THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 4, 1921
iio
FIRST Gen. Lew Wallace Wrote
I Mn.i.iiiii.Wii., ii ii i i.m ...i I,,,.,,,, MW n i n i. .in i ii ii.ii i, m lit
Eavrard J. Morgan, Mabel Burt and
3
Tteachinr farther Into the field et Ut
rexr mazterplecee, the movlei hxv
rrjd Ben . Har."' Pylne 11,000,000
for tM risht to It the blccest (rice Apt
paid for each privllecee the new owner!
are coiner ahead ae re,pldly ae poselble to
place on the ecreea the thrtlllns eeenee of
the great book br General Law Wallace
that never were excelled and only la a few
tnstanoee equalled
The drama written by William Tonne
from the book waa played 7000 tlmee
before 20,000,000 pereone and earned
$10,000,000.- It wae firat produced April
17. ISO In the Broadway theater. New
York City.
Bat the aoeeee of the etape play will
probably be eolipaed by the ecreea play.
Coca eeenee a the chariot race, apectaon
lar enough on the etace treadmill, when
ehown In the movira with their llmltleaa
reality, ahonld prove the ereateet cinema
pectaele ever ehown. It will rank with
the fall of Babylon la "Intolerance" and
other matter acenea the camera hae
recorded.
The a-reat motion plctare andlenoe ie
waiting in all parte of the world to ae it.
They are wonderlnx how the Chriit will
be depicted. Will He be ehown by a abaft
of light, ae in the etase drama? Or will
Ee walk through the acreen In tranaparent
form by use of the double negatives
But even thia question la of email mo
ment compared to the Interest aroused
among the clergy of all denominations
For they seem to bold the belief that the
motion picture can do only good and that
it will be la the nature of reviving Chris
tian fervor to show as only the movies
can depict the character and acts of Christ
as they were portrayed In the great book
that General Wallace wrote.
r-HB greatest money earner in the
I history- of literature; the moat
widely read book, next to the
Bible; the basis of a drama which has
been played 7000 times and has earned
$10,000,000 and has been seen by more
than 20,000,000 persons.
Such is "Ben Hur," motion picture
rights of which were sold the other
day for $1,000,000!
The eaJe of the big: "movie" recalls
Its author's early struggles. Back In
1878. on the lawn of his home at
Crawfordsvllle, Ind., sat General Lew
Wallace, Union general, menjber of
the court which tried the assassins of
Abraham Lincoln. Fire years before
lie had written a romance of the
mystic east. "A Prince of India." It
waa a fine piece of work from a lit
erary viewpoint, but had brought
neither fame nor money to its author.
Not disheartened the general, a deeply
religious man. was at work on an
other novel "A Tale of the Christ"
which was to be his life work
' written with the fervor and loftiness
of thought which only a really big
can can put into his work.
The general had never been to the
Holy Land. But he had read his
Bible: he had read descriptive works
he knew the customs of the peoples
in Bible times. So he kept at the book
en after President Garfield named
him governor of the territory of New
Mexico. Finally it was finished and
on its way to Harper & Brothers, then
the leading publishing house in Amer
ica. '
Just what happened to the mano
acx't In Hsfpor'a is aei clear. How- J
Adeline Adler a they appeared la the
4
V trss
THB CHARIOT RACE," FROM THE FAMOUS FAINTING BY ALEXANDER
ever, it lay aronnd for months read I
or unread, history sayeth not Finally I
some reader Induced the house to is
sue a limited number of copies. And
the book did not sell.
For two years it lagged behind the
six .best sellers of those days. Then,
without rhyme or reason or, per
haps because of Its Inherently great
literary value or, because it was the
best novel of the century the pub-
lio began to buy. Order piled up un
til one edition followed another so
rapidly that the publishers lost oount.
At that time there was no interna
tional copyright and foreign publish
ing houses issued pirated editions in
all known tongues, including Eng
lish. The fame of the book spread to
the furthermost corners of the world.
Literary critics were unanimous in
singing its praises after the public
had taken it to Its collective bosom!
Tke Piety ef a Great Novelist.
And, of course, the astute theatrical
manager sought the state rights
but in vain. For General Wallace, as
was stated, was a deeply religious
man and was of the opinion that it
would be something akin to sacrilege
to portray the figure ef the Savior
on the stage and how else could the
manager oonvey the spoken word to
an audience?
At .that time Mare Klaw and A L.
Erlanger were most powerful In the
theatrical world. Associated with
1921 YEAR OF FLOWERS IN
YOSEMITE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
Magnificent Display of Blooms Held Never Before Equaled Snowing
Attributed to Abundant Snow.
THE TEAR 192 has been writ
ten into the history of Tosemlte
vallev bv Nature herself as the
year of flowers. Perhaps never be
fore has there been such a magnif
icent display of blooms of so diver
sified a nature displayed on an equal
space of the earth s surface. T-ne
abundance of brooms Is the result of
abundant snows on the higher levels
of the park.
Tosemlte's topography, with thous
ands of feet difference in altitude
in places within hailing distance of
each other, makes it possible for the
visitor to enjoy flowers of several
seasons In a single visit
Leaving the rich San Joaquin val
ley at Merced for the beautiful trip
by train through the Canyon of the
Merced river, scarred by the gold
diggings of '49. the traveler turns
his floral calendar backward with
each mile of climbing into the Sierra
Nevadas, passing rapidly from full
summer to late spring at El Portal,
where the official gateway to Tosem
lte national park is located. A few
miles further, at the gates of the
valley that famous spot where El
Capltan stands on the left. Three
Graces and Bridal Veil falls oa ths
i rn.. - .... . Nlssa: - - f " . v,f ' 4r i frill
original stage cast of "Bea Bar.
,-,n . ,v .,..,.m-.. -maammmammmmm miiii imbii biijb i V ' f ' ' " ! v VV ' f Um''
iWl -' tjf itw !" 'v - W aV vU wA
w'tf ..til
them was Joseph Brooks, persuasive.
and magnetic They sent him to see
the general. Conference after con
ference came to wreck upon the one
question how to portray The Christ
Finally Brookshit upon the plan
to substitute a shaft ot piercing light
The general capitulated and 'Wil
liam Toung, a noted dramatist was
commissioned to write the play. The
contract was signed on April 17, 1SJS,
and early in September Toung deliv
ered the completed text
The Original Cast of Bea Hor."
Then the casting began. For the
title role there was needed an im
posing figure, a tine, actor, with a
strong, masterful voice. The choice
finally fell upon Walker' Whiteside,
noted as a splendid mummer. William
S. Hart since then a film star, was
selected for Measala, the villain of the
play. Henry Lee, a Shakespearean ac
tor of fine presence, was chosen for
Slmonldes; Frank Mordaunt the elder,
for Balthazar; Emmett Corrlgan, still
a big figure on the' American stage.
was assigned to Ilderim, the Arab
she'k and owner of the four Arah
horses which won the famous chariot
race; Frederick Truesdell.' a Belasco
actor since then, for Molluch; Mabel
Burt tor the mother of Ben Hur;
Adeline Adler, a comparatively un
known actress, for TIrsah, Ben Hur's
sweetheart; Mary Shaw, known to
stage lovers of the present era, for
right with a Tlsta of Tosemlte val
ley between he finds spring in full
glory.
Seasons Strangely Merged.
And on the same day visitors to
Glacier point, "just upstairs" from
Tosemlte valley, on the rim of the
granite wall inclosing the valley and
$254 feet higher, may be seen skiing
and tobogganing on four feet of
snow.
By the time summer gets to To
semlte valley it is springtime at
Glacier point and when summer gets
to the Point the Sierra is enjoying
the brief season which passes there
for both spring and summer, and
Tosemlte valley has progressed well
toward autumn.
Most Interesting of all plants to
the visitor is tiie snow plant and no
other is so jealously guarded by the
park authorities. When word of a
new stalk is received a sign is dis
patched hastily and erected near it
"hands off!" In Its early stages the
snowplant is more like a scarlet as
paragus tip than anything else. As
it matures the leaves near the upper
end unfold and reveal bells much like
those ai a hyacinth. The name scow
the Book and Everybody Read It.
THEN-'Ben Hur" Was Drama
tized and 20,000,000 Saw the Piay.
'AND MOW-" Ben Hur" Is Being
Made 'Over for the Screen, With
Scenes Actually Filmed in the Coli
seum at Rome.
, a . i -nm i mini i ' " f v-ire
WAGNER.
lAmrah, and Grace George, present-day
I star, for Esther. Within two davs
Whiteside had realized that physic
ally he was unsulted for the role of
Ben Hur and had resigned. He was
followed by Grace George, who was
replaced by Gretchen Lyons.
Brooks, who staged the play, re
placed Whiteside with Edward J,
Morgan, the creator of John Storm,
hero in Hall Caine's "The Christian."
Morgan was eminently suited for the
part physically and histrionically. (He
killed himself some years ago in a
fit of despondency.)
The opening' night was November
29, 189S; the house the Broadway the
ater at Broadway and Forty-first
street A strange coincidence Is that
the Broadway was formerly a Chris
tian church where the word of God
was preached not acted.
The initial audience little realized
the tremendous amount of work en
tailed in the production. Four train
ers worked six -months to train the
horses for the chariot race, run on a
treadmill the first time such a con
trivance had been used on a stage.
The mill cost $19,400 to construct
But that was not the only out
lay, for the costuming and scenery
brought the entire cost of the produc
tion up to $71.000 a tremendous sum
for those days. To duplicate the orig
inal production would cost close to
$200,000 today!
plant is misleading, according to
such a high authority as Jepson, who
says the plant has nothing to do with
snow and that the name probably
originated because it appears early
in spring and is likely to be caught
in a late flurry, which makes the
richness of its coloring all the more
conspicuous, causing the uninformed
to think that the plant has pushed its
way through the new snow.
Plant Remarkable One.
' Contrary to the common assump
tion, the enow plant is not a para
site, but lives on decaying vegetable
matter absorbed through intricately
laced white fibers which serve the
plant in the place of roots. It Is
unique -4n that the food absorbed is
at once transmuted Into the scarlet
stalk and leaves, differing from
other plants, which are veritable
c h e mlcal laboratories, demanding
ch'orophyl to assist them in digesting
their daily meal.
There probably are more than 1000
different species of flowering plants,
shrubs and trees in Tosemlte. Some
of them, like the marsh buttercup,
seem to bud beneath the snow and
then burst into bloom as soon as
the icy covering melts. On the high
levels of the park a thin patch of
snow will disappear under . the in
fluence of a hot sun and the patient
botanist in a few hours can see the
buttercup unfolding into full blossom.
This undoubtedly is due to environ
ment nature having taught the
flowers of the high altitudes to adapt
themselves to the brief season ef
warmth, - 1
lilt4." 'T'1-'' W
General Lew Wallace, author of
Into the
From the very first night the play
was an overwhelming euccess. Wil
bur Bates a Chicago newspaper man,
had been appointed publicity man
and he worked the newspaper;
of New Tork and surrounding terri
tory to the queen's taste. The very
first week he bad a special morning
performance tor clergymen of all de
nominations. Among them he distrib
uted cards to fill out how they liked
it or did not would they talk of the
play in the pulpit etc? The result of
the intense campaign was that the
play ran for 194 nights until stopped
by the heat and despite the low
scale of prices took in $452,000!
PEOPLE OF MANDALAY REGARD
DOGFISH AS SACRED ANIMAL
Elevation of Species to Distinction Goes Far Back Into History and
Involves Shan Princess Whose Marriage Proved Unhappy.
THE PEOPLE of Mandalay have
chosen the dogfish which in
fests the Irrawaddy river as one
of their sacred animals, for a very
picturesque and romantio reason
which goes back a long time in their
history. In our own country fish
have attracted to our rivers myriads
of devotees, from the Immortal Isaak
Walton downwards, but in their case
the devotion has been not to the
fish, but to the sport of catching
and kflling It a fate which obviously
does not befall animals which are
Invested with sanctity.
The legend of the Burmese sacred
dogfish tells that once upon a time
a king of Pagan was married to a
Shan princess, who had an earring
in which was set a rello of Buddha.
All went well during the earlier por
tion of the married life of the royal
couple, but at last there came a rift
In the lute, so to speak, for one day
the king noticed that this relic was
shining unnaturally, and, being a
very supertltlous potentate, he forth
with Jumped to the conclusion that
hisawlfe must be a witch, and In
consequence turned her out.
Sorrowfully, the unfortunate queen
began, her journey to her home In j
Bea Hur," whose great boek goes
mo vies.
What has happened to "Ben Hur"
since then? It has traveled the coun
try from -end to end every season
since then, except the last And It is
going out again the next. Twenty
million persons have seen the play
and have paid some $10,000,000 to see
it England acclaimed It; so did Aus
tralia. The book on which the Pl&y
waa based has been read In every con
ceivable nook of the world and It
has been seen only la English-speaking
countries.
In the course of rime the east
cbanred completely. William Farnum,
film star, became Ben Hur. to be sue-
ceeded by Emmett Corrlgan and Rich-
the Shan states, and on her arrival
at Shwezayan she made up her mind,
not without much apparent good rea
son that there was no use in re
taining any longer this rello of
Buddha, which had brought her to
such a sorrowful pass. Accordingly,
much distraught as may well be
Imagined she burled it In the ground
and caused the erection of a little
pagoda over it thus 'converting the
place into a shrine.
Smoe years later It began to be
rumored that owing to the presence
of the relic, large fish congregated
at this spot in the Myitage river at
certain seasons of the year. The
queen's husband heard of this, and
sent his minister to Investigate the
story.- The fish, it was discovered
would come up to be fed by hand,
and the minister, in view of this
fact put gold leaf on the fiehes'
heads.
It happened once that the minister
had to go to Bhamo on business soon
after his visit to Shwezayan, and to
his surprise, at a pagoda festival at
Bhamo, he discovered in the Irra
waddy river some of the same fish
with the gold leaf on their heada
Oa his return he mentioned this to
The temptation sceae la the greve af
Daphne Richard Buehler as Bea
Hur and Vlralnla Uowell as Irss.
ard Buehler. Old Bill Hart, bad man
good man of the movies, relin
quished his role of Mesaala, the vil
lain. Actors came and went, but
"Ben Hur," the perennial, continued
on Its way.
Why the Play Was Sold.
About a year ago there came a
hitch one of the reasons for not
Bonding the play out last year Klaw
and Erlanger disagreed and their
years-long partnership was dissolved.
The play became the center of a legal
dispute which ended only a short
time ago. Under the new agreement
Klaw withdrew entirely and the own
ership waa vested In ErKnger, Zleg
feld and Dillingham. The motion pic
ture rights were conVacted for at
$1,000,000, the highest price ever paid
for the movie rights to play or book.
David W. Griffith held the record
up to the purchase of "Ben Hur" by
paying $175,000 for "'Way
East."
And this brings us to the motion
picture some day to be made of the
book. Filming the chariot race la
the Coliseum at Rome depicting the
wreck of the galley during the sea
battle with pirates the rescue of
Ben Hur the temptation scene la
the grove of Daphne!
And then again ths 'eeply relig
ious nature of the story will lend It
self to translation to the acreen by
some master mind like shall it he
Griffith?
At any rate "Ben Hur" stands alone
and unrivaled as a money-maker,
either In the literary or dramatic
field. It Is lna elaes by 'tself and,
as the ad says, "there's a reason" -It
Is a masterpiece by a master of de-
I scrlptlve writing tense, human, yet
deeply religious ana reverent.
the king, with the result thetShewes
ayan became a sacred place. The
veneration In which It Is held by the
inhabitants of Burmah is apparent
from the pilgrimages made to it from
jail parts of the country. Especially
noticeable, as has been said, are the
crowds which visit the place la
March.
Parson Still Walks at 83.
Outlook.
Edward Payson Weston, the pedes
trian who was famous a generation
ago for bis wonderful walking feats,
is still hale and hearty at the age of
82 years, so a newspaper paragraph
states. Even now be walks three
miles dally tor his mall and several
times a week taxes a 12-mile walk In
the neighborhood of his home, Plu
tarch, Ulster county, New Tork. Just
to keep himself In condition. Weston
once walked S&0 miles In six days, and
MOO miles In 100 days.
England's Bin nor Is on Wane.
London Mail.
It used to be said that half the
energy of the British was expended
In giving unnecessary dinners to one
another, but the reproach Is no longer
Justified. People entertain freely
enough In otheiways. but the formal
dinner party Is becoming more and
more a thing of the past. It Is at
once too expensive and too dull for
an age which is compelled to regard
economy but eagerly demands to be
amused.