Howard Crampton (1914) 🇺🇸
Howard Crampton, a member of the Imp Stock Company, has had a wide experience on the stage. He will be best known to picturegoers as the confidential agent of the Man Higher Up in the big Universal subject, Traffic in Souls.
Mr. Crampton has been in pictures about two years. He is one of the half-dozen members of a film company to appear in a picture, a part of which was shown first on the stage, and immediately afterward shown on the screen. This was as a member of the Imp company under King Baggot, which played The Baited Trap at the Republic Theater recently.
Mr. Crampton’s first appearance before the public was in what was then known as the “variety business.” With Joseph Murphy he did a dancing turn in Donough, and later he played Denny Doyle in Kerry Gow. Then for ten years Mr. Crampton was in the “legitimate.” He played in Tom Rickett’s Duvar company. Charles Frohman’s Gloriana, Frank Daniels’ Dr. Cupid, William T. Hodge’s in Eighteen Miles from Home, Eddy Foy’s Hamlet by Freight, and in The Spoilers.
Mr. Crampton played the leading comedy part, King of Nicobar, in B. C. Whitney’s Isle of Spice, and for two years with Sam S. Shubert’s The Belle of New York company. His last engagement on the legitimate stage was with James O’Neill in Abbe Bonaparta, the last production in which Mr. O’Neill starred. For before engaging in screen work Mr. Crampton was in vaudeville with Miss Lulu Jeon Espey in The Politician and the Suffragette, a sketch written by himself.
Mr. Crampton is a charter member of the Screen Club, where he has many “pals” among players old and new, as well as among the non-players. On the screen he has done good work in many parts.
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Valuable Consular Reports.
Secretary Rediteld’s Department of Commerce, ever on the alert to furnish tips to American manufacturers on the extension of business abroad, announces the fact that the cowboy picture has run its course in foreign lands; Europe is generally demanding a substitute. It has by no means severed its moving picture relationship with American films, but declares that the cowpuncher as a film ambassador is persona non grata. The United States vice-consul at Sheffield, England, reports this to the home Government, adding that while for a time the extreme novelty of the pictures was very attractive, they now no longer fail to attract, and their appearance is sure to detract from the attendance of picture house patrons.
At the request of the government, Vice-Consul Evans and other consular officers abroad have been getting a line on the American film business, as a result he writes: “Time was when 70 or 80 per cent, of films shown in England were of American manufacture, but that day is past, partly due to the successful efforts of film producers in other countries, and the decline of the popularity of the American cowboy.”
While admitting that no characters lend themselves better to stir dramatic action with wide scope for scenic effect and rapid action than the cowboy and the Indian fighters of Western America, still the European picture lovers are naturally growing tired of them, as a result of this changing public sentiment the American business has suffered.
The Consul further says, “The Italian pictures with their emotional drama of love and passion, staged with minute care, hold first place in the production of the purely sentimental drama. The French run rather to the emotional problem situation of the ‘eternal triangle’ put in a more or less restricted space. These two nationalities about cover the local market for wares of this sort. Exquisite productions of old classics, carefully worked out as regards detail, are the drawing cards for the present, and these are in the main English make.”
Vice-Consul Evans predicts that the film of tomorrow will be on a higher mental plane, and will appeal to the reading, thinking and intelligent classes. Consul Ingram, of Bradford, sounds a more encouraging note concerning films, he says that 75 per cent of pictures shown in that city are of American make, and he regards this as partly due to the greater similarity between the English and American types of characters, than with those of Continental Europe.
Consul Byington, of Leeds, says that the film business in his district is booming, which indicates the popularity of the average American film with local audiences.
Consul Dennison, located at Dundee, Scotland, however, echoes the note of warning sounded by Vice-Consul Evans concerning “The same old cowboy films;” these, he says, are being superseded by films setting forth the story of some well-known play or novel.
Consul Ifft, of Nuremberg, Germany, reports extensively concerning the picture business in Bavaria, but makes no allusion to the American film, his report tending to show that as a rule good picture houses are being built, that the attendances are always large and the charges for admission high.
American Films Popular in Norway.
Consul Rasmusen, stationed at Bergen, writes: “From the fact that as a rule they portray heroic and stirring scenes, American films are popular, and may be depended on to continue so if judiciously used. The kind of American films that would sell best in this market are those describing outdoor life, heroic actions, construction work and industrial progress.”
Pictures for the Weak and the Wicked.
That the weak may be strong and the wicked reclaimed and reformed is now the twofold object of those who can use the moving pictures to such a great educational advancement. ‘Moving Pictures in Minnesota State Institution” is the title of an article appearing in the current issue of the Modern Hospital Magazine. The article is written by Miss Miriam E. Carey, supervisor of the institutional libraries of the state. For this noble purpose eight Minnesota institutions have been supplied with moving picture equipment Miss Carey says, “The world of the commonplace, brought to the state institutions by means of the moving pictures, is a realm of wonder to those confined within them. Comedy films are well received, drama scarcely at all, but the ordinary street scenes, the portrayal of everyday life denied to them holds the inmates spellbound.” In Wisconsin also the State Board of Control has made a trial of the value of the pictures in the asylum of Winnebago county, and in the home for feeble-minded at Chippewa Falls, and found the results more than satisfactory. As a result an investigation has been ordered with a view to installing an equipment in all the other institutions of the state.
In the famous ‘‘Tombs prison” of New York City, in which there are at present a large number of prisoners who are subject either to the sale or use of the pernicious drug habit, a series of pictures was recently shown entitled “The Drug Terror,” under the auspices of the Medical and Sociological Societies, recently formed in a crusade against opiates and their attendant evils. The positive value of the use of these pictures is recorded from the fact that while in the earlier parts of the scenes the “dope fiends” were cynical and jeering, and somewhat outspoken with their criticisms of the lack of underworld efficiency displayed, as the picture progressed and the evil effects of the opiates were portrayed, with their dreadful results the audience became quieter and more serious, one of the former scoffers saying as they passed to their cells, “that picture shows what awful stuff it is.” A second audience of youths were then shown the pictures, several of whom are accused of murder through the evil effects of the drug, the effect this time was so deep that hardly a whisper was heard among them. There is little doubt that the moving pictures cannot possibly be doing a nobler work than this of helping the weak, and uplifting the fallen; may such work continue to increase very largely.
Ambitious California.
In California the State Board of Education is taking up the question of state controlled educational kinematography. A prominent member of the board announces himself as ready to propose a plan whereby “A motion picture outfit shall be placed in every schoolhouse, and particularly every country school house in the state.” He would supply every district in turn with educational films selected by the state authorities to assure their accuracy, and would depart from the usual scholastic subjects only for the purpose of illustrating mechanical arts, the sciences, animal life, horticulture, agriculture, travel, and current events. There is no doubt that this is a most ambitious yet possible program, and one which the Moving Picture Educator will be glad to see carried out, as, without doubt, other and less ambitious states and boards will watch with interest, and prepare themselves to adopt a similar course.
Collection: Moving Picture World, May 1914