PN \<596 '■: ■-.' : ; Class Book Copyright N°_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. The Photoplaywrights' Handy Text-Book BY Florence Radinoff Manhattan Motion Picture Institute NEW YORK « COPYRIGHT I913 BY Manhattan Motion Picture Institute JAN 19 1914 ©CI.A3G16i:0 FOREWORD HN presenting The Photoplay- Wrights' Handy Textbook the author has somewhat departed from the usual form in which mail in- struction in scenario writing is given. Ordinarily the subject matter is ar- ranged in lesson form, usually in ten divisions, with awkward breaks in the continuity of the text for the sake of serially dividing the lessons. In order to make this book more helpful to the student the text has been arranged in a more careful manner and divided more naturally. This arrange- ment will avoid unnecessary confusion of ideas and at the same time mate- rially assist the student in assimilating the fundamental requirements of successful scenario writing. Neither a text-book nor an elaborate course of lessons can make you a successful writer of scenarios unless you apply yourself faithfully to study and practice. A cursory reading will not suffice. It is improbable that your first scenario will be accepted. But you must not let initial failure discour- age you. It will mean simply that some- thing is wrong with it that can be rem- edied by a more careful study of the various elements which enter into the building of a desirable scenario. If you are well grounded in your studies fatal weaknesses readily will be discernable to you. Try again, more carefully, and keep on trying, never making the same mistake a second time. In a short while your growing experience and practice will tell and you will find your market. Some of our most successful photoplaywrights who are now finding a ready market for their efforts wrote dozens of scenarios before one finally was accepted. Perseverance wins in the end. Stick ambitiously to your task and success probably will come to you sooner than you expect it. CONTENTS PART I. CHAPTER PAGE I. Preparation 9 II. The Idea 13 III. Developing The Idea 19 IV. Clothing The Idea 27 V. Title, Synopsis, Etc 33 VI. The Manuscript . . 37 PART II. VII. Synopsis 43 VIII. Scenario — Drama 47 IX. Scenario — Comedy 65 X. Where to Send Scenario. 75 PART I. CHAPTER I. Preparation irp ILLITERACY does not prevent an idea from being born — it merely " hinders it from growing up. A command of words helps to put an idea down on paper so that it will "strike twelve/' Faulty grammar, awkward- ness of expression and improper sen- tence construction tend to destroy the effectiveness of a motion picture scen- ario by presenting it poorly. The scenario editor is too busy to waste time disentangling a plot from a poorly written manuscript. He is looking for scenarios with a "punch/' and his eye follows the clearly written manuscript more readily than the one which entails mental effort. It would be well, then, for you to acquire facility in expressing your thoughts before you attempt writing The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook a scenario. While a scenario does not require the brilliance of literary style demanded in the short story, it does require a terse and telling employment of the facts of which you write. Chapter IV, on "Clothing the Idea," will dem- onstrate this fact to you more fully. While nothing will be found therein that has a direct bearing on the writing of scenarios, a careful study of any good, standard textbook on rhetoric will prove of valuable assistance to you in putting words together in the most effective form. Genung's Outlines of Rhetoric is an excellent book for this purpose. Another valuable part of your pre- paratory training should be frequent visits to motion picture shows, not merely for the entertainment which they provide, but for the purpose of study- ing the films. There on the screen you will observe the pictured expression of the written line. Take mental notes 10 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook of the action and try to figure out how it must have been written down on paper so that the effect you witness was produced. Another value in this part of your training is the idea it will give you of the type of photoplays that are most popular. Visit not one theatre, but many, studying the films of as many different producing companies as possible. By so doing you soon can determine which type of photoplay you can most readily attempt to write into scenarios. You may find that your natural talent is for plays of western life, for instance, or comedies, or intensely dramatic stories. It would be well at first for you to confine your efforts to the kind of scenarios for which you discover that you show the greatest aptitude. A more general distribution of effort may come later when you have gained experience. A further system for you to pursue 11 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook is the reading of photoplays in story form, as they appear in the various motion picture story magazines. Re- construct these stories in what you think must have been their original scenario form. It is excellent practice work, the more valuable in acquiring perfect technique because you have a ready-made plot and need not divide your attention with story-building. This form of study should be pursued even after you have begun to write scenarios from your own ideas. It is constant practice that makes for ease and effectiveness in your own original work. Finally, read widely, if possible, all current fiction to avoid unwittingly offering an idea already expressed by another. For all scenario editors keep close watch on this literature and a scenario that bears too close a resem- blance to a published story is promptly returned. 12 CHAPTER II. The Idea THE idea is the soul of the scen- ario; the manuscript is merely it's voice. No matter how well a manuscript is written, it is the idea that sells it. A good idea will sometimes sell a faulty manuscript, but a faultless manuscript will never sell a poor idea. An idea is valuable to the manufac- turer of films in proportion to it's strength and originality. When a warmed-over idea is wanted, the work is done in the studio. Outside contri- butions to be salable must bear the stamp of absolute originality. It would be well, after you have selected an idea for a scenario, for you to ask yourself these questions before giving your time to its development: 1 — Is it an idea with a "punch"? 13 The Photo playwrights' Handy Textbook 2 — Has a similar idea ever been used before ? If you are assured that both ques- tions can be answered in the affirma- tive, then go ahead and prepare your scenario. Otherwise discard the idea at once, unless you intend developing it only for practice. Because so many thousands of photo- plays have been produced it is hard to evolve an original idea, and scenario editors are experiencing great difficulty in obtaining them. Yet human in- genuity and inspiration is far from being exhausted and thousands of new ideas remain to be discovered. They lurk around every turn in the path of the diligent scenario writer who really is searching for them. The lazy photo- playwright seldom finds them — and he doesn't deserve to. The ideas that have proven most successful have not been drawn from pure imagination, but from the life- 14 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook stories that are lived right around us. The greatest appeal is made by the story that everyone recognizes because it is so intensely human. Extrav- agantly impossible stories do not "get over" with the appeal, save now and then as a comedy or a burlesque. The day of the motion picture that told of the things that couldn't possibly hap- pen is past. It's the things that can happen and do happen that reach the photoplay audiences, and stir their sympathies or arouse their merriment. Love triumphing over obstacles, honor rising above temptation, good over- coming evil, friendship tried and found steadfast, the sinner brought to re- pentence, lost position regained, hard- ship bearing fruit in reward, false ideals replaced by the better kind, villainy thwarted, loyalty proved ab- solute, self-denial for another's sake, broken ties of love or kinship reunited, ambition sacrificed for greater good. IS The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook These are common stories in the great book of human experience, and we know they are printed there, but we like to hear about them. And what a storehouse of inspiration they are to draw upon! With their never-ceasing variation of detail and circumstance the supply of material they offer is inexhaustible. So you have only to look for ideas to find them. But you must look with eyes wide open, and self-trained, to let no suggestion escape them. Nothing is too commonplace to yield the rudi- ment of an idea. Yet great care must be excercised lest the idea have some objectionable quality. There are certain things which do not make good "copy." Vice must never be exploited and never be portrayed save to point a lesson through it's being overcome. Human deformities are things to sympathetic- ally be kept in a closed book and never 16 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook ridiculed. The social evil is taboo. Crime or violence are better left un- pictured. The National Board of Censorship, which inspects and passes upon all films before publication, will not pass any photoplays which are con- sidered objectionable, and these are among the things which it views with keen distaste and which consign a photoplay to a merited grave. If you write a comedy — and there is a demand for comedies just now which far exceeds the supply — be sure that its fun is clean and healthy. Tainted humor is not wanted. And be sure that your idea is really humorous. An idea can be foolish without being funny. Delicious humor, which has a point to it, and which keeps the sting out of a laugh, is as rare as "a day in June." An idea which depends for it's laugh upon someone getting hurt is not humorous — it is painful. It isn't necessary. And slap- 17 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook stick comedy is decidedly passe, to- gether with absurd and endless chases and magic pills and powders. The humor the scenario editors are wel- coming with open arms is the kind that plays upon really funny situations which are not in the realms of impos- sibility, but that can earn the verdict: "it really might happen so." Once more be impressed with the fact that the scenario editors will hail your idea with delight if it is "unusual." or "different." Bear that in mind, for if you remember it, it will prove the key to your success as a scenario writer. 18 CHAPTER III. Developing the Idea ^EVELOPING a photoplay idea is like developing a picture, your mind being the camera. The plate on which a photograph is taken is merely a surface of sensitized blankness. An image is thrown on it by lens and shutter, but to produce a finished photograph many things must be done to and with that plate, and some parts of the picture "come out" before others. So with the development of your photoplay ideas into scenarios. Say your scenario is to be written around a situation where, after years of separa- tion, two lovers are reunited. That of course, is a stock idea which has been treated in nearly every imaginable way. However, in developing that idea, you would have to make clear 19 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook not only the means by which they were brought together, but the cause of their former separation. But those are merely piers for the bridges. All the structural work must next be done, tying the piers together and laying the road foundation over which the word army of your scenario is to march. What were the incidents that surrounded the separation and the reunion? And so on, weaving the whole fabric of the scenario upon which the idea is embroidered. It would be well, especially while you [are a beginner, to lay out your idea on paper in the form of a skeleton. For example, taking the theme above men- tioned, lay your plot out in some such manner as this : (Title) "AFTER MANY YEARS" I. The Separation A — Mary and John, two lovers, quarrel over his apparent unfaithfulness when he is 20 The PhotoplaywrightJ Handy Textbook seen dining with a pretty girl, whose iden- tity he refuses to disclose, B — Mary gives John back the engagement ring and they part. C — John leaves town to become a rover and Mary seeks solace in a convent. II. The Interim A— John arrives in Alaska and becomes a prospector. B — Mary learns to be a nurse and receives an appointment to a Western hospital, to which she journeys. III. The Reunion A — John finds gold. B — Mary meets in the hospital, sick, the girl with whom she saw John dining, and learns she is his cousin whom he had not seen for years. Mary realizes that John's reticence was caused by his belief that she did not trust him, and begs for news of him, which the cousin is unable to give. C — John, now rich, realizes that he was un- wise and hasty in running away and de- termines to go home and try to heal the breach with Mary — if it is not too late. He arrives, on his way, in the city where Mary's hospital is located. 21 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook D — Mary, on her way to visit a sick woman, is accosted by a rough, from whom she is rescued by a bearded stranger (John), whom she does not recognize. Nor does John at first recognize her. Only when she is fleeing down the street does some- thing familiar in her appearance rouse him. He stands calling after her when the rough revives and strikes him down from behind with a black-jack. E — A policeman, attracted by the disturbance, sends John to the hospital in an ambu- lance. F — It falls to Mary to attend the new patient, and John opens his eyes to find her bend- ing over him. Recognition follows. No need for explanations now; they are re- united at last! The story outlined in the above skeleton is put together for purposes of illustration only. Such an outline is merely the first step. Next comes working out the detail and "color." It must be shown that Mary and John are lovers. It must be shown that she sees him dining with the strange girl. It must be shown that they quarrel 22 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook and that the quarrel is over that cir- cumstance. The whole plot must be worked out in a series of pictures that will adequately portray the action of the story. You must show how things happen, where they happen, and why they happen. One event must follow the other in logical sequence. There must be a reason shown for everything the characters do, and their movements must be made perfectly clear to your audience. Remember, in developing your ideas, that while the average visitor in the motion picture show has a certain amount of imagination which will bridge over little gaps, the truly en- tertaining photoplay is one which re- quires little mental strain to follow. The more completely a photoplay tells its story the more satisfying its effect on the audience. A photoplay is a picture of events, not an invitation to turn mental handsprings. 23 1 The Photoplaywrighis' Handy Textbook Remember, too, that while the story is perfectly clear in your mind, because you have created it, you are the more apt to take for granted the ability of your audience to follow you. Scan your plot carefully, being sure that its development is logical and that it tells every item of the story necessary to make the climax fully understood. Proper attention should be given to climax. Never let your events fore- cast your climax, but lead your au- dience on to a surprise. If you cannot make your climax wholly unexpected, at least let it be but dimly fore- shadowed. Make your audience realize that something is coming, but keep them in suspense. If you can lead them into expecting one thing, only to surprise them with a wholly unex- pected denouement, so much the better. Bear in mind, too, in developing your idea, that ready-made stage set- 24 The Photoplaywright's Handy Textbook tings ordinarily are preferable to those which have to be arranged at a great expense, and that costly properties are warranted only in the production of a very few films — those which are so "different" from the ordinary run of photoplays that they would naturally create a tremendous demand. Make use, especially in beginning, of the more easily accessible settings and properties. Just now there is a big demand for "out-of-doors" photoplays where nature can be called upon to furnish the background. It would be ridiculous to expect a film company to buy a hotel and burn it down just for the sake of a thrilling "rescue" scene or to dynamite a big reservoir dam to make a flood scene. When you have assimilated all this groundwork of instruction you will b£ ready to clothe your idea in the word- ing of the scenario. As to the extent to which an idea 25 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook should be developed, remember that only an unusually strong or sensational idea is worth extending into two or more reels. For a single reel subject from twenty to thirty scenes are neces- sary, according to the length of time required to show them. Split-reel subjects, especially in the nature of comedies are in growing demand and it would be well to try out your talent on one of these before attempting the longer subjects. 26 CHAPTER IV. Clothing the Idea ITH your skeleton and its accompanying notes before you, start dividing your story into scenes. Remember that in a scenario words and descriptions not essential to the action are superfluous. While the short story frequently depends for its mental diversion upon brilliant ver- biage and colorful phraseology the scenerio is put together for action and not for entertainment. The scenario editor doesn't read your contribution to while away a pleasent hour. He wades right through it — unless you head him off by making it too difficult a task — to see if you have told a clear and convincing picture story. He does not want to be concious of words— just pictures. His imagination 27 The Photoplaywrighttf Handy Textbook runs pictorially, not verbally. If Heloise, carrying a tray of dishes, enters the room, trips over a rug and lands in a heap on the floor, he wants to know just that and no more. He does not care what she thought about the weather, or how long she spent curling her hair, or that she was think- ing of a dream of a waist she had seen in Thimble's the day before at only $2.98. For those are things that can't be told in the picture and aren't es- sential to the action anyway. Neither does he want the picture set up before him in some such way as this: "Heloise, the pretty, dark-eyed little French maid, humming lightly to her- self and wondering if Pierre, her ardent lover, is thinking of her, pushes open the swinging door and, balancing her tray of dishes gracefully on her hand, trips lightly into the dining room. But, Oh! Alas that her eyes are not on the floor and that her thoughts 28 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook are wandering, for she does not see that a corner of the rug is upturned, and her^ trim-shod little foot engages in the fold and her attitude of grace is turned to one of awkward unbalance! A shriek, a wild flying of tray and dishes, a crash that wakes .the echoes, and Heloise finds herself in uncomfortable contact with the hard and merciless parquet floor !" One hundred and twenty-five words, a third of a page of manuscript, and half a minute of reading to put over action that can be outlined in fifteen words, a little over a single typewritten line, and three seconds of reading! Judge for yourself: "Heloise enters the room, carrying a tray of dishes, trips over a rug and falls." Nothing is lost in the brevity. The director in the studio can supply the incidental coloring matter and the scenario editor can imagine it. That 29 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook is their business. Yours is simply to give them the idea expressed in the fewest possible words and in the most direct manner. So don't try to be bril- liant. Aim, rather, to be concise. It will sell your scenario more quickly. It will at least secure a just reading. Remember, the more you try to pad your idea with unnecessary phrase- ology, the longer it takes the scenario editor to read it and see it. This is a valuable pointer and may save you many disappointments. It is a good plan to lay out your scenario in what you consider to be the most concise and at the same time most comprehensive form, and then lay it aside for a day or two. Then go over it again. Wherever you can make one word do the work of three or four, without loss of meaning, or wherever you can strengthen or clarify your meaning by changing a word, mark the correction. Do this a second time, 30 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook then prepare your final manuscript. If you are ambitious to win recognition as a meritorious scenario writer* every scenario, before it leaves your hands, should be the result of your best work. You will now see why in Chapter I. so much stress was laid upon a care- ful preparation in thought expression. A careful study of rhetoric acquaints one with the proper choice and use of words. A most valuable book to use in conjunction with your word study is Fernald's English Synonyms and Antonyms. This will give you a ready- made range of vocabulary that will prove well nigh invaluable. Another good plan, when your sce- nario is in its first formative stage, is to lay aside the idea for a while and turn for the time being to other work. By returning to it when the mind is somewhat divorced from it, its weaknesses will stand out more sharply and you can give it stricter criticism. 31 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook Nothing flaunts its weaknesses like a cold manuscript. What seemed to you a burning idea may later prove to be only lukewarm. Other and better ideas may suggest themselves to you — a better turning of this situation or a stronger employment of that sequence of events. The polishing work, however, must never be allowed to squeeze the core out of an idea or rub away its texture. Remember, the reconstruction work should be for purposes of strengthen- ing, not for destroying. And don't be afraid of an idea because it is radical. Because it is unlike any idea you have ever seen expressed in motion pictures is its strongest recommendation. It is the "new" and "different" idea that the scenario editors are looking for with a' telescope. Only be sure that your story is clean and that its de- velopment is logical. 32 CHAPTER V. Title, Synopsis, Etc. J ANY a good scenario has gone into the discard for the want of a good title. Something that with a word, a pat phrase, or a snappy, punchy, terse combination of two or three words stand your idea up on its feet to be counted; that is the title to be selected. It must be in some way suggestive of the plot and pertinent to it. No hackneyed phrase or expression should be used, for by this time they are worn out by much use — or abuse. Origi- nality in the title is as much to be sought after as in the idea. The synopsis is really your story skeleton tersely outlined in the form of a brief narrative. It gathers the essen- tial points of your scenario together in their order and lays them before the 33 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook scenario editor in a little word sketch. Hence the importance of paying careful attention to the synopsis read- ily can be seen. It should be no longer than is actually required briefly to tell the story. Two hundred to five hun- dred words ordinarily suffice, depend- ing largely upon the reel length of your subject. A split-reel subject nat- urally would require less preliminary explanation than one designed for two reels. From your synopsis the scenario editor fixes in his mind your charac- ters and the plot through which they move. It predisposes him either in favor of your story or against it. It tells him at a glance whether or not your scenario is worth while receiving his further attention. In Part Two of this book a sample synopsis is given for your study. Sub-titles, or leaders, are inserted in the scenario from time to time wher- 34 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook ever they are necessary to explain the movement of characters or develop- ments in the plot. They are the terse, pithy sentences which are flashed on the screen between scenes. But in inserting sub-titles remember that the length of time each one stands on the screen represents several val- uable feet of film which the story pic- tures cannot well spare. Sub-titles should be used only when absolutely necessary. The plot should be so arranged that it can be told pictorially with the fewest possible artificial or interjected explanations. Sub-titles also should be composed of the fewest possible words — from two to ten, with the emphasis on the two. From six to eight sub-titles should suf- fice in the scenario of ordinary length. Sometimes there are employed notes, telegrams, newspaper clippings, adver- tisements, handbills, etc. Inasmuch as these eat up valuable film space they 35 The Photo playwrights Handy Textbook never should be too long. Brevity should rule. It is better to do without them whenever possible, although they may be used whenever no other form of explanation will answer. 35 CHAPTER VI. The Manuscript THE idea is your stock in trade; the manuscript is your sales- man. A good idea buried in a poor manuscript goes to market seri- ously handicapped. A scenario editor is prepossessed in your favor when your manuscript comes to him fault- less in appearance and technique. Your idea, properly developed and clothed, must be set down on paper according to certain rules and forms which have become more or less stand- ardized. This standardization has come about, not as a matter of taste, but as a matter of convenience. Stress has been laid on the fact that scenario editors are busy people. They demand a manuscript which, if the idea is ac- ceptable and it has been worked out to their satisfaction, can immediately 37 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook be turned over to the director in the studio with as few changes as possible. In the first place, all scenario manu- scripts should be typewritten. This is not an unalterable rule, but the type written manuscript is so much more legible than the penwritten one, and is so much more compact and so much more easily scanned that departure from this rule should not be made ex- cept where access to a typewriter can- not possibly be had. And manuscripts always must be mailed flat — never rolled, but folded not more than twice across. The sheets should be fastened together, preferably by a clip of some sort. On each sheet the title of the scenario should appear, and the pages should be consecutively numbered in the upper right-hand corner. This avoids dan- ger of unintentional misplacements in handling many manuscripts. Stand- ard "typewriter size" paper should be 38 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook used, and, whenever possible, a black ink ribbon. Always make a carbon copy or even two copies of each sce- nario to guard against loss in the mails. Write on one side of your paper only. On the first sheet, in the upper left- hand corner, your name and address should appear. Near the top of the page, in the center, the title should be placed. Below this write your synopsis. Then, beginning on a fresh sheet of paper, w r ith your name and address again written in the upper left-hand corner and the title of your scenario centered near the top, write down your cast of characters. While on a theat- rical program the characters' names frequently are printed in the order in which they appear on the stage, in writing a cast for a scenario the rule generally followed is to list them in the order of their importance to the 20 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook plot. It is not necessary to include in this cast the names of minor char- acters unless they appear frequently or with unusual action in the story. Beginning again on a fresh sheet, with your name and address and the title placed as before, start writing your scenario, the title of the scenario appearing in the upper left-hand cor- ner of each subsequent sheet. Each scene should be numbered and its location indicated at the very be ginning. By studying carefully the scenarios which are given complete in Part Two of this book you very quickly will master the technique of the manu- script. Take them for working models in laying out your manuscripts, fol- lowing closely the form in which they are given. After a little practice the form will become unconsciously fixed in your mind. 40 PART II. CHAPTER VII Synopsis THE following synopsis is not only for the purpose of example, but also to give the student oppor- tunity to construct a practical scenario therefrom : A Woman's Love While visiting at the seashore Anna Stanley meets Herbert Turner and his mother. Hurt in a football game, Her- bert has lost the use of his limbs and has to be wheeled about in an invalid chair. The three become friends. One day while Anna is reading to him Herbert takes the book from her and tells her that if he were not a cripple he would declare his love, but, as Fate had willed it otherwise, they would be just friends. Herbert's physician informs him that he has laid his case before a great spe- 43 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook cialist who is coming to see him. The specialist, after consultation with the phy- sician, advises an operation, which may restore to Herbert the use of his limbs. Herbert decides to submit to the oper- ation and asks his mother to write a note to Anna, saying nothing about the oper- ation, but merely stating that they must be away for six weeks, and that they hoped to find her still there on their return. During the absence of the Turners, Anna realizes that she loves Herbert and would rather marry him and be his nurse than to be the wife of any other man. The operation proves successful, and the Turners return to the seashore. They wire Anna to meet them, which she does. Still in his invalid chair, Herbert greets her. That evening the three are seated on the veranda. Mrs. Turner discreetly leaves. Anna falls silent and finally Herbert asks her to tell him her thoughts. Slowly she tells him that if 44 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook he still meant what he had said six weeks before she would marry him whenever he wished. He takes her hand and kisses it. The next day they are married. One year later. A rose-covered cot- tage. Herbert is coming down the road, striding along in the full vigor of his restored health. His mother meets him at the gate and tells him that he is the father of a boy. Tableau : Anna is in bed and Herbert is near her. His mother has the baby in her arms and the four heads are close together as the picture slowly fades. AS CHAPTER VIII Scenario — Drama "BETTY ASSISTS" Betty Stone A Vermont girl in love with the young station agent Tom Wright The young station agent John Stone Betty's father and owner of the Stone Marble Quarries Tony Lupo Stone's foreman Boston Red A city crook Synopsis Tony Lupo plots with Boston Red, whom he meets in "The Quarrymen's Rest," to steal the monthly payroll of the Stone quarries which Stone has ordered sent by messenger from Rutland on the noon train. Knowing that Stone always meets the train for the money the conspirators plan to keep him away so that the money will be left in the station agent's safe for them to get when the train has gone. Lupo cuts the cable on a derrick and the boom falls on Stone, 47 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook crushing his legs. When the noon train arrives Stone is just returning to con- sciousness in his home. A quarter of an hour later he remembers and sends Betty on horseback to get the money. Meanwhile the conspirators have over- powered Tom Wright, the station agent, who is secretly engaged to Betty, and they tie him to the rails a little way up the track in the path of the Rutland Ac- commodation, then nearly due. With the money they took from his s Handy Textbook Helen Gardner Co., Fuller Exchange, 472 Fulton Street, Brooklyn. *Kalem Company, 235 West 23rd Street. Lux Film Co., 10 East 15th Street. *Melies Company, 204 East 38th Street. Monopol Co., 145 West 45th Street. Ryno Film Co., 220 West 42nd Street. Kinemacolor Company, 1600 Broadway. New York Motion Picture Co., 42nd Street and Broadway. Kay-Bee Co. r 42nd Street and Broadway. Keystone Co., 42nd Street and Broadway. Universal Co., Broadway and 48th Street, releasing the following, but all communi- cations should be addressed to Universal Co.: Bison 101, Hollywood, California. Champion Co., 145 West 45th Street, New York. Eclair Studio, Fort Lee, N. J. Crystal Company, 430 Wendover Avenue, New York. Gem Company, Coytesville, N. J. Imp Company, 573 Eleventh Avenue, New York. Nestor Company, Hollywood, California. Powers Company, 422 West 216th Street, New York. Rex Company, Hollywood, California. 76 The Photoplaywrights' Handy Textbook Victor Company, 645 West 43rd Street, New York. Out of Town Atlas Company (Frontier), 414 Century Building, St. Louis, Mo. American Company, 6227 Evanston Street, Chicago, 111. American Company, Santa Barbara, Cal. Broncho Film Co., 1712 Allesandro Street, Los Angeles, Cal. *Cines Co., George Kleine, 166 North State Street, Chicago, 111. *Essanay Film Mfg. Co., 1333 Argyle Street, Chicago, 111. Gaumont Company, Flushing, New York. Kinemacolor Co., 4500 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, Cal. *Lubin Mfg. Co., 20th Street and Indiana Ave- nue, Philadelphia, Pa. *Lubin Mfg. Co. (R. Fielding) ? Las Vegas, New Mexico. Majestic Motion Pictures, New Rochelle, N. Y. Pilot Film Corporation, 120 School Street, Yonkers, N. Y. *Pathe Freres, 1 Congress Street, Jersey City Heights, N. J. Reliance Motion Pictures, 537 Riverdale Ave- nue, Yonkers, N. Y. 11 The Photoplaywrights Handy Textbook *Selig Polyscope Co., 20 East Randolph Street, Chciago, 111. Solax Company, Lemoine Street, Fort Lee, N.J. Thanhauser Co., New Rochelle, N. Y. Florence Turner Films, Church Street, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, London. *Vitagraph Company of America, East 15th Street and Locust Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. Note. — This circular has been corrected down to August 20, 1913. Those marked with a (*) are Licensed; the others Independent. Do not forget to inclose stamps with your manuscript to insure its return in case of rejection. And do not be discouraged if at first you meet with a number of disappoint- ments. Stick to your work, and after a while practice and experience will rem- edy all your faults and you will find your market. 78 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process Neu.raliz.ng agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Oct. 2007 PreservationTechnoloqies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township. PA 16066 (724)779-2111 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 002 686 1 am wm:m Wfi&Mm^UBi m WMWmmm mmmmmWm Nsan IBM nm :■'-'■■■ ■Hi Warn mmmwBm mm BHU 1BHP ; '■■ 1 ' Hi m'mifHami^t^»m 5 «5