Item Info

Publication Date: 12/23/1913
Media Type: House Organs
Source: Theatre Collection
Notes:

RIOT AT SMELTER, Lubin Picture Company Making Thrilling $10,000 Film.

The Lubin Motion Picture Company has taken Silver City, New Mexico, by storm. Their doings have been a source of constant surprise and wonder to the entire population for the past two weeks, and the question on every lip is “What’s next?” This man, Romaine Fielding, has got Silver City’s goat, and if someone was to start the rumor that he had bought all the buildings between Bullard and the gulch and was intending to pile them in the Main street ditch and make a flood scene of them, nine-tenths of the people would believe it. And why not? He stops at nothing – expense or no expense – so long as it gets the results he is after. 

The biggest stunts yet were pulled of Sunday at the smelter in the presence of a thousand people. A couple of riot scenes were staged around the smelter buildings in which a number of prominent young men displayed proclivities heretofore kept carefully under cover. One of the high bridges on the Pinos Altos & Mogollon Railway was blown up, but the sensation of the day was the burning and blowing up of the two immense wooden tanks which stood on an eminence back of the smelter. The effect secured was beautiful and if it looks as big on the screen it ought to create a sensation wherever shown. The shock of the explosion was heard for miles, and pieces of timber flew hundreds of feet in the air. 

And the question is still pertinent, “What next?”

In Lubin’s coming masterpiece, “The Sunken Village,” in defiance of the judgements of several photographers, Manager Ira M. Lowry has, for the first time, made a marked success of pictures taken at night. This achievement required the keeping up of the company until four o’clock in the morning under double pay, but the results have proved satisfactory in every way. Those who have seen these pictures in the projecting-room, pronounced them to be the most remarkable yet produced in cinematography, and they are sure to place a new aigrette of art upon the already amply decorated cap of Lubin. 

Mr. Lubin’s repugnance to anything approaching the “fakey” in the spectacular features of his films, must have been more than gratified in an episode of this week at Betzwood. In a three-reel picture by Lawrence McCloskey entitled, “Officer Jim,” it became necessary for John E. Ince to rescue a baby from a burning building. A real house of two stories, completely furnished, was fired for the purpose, the cameras were placed, and John sprang through the flames, mounted the already burning stairs, and descended to the ground again, bearing the only “fakey” thing about the place, namely, the baby. Then it was discovered that the intrepid actor had obeyed the directions of Mr. Lubin at the expense of badly burned hands. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, however, for the flames also provided John with a much needed hair-cut.

Call Number: Lubin - Bulletin I:4