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2 Th~ Virginian Produced by the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. Released through Paramount Pictures. Director: Cecil B. DeMille. Scenario by Cecil B. DeMille, from the novel by Owen Wister and the play by Owen Wister and Kirk La Shelle. Photography: Alvin Wyckoff Picture started: April 25, 1914. Length: 3,743 feet (four reels). Cost: $17,022.06. Released: September 7, 1914. Gross: $1 I 1,518.85 Cast: Dustin Farnum (The Virginian), Winifred Kingston (Molly Wood), Billy Elmer (Trampas), Monroe Salisbury (Mr. Ogden), Anita King (Mrs. Ogden), Tex Driscoll (Shorty), j.W. Johnston (Steve), Horace B. Carpenter (Spanish Ed), Sydney Deane (Uncle Hughey), Hosea Steelman (Lin McLean), James Griswold (stage driver), Dick La Reno (Balaam), and Mrs. Lewis McCord (Mrs. Balaam) Even before The Squaw Man was completed, the Lasky Feature Play Company was moving ahead on its second production, a film version of the popular novel and play Brewster's Millions, with Edward Abeles recreating his stage role as heir to that delightful and frustrating legacy. Although Jesse Lasky and Sam Goldfish were committed to the project, the strain on the young company's capital assets was tremendous . On January 23, 1914, Sam Goldfish wired DeMille: "GIVE US BY RETURN WIRE SOME IDEA HOW MUCH MONEY YOU WILL REQUIRE TO START 'BREWSTER'S MILLIONS' AS UNTIL 'SQUAWMAN' IS RELEASED WE HAVE VERY LOWFUNDS AND CANNOT PROCEED EXCEPT VERY CAREFULLY." DeMille's request seems Lilliputian in today's world of $100-million-plus budgets, but Lasky and his brother-in-law probably went pale when they read: "WILL NEED NOT LESS THAN SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS TO BEGIN 'BREWSTER' AND FINISH 'SQUAW.'" Just how much DeMille had to do with the direction of Brewster's Millions (released April 1914) and the following three Lasky productions -The Master Mind (May 1914), The Only Son (June 1914), and The Man on the Box (July 1914)-is difficult tojudge. Although DeMille 14 Th~ Virginian / 15 did not include these titles among his personal credits in later years, he was listed as co-producer with Oscar Apfel on all of them when they were first released; most likely, he played a collaborative role, as he had on The Squaw Man. Perhaps the lesser historical significance of these pictures kept DeMille from taking credit, or perhaps at the time he was so busily engaged with the day-to-day business of running the studio, writing scenarios, and editing Apfel's footage that he was necessarily less involved in their production.1 However, because of the pending affiliation with Paramount Pictures Corporation, the Lasky Feature Play Company needed to greatly increase its production schedule and consequently it was no longer practical to have two directors working on one picture together when they might be shooting two separately. The alliance that became the basis for Paramount Pictures was a natural extension ofthe intricate business alliances ofW.W. Hodkinson, Jesse L. Lasky, Los Angeles businessman Frank A. Garbutt, and Adolph Zukor. Zukor's Famous Players Film Company also operated the Famous Players Exchange, with offices in New York and Philadelphia, and Famous Players Film Service, with offices in Pittsburgh and Detroit. Through these exchanges Famous Players acquired territorial rights to the productions of Garbutt's Bosworth, Inc., which had as its home base the same facility that Famous Players rented for its West Coast studiothe old Bradbury Mansion on Court Street in Los Angeles.2 W.W. Hodkinson's Progressive Motion Picture Company had rights to the Bosworth, Lasky, and Famous Players pictures for California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.3 Under the arrangement announced in May 1914, Famous Players Exchange and Film Service combined with Progressive Motion Picture Company, the William L. Sherry Feature Film Company of New York, and Master Productions Film Company (headed by Hiram Abrams in Boston) to form ParamountPictures Corporation. Paramountin tum signed exclusive contracts with Famous Players Film Company, Bosworth, Inc., and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company guaranteeing to advance production costs of $17,500.00 per film, provide national advertising, and split profits in return for each company's total feature output for a period of twenty-five years. The goal was to supply exhibitors with 104 feature films a year-enough to provide for twice-weekly changes of program. Famous Players was to produce fifty-two, Bosworth twentytwo , and Lasky thirty pictures a year. By providing up-front financing Paramount pulled the fat out of the fire for the three film companies, [18.217.144...

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