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The Art and Craft of The Screen: Louis Reeves Harrison and The Moving Picture World

2013; Routledge; Volume: 33; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01439685.2013.847652

1465-3451

Jordan Brower, Josh Glick,

French Historical and Cultural Studies

AbstractA leading editorial columnist for the Moving Picture World, Louis Reeves Harrison is an often-cited but rarely analyzed critic in American film historiography of the 1910s. While industry outsiders such as poet Vachel Lindsay and experimental psychologist Hugo Münsterberg are frequently credited for articulating the earliest theories of film as a distinct art, trade press critics made important contributions to a contemporary understanding of film as an aesthetic and economic product. This article explores Harrison’s interest in film as a creative ‘craft,’ which was both symptomatic of the MPW’s investment in boosting the industry’s cultural status, and his interests in interpreting film production as a process that synthesized dignified labor, aesthetic innovation, and commerce. Harrison occupied a central position within a field of writing that responded to, and helped to shape, a burgeoning industry in transition. Examining Harrison’s writing for the MPW and his main treatise Screencraft (1916) reveals shared interests and major tensions between figures of various professional affiliations and disciplinary backgrounds interested in the value of film as a form of art.In criticizing motion pictures from a fine-art standpoint, I take the ground that they are being produced, now and then, of high artistic quality. I have written pages upon pages of generous appreciation designed to encourage those who are taking pains and showing quality in a personal effort to raise the average of motion-picture performance. Why? Because I believe that impartial and intelligent criticism will help to raise the average quality of production to the ultimate benefit of everyone interested directly or indirectly in the business.Louis Reeves Harrison, 19101 AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank Francesco Casetti, J. D. Connor, Charles Musser and the anonymous readers of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television for their valuable insights and questions when reading earlier versions of this article.Notes1. Louis Reeves Harrison, The Pictural Drama As A Fine Art, Moving Picture World, October 29, 1910, 982.2. Kay Sloan, The Loud Silents: origins of the social problem film (Urbana, 1988), 5–10; Myron Lounsbury, ‘Flashes of lightning’: the moving picture in the progressive era, The Journal of Popular Culture 3 (1970), 772–780; Richard L. Stromgren, The moving picture world of W. Stephen Bush, Film History 2 (Winter, 1988), 14; Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema: 1907–1915 (New York, 1990), 58, 255, 268–269; Charlie Keil, Early American Cinema In Transition: story, style, and filmmaking, 1907–1913 (Madison, 2001), 41, 149, 155.3. Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: an introduction (London, 1976), 12–41; Robert C. Allen and Douglas Gomery, Film History: theory and practice (New York, 1985), 4–6, 68–70; Juan A. Suárez, Pop Modernism: noise and the reinvention of the everyday (Urbana, 2007), 19–49; Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener, Film Theory: an introduction through the senses (New York, 2010), 1–12.4. A variety of figures praised Harrison, ranging from fellow screenwriter and MPW employee Epes Winthrop Sargent, to small town exhibitor Dave Udell, to proto film historian and drama critic Robert Grau. Epes Winthrop Sargent, The Literary Side of Pictures, Moving Picture World (MPW) July 11, 1914, reprinted in A Screenwriting Sampler from ‘The Moving Picture World,’ Film History 9 (1997), 272; Dave Udell, exhibitor, in a letter to Epes Winthrop Sargent, published in Advertising for Exhibitors, Moving Picture World, July 1, 1916, 88; Robert Grau, The Theatre of Science: a volume of progress and achievement in the motion picture industry (New York, 1914), 247.5. Louis Reeves Harrison, Stagecraft, MPW, May 14, 1910, 773–774; Louis Reeves Harrison, Screencraft (New York, 1916).6. Charlie Keil, Early American Cinema in Transition, 20–29. The incorporation of the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) in September 1908 and the subsequent rise of the independents contributed to the transitional industrial climate in which the MPW began to grow. The MPW was the second trade publication, following the April, 1906 start of Views and Film Index, which the MPW then bought in 1911. The first issue of MPW was 16 pages. By 1915 the circulation reached 17,200. Annette M. D’Agostino, Filmmakers in The Moving Picture World: an index of articles, 1907–1927 (Jefferson, 1997), 11–12; Jerry Roberts, The Complete History of American Film Criticism (Santa Monica, 2010), 22; N.W. Ayer, N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual and Directory (Philadelphia, 1915), 1246.7. Chalmers had been editor of the photographic publication Camera and Dark Room. He founded the MPW with the help of Alfred H. Saunders, editor of Views and Film Index. Publishers’ Note, An Excuse and a Defense, and What Are Our Plans and What Do We Propose to Do? MPW, March 9, 1907, 3–4; Editorial: Our Platform, MPW, May 2, 1908, 387. Following the creation of the MPW were papers such as Motion Picture News and Nickelodeon, which later became Motography. The New York Dramatic Mirror began to devote a page to film in June 1908, and Frank E. Woods began publishing under the byline The Spectator in May 1909. Fan magazines such as Photoplay began by the early 1910s. For a brief account of the rise of the industry trade press, see See Jan Olsson, Los Angeles Before Hollywood: journalism and American film culture, 1905–1915 (Stockholm, 2008), 94–98.8. Charlie Keil, Early American Cinema in Transition, 29.9. W. Stephen Bush served as a lecturer for films and even advertised in the publication. W. Stephen Bush, MPW, August 15, 1908, 126. Louis Reeves Harrison wrote scenarios, as did Epes Winthrop Sargent. Carl Gregory, who wrote the column ‘Motion Picture Photography,’ was a major cinematographer for the Thanhouser Company; Frank L. Dyer, Edison’s Place in the Moving Picture Art, MPW, December 21, 1907, 679.10. Association Notes, MPW, June 29, 1907, 270; The Motion Picture of the Future, MPW, June 13, 1908, 510. The MPW also ran articles by prominent industry leaders such as William Selig, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, and Jesse Lasky. For example, Special Number: Discussion of Trade Questions and Conditions by Leading Manufactures and Producers, MPW, July 11, 1914, 175–227.11. In addition to running guest pieces by individuals outside the industry, there was a ‘letter to the editor’ column that featured a wide array of voices. Moving Picture Enterprises Develop Rapidly Along Educational, News, Advertising, Private and Theatrical Ways. Headed for Los Angeles, originally printed in the Los Angeles Times, reprinted in the MPW, November 5, 1910, 1044–1045. The MPW surfaced in mainstream newspapers. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: This Drama in Moving Pictures Today at the Princess, Hartford Courant, March 5, 1913, 17; The Star Theater: ‘In the Firelight,’ A Remarkable Two-Reel Feature, Hartford Courant, December 28, 1913, Z4; Kitty Kelly, Flickerings from Film Land, Chicago Daily Tribune, July 17, 1915, 12.12. Inquiries, MPW, July 27, 1912, 342.13. Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema, 37–52; William Uricchio and Roberta E. Pearson, Reframing Culture: the case of the Vitagraph quality films (Princeton, 1993), 17–64; Steven J. Ross, Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America (Princeton, 1998), 11–33; Lee Grieveson, Policing Cinema: movies and censorship in early-twentieth-century America (Berkeley, 2004), 78–120.14. Wanted: A Ruskin for the Moving Picture, MPW, June 17, 1911, 1357.15. Ibid.16. Ibid. Eileen Boris, Art and Labor: Ruskin, Morris, and the craftsman ideal in America (Philadelphia, 1986), 3–12, 28–31.17. T.J. Jackson Lears, No Place of Grace: antimodernism and the transformation of American culture: 1880–1920 (New York, 1981), 66–96.18. Louis Reeves Harrison, Sauntering with Kinemacolor, MPW, February 15, 1913, 661–662; Louis Reeves Harrison, Too Deep, MPW, October 4, 1913, 24.19. Harrison did not discuss the novel in his film criticism for the MPW, nor was the novel mentioned in the brief obituaries published upon his death. However, given Harrison’s background as a journalist and his connections to literary circles (in the MPW’s April 13, 1912 “Studio Saunterings” at Edison’s studio, Harrison mentions meeting Harry Furniss fourteen years earlier at the “Lotus [sic] Club,” the famed New York literary establishment (130)), we have strong reason to believe that the “Louis Reeves Harrison” listed as the author of Rothermal: A Story of Lost Identity is the same as the film critic discussed in this article. For a review of the novel, see The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Vol 51 No. 4 (April, 1890): 566. Note that “Rothermal” is misspelled “Rothermel” in the review.20. Louis Reeves Harrison, Screen Writer, Dies in New York Following Operation, MPW, May 21, 1921, 262; Louis Reeves Harrison, The Play, April 30, 1910, MPW, 676. Harrison wrote such scenarios as Paid in Full (1914), Garden of Lies (1915), and The Law that Failed (1917).21. Louis Reeves Harrison, The Pictural Drama as a Fine Art, MPW, October 29, 1910, 982–983; Louis Reeves Harrison, The Pictural Drama As a Fine Art, MPW, November 5, 1910, 1042–1043; Louis Reeves Harrison, The Pictural Drama as a Fine Art, MPW, November 19, 1910, 1163; Louis Reeves Harrison, The Pictural Drama as a Fine Art, MPW, November 26, 1910, 1221; Louis Reeves Harrison, The Pictural Drama as a Fine Art, MPW, December 24, 1910, 1461.22. Louis Reeves Harrison, Mr. Critic, MPW, October 28, 1911, 274; Louis Reeves Harrison, Advertising, Boosting and Criticism, MPW, March 29, 1913, 1313; Louis Reeves Harrison, The Art of Criticism, MPW, January 31, 1914, 521; Louis Reeves Harrison, Reviewing Photoplays, MPW, December 19, 1914, 1652; Louis Reeves Harrison, Criticizing the Critic, MPW, February 12, 1916, 922.23. Miriam Hansen, Babel and Babylon: spectatorship in American silent film (Cambridge, 1991), 66–67.24. Louis Reeves Harrison, Mr. Critic, 274. For a recent account of the emergence of the role of the critic in news periodicals during the transitional era of early cinema, see Santiago Hidalgo, Early American film publications: film consciousness, self consciousness, in André Gaudreault, Nicolas Dulac, and Santiago Hidalgo (eds), A Companion to Early Cinema (Hoboken, 2012), 212–217.25. Louis Reeves Harrison, The Art of Criticism, 521.26. Isolated installments would appear sporadically into 1913 after the series ended. See Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, January 4, 1913, 26–28; Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, August 30, 1913, 937–939.27. The term ‘studio’ had been casually applied to places of film production since the 1890s. For more contemporary precedents, see The Great Selig Plant, New York Dramatic Mirror, May 1, 1909, 36; Making Motion Pictures, New York Dramatic Mirror, May 1, 1909, 37; Kalem Model Plant, New York Dramatic Mirror, May 1, 1909, 38. Frederick A. Talbot, Moving Pictures: how they are made and worked (Philadelphia, 1912), 103–115.28. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, March 16, 1912, 944. Jan Olsson describes a succession of phases that saw an increasingly entangled relationship between the press and film production, exhibition, and reception. Jan Olsson, Los Angeles Before Hollywood, 57–98.29. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, March 16, 1912, 944.30. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, April 27, 1912, 309.31. W. Stephen Bush, Factory Or Studio? MPW, September 21, 1912, 1153.32. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, February 17, 1912, 557.33. Ibid.34. Anthony Slide, Silent Players: a biographical and autobiographical study of 100 silent film actors and actresses (Lexington, 2002), 385–387.35. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, 557.36. Catherine E. Kerr, Incorporating the star: the intersection of business and aesthetic strategies in early American film, The Business History Review, 64 (1990), 387. See sub-sections of the article, Aesthetic Innovation and the Development of Brand Names, 392–401, and The Rise of the Star as Commodity, 401–406.37. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, February 17, 1912, 557.38. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, April 13, 1912, 129–131.39. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, May 11, 1912, 507–510.40. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, June 8, 1912, 907. This Vitagraph publicity image has been dated 1909 by Catherine Kerr, but seems to be part of a pamphlet first published in 1912. Comparing the trade press’s and other para-industrial institutions’ methods of representing film companies with those companies’ own ways of self-representation in publicity photographs, maps, and texts remains a rich avenue of further research.41. Ibid., 909.42. Louis Reeves Harrison, Studio Saunterings, MPW, July 6, 1912, 26.43. G.P. von Harleman, Motion Picture Studios of California: A Review of the Wonderful Development of the Film Producing Industry on the Pacific Coast—Recent News of Some of the Big Plants, MPW, March 10, 1917, 1599–1608.44. Harrison died following an operation for a malignant tumor. Louis Reeves Harrison, Screen Writer, Dies in New York Following Operation, May 21, 1921, MPW, 262.45. Screencraft, MPW, April 21, 1917, 467.46. Sure Fire Helps to Success, MPW, January 5, 1918, 149.47. Ibid, emphasis ours.48. Epes Winthrop Sargent, Picture Theatre Advertising (New York City, 1915), 1.49. Louis Reeves Harrison, Screencraft, 9.50. H.C. Hoagland, How to Write a Photoplay (New York, 1912); Catherine Carr, The Art of Photoplay Writing (New York, 1914); Ernest A. Dench, Playwriting for the Cinema: dealing with the writing and marketing of scenarios (London, 1914); Clarence J. Caine, How to Write Photoplays (Philadelphia, 1915). Also, intended for more of a general readership of film and technology enthusiasts and amateurs were books such as Frederick A. Talbot, Practical Cinematography and Its Applications (Philadelphia, 1913); Ernest A. Dench, Making the Movies (New York, 1915).51. Janet Staiger, The Hollywood mode of production to 1930, in David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema: film style & mode of production to 1960 (New York, 1985), 96–112.52. Eustace Hale Ball, The Art of the Photoplay (New York, 1913); Eustace Hale Ball, Photoplay Scenarios: how to write and sell them (New York, 1915).53. David S. Hulfish, Motion-Picture Work: a general treatise on picture taking, picture making, photo-plays, and theater management and operation (Chicago, 1913); Edward Bernard Kinsila, Modern Theatre Construction (New York City, 1917), 95–160; Eustace Hale Ball, The Art of the Photoplay, 32–33.54. Louis Reeves Harrison, Screencraft, 4.55. Ibid., 9.56. SCREENCRAFT: Or the making of a Photoplay, MPW, January 5, 1918, 149; also, see the advertisement, Just Off the Press, MPW, May 5, 1917, 829.57. Grau’s Theatre of Science served as an important precursor to sweeping histories of the motion picture to follow, including Terry Ramsaye’s seminal A Million and One Nights: a history of the motion picture through 1925.58. William Morgan Hannon, The Photodrama: its place among the fine arts (New Orleans, 1915), 9.59. Harrison, Screencraft, 4.60. Ibid., 94.61. Ibid., 96; Uricchio and Pearson, Reframing Culture, 4, 69.62. Harrison, Screencraft, 111.63. Ibid., 116–117.64. Vachel Lindsay, The Art of the Moving Picture (New York, 1915), 1.65. Lindsay, The Art of the Moving Picture, 17. For more on the personal and professional ties of Lindsay to the industry, see Glenn Joseph Wolfe, Vachel Lindsay: the poet as film theorist (New York, 1973), 7–31.66. Hugo Münsterberg, Why We Go to the Movies, The Cosmopolitan, December 15, 1915, 22–32, reprinted in Allan Langdale (ed.), Hugo Münsterberg on Film: the photoplay: a psychological study and other writings (New York, 2002), 172.67. Ibid., 182. Münsterberg’s ability to stand both within and outside the film industry gave him a unique perspective on the social and psychological effects of the medium. In the summer of 1916, Münsterberg judged photoplays alongside Epes Winthrop Sargent for a Traveler Herald scriptwriting contest. During that time, he also served as a contributing editor to Paramount Pictograph, the studio’s newsletter, and at the time of his death, he was working on a number of short films for Paramount that explored issues related to psychology. Richard Griffith, Foreword, in Hugo Münsterberg, The Film: a psychological study (New York, 1916, 1970), viii–xv.68. Epes Winthrop Sargent, The Art of the Moving Picture, MPW, April 1, 1916, 72; Epes Winthrop Sargent, Munsterberg on the Photoplay, MPW, July 15, 1916, 436–37.69. Sargent, The Art of the Moving Picture, 72.70. Epes Winthrop Sargent, For Better Plays, MPW, August 5, 1916, 920.71. Epes Winthrop Sargent, Munsterberg [sic] on the Photoplay, 436.72. Ibid., 437.73. Stanley Kauffmann (ed.), with Bruce Henstell, American Film Criticism: from the beginnings to Citizen Kane (New York, 1972); Jerry Roberts, The Complete History of American Film Criticism, 17–39. For a more in-depth discussion of pre-WWII American film criticism, see Myron Lounsbury, The Origins of American Film Criticism: 1909–1939 (New York, 1973), 1–77.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJordan BrowerJordan Brower is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature and Film Studies at Yale University. He studies the various literatures surrounding and responding to the American film industry and, more generally, the relationship between modernity and literary and film production.Josh GlickJosh Glick is a Ph.D. candidate in Film Studies and American Studies at Yale University. His research and teaching interests are focused on Hollywood as an evolving mode of industrial and artistic production, documentary film and historiography, and urban cultural history. His writing has appeared in such journals as Film History and The Moving Image. He is currently completing his dissertation, ‘Los Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History, 1958–1977.’