Film Fun (July 1915)

“I remember back in the late eighties and the early nineties, when motion pictures were first run at Keith’s Union Square Theater. They were so badly made that they hurt the eyes, and nobody would stay to see them. Even the picture men only looked on them as something to help out the or¬ chestra in clearing the house. And do you know how many people drop in to see the pictures to-day? Just about 150,000,000. That’s all.” Ten Cents To See Hostess— No, we are not playing cards this spring. We prefer to go to the motion-picture shows. My husband has entirely stopped playing poker, too. Caller — You find the picture shows more enter¬ taining? Hostess — No, but so much less expensive. We can see the very best players for ten cents. Caller — Indeed? It cost my husband $10 last night to see a good player! COPYRIGHT, VITAGRAPH CO. HUGHIE MACK AND LUCILLE LEE IN ‘‘FATTY’S SWEETHEART” Enormous Activity in Motion-Picture Business , t |’VE SEEN the time,” says a successful motion-picture manager, ‘‘when the signal for a picture to be flashed on the screen at the close of a show was the signal for two-thirds of the audience to get up and leave. They had an idea that to snub the motion pictures was an evidence of good taste. ‘‘Any night I can see the automobiles of these same people stand¬ ing outside my picture house now. It has become a matter of good taste to approve of the pictures. ‘‘The men who were struggling to put on pictures ten years ago had to write their own plays, direct them, stage them and act in them. Sometimes they had to be salesmen and managers, too. I wish you could see them to-day — you have to get by an outpost of office boys and secretaries to have a word with them. They have put the motion pictures on the screens to stay. COPYRIGHT, VITAGRAPH CO. FLORA FINCH AND HUGHIE MACK COPYRIGHT, VITAGRAPH CO. HUGHIE MACK AND CHARLES ELDRIDGE A New Use for the Movies The German propaganda for sympathy for the German cause has taken to the movies for a strong factor in its work. At several New York theaters, in May, films were thrown, in which were depicted scenes of German homes, German children, left fatherless by the war, being educated and cared for by the German government, and scenes of the war, showing the Germans rebuilding bridges des¬ troyed by the French and maneuvers of the Bavarian cavalry and the Prussian infantry. The pictures were somewhat of a surprise to the audience, and as they were presented without the usual announcement of the request of President Wilson to avoid any show of personal interest in any war scene, they were received with a fairly well divided uproar of applause and hisses. The man who arranged for the pictures said they were sent direct from Germany and would be pro¬ duced in other large cities.