Motion Picture Story Magazine (Aug 1911-Jan 1912)

144 MUSINGS OF A PHOTOPLAY PHILOSOPHER The hundreds of letters received by this magazine from young men and women who are desirous of joining a Motion Picture company, indicate that the supply is far greater than the demand. I have made various efforts to find employment for some of these young people, but usually without success. The answer of each company seems to be, "We do not need anybody else just now ; we will note the name and address and let you know if we want any new players.' ' The fact is, that the standard is getting so high that only those who have had a thoro course of dramatic training are wanted. There are too many good actors and actresses from the regular stage, who are out of employment, to fill the vacant places in the Motion Picture world. It takes time and patience to train a new player, however talented he or she may be, and the companies seem to prefer those who have had previous experience. It is noted with pleasure that during the last month many newspapers have admitted that Motion Pictures have their good side as well as their bad side. Numerous clippings have been sent me in answer to the paragraph that recently appeared in this column regarding the newspaper rubber stamp, ' ' Blames Moving Pictures for His Son 's Downfall, ' ' and these clippings show that not all newspapers are unfair. One clipping amused me very much. It told of a bad boy from Belleville, N. J., who had run away from home and who had, while in Boston, dropped into a Motion Picture theater, where he saw a Photoplay that brought tears into his eyes. The lad was so affected that he returned home to his mother and reformed. Yery kind indeed of the newspapers to print the good as well as the bad. Blest be he who is irritated with trifles. A man burning at the stake does not feel a pin-prick, and a man with great sorrows is not distressed with small ones. Hence, if your pains be small, it is sure that your troubles be not great. & Any Sunday School teacher will tell you how hard it is to hold the attention of the boys and girls when a Bible story is being told, and how difficult it is to make them understand the moral. But just let these boys and girls see the same Bible story on the Photoplay screen, and observe how they will sit up and take notice. There is a fascination about seeing a story or a truth told by means of pictures that rivets the attention and makes the lesson sink in. ( "When sorrows come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions, ' ' says Shakespeare, but this quotation were amiss were it not accompanied by a more cheering one. As Madame Deluzy says, "Joy is a sunbeam between two clouds. ' ' While it never rains but it pours, remember that it cannot always be low tide — the tide that goes out must come back. If thou art sorrowful today, or this week, thou wilt be joyful tomorrow or next week. And then, as Spurgeon says, ' ' There is a sweet joy that comes to us thru sorrow. ' ' Hence, milord and lady, cheer up — the best is yet to come. The high-browed editor of a certain newspaper who said that Motion Picture theaters were attended mostly by the "low-brows," never made a greater mistake. Nor was he right when he said that the poor were in the majority at the Photoshows. If I were a betting man, I would almost be willing to stake my soul that the aforesaid editor has never attended a Photoshow in his life, or at least in recent years, and that his reckless assertion is absolutely groundless. Does the aforesaid gentleman know that he has insulted ten million of his countrymen ? Why is it that some persons, otherwise sane, insist on writing about things of which they know nothing ?