Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NICKELODEON Vol. V. Chicago, May, 1911 No. 5 EXPERIMENTS IN EDUCATIONAL SHOWS. that it may not bring up thoughts of the factory fore NEW York City, the source of so much of our sociological information, is the home of the Educational Alliance, a philanthropic institution whose function is to make poor Jewish immigrants into good American citizens. The Alliance is supported by voluntary contributions, and is directed by some of New York's most prominent business men. We are just in receipt of a letter from Boyd A. Fisher, director of lectures and entertainments for the Alliance, in which he describes an educational picture show which he recently gave as an experiment. His letter is so full of good ideas and suggestions for the conduct of similar shows that we are sure he will not object if we ask you to read it. He says: I am enclosing my official statement of an educational picture show which I gave as an experiment. Talking with every picture as I did, I was glad to have my efforts rewarded with attention and applause after each subject. I felt somewhat like a phonograph and cabinet of "records," the repertoire was so varied and the duration of each talk was so brief. I had my pianist play all the time as I talked, softly, of course, because it tends to take the harshness out of the voice, and really causes the speaker to use his voice economically. I mention this feature because, if any other manager should decide to pull up his attendance by adding explanations, he might make the mistake of stopping the music during the "lecture." Aside from the effect on the speaker, the audience would not like to have the music stopped. To my audience of working people the buzz of the cinematograph would sound like the factory machines they hear too much, and the voice of the speaker would remind them of a foreman giving orders. On the occasion of this particular show we admitted only grown people, as children would have mobbed the house for a free show. The experiment was successful, and will be made a stated feature of next year's program. I shall always explain to the people that in one sense it is not a free show, but "one coming to them," as it is paid for out of the surplus which their nickels have built up. Mr. Fisher put on eleven subjects, ten of which were educational in nature, the other being a comedy. This was the program : With the Fleet in Frisco. Making Pottery in Japan. A New Stag Hunt. Naples and Vesuvius. A Trip to Niagara. Irish Scenes and Types. Mother-in-law is an Angel (comedy). Pilgrimages and Fairs in Brittany. The Oyster Industry. The Making of a Newspaper. • The Hex River Valley, South Africa. If any evidence were needed of the earnestness of Mr. Fisher and the Alliance in this work, it is afforded by his letter. Realize the consideration for the sensibilities of the audience in stifling the whirr of the projector with soft music, because it might suggest the factory ; and in modulating the voice of the speaker man's gruff commands. And note that although almost the entire show was educational the audience applauded every subject. Not long ago we had the pleasure of attending a sort of aesthetic picture show before a very different audience. The occasion was one of the entertainments given by the Press Club of Chicago. Here the audience was wholly of the intellectual type, and the film subjects were selected by Leroy T. Goble. of the Kleine Optical Company, with that fact in view. Without exception, the subjects most heartily applauded were scenic and scientific. The scene in the Gaumout "Jephtha's Daughter" which received the greatest ovation was that unexpected scenic bit which shows nothing but an ancient sailboat by moonlight. The moral is that from the poor factory worker to the cultured intellectualist, the educational picture and the travelogue are the favorite subjects. When will the exhibitors of the world realize 'that vital truth? PICTURES WILL ALWAYS BE POPULAR. NEWSPAPER men — those of the daily press, that is ; not trade paper men, of course — seem as a general rule to be curiously afflicted with mental myopia. It must be the constant, daily grind ; the filling of the eye with events and things of wholly transitory importance; the magnification of the superficial and sensational at the expense of the logical and legitimate, that trains the typical newspaper man to jump at conclusions rather than reach them by the tedious paths of pure reason. Witness, for example, this headline in the Oakland, Cal., Inquirer: "Moving Pictures Lose Ground — What Next?" Now if motion pictures were losing ground — or if there were any possibility of their losing ground — the matter would be serious. It would be more serious to our readers, in fact, than any other thing that could happen to us as a body of men engaged in exploiting a great. numan enterprise. And the article in the Inquirer shows that "it is not alone among newspapers in its belief — or rather let us say its attitude, since newspapers have no beliefs. For that reason we present here the whole article. Those who like our arguments better than the newspaper's can skip the latter. A Boston newspaper having stated that in some places the moving picture show is losing ground, another newspaper is concerned to know what is in readiness to take the pictures' place if they go. That the moving picture will "go," in the sense of absolute disappearance, need not be feared. That the moving picture will lose the abnormal hold which it has had upon the amusement seeking public is the thing most to be expected. No such intense following one variety of amusement as has been exhibited in this country in connection with the moving picture show can by any possibility be maintained per