Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

October, 1911. MOTOGRAPHY 181 have a fair opportunity to get the films for an early booking. An exceptionally beautiful four-color poster has been made by the Essanay Company for exhibitors. The poster pictures a scene on the diamond, with heads of Eddie Collins. Mender, Mathewson, and other baseball stars, prominently displayed. The picture will be a full reel, released Wednesday, October 25th. A. Government Theater Perhaps the most peculiar theater in the world is the government's big theatrical venture, the $125,000 playhouse at St. Elizabeth's Insane Asylum in Washington. No theater ever had a more unusual setting. No glaring lights blaze a way to its entrance ; no broad white front calls attention to the amusements within, and yet it presents attractions that would divert the most ardent first-nighter of Broadway. On December 1, the house \jrill be opened again for what promises to be the most successful season of its history. Its patrons will be the three thousand inmates of the hospital together with their friends. Specialists all agree that amusement of the proper sort is one of the best ways of relieving the insane, and they can point to numbers of cases where actual cures were accomplished in this manner, merely by keeping the patient's mind off his own particular malady. Before the theater was built, the only amusement that could be offered the patients were certain athletic pleasures, or walks or occasional drives through the grounds of the institution. Of course, only the physically able could take part in sports of any kind, and as the drives were few and far between the lives of those who were weak physically was indeed almost unbearable. The theater has changed all this. Hitchcock Hall, for this is its name, was built entirely by the government, Mr. White, the superintendent of the hospital, having spent several patient years of toil in convincing Congress that an appropriation should be made for building the theater and running the shows. It gets its name from Mr. Hitchcock, who was the Secretary of the Interior at the time the appropriation was passed. Mr. Hitchcock believed thoroughly in the movement, and was of great assistance in getting the project accepted. The theater will seat nearly 1,000. Although the building is entirely fireproof, yet every possible additional precaution is taken for the safety of the audience. Asbestos curtains are used, and there is an opening in the roof directly over the stage, covered with glass. In case of a fire on the stage, these glass doors will automatically open, thus forming a chimney through which the draft will force all smoke and flame, and preventing the fire from reaching even the front of the house. The floor is level and every Tuesday it is cleared and used for a dance hall. Not only are moving pictures shown, but real dramas as well, a stock company having recently been organized among the employes of the hospital. Occasionally, professionals will appear. But the inmates seem to be almost unanimous in preferring the pictures. The asylum orchestra looks after the music. Kinemacolor Theater in New York Before another year has gone by, it is expected that a magnificent theater will be erected within a stone's throw of Broadway to show Kinemacolor pictures exclusively. The men behind the colored pictures which have made such an unmistakable impression in America, have decided that such a theater is necessary in order to display their films properly in New York. In all likelihood the New York Kinemacolor theater will be situated on Forty-fifth street, between Broadway and Sixth avenue. The owners of the proposed site have made a proposition .that looks iavorable to the picture manufacturers. The property opposite the Playhouse on Fortyeighth street is also on the market. The Kinemacolor Company feels sure that there will be no trouble in securing a central and convenient location. Architecturally, it is expected that the new theater will resemble the Scala, of London, which has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful moving picture theaters in the world. The Scala has a main auditorium and two balconies. It seats 1,380 and has a price range of from 25 cents to $2.75. Nothing but Kinemacolor film is shown, and the house is open all the year around. It is expected that the New York theater will seat about 1,100, thus being a little smaller than the Scala, although in other respects it will be quite similar. The project is fast assuming definite shape and the house is intended to be in full running order by next September.