Judge — October 9, 1920 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Drawn by Heawas Paruen The Pulp Paper Pictures By Myron M. Stearns (Lenso) NY firm, gent, or corporation that sets out to be all things to all men at all times is tackling a job that would make even the sate Hercules pause and take thought. For men, like Caesar's famous tribes of Gaul, differ among themselves: And women—for whom, they say, photoplays are as yet particularly intended—even more so, Consider their plumage. We look at things differently. With some, the fur grows close above the eyes; with others, the solid ivory dome towers high through the foliage. Hence the Metropolitan Museum and € 'y Island and Repubticans and Democrats and the Atiantic Monthly and the New York Journal But to the young ali things are possible, and the movies are still in their Sophomore year. So, instead of resigning themselves to the in- evitable with a sigh, and catering only to a class, as the now venerable penodicals of the country have consented to do, the Movies are still, for the most part, shooting into the brown, confidently hoping to bring down the entire fleck. Which makes the more conservative exceptions all the more exceptionable, and deserving of cred Among the magazines, there has long been r of a class of readers that wants what is known as “popular fiction.” Not “high-beow stuff." The numerous all-fiction magazines, generically classed as the “pulp-paper” ma- dreesy. gazines, have grown into. success and promi- nence through catering to this “ popular fiction class, Each menth, each week, they publish an astonishing amount of fiction of the “en- tertainment only” order that is on the whole amazingly good. They have the vast advantage of honest ‘They are exactly what they pretend to be. One nized the existence MILESTONES graphs as may be gleaned from the columns of their supposed superiors, where the reaching toward ultra-refinement leads sometimes almost to humor: “She opened her lips to flay him alive, but he love. closed them with his own in such a kiss that the twilight world swayed with her—a perfect kiss, soft, slow, gente, yet prideful withal and com- manding. A kiss firm enough to be ardent, yet delicate enough to be modest.”’ Well. Let's think of something else. Among the picture producess Universal has been one of the first to come out avowedly as a purveyor of purely popular photoplays. And vincing story. Not average. Simple, re Three-generation pla; WAY DOWN EAST own, and turned out a lo All things for all men. ITS A GREAT LIFE Humorous school-boy stuff. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT Nothing to worry over. THE WORLD AND HIS WIFE* Classic tragedy in a new dress. THE ROUND-UP 2 : 2. rf Typical “Western,” with stor; finds in their stories surprisingly few such para- sad Mataarcabore average ooo THE WHITE CIRCLE Artistic picturization of an uncon- HUMORESQUE.* A very human story of mother- 45 MINUTES FROM BROADWAY ite up to the Charles Ray A CUMBERLAND ROMANCE* tic mountain story. HARRIET AND THE PIPER ‘The good girl with @ past. THE JACK-KNIFE MAN Delightfully individual humor. *Exceptionally good. has been, thereby, decidedly the gaince. Not a little of the strength that has come to the pulp-paper magazines with honesty purpose has come also to the great Universal Film Manufacturi Compan) Last winter I had an interesting talk with one of the Universal higher-ups. “You can go into a swell restaurant,” he said, “and order a three- lar dish, that’s prepared by a big chef getting so many hundred olarsa month, And with it you have a salad made of fruits that are out of season, and soon, And when it’s over you can puff cigar, But still, when you've finished, you may not feel particularly well satisfied, “Or, you can go to a cheaper place, where working men eat, and find good solid food, and plenty of it. Everything well cocked, but nothing fancy. Good meat and potatoes and gravy and vegetables and home-made bread; and you eat until you're—just—full. And when you're dene you're s«. satisfied you wouldn't take the worid for a gift if they offered it to you ona platter, Well, that’s what we're trying to do here at Universa!—serve good square meals for these who want ‘em. Nothing fancy, but all you want cf good heaithy stuff ata reasonable price. Are the Universal people accomplishing that purpose? I’m inclined to think they are, and mighty creditably, tco. They've chosen the “popular fiction ld as their and st ribbon of film caiculated to vive yood clean healthy entertainment, cheap. Sure the villains vill and all the heroes are beautiful! And in moments of great emotion the lovely ladies’ beautiful Losoms heave and fall like the ground swell of the great South Sea dcing ouble- quick. But why shouldn't they? The pure food laws have never attempted to stop the mak- ing of cheap relishes; they mereiy insist on the proper label. And are the evil “heavies,” after all, a bit less real or convincing than, for in- stance, the British nobleman in “The Right To Love.” who openly sides with his mistress against his wife in his own home, and coldly plots said wife's disgrace? Laugh at “cheap films” all you want to, yeu who worship the great A in art—but remember the final lincs of Kipling’s “Three-Decker”: “Go tinker up your engines—y know your business best; She's taking tired people to the Islands of the Blest.” comicbooks.com