Jay Morley, Lubin Player (1915) 🇺🇸
To misquote a well-known sage, some are born prominent, some achieve prominence, others have prominence thrust upon them. Inasmuch as Jay Morley, the subject of this sketch, has been going his unobtrusive way for the past two years in “pictures,” signs his name just plain American, and has never been featured in the “scandal” columns, he must be classed in the second category, that is, that he has achieved, etc.
Mr. Morley is a conscientious, retiring chap that prefers to let his work on the screen speak for itself. His diffidence is an admirable quality exceedingly rare in this day and age of “24 sheets” and “bobbed hair,” but there are times when a merited word of praise is not amiss.
His face is familiar to many picture fans for he has appeared in Mutual, Universal, United and General Programs. He is at present playing leads with the Western Lubin forces of Captain Melville under the direction of Leon Kent. This is an harmonious combination, for Mr. Morley has absolute faith in his director and in the latest releases of this company he has done his best work.
Snap and vim have been the watchwords of his advance. No stunt is too hazardous to daunt his spirit and his earnestness in all things is the delight of his director and his fellow players. Incidentally three more two reelers from the pen of Tom Gibson have been purchased by Captain Melville in which Mr. Morley will play the leading roles. “Study and conscientious work,” says Mr. Morley, “has gotten me this far, and more study and conscientious work is going to get me further” — and we believe him.
Jay Morley.
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Bernstein Announces Plans
To set at rest all idle rumors and definitely declare my policy of activities in the moving picture industry for the future, I wish to make the following statements: Plans are already under way for the manufacture of a fourth program consisting of one, two and three reels, interspersed with one special feature of five reels and upward in length per week. Quality will be the keynote of all these productions, and the special features will be selected on account of their uniqueness, strength and entertaining qualities.
Popular books, and especially plays of note, have been utilized so extensively of late that only indifferent material is left in the discard. My organization will be fortified with writers who will construct the photodrama along the dignified and painstaking lines found so necessary upon the legitimate stage, the special features giving opportunity for entering into contracts which will reimburse the dramatist sufficiently to place at our disposal the best writers in the field of entertainment. Drama will not be all drama. Tragedy and tears will not become monotonous by surfeiting the entire story with their qualities. Instead, drama and tragedy will be constructed with bright spots and laughs which give relief and lighten the action, and which have proven so essential upon the legitimate stage.
I am in possession of certain recent inventions fully protected, which will give me a decided advantage over the manufacturers of yesterday, and everything will be constructed upon a new and up-to-date basis. Having no junk in sub-cellars to unload and no unwise contracts to operate under, I will have a free and untrammeled hand in the manufacture of only the latest and best in the photodrama field.
Future plans include a system whereby the exhibitor will be able to arrange his program to such advantage that a superior product will be less costly than present-day existing arrangements. This is an age of the survival of the fittest, and being equipped with the experience of the last few years and backed by a group of financiers who are not connected in any way with the photoplay or theatrical business, I am in a position to revolutionize certain phases of the moving picture industry, and if the moving picture fans of tomorrow do not think they can support four programs, then I can say, safely and without egotism, that mine will be one of three doing business.
My greatest worry at the present time is to get away from telephone and telegraph communications, and endeavor to yank a five-pound trout from the waters of San Gabriel River.
Sincerely,
I Bernstein. [Isadore Bernstein]
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Head of Alliance Returns.
Andrew J. Cobe, President of the Alliance, has returned to New York from a two weeks’ trip during which he visited nearly all of the Alliance exchanges east of Duluth.
“I made it a point,” said Mr. Cobe, “in every city that I touched to visit one or two of the leading theaters. Out of twenty houses which I entered fifteen were using the Alliance Program, of which seven were playing Beulah.
“The shortage of good features was the fact that impressed me the most. The picture loving public will not tolerate anything but the best, and they are willing to pay the right price.”
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Mrs. Cobb’s Educational Pictures.
Agnes Egan Cobb has signed up Tom Moore for his circuit of theaters to serve him with her educational subjects which are becoming so popular. Mrs. Cobb claims she has more business that she can possibly attend to and states they are as famous and as much in demand as the Charley Chaplin [Charles Chaplin] comedies.
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Griffith Returns to Los Angeles.
D. W. Griffith, filmdom’s foremost producer, has arrived at the California studios of the Reliance and Majestic companies, of which he is director in general. As yet he is undecided as to what his next subject will be for a Griffith feature.
Mr. Griffith has been in New York and Boston attending the opening of his latest spectacular photodrama, The Birth of a Nation, and he reports wonderful progress.
No sooner had Griffith arrived than he plunged right into work by supervising the productions of some of the Reliance and Majestic releases. Mr. Griffith will probably remain in California until after he has completed his next feature and then perhaps he will arrange for its New York premier.
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Getting Real Fight Pictures.
Claude Patin, Secretary-General of Éclair, this week gave out the interesting information that H. Maurice, technical manager of the famous Paris Film Company, is now serving at the front in the capacity of sergeant with a leading French Aviation Corps, and fully equipped with a motion picture camera and telescopic lenses, will take many thousands of feet of the actual warfare and fighting. Mr. Maurice is absolutely the first man to be granted such a privilege and Mr. Patin confidently expects to shortly startle the American public and exhibitor with films of war in all its reality and horror.
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Mittenthal Brothers Move.
The new executive and main branch of the Mittenthal Brothers Film Company, which is being built in connection with their studio at Herrito and South Waverly Streets, in Yankers’, is now completed, and was occupied by the firm on May 1st. The company will discontinue their New York office in the World’s Tower Building on Fortieth Street, so that both of the brothers may be close enough to the studio that they may supervise the making of Starlight Comedies for the United Program.
Collection: Moving Picture World, May 1915