The Moving picture world (January 1920-February 1920)

February 7, 1920 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 909 Educational and N ontheatrical News Conducted by Margaret I. MacDonald Bray Has a New Theory of Getting to the Moon M\X FLEISCHER of the Bray Studios, in conjunction with the Popular Science Monthly has staged an imaginary trip to the moon aboard a newly completed sky rocket. The Bray press agent tells us that to avoid being pulled back by the earth's attraction, it will be necessary, when our little car gets under way, to employ 414,000 horse power. For this terrific blast we must use radium, a mystery of science which gives off only one-half of its energy in two thousand years. No other form of energy will give us this power. Flash I We are off with a roar ! When we look back we see the earth growing smaller and smaller as we speed of? into space. We experience no jar or vibration, for in one end of the rocket a gyroscope is operating at terrific speed. In less than three days we find it necessary to prepare ourselves for a landing. The problem now is to keep from smashing the rocket. For once having broken away from the earth's gravity, the rocket will fall on the moon, unless we succeed in avoiding such a catastrophe by reversing our power. As we do this the rocket glides gracefully downward, slowly diminishing in speed, until we land in one of the vast craters of the moon. This remarkable illustration of a trip to the moon is made possible by a series of animated drawings. Golwyn has it. Zoology and Science in Current Pathe Review THE Dance of Ancient Egypt" is the latest of the series "The Spirit of the Dance," which is presented in Pathe Review No. 37, released February 8. The different dances are all taken from drawings made by Julian Ollendorf and demonstrated by well-known terpsichorean celebrities. Madame Desiree Lubovska interprets this particular dance, which was constructed from ancient depictions on temple walls, approximately as it must have been done in 1200 B. C. The pathecolor process is effective in "On the Trail of the Iron Duke — The Forest of Bussaco-Portugal." In the heavily wooded hills the Duke of Wellington won a famous victory over Massena in 1810. Today the place is modernized to a great degree and the picturesque old monastery is now a hotel, the center of a much visited health resort. "Another Worry for Fritz" is shown in views taken at the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. The wartime needs gave government experts opportunity to develop the science of lens making which was monopolized by Germany before the war. The work done by the experts is most fascinating, showing the manner in which the rough blocks of glass are ground out and polished. In "Melting Steel with Snow," it is shown how French engineers have found an inexhaustible source of heat and power in the mountain storehouses of Nature. The first step, that of melting snow and shipping it down, is attended to by Nature. The sizable stream which results, is harnessed between concrete walls and passed through the power house, where the power and heat is "drained." I Big Educational Deals \ E LSEWHERE in this issue are | two big stories witli large bear | = ' ing on the educational field. | 1 One is that Goldwyn has acquired | I a controlling interest in the Bray | I Pictures Corporation whose releases | 1 it has been distributing since last | I Septenvber. | I The other story is that Educa | 1 tional Films Corporation has sent | I Joe Lee on a tour of distributing | I depots east of the Mississippi for | 1 the purpose of establisbing ex | I changes for Educational itself. | i Special attention is called to these | i developments because they appear | outside of this department and be I cause it is the belief of Moving i Picture World that the educa | I tional and non-theatrical field is one | I to which close attention must be | I paid. And Moving Picture World I is going to give it all the atten 1 I tion it deserves. | ■~iiiiilliliiiiiii)iiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiMiiiiiriiililiiriiiriiiniiiiiiiliiiiliiiiiiiiliiiiiilltiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiliiiiMriiMi.= Churches Organize to Make Scriptural Dramas A FEW years ago the mere mention of placing a motion picture projector in one of the Kansas City churches, or any other church for that matter, would have caused a large portion of its members to throw up their hands in horror. It was considered a sin to go inside a motion picture theatre, let alone make a theatre of the church, and picture shows were scorned by many people as immoral and undesirable. This strong opposition of ministers and church-going people to the moving pictures is fast becoming a thing of the past. A good indication of the place they have won in the hearts of the American people of every class and religious belief was the recent announcement in Kansas City of a nationwide church organization, known as the International Church Film Corporation, which proposes to turn the vast educational possibilities ©f the film to religious ends. This changed attitude of the church and its people is considered by Kansas City exhibitors as a big victory for the exhibitor and the producer of motion pictures. Capt. G. Charles Gray, formerly chaplain attached to the base hospital at Fort Riley during the war, is in Kansas City in the interest of this big interdenominational movement which hopes to make the church a social as well as a religious "community center." Capt. Gray will open offices in Kansas City, which is to be one of the distributing centers for the films made by the corporation. There will be 16 such centers in the United States. "We are going to edit and film the great thrilling dramatic stories of the ■Bible," said Captain Gray. "The screen will be made to preach sermons, not by any melodramatic appeal, but by the setting forth of the great virile modernday truths of the Scriptures. The films will be edited by competent Bible scholars, always with a careful regard to historical accuracies, customs and the implied truth of the narrative represented. "We are proposing to operate the camera in foreign fields, under the direction of the various foreign missionary boards, and bring this film back to the home churches to be used in missionary educational work, especially in the Sunday schools. The moving picture is certain to bring a new day of enlightenment and inspiration for foreign missions. "The vast resources of the motion picture in the constructive teaching of Americanism to foreign-speaking peoples in the United States, for example, has yet scarcely been conceived. The day has come for the patriotic and religious adaptation of this most fascinating invention of the age. The churches can delay its universal use only at the expense of losing their place as the historic pioneer in matters educational." Celebrated Players Buy Educationals. J. L. Friedman, president of the Celebrated Players Film Corporation, Chicago's hustling state rights exchange, announces the publication of an interesting series purchased from the Educational Films Corporation. The series comprises a reel a week of extremely timely and instructive matter. On February 2 a reel combining views of historic Monterey, situated in the fruit belt of California, and a short, cryptic picture talk on "The Chemistry of Combustion" will be published, to be followed on February 9 with "Sheep of Chelan" and on February 16 with views of a "Modern Mexican Hacienda." An interesting point in this latter release is that it brings to the screen the "Mexican Douglas Fairbanks," a cowboy whose pranks and cavortings have brought him much fame. Manufacture of Tung^sten Wire in Film. In pursuance of the policy to show a cross section of American industry, the Ford Educational Weekly has made a screen study of the manufacture of tungsten wire used in electric globes. This new educational subject will be released through the Goldwyn company on February 8. The picture shows the reduction of tungsten to the wire stage; then the drawing of the wire to extreme thinness, and its mounting for use as a filament in an electric light globe. The factory in which these various processes are carried on also manufactures the vacuum globes in which the tungsten filament is used. And in the course of the pictorial exposition, the blowing