Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

March 2, 1918. MOTOGRAPHY 407 Very desirable, to be sure. But the picture would become anaemic if it did not take some exercise, and slap-stick comedy is its blood circulator. Avoid the vulgar and the risque, and seek simplicity, and no classification of picture needs an apology. Serving the Rural Fifty Millions PICTURES are as frequently made in the country as in the city. The location finders and the camera men know neither geographical nor social boundaries. But wherever the negatives are taken, they are generally aimed for the gratification of city folk. The concentrated populations are the only locations deemed remunerative for the showing of pictures. The rural population of the United States constitutes over fifty per cent of the total population. A motion picture industry conducted as a public utility would have to see to it that these scattered rural units received the same entertainment service as the congested urban units. The picture industry is not a public utility, even theoretically, because the exhibitor is an independent unit and is free to select his location where the greatest attendance is promised. The fact that the farmer wants pictures does not bring them to him, because it takes a thousand people wanting pictures to establish a theatre patronage. The farmer's automobile has helped solve the problem, of course, by extending the service area of the small town theatre ten or twenty miles into the country. But even that makes the farmer's picture show attendance an event, and not a habit. To give him his full opportunity and therefore make his patronage profitable to the industry, the theatre must be convenient of access to the more or less isolated millions he represents. Taking the picture to the farmer presents two major problems. The first is housing. Comparatively few rural centers can provide buildings or facilities suitable for picture shows. The second is money. This, as always, is the more important problem, because it influences all other considerations. If it were sufficiently profitable to the industry, films, housing, operators, and all other paraphernalia would be furnished as a matter of course. The state of North Carolina has had some experience along this line which indicates the possibilities of future development of the motion picture as a means of rural recreation. In that state the legislature, at its last session, appropriated $25,000 to assist rural communities in arranging for motion picture entertainments. This fund is administered by the state superintendent of public instruction and the state bureau of community service. The act provides for a series of entertainments varying in number and cost, two-thirds of the cost being paid by the community served and one-third by the state. A unit consisting of one complete projection outfit, films, operator, and everything necessary for one year's service costs about $3,000, the county's share of this expense being $2,000 and the state providing the balance. The North Carolina plan involves the organization of a circuit of ten community centers, each guaranteeing its proportionate part of the cost to the county board of education. Entertainments lasting about one and one-half hours are held twice a month in connection with the general community development meetings. It is suggested by the National Board of Review that the North Carolina plan could be carried out without state aid, through the medium of farmers' clubs, granges and the like. Based on the necessarily low operating cost (about twelve dollars per performance) North Carolina has found that a ten cent admission charge is actually profitable, some performances having taken in more than three times their cost. While it is gratifying to the industry to be accorded the hearty approval of a state, whose sincerity is demonstrated by its funds, it would be still more satisfying to see the industry itself get back of the rural problem. This big industry should have men in it big enough to derive pleasure from the practical application of the North Carolina plan to other states, backed by their personal financial guarantee. And it has such men. They are willing and able, but they are not yet interested because the immediate thing they are doing takes all their time and attention. A great many things will be accomplished that are now scarcely considered when the big men of the picture business have so adjusted their affairs that they have more leisure.