The Moving Picture World (November 1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. 579 bowl or refreshments from the same kitchen. But when they come here they eat up the same kind of entertainment and smile so hard that the cheeks of one scrape that of the other. At one time, only a few of humanity had the price to saunter around the world on a Cook's tour of private conveyance, but now the poorer one is the more apt to take the trip.. , For at these moving picture places they give you a trip through the frozen steppes of Siberia to the perspiration bathed zone .of Africa, to the Asiatic cholera localities. of Occidental places, to whooping-cough countries of Europe. And. all for a nickel, too. What a cinch this is, too, to the folks .that are inclined toward seasickness to be able to traverse the world without sucking lemons or feeling nauseated. Supposing that the mov- ing pictures had been invented during Columbus' time, would it not have been awful? Just think of it! Had Columbus, instead of engaging a berth and passage on the first boat to America, spent his time loafing around Lisbon at the moving picture places, and discovered America for a nickel on a bit of canvas, how tough it would have been on us, his posterity. How terrible it would be to forever be locked up in films, and have the old world use us for a Bamum and Bailey's show, and be puppets instead of a mighty republic with tariffs and trusts. But luck was with us. No wonder though that the citizens of the Western Hemi- sphere are so daft over the moving picture, for it is but a logical outcome of a chain of events. At first, way back in times past, when the world was seen through the lover's eyes and about the time that photographs came into popularity, each girl and each boy had a photograph of his or her sweetheart. As. the case of love progressed and the price of cabinet pictures got lower and the kodak fiend asserted himself over the land, the respective rooms of the two lovers were filled with kodak pic- tures and framed likenesses of each other. Finally matrimony took place; the pictures were laid away and reality took the place of cameraed art. But in this new life something had to be substituted for this. The moving picture man realized it and got a lease on an uptown building and put in a stereopticon. Then he_ inserted an ad. in a paper, and the people did the rest Some individuals have put forward the opinion that the funny sheet is the parent of the moving pictures, and that the smile begun in the funny sheet has to be ended up at the moving picture show or the laugh loses most of its effect. But this.is hardly true in view of the fact the funny sheet comes out but once a week while the other comes out most of the time, in which case the Saturday smile* from the funny sheet cannot be mixed up with the Tuesday smile of the picture show, for a laugh cannot keep over night, no matter how humorous the laughed at is. An ancient man says that there is no royal road to learning. That was true enough when he lunged the atmosphere on earth, but it is not the case now. Then you. had to dig in books and stay up late at night conjugating the verb and associating slum- ber with the binomial theorem. But now that has all been revolutionized. The moving picture has asphalted the non«-royal road, and the picture operator has rubber tired the intellect, tmtil now for a nickel vou can get history, geography, art, phi- losophy, and fiction', and you do not have to matriculate, either. Yes, you can get all this without burning the midnight electricity or exerting the least exertion and otow »p to be an honor to the country and a success in life.—G. D. J., Knoxville Sentinel.' * * * Messrs. Lothroo & Tolman, pronrietors and manaeers of tne Union Hill Theater, Gloucester, Mass.. have leased Griffin's Hall, on Pleasant street, Newburvoort, where they will open up a movincr picture show. The place will be ready in about a ■ *eek, and Mr. Willard Robbins, electrician at the local theater, sill go as operator. Messrs. Lofhrop & Tolman have been quite successful in this particular branch of the theatrical business, and intend to run * iisst-class house, catering to ladies and children especially. The hall is in the central part of the citv. well suited for the Purposes for which it will be used, and there is no doubt but the venture will be a successful one. * * * Orange, Mass.. will be a dull place during the coming Winter months. It has been dull enough other Winters, but past Win- ters will be nothing as to the one to come, for even the moving Picture shows, which have been a source pi delight to both old *■ young, have been tabooed. This action is not because the p'ectmen did not consider them good for the morals of the townspeople, but simply- because the insurance companies have ^corniced that if moving picture shows are to be allowed in * e ,Town Hall the premiums on the building's insurance will -e increased $200, and the selectmen do not think that the town ^afford to pay an extra $200. There was a time when Orange had an opera house of its own, a real, opera house; frfaicTjg- th fr trayeljfi ng-afrows larly for their one-tnght *s$ands; where" "Wncle. ws came-regu- liwVCabV e *ho,ws were-seen j;egularljr year after year? but the jopera kouspjJaW bullied several .years/ago and has neve? been- replaced. Since thin 'the! th«atflcaf tctopanies and: all the, other haye."skipped Orange, hut once.in a whije a moving picture-man, more courageous, has hired the Town Hall and _ furnished a night's amusement to the populace. Now even this is a thing of the past. . •■ —. •- The question of erecting a new opera house has been dis- cussed on several occasions, but no definite action 'has ewef been taken. It may be that a new theater will be% the roult of the barring of the shows in the town. i * * * The Star Theater, on Tremont Row, Boston, Mass.,' opened with an attractive, bill of popular songs and the finest and most up-to-date moving pictures obtainable. The performance will be continuous and given daily, from 9 A. M. till 11.30 P. M. The music will be under the direction of R. W. Smith, and admission at all times will be 10 cents. The interior of the theater is very attractive. The # archi- tecture is of the Grecian type, and the color scheme is red, green and gold. Elaborate electric light fixtures adorn the walls, and scattered along the ceiling are 200 incandescent lights. The seating capacity of the theater is 350. shh: a Cock fight. Undisturbed by Police, Allegheny "Sports" See a Good Go. "Shh! Want to see a good cock fight? Small chance of police interference If you're on, follow me." These words of a flashily dressed, diamond-bedecked indi- vidual to a friend on the lower end of Beaver avenue, Alle- gheny, attracted the attention of several individuals who were eager to see "the spur," and applied for permission to the man • who "was "wise" to accompany him. He seemed loath at first to grant the request, but at the solicitation of his friend, finally consented. The "sports" dodged through back alleys and finally ended up in front of a dark place on a side street, and as each pushed his way through the .entrance he was assessed "two-bits." They found themselves in a poorly lighted room with about fifty others. ; Suddenly the lights went out and several started to rush for the entrance, when a voice shouted: "Keep your seats. The fight will start in two minutes." e .Suddenly a ray of.light shot the length of the room which took the anxious crowd by surprise. When they gathered them- selves together they saw on a white screen under the limelight the words: "A Finish Cock Fight Pictures taken by Homad, Homad Company." The words vanished and for ten minutes the crowd was entertained by a lively moving picture scrap of two big roosters. When the pictures were finished some of those present were inclined to grumble a little over the way they had been taken in, but the majority dismissed the matter with a laugh. « * * Edward W. Frank, of La Favette, Tnd., has purchased the five-cent theater that was operated by Charles Jones and George G. Ball, in Wabash. The house is one of the best in Northern Indiana, and has been doing a good business. * * * THE PICTURE AND THE PLAY. One side of the world is verv much like the other in its prob- lems of every-dav life. Such has been the ranid spread of the "five-cent theater" in England, France and Germany that the probable effect of this sort of amusement upon the acted drama is attracting serious attention and arousing much interesting speculation in Europe. . * . The taste of the populace abroad seems to run in much the same channels as in America. The trivial, the flippant please the gaoing crowd most. The depiction of a rotund policeman in futile pursuit of agile boys, the woes of washerwomen wfth huge baskets of clothes, and the portrayal of "comic" love scenes win the loudest laughter there as here-. Writing in Mereure de France, M. -Remy de^Goarmont as- serts that the moving picture show is -more than likely to super- sede the ballet and even ventures the suggestion that a great many theatergoers would prefer a photographic reproduction of Shakespeare, freed from the mouthings of the actors. But the predictions of those who speculate on the future of the moving picture show leave the oresent crude device far behind and concern themselves with the possibilities of the fu- ture How will the real theater fare when to a perfected pic- ture device has been added a perfected talking machine, the two working in such unison that every word of the play will be reproduced as perfectly as every action of the players? Then