James Cruze — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

The school of hard knocks prepared this director for his future career. He followed the hither-and-thither route when young, doing anything to which he could turn a hand, but usually following theatrical lines.

Many years intervened between the days when Mr. Cruze was barnstorming, to the present year, and his completion of the super-feature, The Covered Wagon, but they all were fruitful years, according to his estimation, for he was of observing mind, with the ability to absorb the changing phases of life around him in his long travels.

Mr. Cruze was born at Five Points, Ogden, Utah, March 27, 1884. Necessity combined early education with humble toil. He began his professional career when quite young, traveling with tent shows and other itinerant organizations which led a more or less precarious existence.

Then he played in stock companies until the films attracted him. His first venture in pictures was with the Thanhauser [Edwin Thanhouser], and his first appearance was in “The Higher Law,” directed by George Nichols, in 1909. Mr. Cruze remained with this organization seven years.

He afterwards played in such successes as The Million Dollar Mystery, “Joseph and His Brethren” and “Richelieu,” in which he played the main role.

Mr. Cruze joined Paramount as director, and among his notable productions were “Is Matrimony a Failure?” and “The Lottery Man.”

Next he made a series of James Cruze productions for the same corporation. Notable among these are The Covered Wagon and “The Old Homestead,” with Theodore Roberts.

His most recent special is called Hollywood, and is announced as one of the biggest productions of 1923.

The distinguishing feature of these productions is their fidelity to detail, the essentially human note that rises above the gigantic accumulation of conflicting elements, and, as in The Covered Wagon, the magnitude of the picturization.

Mr. Cruze is well fitted by nature for the exhausting work of picture production afield, for rugged mountains must be climbed, desert wastes paced afoot and long distances of range negotiated many days during a single production. He is six feet tall and weighs 197 pounds. He has brown eyes and dark brown hair.

The director lives in Hollywood.

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James Cruze is explaining to his new star, Hope Drown, that the glass is placed over the front of the light to prevent “Klieg eyes.”

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)