CHAPTER XXVI
THE OLD DAYS END
It was being hinted in the spring of 1913 that Biograph was having a change of heart about the secrecy regarding their players, and that they might end it. Contrary to the policy of other companies, their scheme was not to give the popular players the first publicity, but the directors and camera men. D. W. Griffith would thus head the honor list—his name to become identified with a certain class of strong and highly artistic drama; Dell Henderson next—farce comedies; Tony O’Sullivan—melodrama; Billy Bitzer—photography; lastly—the actors.
The Biograph had always held to the policy that they were an “institution,” and as such, the value of their pictures did not depend on an individual. Sufficient that it was a “Biograph.” Apparently, they now felt they had reached a place so firmly fixed in public esteem through the fine quality of their pictures, that giving credit to individuals could not in any way react on them.
So D. W. Griffith became the first Biograph star. Biograph’s policy he afterwards took to himself. He is still the “star” of his productions. His actors continue as “leading people” as long as they stay with him. And when they go on to bigger money and names in bigger type with other companies and under other directors, some succeed and some do not. Mary Pickford was one who did.
In the picture world, especially abroad, big things were now happening. “Quo Vadis,” a great spectacle, splendidly acted, had been produced in Italy by the Societa Italiana Cines, in three acts of four reels. It came to America and had a run in a Broadway theatre.
From France, this same time, April, 1913, the steamer La Touraine arrived in America bringing “Les Misérables” in four sections and twelve reels.
“The Miracle,” which Morris Gest presented in the year of 1924 in the Century Theatre, New York, as a pantomime, had been filmed by Joseph Mencher and was shown at the Park Theatre, New York, in February, 1913. It was a “filmed pantomime” (not a moving picture drama), based on the Wordless Mystery Play which, under the direction of Max Reinhardt, had had a wonderful run at the Olympic, London.
A reviewer said of it:
What was seen and heard last night only went to emphasize that the moving picture under certain conditions, conditions like those that prevailed last night, may be capable of providing entertainment to be taken seriously by audiences which have never seen the inside of an electric theatre.
Eugene Sue’s “Wandering Jew” came over, the work of the Roma Film Company.