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April, 1911.
MOTOGRAPHY
Entertainment on the Higher Plane
By Gideon S. Webb
NO doubt a loaf of bread, if that article of food sold at a standard rate of one dollar the loaf, would be unanimously regarded as a delicacy of extraordinary excellence. King of all entertainments though it is, the motion picture has suffered a certain amount of obloquy through its very cheapness. It must be regretfully admitted that snobbishness is almost a national characteristic with us. We are inclined to judge value solely by cost. Because it costs a dollar to attend a musical comedy — ■ which, though brilliant enough as to color and lively enough as to action, makes us no. better nor wiser, we class it far above the true portrayal of life made by the motion picture — and simply because we are admitted to the latter for ten cents, or even five.
But the moving picture has achieved its reputation as an entertainer on the five and ten cent basis, and it would be rather difficult to attempt to change the order suddenly. There can be no question that had the
public been educated from the start to pay twenty-five or fifty cents for admission to a picture .theater, not only would the industry in the aggregate be as wealthy as now, but the entertainment itself would be regarded with a great deal more respect. Furthermore, the motion picture is quite capable of taking and maintaining its place with the twenty-five and fifty cent and even one dollar entertainments. Prices of this sort observed universally would raise the standard of the picture theaters to an extraordinary degree. In the first place, more money could be put into films and into the theaters and their fittings, so that a program could be put on which would be well worth the increased admission.
A great many of our readers, accustomed as they are to the usual extremely low admission price, may doubt the practicability of operating a motion picture theater, without vaudeville, at an admission price as hi oil as fiftv cents. To convince those of Missourian
Auditorium and Screen of the Alhambra, Showing the Big Organ.