Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, March 19, 1916, Page 26

Peal SocietyMovies at *D a Seat Tur OMAHA SUNDAY BEE MAGAZINE PAGE Every Actor and Actress Selected from the Social Register at the Palm Beach Fashionable Photo Play---But the Reels Were to Be Destroyed After One Performance Mr. Brinton Buckwolter Dancing with Miss Rosamond Lancaster at the in the Society Palm Beach, Florida, was the charming motion picture presenta- tion of “The Island of Happiness.” The cast of this interesting flm was made up entirely of well known members of fash- fonable New York society. The admission was $6.00 « seat, and it was worth the price. After this single exhibition, it was said that the reels were to be destroyed. This seems a great pity, for here at last would be a great educational oppor- tunity. In these films were real social leaders, genuine heiresses and multi-mill- fonaires, actual soclety buds and young soclety matrons, real society clothes, with real soclety manners. Here were to be seen actual photo- graphic visions of just how men and women of the innermost e¢ircles of fash- fonable society walk, dance, munch sand- wiches, balance a cup of tea, shake hands, 1ft their hats, put their hands in their pockets or behind their backs, swing a cane, smile, bow, rise from a chalr, and the thousand and one things which are a mystery to the average American boy and #irl Fashionable soclety, of course, lives in o world apart. Ward McAllister asserted that there were only 400 properly accred- ited names in the elite of New York, and he catalogued the list. And among these 400 it is impossible to find the name of any actor or actress or novelist or play- wright. . In the moving picture reels which are open to the general public, real million- alres, real heiresses, real drawing room scenes, are never shown. The actors and actressey who imitate tiese people make their best guesses at what really goes on in the world they never behold. On the legitimate stage and in the mewing pic- ture realm, the leading men and leading ~omen are often farmers’ sons and daugh- ters, with no closer knowledge of f fonable soclety than they acquire from novels or playwrights, who themselves, for the most part, have never been within the sacred eircle. But in the delightful scenes of these unique Palm Beach reels, all the actors and actresses and all the stage settings were genuine. The “leading lady" or heroine of the photo-play was Mrs. Gurnee THE climax of the soclal season at ‘Engagement Diinner” hotoplay. Munn, the charm- ing granddaugh- ter of John Wana- maker, one of the best ' known of the younger so- clal set, of New York, Philadel- Giraes phia, Washington and the Palm Beach, ""“id"'- Before her marriage, -n:nMn last June, to Gurnee Roger Hill, Munn she was Miss the Villain, Marle Louise Wana- Having maker, of Philadelphia, Lunch on daughter of Rodman Wanamaker. Her wed ding in St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia, Was one of the most bril- liant in the soclety annals of that city. At the request of her aunt, Mrs. Barclay H. Warburton, the bride consented to the presence of moving picture operators with their cameras, the fllms becoming the property of her family. Very different from this'initiation, was her recent experience before the camera at Palm Beach. As heroine of “The Isl- and of Happine: she was called upon to assume the role of an heiress for whom a hero and a villain fight. The hero was James R. Hyde, and the villain (his rival), Roger R. Hill, both young soclety men of New York. In the cast supporting these principals, were to be found only persons whose names figure in the so. vagisters of their respective cities. The play opened wi. - dinner at which the engagement of the beau!'ful heiress was announced, and closed with th> scene of her marriage to the handsome hero Such episodes are, of course, familiar to patrons of the movies, Who hasn't re- peatedly seen on the screenw, representa- tions of lovely heiresses ‘decked in bridal finery, bestowing their hands upon high born suitors in the presence of distin- guished gatherings of society folk? From Maine to California #lm por- troeyals of high soclety functions are shown at five or ten cent theatres in thou- sands of towns and villages. They pass for the real thing, although not a single man or girl, posing as persons “to the manor born,” may ever have seen the in. terior of yhat can be called an American “mansion,” or have bhad any personal Mrs. Stolen Her, How Dogs and Cats Behave in Battle imals in different ways. Dogs, as a rule, show great distress when shells burst near them and howl pit- eously. On the other hand, they have been known to dash along the front of a trench during infantry fire, barking and spparently enjoying the nolse. Cats do not care whether they are un- der the fire of heavy artillery or machine guns as long as they have a dry corner and food when they are hungry. ‘There have been instances of lost dogs and cats actually venturing into the Brit ish trenches in France during an engage- ment. Some of them lived in cottages near the firing-line—long since destroyed —and clung to the remnants of their homes; others strayed a long distance. A nondescript dog, with an Armen- tieres address on his collar, turned up BO.\(IARDHEN"I‘B affect different an- near Wytschaete early one morning, spent the day with a British battalion, disappeared at dusk, and was never seem again. Another British battalion was adopted in the thick of a fight near Fortuin in May by a black cat, which survived a bombardment that killed many men, and has since lived sumptuously in the trenches with an identification dise around its neck Regimental mascots appear to have the best time, for they stay in the new trenches, live on the fat of the land, and are made much of by the local inhabi- tants. The pampered terrier of a certain famous regiment of foot-guards sat on the top of a transport wagon at the tail of the battalion and barked at all the civilian dogs he passed. Twe LEGGETT- GRUEN CoRPoRATION. N -Y- The Engugenient Dinner 1a a Cocvanur Grove. MY, James R. Hyde, the Hero, and Mrs. Gurnee Munn, the Leading Lady, Are Shown at the Centre of the Table, knowledge of just how the dwellers in uch domiciles of the fashionably rich, look or disport themselves. The cast in “The Island of Happiness" included, besides Mrs. Gurnee Munn, such charming soclety girls as Miss Pauline Disston, Miss Mary Warburton, the Misses Elsie and Mildred Miss Claire Bird, and such me fashionable br awrence Armour, Russell Colt and Harry Darlington, Jr. This is reallsm carried to the limit Why should it not be made the medium of pleasure and instruction to the great mass of the American public? It is a ity these reels cannot be seen by all. Mrs. Munn has lived in the atmosphere f the drawing room. ler manners and rctions are, of course, those of the lady born. The girl from middle class life who ecomes a movie actress and plays the art of a “great lady” ought to have a chance to see and study these reels In the movie dramas the “lover” is frequently a young man who has made his way up from a humble walk in life. He may be the son of a farmer or grocer, and rtainly cannot have had the lifelong raining that results in tliat subtle ac omplishment of polished manners which distinguishes the real society man. What an educational opportunity these filmg would give him! Rice, n of gentle and ding as Herman Oelrichs, The wedding scene in the closing acts of this Palm Beach movie drama is laid not in some hall fixed up to represent an apartment in the home of the rich, but in the multimillionaire salon of Mrs. Henry M. Flagler, What a ftleld of study and Inspira tion for the scene painters, the property men and the stage directors! Here they might see on the screen real soclety folk, displaying their real man ners in a real drawing room. The walk, the smile, the motion of the hands of the genuine society man or maiden might thus be observed and studied at first hand, as it were. If a young gentleman stands with hands in pockets while addressing a charming girl you may be sure it is the correct society attitude and not a mere swagger of masculine independence as- sumed by some novice at the social game some ignoramus in the amenities of high life—on the mere theory that it may be au fait. If the ladies in the scene sometimes flop with what appears to be undue brusque- at Rritain Rights Resarvad a8 Proto: © @Y UNPERWOOP Py UNBERWoan: Mrs. Gurnee Munn, the Heroine of the Photoplay. NN The Villain, Mr. Roger Hill, Bent on Abduction, Persuading the Heroine, Mrs. Gurnee Munn, to Take a Ride with Him in His Hydro-Aeroplane. ness upon chair or divan, the movie spec tator may be free from any suspicion of doubt that this is entirely correct deport- ment. How to stand, how t unter, at what angle to hold your head while drink fng in the conversation of an attractive man, all this might be truthfully illus trated to millions of humble girls through out the land who are untytored in the ways of high soclety. But this film drama called “The Island of Happiness” goes much further than showing how the devotees of society act under usual or ordinary eircumstances It calls upon the her e—the beautiful Mrs. Munn—for a manifestation of grace and culture amid most extraordinary sur- roundings. Engaged, in the opening act, to one man, she is seized by his rival and carried away In an aeroplane (literally a phase of high life) to a lonely island, where she discovers that it was not so much herself as her wealth that this dar- ing aerial suitor coveted. The other man pursues the pair in a high power boat and eventually rescues the lovely heroine, but not without sev eral thrilling escapes from death. Their marriage in the Flagler mansion follows as a reward for his bravery. The acting hroughout was excellent. Some day reels like these will be shown to the public aw a sort of extension of the social service and betterme work which so many women of fashion and wealth are already engaged ip