Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

Record Details:

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I AM writing ihcse lines, in the early days of July, in the middle of a great religious gathering, in the middle ot America, representing all parts of America. And, for that matter, all parts of the world. Religious festivities, as you know, are of two natures: the formal, dignified, splendid if somewhat cold worsiup of God in the grand manner of the cultural ages; and the primitive, emotional appeals to heart and senses. Thus we might have set opposite to each other the Catholic Church and the Salvation Army, or the Episcopalian and the "Holy Roller," or the Emerson Universalist and the African Baptist. But my setting resembles nothing great or small, elegant or inelegant, passionate of dispassionate, that has ever been seen in Christian worship. At my back is a huge, tented motion-picture show — not a gliding scries of religious thoughts, but a real show of commercial film in comedy, drama, travel and news that suffers five complete rotations a day. In front of me is a huge East Indian Pageant, with four hundred living actors. Directly below my windows winds a quaint Korean wedding procession. At my door two camels, with Bedouin dri\'ers, wait for passengers. High above, I hear the crashing roar of an army airplane, going round and round. At a little distance, from a grove, comes the sonority of a trombone choir — fifty sliding brasses. Far to the right are two more motion picture shows; far to the left, two more. In the huge auditorium yonder ex-1'resident Tafc is speaking. In these buildings before you inhabitants of all the islands of the sea are to be seen in living pictographs of their lives at home. From that clump of trees come the outcries and laughter of children, and the creak of a merry-go-round and the flash of lightning cars upon a "Ferris'' wheel. That great open space, now untenanted, is a nightly arena for the seating of 75,000 people, and the thing rising into the sky with its prodigious bridge-like backing and bracing is the mightiest picture-screen ever conceived— a screen upon which stalk men vaster than twenty Goliaths. And all around us are pictures, pictures, pictures, pictures; some of them painted, some of them modeled, some of them filmed, some of them done by living images. But the picture is the prevailing note, the motive, the master-key, the tone of this great whole. This is a kaleidoscope of the world. It is the first centenary celebration of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the scene is the State Fair Let There By Julian Johnson sions. Dr. Christian F. Reisner, pastor of Grace Methodist Church at 104th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, New York City; Dr. C. C. Marshall, pastor of St. James Methodist Church at Madison Avenue and 126th Street, New York City — and other men of a common purpose and the. same belief. And what is it that has marked these men, now, among the thousands of clergymen in their denomination? An invincible, unshakable conviction that The Motion Picture has dawned upon the Twentieth Century not to be a timekiller, a trifling amusement, a scientific toy, but the Universal Ruler of Hearts, the Arbiter of Conscience, the great Bringer of Brotherhood, the Promulgator of Friendship and Understanding, the International Diplomat of Christian Peace. This great Centenary Celebration is in fact nothing but a Moving Picture, since for the first time all the sectarian means of evangelism have been cast to the winds. Don't tell them about it, they argue; let them see it. Don't write out rhetorical descriptions of what has been; show in real life what is doing. Scheduled to last between June twenty-third and the thir This great open space is a nightly arena, seating 75,000 people, and the thing rising into the sky •with its prodigious bridge-like backing and bracing is the mightiest picture-screen ever conceived — a screen upon which stalk men vaster than twenty Goliaths. The screen measures 136 feet high by 146 wide. laavrni I J ! ] Uh i ! i\k. i. 1 'jf^i^ai^ii z."^^^irrrsi^-.w: :«J4mtkWiflK2| ^JJ^JIVK r-B >,' 7^ T— r-r -wr.:ja_i_™ lUT-x^^^ jkliyjfk/ S^ ^ ^"^{^■^^^^^M Y,vM~..~a.'.^ja ^s ^^ ^S T^. ^■. :.=S-.:=?r. .i-!-_---.-r-;< ^IIMUTVW r' ^ K' 4 ^ ^ n^ .n-jj JFTV.W iji wiiM Ground at Columbus, the executive city of the inland commonwealth, Ohio. As I have indicated, this is on record as the unique affair among all recorded religious gatherings. And who made it so? Dr. S. Earl Taylor, General Secretary of the Methodist Mis 46 teenth of July, this international churchly pageant is a continuous optic review. Grifiith has been here, profoundly impressed and profoundly impressing. • Zukor, Brady, Irwin, Hesse, Powers — these are scheduled to appear next week, and have already placed their room-reservations in over-crowded Columbus' chief hotel. As I said, this is one of the first days of July, magazine press-dates are inviolate, and the whole of the great con\ention program will have been made history before these lines reach Photoplay's readers. Let me tell you something about Taylor, the Centenary's nirector-General. He is easily the most aggressive, businesslike force in Methodism over the world. And he is the most fiery and uncompromising champion of the Motion Picture in ail Christendom. It is his dream to see every church in the land not only equipped with a motion picture machine, but an intelligent, up-to-date factor in the regular movie's distribution and presentation. First of all, Taylor, despite his theological training and degree, is not and never has been a preacher. He is a big, vital man of affairs in the early vears of maturity. He was bom in Iowa — raised in Iowa. When he went to college he became