Show f K ANY million i dol-i p lars are invested in motion ion picture lc ore i 1 studios California in southern Climate II j i and scenery there j Il r r rit f 1 11 ideal for or producing ro u ue the e filmed ime drama rama f r r r a I. I j Y 0 By J. J C C. C LESSEN HE first motion picture maker malter went to Los Angeles Cal Dal to secure I scenic or travelogue subjects having hav have f tug lug learned from railroad folders A of or the beautiful scenery there t That was not more than eight years i ago The s scenic enic photographer seV secured se se- V cured the views desired and left leCt never once suspecting that the f 4 greater part of the industry wC would uld lat later r find California the best place to make pic plc- tures About seven years ago another director r discovered that government weather reports showed that full three hundred days ays of or each year ear the sun shone brightly and this man Frank r Boggs Boggs induced his employers the tho Selig com company pan with producing plant then located in Chicago to send a company to Los Angeles to open a studio All effects of ot the company were packed In a small trunk The first studio opened by the organization tion was on the roof of a downtown building bunding I The first picture cost less ess than three hundred hundredS hundred'S S dollars and consisted of less than than thana a thousand 1 ual feet f pf Since Rh Ulle th Mint t d aay tl Mm the rt t oMM r p 0 17 4 1 ual Since Rh Ulle th t d aay tl Mm the HM I 1 greatest motion picture I the world has bas ever seen I costing mor more than a quarter quartel quarter ter tel million Vl was made but buta N a a short distance from the n t r A 1 location of the ills first firs studio but but that t is getting n ahead of m my y s story tort r 4 s Y t l Cutting cost in c production 3 tion n was so soo pl pleasing asing to 4 this one manufacturer that he cou could ld not kee keep r. r the the secret ot of his success The f r word reached his competitors and they investigated in vest statistics com com- compiled comI g WI WIand I P piled by Y the gel government and a few months later afar Scotch Village Street Scene Reproduced sent companies West Go West became tho the slogan of makers of or canned amusement and one after another established es eSe plants in or near Los Los' Angeles Besides the advantageous climatic conditions there are other reasons for film producers going N to California Within a radius radius of fifty miles of Los Angeles practically any kind of a scene desired desired desired de de- sired may he be shot It was W not until during the last year or eighteen months that manufacturers came to realize fully that the producing end of th the Industry should be located In California and now that some some fully appreciate appreciate- the economy of such a move they are 0 building expensive permanent plants Before decisions for this this this' move were reach reached d. d however every excuse was offered for continuIng continuing nu ing in the East and attempts made to prove tho the correctness of each one of them for a big expense expense ex ex- pense is added when the s selling department of ofa ofa a concern is Is' located in New York city three thousand miles from the manufacturing plant i New York city has always been and no doubt i will for years remain the theatrical center o 0 of this f L continent There it is that all big theatrical producing organizations have their headquarters and as the motion picture has to a ver very great extent taken the place of legitimate stage drama j co comedy meet and n musical shows is conducted largely by former theatrical men its headquarters tern should the managers think continue in this eastern metropolis I With the offices and selling force orce at one side of or the continent and the manufacturing at the theother 10 other additional expense is caused aused by the need of or each keeping in touch with the other Practically Practically all of the communications go by wire and the telegraphic expense of some companies exceeds exceeds ex ex- a thousand dollars per month In tn one or two instances wires across the continent are leased from the telegraph companies and opera opera- operators operators tors maintained at the New York office and the studio in the same manner as as' newspapers lease wires for tor news received This has materially f lessened the expense and at the same time added speed and efficiency to the service of the tho I com P anies As the manufacturers come to realize the economical econ economical eco eco- n need of or continuing permanently the makIng making mak mak- n ing of ot motion pictures In California they have gradually improved their properties there The first Universal producing company arrived In Los Angeles Thanksgiving 1911 and aud the manag man- man agor ag r director scenario writer scenic artist property man laboratory superintendent and J Al At E E. Christie with his band of thirty leased a barn To fa save sa the cost of or buying muslin t to use as cloths that there would be no shadows In the pictures and all aU faces and images be plain 4 h he ca caused the tho which stage stage which consisted of ot a mere flat platform platform to to be built In the north side of ot the barn where the players could work worle all day In the shade without the sun spoiling a single scene From From this very humble Bumble beginning has 1 I gro grown n the only municipality in the w world devoted ex ox- excl exclusively cl elusively to the manufacture of or motion pictures pictures- Universal City four miles north of or Los LOB Angeles T This ls mammoth plant consists of or almost four I hundred hun red acres contains a a river valleys hills hillsand hillsand and picturesque nooks suitable for filming scenes The grounds are divided into two sections because because because be be- cause ot of foot root hills extending through the center S' S T- T Talleys alleys on either side In fro front rat are tho too administration buildings a cafe care with a capacity of serving one thousand people an hour barber manicuring hair dressing and photography shops the laboratories s where all film Js is developed developed de de- and a a positive print made a wardrobe department where clothing for an army can be had at a minutes minute's notice no matter what nation the army Is to r represent present Here too will be found the dressing rooms of the five hundred lJ players the carpenter shop scene painting studios and five mammoth stages with a floor space equivalent equivalent lent to four acres All II buildings are cf concrete and nd steel Beyond the toot foothills are other stages and the zoo which contains approximately two wo hundred wild animals animals- trained to work in pictures Across the road from this is an honest honest good good to-good- ness wild west horse and c cattle corral and bunkhouses bunkhouses bunk bunk- houses for the cowboys The Th big grounds are dotted at all times times' with settings built hunt for this or that production On one side will be seen a coal coalmine coalmine mine while a few feet feet a away way Is a reproduction from photographs of a str et scene in Cairo Egypt or the Bowery of New York York possibly possibly a atypical atypical atypical typical Scotch scene or the native huts of African African Af Ar rican savages One of these se sets fifty to five hundred feet long is frequently erected at a cost costor of or several thousand dollars and torr down after the making malting of from one to three hundred feet of or t film lm that will require one to five minutes to show at the theater It is very seldom that the same setting is is' is used in more than one production The worlds world's greatest privately owned collection of wild animals Is said to e that at the zoo of the Selig company located near a public park on historic Mission road l leading ading into Los Angeles Angeles Ange Ange- les from the famous San Gabriel missions This big show place built at an expense of or more than two hundred thousand dollars contains contains con con- thirty-eight thirty acres thirty acres thirty of which are taken up in animal houses an and pens and beautiful lawns and groves In all there are seven seyen hundred or more specimens including fifty lions a herd of elephants droves of scores or of monkeys monkeys mon mono keys and many rare animals together with birds and reptiles from every part of the world Allare Allare All Allare are maintained for exclusive use in motion pictures pic pie tures and that they may have homelike settings to work in In duplicates es of or their native haunts have been built on the grounds ea each h one strongly strong ly Iy to pre prevent ent escape Injuries or fatalities fatali fatal ties to employees Within the Selig zoo were made all scenes scenes for the fifteen episodes of ot the Uie first serial motion picture The Adventures of or Kathlyn which had an East India locale together to to- to together gether with scores scores of ot other great great anima pictures Here also was built bum an and filmed the Alaskan village village vil vII lage for The Spoilers adapted from the story by Rex flex Beach one ore of the two most profitable pictures made marle More Moro than a quarter of a million dollars is I t being spent in the building of or a studio at Culver lver C City ty a suburb of or Los Angeles by the New York Motion Matton Picture corporation Since 1910 this company has eased leased a tract of ground consisting of acres thirty miles southwest of or Los Angeles whore where cattle raising r has been conducted In connection with the making of or motion mo mo- motion tion pictures The reason for leasing this great tract was that the tho company originally intended making only western dramas Later othe other kinds of or stories were filmed and recent recently y the producing manager manage or di director ector Thomas H. H Ince became one 1 r A N g House of Representatives 44 rS Sc ne Reproduced r r t r y r r. r v b. b Street Scene of Na Naples les G 1 Italy D During the Middle y r Ages Reproduced of the three points of the Triangle Film corporation corporation corpora corpora- tion which inaugurated In New York Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadel Philadel- phia and Chicago motion picture theater pro programs grams where two dollars was Charged for the best seats The new plant will consist of twenty or more concrete concrete anti nd steel reproof fireproof buildings nine including nine separate with ground glass stages stages one one for each producing tion The players will have every comfort Including Individual dressing rooms with steam heat electric elec elec- electric fans and hot and cold water etc Factories In connection with the plant will manufacture all sets furniture and wardrobe needed The ranch studio will be maintained and there two big organizations organizations or or- making western drama will be maintained main main- Every hamlet in the country has been invaded by Keystone comedies made In Los Angeles Four years ago the nucleus of this company consisting consisting con con- of Mack Sennett Mabel Normand and Fred Mace arrived there and rented a vacant lot lot Now the Keystone studio occupies two city blocks practically half of which space is cov covered covered ered with stages where fun making reigns supreme su su- preme Padded bricks billies and trick props of every nature from a toy warship to an aero aero- aeroplane aeroplane plane are on hand at every turn and here are to tobe tobe be found the greatest collection of comedians the world has even known Weber known Weber and Fields Sam Bernard Eddie Foy Raymond Hitchcock Roscoe Arbuckle Chester Conklin Charlie Murray of Murray and Mack fame and scores of others who have graced the comedy and vaudeville stage or orthe orthe the sawdust ring as headliners Fun making is here a serious proposition and the hundred odd players writers and directors treat it as such such such- even the famous Keystone cops The Tho producing quarters of the maker of the most profitable motion picture ever filmed The Birth of a Nation adapted by David Mark Griffith Griffith Grif Grif- from the book The Clansman consists o of two city blocks at present present one one taken up with executive office buildings stages and dressing rooms laboratories and factories and the other othe block retained as a site for settings Mr Griffith Grif Grif- Griffith came to Los Angeles In January 1914 and leased a lot containing a bungalow Back of this he built a stage and began work Additions to the producing staff were made so frequently thano that tha no time could be given for future planning As the result scores of buildings were erected as needed for workshops developing and printing I laboratories dressing rooms etc so that th the studio now has a miss hit appearance where about five hundred people are employed fully two hundred being actors actresses and writers In February 1914 a livery stable In Hollywood which had later been used for a garage wa was leased by two men well known in the theatrical producing world and they began making a motion picture along new lines That their method wa was successful is proved by the fact that five times time since they have found it necessary to lease ad grounds and their plant now covers a block by feet and the tho studio is crowded The men were Jesse L L. Lasky previously a vaude vaudeville vine ville producer and Cecil B B. B de Mule legitimate stage producer and playwright Their company compan became the Jesse L L. L Lasky Picture Play company and they during the last year introduced Amer Amer- leas lea's greatest opera star Gerald Geraldine in e Farrar on th the motion picture screen Miss Farrar worked at th the studio twelve weeks In the tho making of three five reel subjects at a salary of more than a dollar a minute In a brief manner the foregoing describes the thi producing plants of the largest makers of motion pictures There are many other studios In iii Lo Los Angeles with from one to four companies workIng working work work- Ing at each It would be to go from the center of the business district to the tho city limits in direction any coming upon one or more motion picture plants |