Richard Ridgeley (1915) 🇺🇸
Richard Ridgeley, of the Thos. A. Edison, Inc., forces, has attracted no little attention recently because of his combined activities as author and director.
On October 13, labeled as a Kleine-Edison feature, there is to be released The Magic Skin, a photoplay with the production of which Mr. Ridgeley says he is particularly proud to have had to do. The Magic Skin is based upon the Honore Balzac [Honoré de Balzac] story entitled The Wild Ass’s Skin, and the screen adaptation, as well as the direction, is by Mr. Ridgeley. Mabel Trunnelle and Everett Butterfield are featured in the release.
In general, the big Ridgeley-Edison pictures of the past few months have featured Miss Trunnelle, Marc MacDermott and Edward Earle, and among these pictures to attract favorable mention have been “The Wrong Woman,” “Tragedies of the Crystal Globe,” “Eugene Aram” and “Shadows of the Past.” Of all of these Mr. Ridgeley claims authorship. The Magic Skin, with a story that is fanciful and unique, is expected to stand out prominently among the features which are carrying the Kleine-Edison trade mark. Unusual care has been exercised in making the production, and no expense has been spared in providing settings which are quite out of the ordinary. The opportunities provided for good direction are many, and with Miss Trunnelle and Mr. Butterfield in the principal roles, Mr. Ridgeley and the Edison company are eagerly awaiting the verdict of the public, which will be expressed when the picture is released.
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Eugene J. Cour, formerly with the Hearst-Selig News Pictorial, has been appointed managing director of the Producers Service Company. Mr. Cour is superintending the completion of the new laboratories of the company at River Highlands, Lyons, Ill., giving them a much increased capacity. Mr. Cour for a number of years has been connected with the Chicago newspapers, both in an editorial capacity and as manager of photographic departments. Two years ago he turned his attention to moving pictures and as a camera operator in the Central West and South has achieved some notable beats for his company. He is taking into his new field the spirit and enterprise of his newspaper training. As a close student of the technical side of motion pictures, Mr. Cour has become thoroughly familiar with the manufacturing end of the business.
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Marshall Neilan, according to reports, will return to the Selig Polyscope Company, as a producer. Neilan is one of the most popular actors and directors in his profession and his forthcoming return to the Selig fold is the cause of beaming smiles among his many mends in the Selig forces.
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A striking improvement in posters for photoplays is now noticeable in the bill board and lobby displays showing the Essanay product. These are in the form of lithogravure posters made for the Essanay Company by the Central Lithograph Company of Cleveland. The posters are photographic reproductions of stills taken from the photoplays and add greatly to the drawing power of the poster by giving perfect reproductions of the actors, stage settings and costumes, even to bringing out accurately, in colors, the finest details such as beading, tinsels and the weave of the fabrics used in the productions. The process is screenless and certainly is a great improvement over the old handmade posters. Paper used in In the Palace of the King advertising is a very good example of this new poster, as the elaborate costumes used in this production offer ample opportunity for the process to reproduce detail. This feature, together with the color scheme, makes the posters one of the most attractive lines of paper yet furnished to advertise a photoplay.
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At Leading Picture Theaters
Programs for the week at New York’s best motion picture houses.
“The White Pearl” at the Strand.
At the Strand theater Marie Doro, the stage and screen favorite, is appearing in “The White Pearl,” a fanciful romance of the Orient, by Edith Barnard Delano. This photoplay tells a fascinating romance, which centers about the love of an American girl and boy, whom destiny transplants to far off Japan, under strange and thrilling circumstances. The story is as follows: On a Japanese island the Sacred Pearl of Buddha is stolen by a Chinaman, who later finds employment on a ship sailing for America. The inhabitants of the island believe that the loss of the sacred jewel will bring them unhappiness. The manner in which the young American gets hold of the Sacred Pearl, prior to his sailing for Japan, and the way his sweetheart, Nancy, becomes linked with the fate of the jewel, furnishes a series of highly dramatic situations.
The last instalment of the patriotic American picture, “Guarding Old Glory,” is shown- also a new scientific, and a travel picture, a comedy and the Strand Topical Review. The soloists this week are: Martha De Lachmann, soprano; Alfred De Manby, baritone, and Autumn Hall, violinist.
Mary Pickford at the Broadway.
At the Broadway theater the Famous Players’ Film Co. are presenting their latest romantic comedy, A Girl of Yesterday, featuring Mary Pickford, the popular motion picture star, who is seen in the role of companion to the internationally famous aviator, Glenn Martin, in one of his daring aeroplane flights.
Aside from the delightful mixture of quaint humor and romantic thrills, there are many points of novelty in this remarkable film. For the first time in her life Mary Pickford is seen in an actual aerial flight. It is also the first time that Mary and Jack Pickford appear in their true relationship as brother and sister.
Other attractions are Charles Chaplin in his latest two-part comedy, Shanghaied, Pathé latest events, new South American Travel Scenics and cartoons.
The Knickerbocker Program.
Conspicuous among the third week’s pictures at the Knickerbocker is Thomas H. Ince’s “The Golden Claw,” with Bessie Barriscale as the star. Mr. Ince did wonders with The Coward, but his latest picture is fully as interesting. Tully Marshall and Thomas Jefferson are the stars of D. W. Griffith’s contribution to this week’s Triangle program. The title of the picture is “The Sable Fuchsia.” Hale Hamilton in “Her Painted Hero” is the Sennett [Mack Sennett] release.
The Birth of a Nation, at the Liberty theater, and The Battle Cry of Peace, at the Vitagraph, are continuing their remarkable runs.
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Balboans Quit Work to Watch Universalites.
Speaking to a reporter at Long Beach, Cal., the other day, J. P. McGowan, directing a troupe of Universal players who had been filming a number of scenes for Helen’s Hazards, said: “Not only the hoi polloi dashes madly to see motion pictures, but the picture people themselves like to see the staging of kinematographs.
“That was proved at the Balboa studio in Long Beach, near which a company of Universals took a railroad scene. When there passed about the word that the scene was being staged by our company, every Balboa actor, cameraman, property boy and extra at the plant rushed out to see it. They witnessed the stunt with as much curiosity as would have been displayed by so many school children and with apparently as much pleasure as though they were not making their living at that same profession.
“It was a novel thing to see several hundreds of sailors from Neal of the Navy, cowboys, cowgirls and other folk in all sorts of makeups from the Balboa plant forming the outdoor audience for the Universal show.”
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Biograph to Issue Feature Every Wednesday.
The Biograph Company announces that beginning Wednesday, November 3, and on every alternate Wednesday, it will release, through the regular service, a four-reel subject. The company adds that for the putting on of this extra subject a large stock company will be required, and that in consequence it has canceled its Monday and Saturday releases, the cancellation to take effect October 30.
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M. E. Hoffman as Studio Manager.
It is announced that Milton E. Hoffman has been appointed assistant to the president of the Peerless (World Film) studio at Fort Lee, N. J. Henry Bayard, the present general manager of the Peerless studio, will occupy a similar capacity to the World Film’s Paragon studio, also at Fort Lee, N. J.
Collection: Moving Picture World, October 1915