The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

181 The Educational Screen \Vt this is not enough. Here you are in the land of movies, and you have not seen a single thing worth mentioning. Of course you have joined the crowd on the corner when some comedy company was making a scene in front of the bank, but anyone can do that. No, you want to get in—clear inside: how can you go back East without being able to say, "When I was in the movies—?" But the things we want in this world do come to us sometimes. One day you find yourself with a valid reason for going to a movie studio! Someone has moved heaven and earth in your behalf, and the thing is accomplished. You have the magic password that puts that long, tall fence be- hind you, and with a thumping heart you enter the little black doorway. After all, it is not so different. This, as you look around you, is merely an office. You have had experience with offices be- fore—the dentist's, for example. The feel- ing is somewhat the same; you feel almost natural. You approach the girl at the desk and repeat your formula: you wish to speak to Soandso. The girl looks at you search- ingly and asks if you have an appointment. You have. You say this with a mixture of importance and nonchalance not to be duplicated under any other circumstances. The girl, not a bit impressed, telephones to some mysterious hinterland, after she has asked your name twice and \ou have finally been obliged to spell it. (Not so im- portant after all, are you?) But the charm works. Soandso says he will be right out—have a seat. You sit by the window and watcn peopte passing. Oc- casionally they glance in at _>ou; not so often though as you might expect. You suppose they wonder what goes on in this room—they must be wondering who you are. You assume a knowing, slightly bored expression, and gaze indifferently through the sign which states unequivocally: "Posi- tively No Visitors Allowed." It does not mean you. You wait, and—you wait. Many per sons come to the window through which the office girl communicates with the outer world; few go any farther. It is not enough that one is a dear friend of a cer- tain director ("He told me to be sure and look him up!"), or that one worked Avith Mary Pickford five years aero. One mi-sj have an appointment. The door between the inner and outer offices is fastened with a spring latch controlled by a cord, and the office girl presides over the cord. You see how important it is that one ha\e an appointment. The door opens and a man appears :-.nd makes straight for you. This must be So- andso ; you rise He shakes your hand and greets you, with apologies for having kept you waiting. You accept his apologies gracefully, and follow him through the door with the spring latch. It slams be- hind you, and you are in the world of pictures! The great moment is at hand, but to your surprise, you cannot locate that sense of the unreal that should per- vade your surroundings, it must be here, but—where is it? Here is just a row of little office buildings; nothing strange or unearthly about that at all. Established in Soandso's little cubbyhole, you discuss the business that brought you here, while you wait for that sense of the unreal to envelop you. (Will it never come?) You accept as a matter of course Soandso's invitation to watch some pic- tures in the making. Isn't that what you came for? Out into the open -again you go, towards a large barn-like structure that looms be- fore you. Barn-like, yes, but the biggest barn in the world, you're sure. You mount the wooden steps gingerly, and make your- self narrow enough to slip between two tall slabs of scenery. You trip over rolls of tubing that trail their countless yards of length always where you would step, A semi-gloom surrounds you, and compara- tive stillness. That is, there is no loud