Well, they brought our Soldiers back from Germany. Would have brought
them back sooner but we didn’t have anybody in Washington who knew
where they were. We had to leave ’em over there so they could get the
Mail that was sent to them during the war. Had to leave ’em over there
anyway; two of them hadn’t married yet.
Since I wrote you last, an awful lot has happened at the Studio in
Washington, D. C. You know out where they make the Movies, the place we
make them is called the Studio. We are a great deal alike in lots of
respects. We make what we think will be two kinds of Pictures, Comedy
and Drama, or sad ones. Now you take the Capitol at Washington, that’s
the biggest Studio in the World. We call ours, Pictures, when they are
turned out. They call theirs Laws, or Bills. It’s all the same thing.
We often make what we think is Drama, but when it is shown it is
received by the audience as Comedy. So the uncertainty is about equal
both places.
The way to judge a good Comedy is by how long it will last and have
people talk about it. Now Congress has turned out some that have lived
for years and people are still laughing about them, and as for Sad
productions, they have turned out some that for sadness make “Over the
Hills” look like a roaring farce.
Girls win a little State Popularity Contest that is conducted by some
Newspaper; then they are put into the Movies to entertain 110 million
people who they never saw or know anything about. Now that’s the same
way with the Capitol Comedy Company of Washington. They win a State
Popularity Contest backed by a Newspaper and are sent to Washington to
turn out Laws for 110 million people they never saw.
They have what they call Congress, or the Lower House. That compares to
what we call the Scenario Department. That’s where somebody gets the
idea of what he thinks will make a good Comedy Bill or Law, and they
argue around and put it into shape.
Then it is passed along, printed, or shot, or Photographed, as we call
it; then it reaches the Senate or the Cutting and Titling Department.
Now, in our Movie Studios we have what we call Gag Men whose sole
business is to just furnish some little Gag, or Amendment as they call
it, which will get a laugh or perhaps change the whole thing around.
Now the Senate has what is considered the best and highest priced Gag
Men that can be collected anywhere. Why, they put in so many little
gags or amendments that the poor Author of the thing don’t know his own
story.
They consider if a man can sit there in the Studio in Washington and
just put in one funny amendment in each Bill, or production, that will
change it from what it originally meant, why, he is considered to have
earned his pay. Take for Instance the Prohibition Production that was
introduced in the Congress or Scenario Department as a Comedy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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