William S. Davis, Metro Director (1917) 🇺🇸
William S. Davis, one of the most successful motion picture directors in America, has been added to Metro’s directing staff. His first work for Metro will be the direction of a multiple-reel Super-Feature starring Emily Stevens, a screen version of Blair Hall’s story, Alias Mrs. Jessop.
Mr. Davis has written almost every feature he has ever produced, and he has never directed a production which has not been successful. He knows both stage and screen from every angle, having been identified with the life of the theater since his boyhood. His latest affiliation was with the Fox company. Among the features produced were Slander, Destruction, Dr. Rameau, The Fool’s Revenge, The Straight Way, The Family Stain, The Victim and Jealousy, among the stars represented being Mme. Kalich, Theda Bara, Frederick Perry, Virginia Pearson and Valeska Suratt.
Nine months with the Life Photo company preceded this engagement, and he was previously associated with Ramo, Republic, Yankee, Universal, Edison and Biograph. Mr. Davis is credited with having made the first two-reelers for a regular program.
Mr. Davis was born in Philadelphia, where he began his theatrical experience with the old Forepaugh stock company, going from there to the Girard Avenue stock company. Valerie Bergere and George Learock were among the leading players. He was determined to be an actor, but every little while someone would insist on his being an assistant stage manager of going around to the box office to count up the receipts. It was as a stage manager that he finally became firmly entrenched in the “show business,” and as a director, primarily, that he later entered the newer field of motion picture work. He handled the direction of Broadway productions under the management of Charles Frohman, Daniel Frohman and Harrison Grey Fiske.
Mr. Davis is a tireless worker, enthusiastic about both the present and the future of the screen industry. He is one of the best known directors in the business.
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Collection: Moving Picture World, October 1917
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