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Musings of j
" The T^hotopla Ttliilpsopher"
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Perhaps no Photoplay ever had the advance publicity of the Kalem production of ' ' The Colleen Bawn. ' ' Great things were expected of Gene Gauntier, Director Olcott and others of the "O'Kalems" who went to Ireland to make this play, and when the pictures were shown last month, there was a country-wide interest to see if the much-heralded production was equal to its advance reputation. A Photoplay is something like a cigar. If it is good, everybody who smokes wants a box; if it is bad, no amount of puffing will make it draw. Not only did "The Colleen Bawn" fully meet all expectations, but it has proved one of the best drawing cards of the year, and it will probably be in demand for many months to come.
Unhappiness is often only a bad habit. Most troubles, like fear, are but a f antom ; face them, and they are gone ; run, and they pursue.
It is pleasant news that comes from the Vitagraph studio — they are doing Dickens' masterpiece, ''David Copperneld." About a year ago they did "A Tale of Two Cities" wonderfully well, and just before that Tennyson's "Elaine." It is such excellent Photoplays as these that are helping so much to raise the standard and to make the Photoplay a real rival of the regular drama.
There be those who still persist in believing that Motion Pictures are but a fad that is doomed to die out in a short time. These persons do not seem to realize that the life of a "fad" is seldom more than two or three years, and that the Motion Picture has long ago outlived the fad period. Mr. Robert Grau writes, "It was my pleasure to be among those in the audience at Keith 's Union Square Theater, in New York, one evening in July, 1894, the eventful night when the Motion Picture was first revealed to American theatergoers. It is true that an inferior device under the name of Eidoloscope had previously made a feeble effort to introduce the effects which weredestined ultimately to change the theatrical map, and to create the most lucrative field of endeavor in the history of public entertaining." Thus it will be seen that Motion Pictures date back at least seventeen years; and it is certain that an institution which has been in existence for seventeen j^ears, and which has steadily advanced in popularity and progressed in merit, is hardlv to be called a fad.
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