The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

18 The Educational Screen these scenes for unique terror. The Amer- ican lessees could not resist cutting and tinkering, of course, but even so it stands as the one picture which conclusively proves that the movies some day may have an art of their own." Mr. Barlow urges two "ways of escape." He emphasizes the unplumbed possibilities of the animated cartoon. "Imagine a Hiroshige, a Beardsley, or a Rackham draw- ing a series of pictures to be vitalized by the motion picture!" Marionettes x are the sec- ond great possibility. Puppets can perform as no human being is able. The limitation Reviews of articles by McClarney, Moen, and Craig of the marionette up to the present has bed the inability of the figure to change its es pression, but now it can be made to registe as many emotions as there are masks ma^ for it. "With cartoons and puppets, with the lei son of Dr. Caligari, how original and linfl less spreads the realm of the movies of tl future! And yet, for want of imaginatio and a real sense of what is true and what: spurious, the producers in America hai been pecking at the carcasses of plays an novels, photographing the remains, an naively calling it Art." postponed, for lack of space, to the April numbe The News Chat YALE UNIVERSITY has taken what may well prove to be the first really significant step toward utiliz- ing the motion picture for the high pur- poses of education. Historical materials have been accumu- lated during the past few years—a rare collection of Americana in the form of thousands of photographs, originals and reproductions—in connection with the notable fifty-volume history series, "Chronicles of America," published by the Yale University Press. The pictorial possibilities of this series prompted num- erous requests from many quarters that the material be made the basis for his- torical films. The suggestion has been heeded. The production of a series of 100 reels on American History will proceed under eminent supervision. The "Chronicles of America Picture Corporation" has been organized in New York for this express purpose. The president of the new cor- poration is George Parmly Day, founder and president of the Yale University Press, with Dr. Max Farrand. professor of American History at Yale, and Dr. Frank E. Spaulding, head of the gradu- ate department of education, as editoi in chief. This announcement must come as blessed relief to thousands of educato: and laymen alike, who have long awaitc the advent of some achievement in edi cational motion pictures which would 1 worthy of the label "educational" ar commensurate with the possibilities of t! new medium. This great task has bet inaugurated and announced without tl blare of commercial trumpets hithen attendant upon such enterprises. Tf fact that a distinguished educational i: stitution is behind the undertaking ar that educators of high qualification a in charge, give sound reason to hoj that the day of the true educational fit is about to dawn. Such productions as these Chronicl promise to be will be an emphatic co: trast to the mostly futile and largely fa cical materials that the commercial pr< ducers have been taking from their bat shelves and ofTering to American educ tors. When the future historian describ the development of visual aids in mode: teaching, Yale university will figure rath prominently, we fancy, at the beginnit of the story. u