vidently shares, and is about to speak to
the girl again when her brother, Jack, enters. He is about
twenty-two, clean-cut and jovial, and he greets Delafield
heartily, at the same time asking his father:]

CHAPTER IX

THE CAST OF CHARACTERS

The expression "the cast of characters" may be used in any one of
three senses: the list of principal characters as it is thrown on the
screen to serve the purpose of a theatre program; the actual group of
actors used in the production of the photoplay; and the complete cast
of characters as made by the writer for his script. Of course it is
not necessary here to consider each of these three uses of the term,
but it will be quite easy to avoid confusion if we bear the
distinctions in mind.

_1. Showing the Cast on the Screen_

Introducing the cast of characters as a printed part of the pictured
drama is a comparatively recent improvement in the art of the
photoplay. For many years the picture "fans," as we have come to call
them, were kept in ignorance of the real names of the players who
entertained them on the screen. Then in Great Britain the exhibitors
came to realize that the added interest that would come of having the
various artists known to the public by name would mean an increase in
the box-office receipts, and they began to give out fictitious names
for such favorites as Mary Pickford, Florence Turner, and Mary Fuller.
This opened the eyes of some of the manufacturers to the wisdom of
giving on the films the names of the players as well as the names of
the characters represented by them, and the Edison studio, of which
Mr. Horace G. Plimpton was then manager, was one of the first American
concerns to give the cast of characters in connection with the
pictured story. Leaving aside the wishes of the public, it was an
injustice to the players not to have included the casts sooner, just
as the names of actors and actresses are given in a "legitimate"
theatre program.

Following the first showing of the casts on the films, different
manufacturers began to see the wisdom, as well as the additional
artistic effect, of showing the name of the author of the photoplay,
and this practice has gradually grown until, today, it is very seldom
that the name of the writer is omitted. There are patrons who feel
that, at the present time, the preliminary announcements on most
films, especially "features," are rather overdone, inasmuch as they
usually give