really fit the characters who bear them. John and Tom and Mary and
Kate are names that will be used over and over again, both in fiction
and in photoplay. But unusual names are desirable too, provided they
fit the characters. The work of an amateur writer can almost always be
told by the names he gives his characters.

In the writing of photoplays, where the author has no description to
rely on to explain who and what his characters are, there is especial
need of names that will help to indicate the social status of his
different characters. In real life, a bank president is as likely to
be a Casey or a Smith as he is to be a Rutherford or a Pendleton, but
the chances are that, when given to a great banker, either of the last
two names would make a greater impression on "popular" spectators.
Again, certain names instantly make us think of villainy, while others
as plainly tell us that the owner of the name is an honest man. The
authors of the "good old" melodramas used exaggerated names that today
would probably be laughed at. "Jack Manly" and "Desmond Dangerfield"
would hardly "get by" in modern drama or in present-day picture plays;
but the idea of appropriateness that was responsible for such names
being used is what is needed by photoplaywrights who desire to name
their characters convincingly. Percy certainly does not suggest a
prizefighter, any more than Miriam portrays a cook.

By all means keep a special notebook in which to jot down new and
unusual names to fit characters of every nationality and of every
station in life, _but try to get names that are short and easily
pronounced_. Very few photoplaywrights adhere to only one line of
writing. A clever and ambitious writer may "do" a story of city life
this week, and one with the scenes laid in Mexico the next. You can
get plenty of names for your "down East" story, but will you be able
to find eight or ten really appropriate names for your photoplay of
life in "Little Italy" or the Ghetto? The following methods of
obtaining suitable names--especially surnames--for characters have
been found very helpful:

1. If you live in a city, cover the different foreign quarters
thoroughly and note in your book names of every nationality that
strike your fancy.

2. If the public library in your town gets French, Italian, or other
foreign papers (all great city libraries do, of course), go over them
and get similar lists of foreign names. You can never tell when a
typ