The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

457 Making the Neighborhood Motion Picture Theater a Community Institution (V) Harriet Hawley Locher Director. Public Service and Educational Department, Crandall Theaters, Washington, D. C. I m/ 7~HEN the educators began to recog^1^ / nize and acclaim the great potential f f ity of the screen a new era opened r the motion picture. Producers were not ow to respond. Probably the most coura!ous to enter the new field were the makers the Yale Chronicles of America Photoiiys. They who were responsible for this itstanding and timely gift to the screen are much entitled to be termed "pioneers" as ere the men and women whom they so ithentically portrayed. This series of pictures has blazed a trail at is destined in time to be widely traveled; It like the pioneers of our land, the makers this trail have traveled a road beset with any obstacles. Unfortunately in the enusiasm of production some of the important ;tails governing exhibition were overlooked, le three and four reel episodes were found be too long for the average theater proam. The length of the feature picture and e public's demand for comedy and the news el on every balanced program were found be a serious handicap. Then too, while e Chronicles embodied thrills, romance, agedy and all the ingredients that go into e making of fiction for the screen, the fact at they also carried lessons in the history the building of our country, caused many :hibitors to hesitate to book them owing to e public s proverbial lack of support of eduttional pictures. Some who did show them, cut them to fit eir program. Those who have seen the hrcnicles of America Photoplays, will real-. e that such a half-hearted effort was worse lan none at all. The elimination of any part of these pictures is unpardonable. It is like tearing leaves out of a book. The continuity is destroyed. This is a fair example of what indiscriminate cutting means to an artistic dramatic production made for the sole purpose of entertaining an intelligent and cultured adult audience. For the reasons given, the Crandall Theaters of Washington did not book these pictures in their first-run houses. It was to meet such exigencies that our Public Service and Educational Department was established. Realizing the worth of these pictures and that they should reach the public; and that in order to give them a proper showing a new way must be devised, Mr. Crandall gave his hearty endorsement to the undertaking. An intensive campaign was organized, sponsored by the Yale Club of Washington and the Daughters of the American Revolution of the District of Columbia. A series of eight consecutive Tuesday afternoons at four o'clock was arranged at our Ambassador Theatre. Two subjects were shown on each program, with nothing else to detract from the interest. In this way we were able to present the fifteen pictures. Yale men are loyal to their alma mater. We found them in all walks of life, particularly among the professions, so that our audience was representative of the professional, military and official life of the city. Student tickets for the series were sold for two dollars. Single admissions on the day of opening, twenty-five, and fifty cents. Twelve hundred dollars were taken in before the opening. Many of the private schools came in large groups. Children from the public schools of the neighborhood attended. The eagerness