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Show JAMES FENIMORE COOPER'S HERO "SPY" TO LIVE AGAIN IN UNIVERSAL FILMS With John Bunny in His Motor Through New York Streets Acclaimed by Admiring Throngs on Every Block He Passes A three-reel adaption of James Feni-roore Feni-roore Cooper's novel, "The Spy. ' a story I which is dear to the heart of every boy a&d is a happy reminiscence to the man. i in the course of production by Otis Turner at the Pacific Coat studios of the Universal at Hollywood, Cal. "Incidents in tho Ufa of George Washington, Wash-ington, ' says Mr. Turner, "will have a vital bearing on the story, and this venerable ven-erable chaiucter will be shown from a 'different viewpoint than that in which the average author presents him." The dominant, stirring personality of the story is Major Dunwodie, a Virginian, Vir-ginian, an American, a gentleman, a soldier, sol-dier, a lover and a personality which presents pre-sents all of the characteristics which we are wont to believe were the attributes of our forefathers. Harvey Birch, the spy. was a man wuo held country above all. He was a product prod-uct of his own times, despised, ignored, ill-treated, misunderstood, maligned alike I by friend and foe, a. marvelous creation of the author s brain. Under no other conditions and to no other country but ours could a character such as Cooper pitctures have had existence or reality. America was a new land, torn with internal in-ternal as well as external dissensions; peopled with immigrants, not only from the mother country, but from every inhabited in-habited corner of the globe She was developing de-veloping riches which made her, a prey to nil manner of men. War under these circumstnnces made it necessary that General Washington watch not only the enemies without, but the enemies within. with-in. It was conditions such as these which brought into being Harvey Birch, the spy. In the danger and hardships endured by this man, and the good he did the cause is furnished the material for the plot of this stirring story. Hazel Buckhaju, remembered for her work in many of the best stock corn-sanies corn-sanies iu America, has been engaged by the Universal to play ingenue leads in the Rex company, of which Robert Leonard is director. Miss Buckham has been under the limelight and in the atmosphere of grease puint since she was a small child. Before entering motion pictures she had been playing leads in stock with decided success. She was born in Minneapolis and left that city with the Ferris Stock Company. A year and a half ago, while playing in stock at the Morosco Theatre, Thea-tre, she decided to get out of the night life incident to her work on the legitimate legiti-mate stage, and she went into motion pictures with the Biograph company. Later she was with the American. For the last year she has been playing leads with the Broncho and Kay Bee companies. com-panies. Miss Buckham has great ambitions, and she says she spends most of her evenings studying the parts she is to play on the following day. A remarkable piece of photography has been accomplished at the West Coast studios of the Universal in Francis Fran-cis Ford's production, "The Return of the Twins' Double." In one scene a double-exposed vision is seen in a triple exposure. In other words, five separate exposures are made on the same piece of film. The store was written by Grace Canard. Ca-nard. Mr. Fbrd'H leading woman, and is a sequel to "The Twins' Double." The female crook is on her way to prison when the last-named story closes. In the sequel she escapes, and the thrilling story is continued Mr- Ford plays the part of a great detective. The camera work is by Al. Siegler. J. Warren Kerrigan, of the Universal, who is at present being featured In a fourreel production of Samson, has been notified that he has won first plnce in a popularity contest given by the Pansv Motion Picture Correspondence ,Clubat Buffalo, N. Y. "It is on interesting experience to go motor driving through the streets of ,"eu York with the 'best known face In the world,' " remarked a newspaper man who has made political and other tours with many celebrities in his time. "It is hardly necessary, of course." he continued, "to say the face is that of John Bunny, known in every part of the civilized, ha'f-civilizcd and barbaric quarters of the globe, where film screens have ever been seen. And yet I didn't think it was quite so well known as it proved to be. If our car had taken us merely through any one section of the rftj perhaps I would not huvn been SO gnatly surprised. If we had driven up Broadway, Sixth Avenue, or Third Ave-niif Ave-niif any of the centres of the city it would not have been so surprising. But we didn't do that. YVe had business on hand that took us 'Around the World in Eighty Minutes,' so to speak; that is, we had to visi Italian, Hebraic, Chinese, Chi-nese, Bohemian, Armenian, Hungarian, French, and many other quarters of the big Metropolis the districts where the diverse nationalities and races still preserve pre-serve their individualities to a great extent, ex-tent, as well as those where their fusion into an approximately homogeneous whole has at leust made some progress'. "And everywhere it was the same. Men and women paused on the sidewalk. side-walk. Their lips wreathed into responsive respon-sive smiles as their eyes lit up with recognition rec-ognition of the. great screen comedian. Somo waved greetings as to a familiar friend or called out in pleased salutation: saluta-tion: 'Oh, Mr. Bunny!' "Remember, they had never before seen John Bunny in the flesh. They had seen him only on the screens. But that had been sufficient to make them feel he was their friend. "I have spoken of the men and women, but it was really the children that interested in-terested me the most. "Boys and girls alike shouted out to him as we passed; yelled to each other to call attentiou to him. There was no 'Mr. in their salntatiops. It was plain 'Bunny,' plain 'John,' they called with vigorous lung power. "And BuDny sat in the big motor smiling, smil-ing, pleased, as who could help but be pleased and smile in response to such hearty, friendly greeting but with none whatever of the average actor's swelling swell-ing of chest or elongation of neck when he sees or fancy he sees he is being noticed no-ticed by the passers-by. "We reached our ultimate destination, a home for aged invalids, where Bunny was to visit an actor-friend of former years. From this friend, from whom he had not heard in years, he had received a letter, and he was answering it in person. I'll not speak now of the pleasure pleas-ure it gave the retired Thespian to see tho visitor who now occupies such conspicuous con-spicuous position in filmland, of the chat the two had oer old-time days, of the gratitude inspired by the kindly visit I'll only speak of his proud introduction of Bunny, the King of Screendom, to the old, feeble, crippled fellow-Inmates of the Home, who are now his sole companions. com-panions. "It was the anti-climax. No one of them recognized Bunny's face. Hardly one of them had heard his name. They are alive, but, practically, have been buried for the last ten years. The motion mo-tion picture to them is non-existent. The word 'screen' conveys no meaning to them. The men and women who live upon the screen have never been born. "But ns wc drove back we were in the living world again, and again were greeted with glad, welcoming cries of 'Bunny! Bunny!' " Edwin August, of the Universal, entertained en-tertained recently in honor of Mary Pick-ford Pick-ford aud her mother at his Hollywood, Calif., residence. Among the guests present were: Mr and Mrs. Isidore Bernstein. Mr. and Mrs. Tom Nash, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips Smalley, Mr. and Mrs. Otis Turner, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Mace. Hal. August Barney Sherry, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Leonard, Allan Dwau, lva Shepard. Alice Rhodes, Ethel Davis and Laura Oakley. |
