pretty woman and she is as pleasant, too, as she is pretty and clever.
The Thanhousers, who have been married “fifteen short years” as Mr. Thanhouser puts it, have an apartment-home on Riverside Drive. They will motor out to New Rochelle every morning in a Winton Six which Mr. Thanhouser drives.
There is no doubt but that the coming six weeks will occasion another and a decided rise in the stock quotation on Thanhouser stock. And Time shall be the marker.
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Wonderful Dallmeyer Lens
Without question the Dallmeyer cinematograph lens, working at the enormous speed of F 1.9, is the most marvelous lens ever produced for taking motion pictures. Some idea of the wonderful speed of the new lens can be obtained when it is stated that it is about four times as rapid as the lenses working at F 3.5, which are ordinarily considered as extremely rapid.
With this great speed the operator is enabled to produce fully timed negatives under unfavorable light conditions, which would be absolutely prohibitive with the ordinary high speed motion picture lens. They find their greatest usefulness in photographing dimly lighted interiors, illuminated parades at night, fires, submarines and all other subjects which by their nature are poorly lighted. Notwithstanding any extraordinary speed of this lens, the depth of focus is sufficient to obtain sharp images, at such distances as those at which pictures are ordinarily taken.
The mounting is very unique in its construction and design which permits its being fitted to almost every motion picture camera. The focusing device is built into the lens mounting so as to occupy the least possible space and incorporates the accurate micrometer movement. It is absolutely rigid and works with great ease and precision.
It is clearly apparent that the equipment of no producing company or industrial film manufacturer is complete without one of these lenses.
The Dallmeyer cinematograph telephoto lenses are an entirely new invention and enable the operator to secure large images without employing cumbersome long focus lenses which are impractical owing to the great danger of vibration, their bulk and the great length of the extension tube.
The Dallmeyer telephoto consists of a long focus positive element to produce a large image, to which is added a negative element, which in turn shortens the effective focal length, resulting in a high power telephoto combination which produces great magnification with only a short extension. Heretofore telephoto lenses have been impractical for motion picture work because of the slow speed at which they work. However, the Dallmeyer Company has been successful in combining great speed, perfect definition and wonderful covering power. One of this series has the extreme power of F 4.5.
The entire telephoto outfit is exceedingly compact and can be fitted to any motion picture camera. It is equipped with a “built in” focussing mount, which occupies no additional space. The focussing mount works on the spiral movement and is equipped with a scale for all practical distances. The mounts are constructed of aluminum, all the wearing parts being of brass, thus assuring the maximum wearing qualities.
This lens has been successfully used in photographing volcanos in action and in securing real war pictures on the firing line in the present European struggle, its wonderful magnifying power being especially practical in photography in the danger zone, as it permits the operators taking a position from three to nine times as far from the scene as is required when using an ordinary lens to secure images of normal size.
Burke & James, Inc., of Chicago, probably the largest wholesale distributor, is the sole American wholesale representative of the Dallmeyer Company, maker of the two series of lenses described above. Burke & James, Inc., is also the sole wholesale agent for the Voigtlander lenses, among which are the Heliar F 4.5 and Helomar F 3.2, both rapid anastigmats of the highest quality, especially constructed for motion picture work.
Telephoto lens taking war pictures.
The Dallmeyer telephoto lens.
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Educators Visit Lubin Plant
In order that they might see at first hand the making of motion pictures, and incidentally, discuss with the men and women who write, make, and act them, the educational trend of the photoplay of today, a party of prominent Philadelphia educators visited the Lubin plant recently and spent an interesting day, during which they saw a half dozen different comedies and dramas being made in the studio.
In the party were Captain John B. Pepper; William T. Tilden, one of the most prominent educators in Philadelphia; William Shoemaker, a member of the Board of Viewers; J. Horace Cook, superintendent of school buildings; George Wheeler and Oliver P. Cornman, assistant superintendents of schools; John C. Frazer, director of vocational education; Louis Nusbaum, Charles H. Brelsford, Milton C. Cooper, Samuel L. Chew, district superintendents of schools; Henry J. Gideon, chief of the bureau of compulsory education; George D. Gideon, Wm. L. Sayre, late principal of manual training schools; Dr. E. S. Saylor, eye specialist; George Z. Long and William K. Gorham.
So interested were the educators in watching the inner workings of the big Lubin plant and discussing photoplays with the various Lubinites they met, that they unanimously accepted Mr. Lubin’s invitation to visit his ranch at Betzwood, Pa., and inspect the studios and mechanical departments there and see the making of some big, spectacular out-of-doors scenes.
Collection: Motography Magazine, March 1915